Reitz History Video

F.J. Reitz High School - The Building of a West Side Tradition

Above is a link to a video on the History of Reitz High School that the Feel the History class produced several years ago.

Reitz's First Champion

John Alexander - Captain of the
Indiana University Cross
Country team in 1927.

John Alexander was the first state champion in the history of our school and one of our greatest student athletes.  He was outstanding in the classroom as well as in the field of athletics.  John was Vice President of his senior class and served as President of his junior class.  He was also involved in the Hi-Y club, the drama club, the debate team, the forum, and the yearbook.          

As a member of the Wrestling team, the Football team, the Basketball team, and the Track team as well as a competitive swimmer, he was a true multi-sport athlete.  Track is the sport in which John excelled.  He was part of Reitz’s first undefeated sport team in 1922.  In 1923, as a junior he finished 4^th at state in the Mile, breaking the previous state record.  In his senior year, 1924, John won state in both the Mile and 880 yard races.  He went on to finish 5^th in both events at the National High School Track Meet held in Chicago. 

After high school John went on to run track and cross-country at Indiana University.  He was the captain of the IU cross-country team in 1925-26.  After his days in sports, John became Dr. Alexander.  He graduated from IU medical school and became an established optometrist on the Westside.




 

Reitz Bowl - Football Paradise



The Bowl Under Construction in Sept. 1921

 The idea for the Bowl was born early in the school’s history.  As early as 1918, the Evansville Courier showed plans of a Reitz campus that included stadium seating on the hillside behind the school.  In the summer of 1921 bids were taken by the school board for construction of a retaining wall and seats behind the school.  On September 18, 1921, the Courier reported that ¾ of the work was done.  Contractors W.H. Grammer and Mason Reichert explained that the project was delayed because of shale that had to be blasted during construction.  The original bowl seats were directly behind the school (currently Sections E -H).  The seating area could accommodate 3600 people.  The Courier also noted, “The seats are built large enough that persons who care to take collapsible chairs with them may do so and not interfere with other spectators.”  Seating was added at the opened and closed ends of the Bowl shortly after the original project.  By the 1923 football season, the Bowl as we know it today was completed. 

Reitz is Born

On November 3, 1917, a group of people gathered on top of a wooded hill on the west side of Evansville for the laying of the corner stone for the West Side Junior High School.  Attendees would have probably taken the Barker St. trolley and gotten off at the Austin Ave. stop.  From there, they would have walked what is now several blocks up the hill to the construction site.  Today, that site is home to F.J. Reitz High School.