Every weekend, thousands of kids chase soccer balls across the fields that carry the name John B. Lewis, and most of them have no idea who he was. He was a 16-year-old Asheville soccer player whose death in 1998 turned his family’s grief into a lasting community gift. This article covers his story, the history of the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex, its long struggle with flooding, and the other well-known men who share his name, including civil rights icon John Robert Lewis.
Biography Table
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Full Name | John B. Lewis |
| Date of Death | 1998 |
| Age | 16 (at the time of death) |
| Nationality | American |
| Profession/Occupation | High school student and youth soccer player |
| Education | Asheville High School |
| Genre/Field | Soccer |
| Parents | Ben Lewis and Becky Lewis |
| Notable Works | Namesake of the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex |
| Awards/Honors | A public soccer complex in Asheville, North Carolina, dedicated in his memory |
Who Was John B. Lewis?
John B. Lewis was a 16-year-old student at Asheville High School who loved soccer. He died in a car accident in 1998. His parents, Ben and Becky Lewis, chose to honor him in a way that fit his life: by helping create more places for young people to play the game he loved.
Friends remember him as warm, spiritual, and deeply tied to his teammates and family. He played club soccer alongside peers who still speak about him decades later. That lasting bond is one reason his name never faded into a plaque nobody reads.
At the complex’s re-dedication in May 2018, former HFC teammate Guy Campbell spoke about John. He described the people who knew him as fortunate despite the loss, because they had shared time with him at all. That idea, of luck found inside tragedy, still shapes how locals talk about the fields.
In my experience writing about memorial sites, the ones that last are tied to something people actually use. A statue gets looked at once. A soccer field gets used every week. The Lewis family understood that, and it’s why their son’s name is spoken by thousands of kids every season.
The Land Before the Fields: Lake Craig’s Story
The soccer complex sits on land with a surprisingly layered past. Long before any turf was installed, the site was farmland. In the early 20th century, a dam turned part of it into Lake Craig, a public lake that became a popular local recreation spot for swimming and boating.
The lake’s good years lasted roughly three decades. Over time, the river carried in silt and mud, slowly filling the basin. By 1952, the lake was effectively unusable, and the floodgates were opened. What had been a gathering place turned into a flat, muddy stretch of low ground.
For about 50 years after that, the land served as a private industrial dumping site. It remained part of the Whitson estate, and the heirs held on to it. The city eventually worked out a lease with them, which opened the door to turning the old lake bed into something public again.
That history matters for anyone trying to understand the complex today. You are building fields on a former lake bed in a flood-prone area. The land naturally wants to hold water, and every problem the complex has faced since traces back to that simple fact.
How the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex Was Built
The John B. Lewis Soccer Complex came out of a real need. By the early 2000s, Asheville and Buncombe County faced a shortage of soccer fields. Youth leagues were growing fast, and there simply weren’t enough places to play. The old Lake Craig land offered open, flat space close to town.
Planning moved forward around 2002 as part of the larger Azalea Park project. The total cost came to about $1.7 million. Parents played an unusual role, contributing roughly $350,000 toward the build. That parental contribution, led in part by the Lewis family, is a big reason the project happened at all.
The City of Asheville and Buncombe County shared responsibility for the site. Crews installed the fields and prepared them for their first season. Then nature intervened. In 2004, Hurricane Frances flooded the brand-new complex before it could properly open, delaying the first games.
That rough start was an early warning. Still, the fields were repaired and opened, and they quickly became the busiest soccer venue in the area. For many local families, the complex became the heart of the weekend routine.
A Two-Decade Battle With Flooding
Flooding has been the defining challenge of the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex. Over two decades, the fields flooded more than eight times. Each event left behind mud and debris, forcing closures and costly cleanups. The site’s location on the old lake bed made it a natural collection point for rising water.
