Jack Reeves 1920

Tragedy struck the Normal team that fall. Jack Reeves, K. S.N.'s powerful fullback, suffered a spinal injury in the Washburn game and died a few hours later.

The 1921 Kansas State Normal yearbook, The Sunflower, carried a resume of the 1920 football season and an account of Reeves' death:

"The team was going good again. Great preparations were made for the homecoming game with Washburn. They had been sweeping everything before them, but the old fight was present again everywhere and confidence reigned supreme. A great crowd assembled to see the battle. A drizzling rain began to fall early in the morning and kept it up throughout the game, making the field slippery and treacherous. The crowd braved the rain and came in great numbers, and there was a great tenseness as the battle began. We received and started a steady march up the field. Gains were made everywhere through the enemy's defense. Thirty-five yards from the coveted goal line, Jack Reeves, our big fullback, took the ball. After making a gain, he received his fatal injury and was removed from the game. His teammates did not realize the extent of his injuries but kept up the old fight and soon crossed the line for a touchdown . . . . In the last quarter, the heavy Washburn squad pushed over the tying touchdown and the game ended with equal honors.

"Because of the death of Reeves, the Baker game the next week was cancelled. Football spirit was completely lost to both players and fans. In a half-hearted way preparations were made for the game with the College on Thanksgiving Day. The broken spirit of the once fighting eleven plainly showed itself, and our ancient rivals won a listless game 24 to 0."

According to Bill Hargiss, Reeves suffered a broken neck when he was tackled while plunging through the line in a sideline play. At that time, the ball was played from the point it was last downed, even though it might be resting on the sideline stripe.

Note by Genevieve Hargiss:

Only three months earlier, Bill and Vera had lost their own son (age4), and now the death of Jack Reeves seemed almost a part of the same nightmare.  Bill was too broken up to speak at the funeral service, but he and Vera spent hours with Jack's widowed mother.

THE EMPORIA GAZETTE - November 8, 1920 (Monday)
BROKEN SPINAL CORD CAUSED PARALYSIS--HURT CARRYING BALL IN WASHBURN GAME

     Jack Reeves, star fullback on the Kansas State Normal football team died at 6:35 o'clock Sunday morning in St. Mary's Hospital as a result of paralysis following severe injury to his spine
in the Washburn-Normal game Saturday afternoon. Emporia physicians, Doctor Jackson, a specialist of Kansas City, and Dr. Forrest C. Allen, of the University of Kansas, who worked on the case, agreed death was caused by the spinal cord being severed.
     The play in which Fullback Reeves was hurt came soon after the opening of the game. The field was muddy and slippery and it is thought that the manner in which Reeves threw himself into the opposing line caused the fifth vertebra to snap out of place, breaking the spinal cord. Reeves was paralyzed in the play and before he fell to the ground, the ball had rolled from his lifeless arms.
     'It was agreed by everybody, coaches, officials and spectators alike, who saw the play, that it was a fair, open play,' said H. W. Hargis today. 'There was no rough work connected with it whatever. Reeves was plunging hard and the impetus of his own body may have wrenched the spinal cord when he slipped in the mud at the point of contact. There were many harder tackles in the game. Umpire Lamar Hoover saw the play and said there was absolutely no resemblance of rough or dirty work. There was no pile-up and none of the players fell on top of the Normal fullback.'



    Special chapel services were held at the Normal this morning for Jack Reeves. Short talks were made by Rev. J.H.J. Rice, pastor of the First Congregational Church; Paul Hatcher, representing the football team and the Phi Sigma Epsilon fraternity of which
Reeves was a member; Coach Schabinger; and President Thomas W. Butcher.
    Speaking of the wonderful spirit of Reeves' mother, Mr. Butcher said: "If she has no bitterness, surely we should harbor none. I am satisfied that Jack did not receive foul play at the hands of Washburn. I stood by while the X-ray was being used, and Reeves looked up and asked, 'How is the game coming? What's the score?' and then added, 'How I would love to go back.'
     Mr. Rice said: "The first thing I want to say is that I believe in competitive athletics. Of course, there is danger in football, but there are dangers in all walks of life. A man may as well resign from the active movement of life if he does not enter into danger." Mr. Rice said that competitive athletics should not be measured by the number of victories, but by the revelation of personality. Nowhere is fine spirit, energy, self-sacrifice, and devotion revealed as on the athletic field, he said.

ANDREW J. REEVES lay on his couch at St. Mary's Hospital the morning after the Washburn game and said, "The folks here in Emporia think I can't play football. If I could only show them that I really can!" "Jack," we know that you could play football; and clean, hard playing like yours is what makes the game great. But oh, how we miss you, for now we have only the memory of "Jack" Reeves, athlete, comrade, gentleman.