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NORTON - Family and friends of the late Lee W. Burchill, a Norton Lancers quarterback who was left paralyzed in 1972 when a friend accidentally shot him, will gather this morning to rededicate the town field that is named for him.

The Lee Burchill Sports Complex on Plain St. was the town's first playground when it was built in 1976.

Brian Coughlin, then a member of the recreation commission and a close friend of the stricken athlete, moved to have it named for Burchill, who threw out the first pitch at the field's dedication. A rededication was held a decade later, when a flagpole was erected. Last fall, the Lancers retired Burchill's football jersey, No. 14. That honor convinced the baseball little league to spruce up the field, Coughlin said.

The latest ceremony will be held at 11:30 a.m.to kick off the Eastern Massachusetts State Championship, which is being hosted in Norton this year with the town's all-star baseball team for 10-year-olds competing.

Coughlin said it will include the unveiling of a monument donated by the Gregory Dorrance Co. and put together with donations from Chris Baker of Baker's Landscaping. Joe Silva, another high school friend of Burchill's, has taken it upon himself to dismantle and refurbish the sports complex's sign.

In October 1972, Burchill was shot in the back of the neck by a friend who thought the gun wasn't loaded. The tragic mistake left Burchill a quadriplegic, and he died of complications from the shooting in 1981.

Burchill was known as much for his good humor as his athletic talent, which garnered him the John F. Kennedy Award in baseball and a Best Offensive Player Award for football.