Some floods were worse than others. One massive flood around 2015 damaged the fields heavily, and nearby areas like Biltmore Village also suffered. Repairs often took months, and the county covered much of the expense. Local leagues had to shuffle schedules and find backup fields each time.
| Period | Event |
|---|---|
| 2004 | Hurricane Frances floods the site and delays opening |
| 2004–2024 | Eight or more separate flood events |
| Around 2015 | Major flood heavily damages the fields |
| 2018 | New lease signed and fields re-dedicated |
| 2018–2019 | About $1.1 million in repairs, including a new turf surface |
| 2024 | Hurricane Helene causes the worst damage yet |
The 2018 turning point came with a new lease and a $1.1 million grant from Buncombe County’s Tourism Product Development Fund Committee. That money paid for repairs and a new turf surface, which drains and recovers better than grass. Buncombe Parks & Rec and the Asheville-Buncombe Youth Soccer Association (ABYSA) worked closely on the upgrade.
City flood mitigation efforts helped, but they could not change the geography. Anyone who has managed outdoor facilities knows that you can armor a site against average floods. You cannot armor it against the extreme ones. That lesson became painfully clear a few years later.
Hurricane Helene and the Complex’s Uncertain Future
Hurricane Helene struck western North Carolina in late September 2024 and caused the worst destruction the complex had ever seen. Record rainfall pushed the river over its banks, and reports described water as deep as ten feet across the fields. When it receded, roughly two feet of silt covered much of the site.
Early assessments were mixed. In some spots, green turf peeked through the mud, suggesting parts of the surface were still intact. Estimates of how much turf could be saved varied widely, from as little as 10% to around 50%. Access roads, including Swannanoa River Road and Azalea Road, also took serious damage.
Crews began clearing debris, but a bigger question loomed. Should the city keep rebuilding in the same spot? With climate change bringing heavier rainfall, flooding here is likely to keep happening. City, county, state, and FEMA officials have all been involved in early studies of long-term options.
The choices are hard. Rebuilding again keeps a beloved park in place but risks another costly loss. Relocating the fields could protect the investment but break the site’s history. Whatever happens, the community wants John B. Lewis’s name to stay attached to youth soccer in Asheville.
Who Uses the Complex Today
The John B. Lewis Soccer Complex is home base for the Asheville-Buncombe Youth Soccer Association. ABYSA serves around 7,000 young players, and many of their games and practices happen here. For a region the size of Western North Carolina (WNC), that’s a huge share of the youth soccer community.
It’s not just for kids. Adult leagues also use the fields, and tournaments bring in teams from outside the area. Before Helene, the complex drew more than 500,000 visitors every year. That foot traffic supported nearby restaurants, hotels, and shops, which explains the tourism fund’s investment.
If you are a parent visiting for the first time, a few practical tips help:
- Check field status before you drive, especially after heavy rain
- Arrive early on tournament weekends, since parking fills fast
- Look up ABYSA schedules for league and tournament dates
In short, the complex is more than a set of fields. It is a weekly meeting place for families, and that’s exactly what the Lewis family hoped it would become.
Other Notable Men Named John B. Lewis
Search for “John B. Lewis” and you’ll find several different people. Beyond the Asheville teenager, two others stand out in historical and professional records: a Civil War soldier and a longtime Cleveland attorney. Knowing who’s who saves a lot of confusion for researchers and genealogy hobbyists.
John B. Lewis, Civil War Soldier (1837–1913)
This John B. Lewis served in the Union Army with Company K of the 9th Indiana Infantry, signing on for a three-year term. His regiment fought at Shiloh on April 6–7, 1862, and later at Lookout Mountain on November 24, 1863, before joining the 1864 Atlanta Campaign in the IV Corps under Schofield’s command.
He was captured at Spring Hill, Tennessee, on November 29, 1864. He was then held at Cahaba Prison, also called Castle Morgan, in Alabama near Selma. He spent roughly four and a half months there, surviving harsh conditions until prisoners were released near the war’s end and gathered at Camp Fisk near Vicksburg.
