Howard R. Reiter - Reiter's Role in Development of The Overhead Spiral Forward Pass

Reiter's Role in Development of The Overhead Spiral Forward Pass

Reiter claimed to have invented the overhead spiral forward pass while playing professional football as a player-coach for Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics of the 1902 National Football League. While playing for the Athletics, Reiter was a teammate of Hawley Pierce, a former star for the Carlisle Indian School. Pierce, a Native American, taught Reiter to throw an underhand spiral pass, but Reiter had short arms and was unable to throw for distance from an underhand delivery. Accordingly, Reiter began working on an overhand spiral pass. Reiter recalled trying to imitate the motion of a baseball catcher throwing to second base. After practice and experimentation, Reiter "discovered he could get greater distance and accuracy throwing that way."

When Reiter took over as Wesleyan's football coach in 1903, the forward pass was not permitted under college football rules. However, when the rules changed for the 1906 season, Reiter was ready to introduce his overhand spiral forward pass technique. Reiter contended that the first modern forward pass in college football was thrown by Sammy Moore to Irwin van Tassel on October 3, 1906, in a game between Wesleyan and Yale in 1906. Van Tassel later described the historic play to the United Press:

"I was the right halfback, and on this formation played one yard back of our right tackle. The quarterback, Sam Moore, took the ball from center and faded eight or 10 yards back of our line. Our two ends angled down the field toward the sidelines as a decoy, and I slipped through the strong side of our line straight down the center and past the secondary defense. The pass worked perfectly. However, the quarterback coming up fast nailed me as I caught it. This brought the ball well into Yale territory, about the 20-yard line."

At the beginning of September 1907, Reiter announced his intention to build Wesleyan's entire offense around the spiral forward pass. A Massachusetts newspaper reported on Reiter's plans for the 1907 season: "Coach 'Bosey' Reiter of the Wesleyan football team announces that an endeavor will be made at Wesleyan this year to develop a fast eleven and one than can handle the spiral forward pass, as this will probably be the play most often used."

Upon taking over the Lehigh team in 1910, Reiter dedicated the summer training period to teach his players a new offensive scheme relying heavily on "new forward pass formations."

Reiter was regarded in his day as an innovator, and he was invited to teach a course in "The Theory and Practice of Football" at Harvard's summer school of physical education during the summers from 1907-1910. In 1910, Reiter's article, "Experiments in Football," was published in newspapers across the country. The article analyzed changes to the football rules, focusing especially on rule changes affecting the use of the forward pass.

In 1955, Reiter and van Tassel were honored in a ceremony in Middletown, Connecticut for their role in developing the forward pass.

In 2007, Sports Illustrated published an account of the invention of the forward pass. In that article, writer Sally Jenkins credited coach Eddie Cochems of Saint Louis University with calling the first forward pass in college football. Jenkins then wrote as follows with respect to the respective roles of Cochems and Reiter:

"The first downfield overhand spiral was completed on Sept. 5, 1906, when Saint Louis quarterback Bradbury Robinson threw to teammate Jack Schneider in a little-noticed game against Carroll College. A more notable pass was completed against Yale, by Wesleyan on Oct. 3, but Carlisle may deserve partial credit for that throw: Wesleyan's coach, Howard R. Reiter, claimed he learned how to throw a spiral from a Carlisle Indian in 1903 when Reiter coached the semipro Philadelphia Football Athletics and the Indian was on the team."