Football Coach At Wesleyan and Lehigh
In July 1903, after completing three years of seminary studies, The New York Times reported that he "passed a brilliant examination at the Presbytery meeting" and was granted a license as a minister. He moved to Ocean Park, New Jersey in the summer of 1903, working as a lifeguard during the week and preaching on Sundays. However, as football season approached, Reiter accepted a position as football coach at Wesleyan University. In 1905, Rieter added the title of physical director at Wesleyan. Reiter was a popular and energetic coach. After Wesleyan's 18-0 win over Williams College in 1905, the fans at Wesleyan's field "went wild with excitement," and Reiter "was so tickled that he turned several handsprings and finally jumped on the back of 'Al' Inglis, Wesleyan's crack fullback a few years ago, and the two paraded in front of the stands." In 1906, The Washington Post published a feature article about Reiter's techniques for training Wesleyan athletes:
"Reiter is unusual. There are few directors of gymnasiums who can handle classes of men on the floor, teach them to fence, box and wrestle, coach them in football, baseball and track athletics, and lead them in exercises in the chapel. Reiter's chapel talks to the students are as much a feature of his work as the words of advice to the football men on the field. It is not hard to see why Wesleyan has moved up seven notches in physical well being since he took hold of things.
In August 1910, Reiter was hired away from Wesleyan by Lehigh University. Reiter coached the Lehigh football team from 1910–1911, with a record at Lehigh of 7-11-2. Reiter remained at Lehigh for many years as the head of the Department of Physical Education and a member of its Athletic Control Board.
Reiter also garnered publicity in 1902 when he saved a drowning man off the Ocean Park Pier in New Jersey. On seeing the drowning man go under the water, Reiter dove into the water to bring the man to the surface, finally succeeding on the third dive.
Read more about this topic: Howard R. Reiter
Famous quotes containing the words football and/or coach:
“In football they measure forty-yard sprints. Nobody runs forty yards in basketball. Maybe you run the ninety-four feet of the court; then you stop, not on a dime, but on Miss Liberty’s torch. In football you run over somebody’s face.”
—Donald Hall (b. 1928)
“President Lowell of Harvard appealed to students ‘to prepare themselves for such services as the Governor may call upon them to render.’ Dean Greenough organized an ‘emergency committee,’ and Coach Fisher was reported by the press as having declared, ‘To hell with football if men are needed.’”
—For the State of Massachusetts, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)