On April 27, 1865, he boarded the SS Sultana, a steamboat carrying about 2,400 passengers, roughly six times its capacity. About seven miles north of Memphis, a boiler explosion tore the ship apart. Around 1,700 people perished in what remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. Lewis survived, badly scalded, and was treated in a Memphis hospital.
He was mustered out on June 28, 1865. Census records from 1880, 1900, and 1910 trace his later life across the Midwest, including Iowa and Missouri. He died on April 18, 1913, at age 75. Genealogy bloggers researching him often start with his service file at the National Archives.
John Bruce Lewis, Cleveland Labor and Employment Attorney
John Bruce Lewis is a retired labor and employment attorney from Cleveland, Ohio, with a career spanning nearly 50 years. He graduated from Columbia Law School, where he studied under Herbert Wechsler during the early 1970s. He spent most of his career at a major Cleveland firm, focusing on workplace law.
His work earned strong recognition. He was listed in Best Lawyers from 1995 to 2023, named Lawyer of the Year, ranked by Chambers USA, and included in the Lawdragon 500. He also held an AV Preeminent rating from Martindale and was named to Ohio Super Lawyers.
He was a Fellow of the College of Labor & Employment Lawyers, a member of the American Law Institute, and a Master Bencher of the William K. Thomas Inn of Court. He also taught foreign LL.M. students and worked in ADR (alternative dispute resolution), sharing practical experience with the next generation.
He wrote on workplace defamation and employment choice, co-authored legal articles, and later wrote opinion columns after retiring. His involvement with an amicus brief tied to Supreme Court employment arbitration debates showed his reach beyond Ohio courtrooms.
John Robert Lewis: The Civil Rights Icon Often Confused With John B. Lewis
Many people searching for John B. Lewis are actually looking for John R. Lewis, the famous civil rights leader and Georgia congressman. His middle name was Robert, but the similar names cause constant mix-ups. His story is one of the most important in modern American history, so it’s worth covering clearly.
Early Life in Troy, Alabama
John Robert Lewis was born on February 21, 1940, near Troy in Pike County, Alabama. He was the third of ten children born to Eddie and Willie Mae Lewis, who were sharecroppers. His great-grandfather, Frank Carter, was born into slavery in 1862, a reminder of how close that history was to his family.
As a boy, he dreamed of becoming a preacher and practiced by giving sermons to the family’s chickens. He attended a Rosenwald School and was refused a public library card because the library was for whites only. Those daily experiences of segregation shaped his sense of injustice early on.
He heard Martin Luther King Jr. on the radio in 1955 and followed the news of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. He gave his first public sermon at 15. When Troy State (now Troy University) denied him admission, he wrote to King, who later met him at 18 and called him “the boy from Troy.”
He moved to Nashville to attend the American Baptist Theological Seminary, now American Baptist College, and was ordained as a Baptist minister. He then earned a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy from Fisk University. He also joined the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity.
Nashville Sit-Ins and the Freedom Rides
In Nashville, Lewis attended nonviolence workshops led by James Lawson at Clark Memorial United Methodist Church, with support from Kelly Miller Smith. There he joined a talented group that included Diane Nash, James Bevel, Bernard Lafayette, and C.T. Vivian. Together they formed the Nashville Student Movement.
Starting in 1959 and building into 1960, students staged sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in downtown stores. Many were attacked and arrested. In April 1960, marchers confronted Mayor Ben West at City Hall, and he agreed that segregation at lunch counters was wrong. Nashville became the first major Southern city to desegregate them.
In 1961, at age 21, Lewis became one of the 13 original Freedom Riders organized by CORE, seven Black and six white. They rode from Washington, D.C., toward New Orleans to challenge segregated bus terminals. In Rock Hill, South Carolina, he was beaten for entering a white restroom.
The violence grew worse. On May 20, 1961, at the Montgomery Greyhound station, he was struck with a wooden crate. In Jackson, Mississippi, he was arrested and spent about 40 days in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. In February 2009, former Klansman Elwin Wilson publicly apologized to him for the Rock Hill attack, and Lewis forgave him on national TV.
