Allow me to guide you back in time to October 6, 1920. The headline in that day’s Evansville Courier was “Teacher saved by suspicion.” In nearby Ireland, Indiana, a 24-year old teacher at Birdseye had given her boyfriend, a teacher at Ireland High School, some poisoned candy. He was suspicious and after it was tested, it was shown to contain rat poison.
It was a little calmer on the west side. It was a new decade for the Panthers, and they were ready to get the football season underway. Their first game would that day at Mount Vernon. The Wildcats were resuming the sport after several seasons of inactivity.
As a sidenote, that would mean that the game that Reitz played on Oct. 25, 1919, reported as being against Mount Vernon, was against someone else. Maybe Mount Vernon of Illinois? Regardless, our research hasn’t been able to find who it would have been against.
The Panthers took an early lead, courtesy of Captain Woods’ two touchdown passes to Emerson Lynch and Bill Reid. From our research, this was the first known touchdown pass in Reitz Football history, so Woods set that record plus the record for most in a game with two touchdown passes thrown.
The Ohihill, Reitz’ yearbook, reports that the Panthers “slowed down in the last half and let Mount Vernon cross for two touchdowns.” Both of these were scored by Boyce. However, the Wildcats’ two conversion attempts were missed, and Reitz won, 14-12.
The Panthers improved to 1-0 while Mount Vernon fell to 0-2.
Next week, we’ll revisit the Panthers’ trip to Gibson County to take on the Owenville Kickapoos.
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