Football Season Rekindles Memories
It’s been a few months since Reitz Memorial High School’s family and friends gathered on a warm-but-comfortable Saturday afternoon to “continue the tradition” through the dedication of Henning Field and Hargrave Stadium. The ceremony took place immediately following the 2014 “Watermelon Scrimmage” on Aug. 9.
The stadium honors Wayne Henning and his family, and the field honors the family and memory of the late Memorial alumnus and former quarterback and, later, coach Bob Hargrave. Old National Bank, where Henning served as Chief Operating Officer, stepped up as the lead donor for development and construction of the stadium.
“My family and I are very honored by this,” Henning said of the stadium bearing his name. “It is humbling that Old National, my employer, stepped up in this way to help Memorial; and to have the stadium named after me is beyond anything I could have imagined.”
Henning co-chaired the fundraising campaign that raised more than $6.8 million for campus expansion and improvements at Memorial. His work with co-chair Bill Vieth Sr. enabled adjacent-land acquisition, design and construction of a number of on-campus facilities, including the Browning Stone Circle; the German-American Message Center; the Robert H. Kent Athletic Center; the Koch Family Circle; the Mehringer Family Walkway; the Orthopaedic Associates/Progressive Health Scoreboard; the Traylor Family Stadium; and the Witting Parking Lot. Bishop Charles C. Thompson blessed and dedicated them following an outdoor Mass he celebrated Sept. 23 at Memorial.
“I believe Catholic education is important in many different ways,” Henning said. “When we improve facilities, the entire experience for students at Memorial improves … the school improves. I also believe that improvement is critical because it motivates our entire educational community – public and private – to strive for improvement. As a result, all students and families benefit.”
National Champions
When you next walk into Henning Stadium and look at Hargrave Field, close your eyes and imagine another time … almost 80 years ago. Imagine that it’s Dec. 11, 1937, and that you’re walking into the Reitz Bowl on Evansville’s west side for the most amazing prep football game our area has ever hosted – arguably the time, place and contest that Memorial football’s tradition began in earnest.
Don’t open your eyes just yet. Imagine seeing and hearing the marching bands from every high school in the city … accompanied by their schools’ cheerleading squads. And know that it wasn’t just the other schools’ bands and cheerleaders who turned out to support Memorial in this historic game. The head coaches of Evansville’s three other high schools – Bosse, Central and Reitz – joined the Tiger players and coaches on the sidelines.
It’s easy to understand, really. After all … this was the national championship game in high school football!
“Our Dad told us all about that season and the game,” said Susie (Hargrave) Bell, Bob’s daughter. “The whole town came together to support Memorial in that game against McKeesport.”
The visiting team came from McKeesport, Pa., a sleepy little industrial town – at that time – on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, near where the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers converge to form the Ohio. McKeesport is, literally, on the banks of the Monongahela.
Maybe it was something in the water that season. Memorial went undefeated, and only two of its 10 opponents actually scored points on the Tigers. One scored six points, the other seven. Memorial shut out the other eight squads and, by the end of the regular season, had outscored opponents by a combined 471-13.
In a November 2006 feature, Evansville Courier & Press sportswriter Dave Johnson wrote about the local papers’ all-city teams in 1937. “The Evansville newspapers didn't have a problem in picking their all-city football team in 1937,” he wrote. “For the first and only time, both the morning Courier and the afternoon Evansville Press put Memorial's entire starting 11 on their 11-man all-city squads.”
With that kind of talent on a dominating, undefeated team, it seems only natural that the Tigers seek out a chance to play for some kind of national championship. Hargave’s daughter Susie recalls that then-Evansville mayor William H. Dress knew the mayor of McKeesport at that time. Historical records indicate his name was George H. Lysle.
Whether that acquaintance or something else led to those Tigers – yes, they were and still are Tigers – traveling to Southwest Indiana for a date with the Memorial Tigers is a fact long lost to history, but there is no doubt that the two teams met in the Reitz Bowl on that fateful December Saturday in 1937.
History calls it the “mythical” national championship because there was nothing in place to recognize high school athletes and teams on the national level in the 1930s. To offer some additional perspective – television came along 11 years after this game.
Nothing, however, is mythical about the outcome. Memorial beat McKeesport, 21-0, ending the Western Pennsylvania-based Tigers’ 26-game winning streak.
In that November 2006 feature, Johnson was previewing a dinner called “Beginning the Tradition,” which honored the 1937 Memorial team. He reported that Hargrave and teammates Oscar Harte and John Hauck would attend the event.
He also included this analysis of the 1937 team from Hargrave, who started at quarterback and safety (on defense), and also returned punts: “We were pretty good.”
CUTLINE
Father Alex Zenthoefer, third from left, and Father Christopher Droste, fifth from left, join friends and families of Wayne Henning and the late Bob Hargrave during the Aug. 9 dedication ceremony for Henning Stadium and Hargrave Field at Reitz Memorial High School.
The message photo by Tim Lilley