SNCC Leadership and the March on Washington
In 1963, at just 23, Lewis succeeded Charles McDew as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). He worked alongside James Forman and led the group through some of its most dangerous years. He became one of the “Big Six” organizers of the 1963 March on Washington.
He was the youngest of the 12 speakers that day. His original draft criticized the Kennedy civil rights bill as too weak and too late. Under pressure from other organizers, he rewrote it. He still delivered a fiery speech, spoken before King’s famous “I Have a Dream” address.
He also helped lead the 1964 Freedom Summer, a push for voter registration in Mississippi. Throughout these years he was arrested again and again, dozens of times in all. In 1966, Stokely Carmichael replaced him as SNCC chairman as the group moved in a more militant direction.
Bloody Sunday on the Edmund Pettus Bridge
On March 7, 1965, Lewis and Hosea Williams led more than 600 marchers out of Brown Chapel in Selma, Alabama. Their goal was to walk to Montgomery for voting rights. As they crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Alabama state troopers attacked them with nightsticks and tear gas.
Lewis suffered a fractured skull. Amelia Boynton was also beaten unconscious. Images of the attack shocked the nation, and the day became known as Bloody Sunday. It helped build support for the Voting Rights Act, passed later that year.
He carried the scars from that day for the rest of his life. The completed Selma-to-Montgomery march followed weeks later. He later wrote about these lessons in his 2012 book Across That Bridge, and the bridge itself became a landmark of the movement.
Seventeen Terms in Congress
After leaving SNCC, Lewis worked for the Field Foundation and the Southern Regional Council. As director of the Voter Education Project from 1970 to 1977, he helped register about 4 million minority voters. He lost a 1977 special election to Wyche Fowler, then joined the Carter administration as an associate director of ACTION, overseeing programs like VISTA.
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 1970–1977 | Director, Voter Education Project |
| 1977 | Loses special election for Congress |
| 1981 | Elected to Atlanta City Council |
| 1986 | Defeats Julian Bond in runoff, 52–48 |
| 1987–2020 | Represents Georgia’s 5th district for 17 terms |
| 1991 | Named chief deputy whip |
| 2003 | Named senior chief deputy whip |
| 2016 | Leads roughly 26-hour House sit-in on gun safety |
In the 1986 runoff, he pulled off an upset over his old friend Julian Bond. He then won the general election easily and rarely faced a serious challenge afterward, often winning around 70% of the vote or running unopposed. He held the Atlanta-based seat until his death in 2020.
In the House of Representatives, he became known as the “Conscience of Congress.” He opposed the Gulf War, NAFTA, the 1996 welfare reform law, and the 2003 Iraq War. He fought for health care, voting rights, veterans, women, children, and working families, always within the Democratic Party.
The Long Fight for the African American History Museum
In 1988, Lewis introduced a bill to create a national museum of African American history and culture. Senator Jesse Helms repeatedly blocked the legislation in the Senate. Lewis kept reintroducing it year after year, refusing to let the idea die.
After about 15 years, the bill finally won bipartisan support. President George W. Bush signed it into law in 2003. Lewis was its lead sponsor and co-author, and he treated it as one of the proudest achievements of his career.
The National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington, D.C., in September 2016. For Lewis, it was proof that patient, persistent work pays off. His museum fight is a strong lesson for anyone pushing for long-term change.
Books, Graphic Novels, and Screen Portrayals
Lewis became a bestselling author, and his graphic novels reached a whole new generation. With Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell, he created the March trilogy. He was the first member of Congress to write a graphic novel, and March: Book Three made history in 2016 as the first graphic novel to win a National Book Award.
| Year | Work | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Walking with the Wind | Memoir with Mike D’Orso; RFK Book Award, Anisfield-Wolf, Lillian Smith awards |
| 2012 | Across That Bridge | Written with Brenda Jones; Coretta Scott King Book Award |
| 2013–2016 | March trilogy | Graphic novels; Book Three won the National Book Award, Printz, Sibert, and Coretta Scott King honors |
| 2021 | Run | Published posthumously in August 2021 |
On screen, actor Stephan James played him in the 2014 film Selma. Documentaries include PBS’s John Lewis: Get in the Way (2017) and John Lewis: Good Trouble (2020). He also lent his voice to an episode of the children’s show Arthur.
