"Lafayette Sports Hero" J.C. Reinhardt

Text

J.C. Reinhardt, a graduate from The University of Iowa, who was hired in 1931 came to Lafayette, Louisiana and totally changed the dynamics of local sports. He was brought in to be the head basketball coach, freshman football coach, tennis coach, intramural sports director, health and physical education instructor, trainer and director of the barracks dorm for athletes. During his time in lafayette he started a foundation in the 1970’s for basketball programs to develop, this formed after he’d retired from coaching in 1957.Before the completion of Blackham Colosseum in 1950, Reinhardt and his players had to visit wooden gyms to play games and if the facilities were occupied with other social events they would get kicked out. At the time basketball wasn’t a popular sport so there was no priority for games to be held. His overall coaching record was 346 victories and 253 losses and from what we know about Reinhardt, he had a passion for young lives and creating opportunity. He found a way to make work scholarships for his players; the method was to do things such as: clean up, mow the lawn or even sell programs at football games. Whatever there was a need he saw it fit for his athletes in order to create doors for their future. Fifty years after the Southwestern Louisiana Basketball Program was nationally known, the city of Lafayette decided to name a street after him.