Brothers share same name but play for separate Boston schools

Two brothers. Same name. Two schools. Same game.

If you're confused, we understand. Not even David E. Kelley could've conjured up a plot this unique for his short-lived TV series "Boston Public." Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction, and that's the case in this Boston Globe feature about two brothers with the same name who play for separate schools in the Beantown public school system.

One David Stewart led Madison Park (Boston, Mass.) High's football team to the Division 4A Super Bowl crown this past fall and currently plays for the Div. 1 South sectional champions. The other David Stewart plays for South Boston (Mass.) High's hoops squad.

"It’s a good name," their father (surprise, surprise) David Stewart Sr. told The Globe. "I love the name. It’s a strange thing, but it’s a good thing.

"My father always said, ‘When you call one, you want both of their attention.'"

Stewart Sr. fathered both boys by different women. The 18-year-olds live with their respective mothers, although all three David Stewarts live in the six-square-mile neighborhood of Dorchester, Mass., but the two kids are most definitely brothers.

"It's my brother," said South Boston's Stewart, who his friends call Bones. "I talk to him every day -- well, really, text message; I don't really talk to him. He gets annoying."

A few months older and four inches taller, the 6-foot-7 Bones didn't lose to his younger brother in games of 1-on-1 until the two were 15. Despite never attending the same school, each maintains "a close relationship with their father," The Globe said.

“At first, nobody knew we were brothers, but it caught on,” the younger Stewart explained. “Some people would say our name, and both of us would look at them. That’s how they caught on. People are like, ‘Who named you that?' And I’m like, ‘Our father.’ And they just start laughing."

Still confused? Their grandmother keeps it simple, dubbing them David 1 and David 2. And it makes things easy on David Stewart Sr.: "We treat both the same. When I go out and buy them things, I buy them the same thing, just different colors."

At least Madison Park and South Boston aren't scheduled to face each other this basketball season, so the Stewart family won't have to figure out who to root for.

Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.