OCEANSIDE -- Ethel Buchanon stood eyeing her husband's name, cast in the broad concrete sign that marks the entrance to Mance Buchanon Park, amazed at its permanence.

"I'm dumbfounded," she said Wednesday. "You know, I didn't ever dream that something like this could happen."

The Buchanon family will gather with city officials and friends at 5 p.m. Saturday for a grand-opening celebration of the new 29-acre park, named for the late Mance Buchanon, an Oceanside pastor and school bus driver who has been lauded for his work with local children.

Though Buchanon died in 1992, his legacy has only grown, helped along by his son, Willie Buchanon, a pro-bowl defensive back who played for 11 years in the National Football League.

The new park is on College Boulevard, which runs along the southern edge of the San Luis Rey River. After a short ribbon-cutting ceremony Saturday, there will be a hot-dog roast, live music and an outdoor movie screening after dark.

Most of the new park's acreage is consumed by a vast expanse of turf with five lighted athletic fields. There is also a playground for children half way down a long access road that can accommodate buses for visiting teams. Oceanside's paved bike trail, which follows the river west, also benefited from the park. Bikers now have a new parking lot where they can leave their cars and trucks and a more convenient entrance.

It is fitting that a park with so many fields should bear the Buchanon family name.

In addition to his duties as a bus driver for the Oceanside Unified School District, Mance Buchanon was in charge of setting up the Oceanside High School football field for Friday night games.

Football has brought the Buchanon name the most fame.

Willie Buchanon played 11 years in the National Football League, retiring as a San Diego Charger in 1982. Now a local real estate agent, he said he will never forget watching his father set up the football field at Oceanside High School.

"I'd ride with him setting up cones and turning on the lights," Willie Buchanon said. "I think he definitely would have liked this place."

Neither wife nor son was sure what Mance Buchanon would have made of the park bearing his name.

"You know, some people do things just to do them," Ethel Buchanon said. "He wasn't thinking about recognition."

"He was not going around looking for (that)," Willie added.

Sports played only a small part in the decision to name a park after Mance Buchanon.

Family and friends note that the man's most important and lasting work was accomplished as pastor of Shiloh Church of God in Christ, a church in Oceanside's East Side neighborhood.

Terry Johnson, a former mayor of Oceanside who grew up on the east side, next door to the Buchanons, said he remembers Mance as "one of the all-time good things that happened to Oceanside."

"Through his work in his church, and as a bus driver always picking up and dropping off children, he touched thousands of children's lives in Oceanside," Johnson said. "When I was growing up, he was always there, taking care of everyone."

Contact staff writer Paul Sisson at (760) 901-4087 or psisson@nctimes.com.