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.