He even led a playful Selma march re-enactment at San Diego Comic-Con, dressed as his younger self in a trench coat and backpack. It was a smart move. It brought civil rights history to fans who might never pick up a textbook.
Awards and Honors
Lewis received more than 50 honorary degrees and many of the nation’s top awards. The highlight came in 2011, when President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. His honors reflect both his activism and his decades of public service.
| Award | Year |
|---|---|
| Wallenberg Medal | 1999 |
| Profile in Courage Lifetime Achievement Award | 2001 |
| Spingarn Medal | 2002 |
| Presidential Medal of Freedom | 2011 |
| Liberty Medal | 2016 |
| Four Freedoms Award, Heinz Award, Dole Leadership Prize, LBJ Liberty and Justice for All Award | Various years |
Many places now carry his name. These include John Lewis Freedom Parkway in Atlanta, John Lewis Way in Nashville, John R. Lewis College at UC Santa Cruz, John R. Lewis High School in Virginia, a building at Troy University, and the Navy ship USNS John Lewis. Statues honor him in cities such as Decatur and Montgomery.
Family, Illness, and Final Farewell
Lewis met Lillian Miles at a New Year’s Eve party hosted by Xernona Clayton. They married in 1968 and adopted a son, John-Miles, in 1976. Lillian died on December 31, 2012, not long before what would have been their 45th anniversary.
On December 29, 2019, he announced he had stage IV pancreatic cancer. His last public appearance came on June 7, 2020, at the Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, D.C. He died in Atlanta on July 17, 2020, at age 80, on the same day as his old ally C.T. Vivian.
His casket crossed the Edmund Pettus Bridge one final time, 55 years after Bloody Sunday. He became the first African-American lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda. His funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church featured eulogies from Presidents Obama, Bush, and Clinton, and he was buried at South-View Cemetery.
On the day of his funeral, The New York Times published an op-ed he had written shortly before his death. As the last surviving speaker of the Big Six, he used his final words to urge new generations to keep pushing for justice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who Was John B. Lewis of Asheville?
John B. Lewis was a 16-year-old Asheville High School soccer player who died in a car accident in 1998. His parents, Ben and Becky Lewis, helped fund a local soccer complex in his memory. Today it is one of the most used youth sports facilities in Western North Carolina.
Where Is the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex Located?
The John B. Lewis Soccer Complex is in Asheville, North Carolina, off Azalea Road as part of Azalea Park. It sits in the Swannanoa River valley on the former Lake Craig site. That riverside location is why the fields flood so often.
Is the John B. Lewis Soccer Complex Open After Hurricane Helene?
The complex suffered heavy damage from Hurricane Helene in 2024, and its long-term future is still being studied. Status can change as repairs and planning continue. Families should check with local parks officials or ABYSA before visiting.
Is John B. Lewis the Same Person as Congressman John Lewis?
No. Congressman John Lewis’s full name was John Robert Lewis, and he represented Georgia in Congress. The Asheville soccer complex honors a different person, a local teenager. The similar names cause frequent confusion in searches.
What Role Did John Lewis Play in the Civil Rights Movement?
John Robert Lewis was a key leader of the civil rights movement. He led student protests, rode with the Freedom Riders, chaired SNCC, and spoke at the 1963 March on Washington. His beating on Bloody Sunday helped push the Voting Rights Act into law.
Who Manages and Uses the Soccer Complex?
The site involves the City of Asheville and Buncombe County Parks & Recreation. The Asheville-Buncombe Youth Soccer Association is its main user. Adult leagues and tournaments also play there throughout the year.
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