Jim Reeder

James Bartlett Reeder' was an Ohio State University All American who was a member of the 1943 Big Ten championship basbeball team. He lettered in three varsity sports: football, basketball, and baseball. His atheletic and academic career was interrupted by World War II, as was the case with one of his college buddies and fellow baseball players, Keo Nakama. Serving a four-year-stint as a machine gunner for the marines in WW II, Jim Reeder earned the Purple Heart and Bronze Star. At the end of WWII, Reeder earned his B.S. degree from O.S.U. and later his M.S. from Indiana University in 1953. He taught and coached in Oberlin, Ohio, and Ypsilanti, Michigan. He mentored countless young men during his years as a coach, including College Football's Hall of Fame Jim Young . In 1955, Reeder moved his family west to Los Angeles where he became the basbeball coach for California State University at Los Angeles. He remained there until his untimely death at the age of 47 in January, 1972. He never had a losing season at Cal State L.A.. At the time of his death, Cal State, L.A. renamed the baseball fiedl the Jim Reeder Memorial Field. A bronze plaque with a likeness of Coach Reeder and the Shakespearean quote from Julius Caesar: "Say to all the world, This was a man!" Jim Reeder grew up in Columbus, Ohio, the middle of three sons born to Faye Bartlett Reeder, Phd.and a member of D.A.R. As of 2008, Jim Reeder is still survived by his wife, Elaine, and two daughters.