Reichle and George Halas

 

Dick Reichle was born in Lincoln, Illinois in November 12, 1896 to George and Anna (Knoeble) Reichle. Dick grew up on his dads farm and saw his father become successful. In fact, George’s parents left Germany and joined their son in Logan County. Dick had a younger brother named George along with three sisters.

After his graduation from Lincoln High School, he attended Lincoln College and the University of Illinois and played on the football team until interrupted by World War I. Dick Reichle played on the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and his teammate and the other “end ” on his team was George Halas. They were teammates in 1919 when they defeated  the Marines in the Rose Bowl by a score of 17-0.

Dick Reichle- Major Leaguer

Being a true athlete, Reichle became part of the 192 championship team of the Illini. After college graduation in 1922 he became a major leaguer by June as he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was assigned to the Evansville team of the Three I-League. In 93 games he smacked six home runs and hit .337 along with 11 stolen bases.

On August 17,1922, he was acquired by the Boston Red Sox and sent directly to the major leagues. He made his debut on September 19, 1922 in Cleveland and played center field and went 9-4 in a loss.The next day he started both ends of a doubleheader where he went 2-for-7. At the completion of the season, he had hit .250 in six games and played a flawless outfield.

In 1923, he was the regular outfielder for Boston  and on May 18, he smacked two doubles and a triple for the win over Detroit. He also had a 4-for-4 day in Chicago . At the end of the season, Dick Reichle had hit .258 in 361 at-bats in 122 games, also, he drove in 39 runners and hit one home run. In the field, he made five errors in 205 chances.

In the off-season. Reichle trained to play in the National Football League and was the end for the Milwaukee Badgers in six games. Dick Reichle is in rare company as one of just a few to play major league baseball and professional football.

Dick Reichle Decline

A broken leg while playing football for the San Antonio Bear in 1924, began his descent in baseball. His hitting was anemic for a while and he began to bounce around different minor league cities hoping to return to form.In 1925, Dick Reichle retired from baseball and football. Later on, he landed a job in St Louis selling annuity retirement contracts with many to former baseball players.

He lived in St Louis with his wife Ruth, and three children…. Richard Jr., Wendell and Judith.Dick Reichle passes on June 13, 1997 after several year of poor health. Reichle died at the age of 70 in Richmond Heights, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.

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bout the author– Tom Knuppel has been writing about baseball and sports for a few decades. As an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan he began with the blog CardinalsGM. Tom is a member of the United Cardinals Bloggers and the Baseball Bloggers Alliance. He also maintains the History of Cardinals website. More recently he has been busy at KnupSolutions and the primary writer of many sports at KnupSports and adds content at Sports 2.0. Tom is a retired High School English and Speech teacher and has completed over one hundred sportsbook reviews. He also can be followed on Twitter at tknup.  Feel free to contact Tom at tknuppel@gmail.com.