| With the creation of the newly formed Reynolds High School (Reynolds Area Joint School) in the 1960-1961 school year Reynolds Football got its start. With no coach, no equipment, no practice or game field, no schedule and only two players with limited junior varsity football experience at Farrell High School, there was much to be done to field a team for the 1960 season. |
| Ralph Bouch, from Aspinwall, PA had heard about a head football coaching position at Mercer H.S. and called a cousin in Grove City to find out about the job. His cousin put him in contact with Dick Bestwick who was very knowledgeable about Mercer County football. Dick informed him that the Mercer football position had been filled but heard that the newly created Reynolds High School needed a coach. |
| He went unannounced to see the new school’s supervising superintendent, Carl Welsh, that evening at his home in Mercer. Mrs. Welch informed him that Mr. Welsh was at the old Fredonia High School working. So he went to the school and found a window with a light on and knocked on it and Mr. Welch let him in and they talked for quite a while. Two or three days after that Mr. Welsh contacted him and told him he would be the head coach at Reynolds High School. Don McCoy was hired as the assistant coach. |
| At his first trip to the school he was informed that the school had already purchased football equipment for the new team. Upon seeing the equipment he saw that it was for junior high or midget players. After discussing the situation the school talked with McCurdy’s Sporting Goods store in Greenville where the equipment had been purchased and they kindly took the equipment back and the appropriate equipment was ordered. |
| With Reynolds not having its own field, arrangements were made to use Packard Park (St. Michaels High School’s home field) in Riverside Park in Greenville for its home field the first year. The second year Stewart Field (Greenville High School’s home field) in Greenville was used as the Reynolds home field. By the 1963 football season the Raiders had their own field. |
| The first three days of pre-school practices were held at Packard Park since Reynolds did not have a practice field yet. They practiced with just shorts and t-shirts as the new equipment had not yet arrived. The two-a-day practices ran from 9:30-11:30 AM and 1:30-3:30 PM. The practice field was located approximately between where the current field is and the then Greencrest Baptist Church. The practice field which was a former corn field was cleared of brush and briers with the help of men from the community and the players. Practices consisted of conditioning, isometrics, neck bridges and drills. At that time players were not given water at practice as the conventional thinking at that time was that it was not good to give water to players during practice. |
| Besides the team having very limited football experience, most of the players had never saw a football game. When the equipment did arrive on the fourth day of practice many of the players needed help in getting their pads put into their pants correctly and getting their shoulder pads on right. Tom Harpst, the first quarterback was one who had never seen a football game, so Coach Bouch took him to a game on a Saturday night and then on the following Monday Tom started as quarterback in Reynolds’ first football game. |
| Not having time to order game uniforms for the first year the first year’s team’s uniform consisted of white practice pants and dark blue practice jerseys with gray numbers. For the second year the game uniforms were gray jersey with what was called the UCLA stripe (three color) on the shoulder and gray pants with the UCLA stripe on the side. The gray helmets also had the same UCLA stripe. |
| Getting a schedule setup was a real challenge. There were only two games scheduled when the season begin, eventually six games were scheduled. The first year’s team had a winning record, playing three junior varsity teams and three varsity teams. The Raiders record was 4-2, they were 1-2 against varsity teams and 3-0 against junior varsity teams. |
| Notes: |
The first line-up:... Center - Bill Blake / Guards - Lloyd Roberts & Mike Murcko / Tackles - Bucky Moffett & Ealy / Ends - Ray Eastlick & Dave Hunt / QB - Tom Harpst / HBs - Ralph Boger & Everett Diviere / FB - Ron Hoolver / Split End - Larry Jones.
* The second year had the same line-up except Jack Baldridge was the center. |
| The first year of football at Reynolds, 1960, only had a varsity team, no junior varsity or junior high teams. |
| The first touchdown was scored at Guys Mills against Randolph by Ralph Boger on a 20 yard run around the end. |
| The first varsity win was against St. Michaels on 10/8/1960 by a score of 39-7. |
| In 1961, the second year Reynolds fielded a varsity, a junior varsity and a junior high team. The junior high team was coached by Don McCoy and wore the jerseys that the 1960 varsity team used. In 1964 an intramural program was started. |
| The first Football Banquet was sponsored by the Reynolds Optimist Club and held at the Transfer Fire Hall. Former All-American at Pittsburgh, Dr. T.V. Holleran was the featured speaker. Llyod Roberts received the Outstanding Lineman Award and Tom Harpst received the Outstanding Back Award. |
| Dan Little was Reynolds’ first 4-Year Letterman. |
