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About Reitz High School

Reitz High School

from the Sept. 2, 1976 Reitz vs. Central Football Program

The idea for a school on the Westside of Evansville came from the Centennial Club, led by Mrs. C.F. Werner, who fought a genteel, but determined battle with the reluctant school board. The ladies said the Evansville High School (old Central) was too far away to be financially practical for many west side families. After four years of crusading, the Centennial Club won.

The school board had planned to call the school West Side High School. That was before the board discovered a lack of funds and F.J. Reitz agreed to finance the building of the school. A grateful school board immediately voted that this new hall of learning (which incidentally cost $223,844.00) should be named after Mr. Reitz.

Thus Reitz High School became the first high school on the Westside and the second in Evansville.

At first Reitz was intended to be a Junior High School, including only seventh, eighth, and ninth grades’, but as the student body grew older, the curriculum was geared to fit the needs of older students. Reitz graduated its first seniors in 1921.

Reitz School Colors

Reitz’s original school colors were and orange and purple, but those were given to Lincoln High School during the first half of the century. After they gave away their colors they picked blue and gray, as Reitz sits on the Mason-Dixon Line, and blue and gray were the colors of the North and South during the Civil War.

Reitz School Song

Sung to the tune of On Wisconsin, Edna Mae Shaw (Class of ’31) composed the now-famous lyrics to RHS Boys. They are as follows:

RHS Boys, RHS Boys
Fight on for her fame
Take the ball right down the field,
And win for her this game.
Rah! Rah! Rah!
RHS Boys, RHS Boys
To this name be true
Fight Fellows, fight, fight, fight
We’re backing you.
R-R-R-E-I, I-I-I-T-Z
Reitz, Reitz, Victory!

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