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New banner line up planned for Reilly Stadium

SALEM — The next names to grace banners at Reilly Stadium include Randy Strader, Wayne Russell, Sam Krauss, Robert L. Schwartz, Max Fisher, Virginia Snyder, John Buta and Cletus Paumier.

Reilly Project Committee member David Schwartz recently announced the eight people being honored on the new batch of banners, which are expected to go up possibly at the end of June on the north side of Pershing Street across from the stadium.

The first set of eight banners went up last fall in time for the first kickoff on the new artificial turf field.

Schwartz explained that the theory behind the banners was to recognize people who have had their lives touched in some way by Reilly Stadium and then gone on to do something bigger and better. Each honoree had a connection to the stadium. For the final set of eight banners, he said they wanted input from community, so earlier this year he put out a call for nominations, receiving a couple dozen responses.

“The letters were really touching,” he said.

The honorees all graduated from Salem High School and made their mark while they were there, either in football or track, band or some other activity associated with the stadium. Snyder, Class of 1943, was the first female drummer in the high school band, while Krauss, 1930, started the first high school band while he was still in high school. Russell, 1933, and Strader, 1961, both made their marks in football and track, especially in track. Buta, 1956, and Paumier, 1982, also ran track and Fisher, 1926, played football. Schwartz, Class of 1937, was in the band.

After high school, they made their marks on the community, even the world in some cases, with Paumier becoming an orthopaedic surgeon and expert military arms instructor. Fisher became a well-known philanthropist and Schwartz a journalist and New York bureau chief for magazines like Time, Life and Look. Strader became a musician and industrial designer and remains in track as a senior athlete. Russell survived the attack on Pearl Harbor and started a youth summer track meet that bore his name after his death. Buta became a design engineer and founded Butech which then became Butech Bliss. Krauss remained in music and Snyder became an educator.

“They were all good representatives of our community,” David Schwartz said.

Robert L. Schwartz was his uncle and he commented that all of the nominees were unique.

“We had many letters from the heart. It was a very, very tough decision,” David Schwartz said.

There was some debate on whether to allow coaches to be nominated and it was decided to stay with student honorees.

He thanked everybody who contributed and said the committee appreciated the heartfelt efforts made on behalf of family members or friends to get people nominated for the honor.

The original plan was to do two sets of eight banners due to the number of poles available on each side of the street in front of the stadium, but he did say some replacements may be considered as time goes on. The Reilly Project Committee is an arm of Salem Preservation, with funding for the banners coming from the sale of bricks and other items for the memorial garden at the stadium. The new set of banners cost about $2,000.

Besides David Schwartz, the committee includes Karen Carter, JeanAlice Fehr and Keith Berger.

The first group of honorees on banners included: stadium namesake Gen. James W. Reilly; John Auld, who built the original Reilly wall; Salem track athlete, coach and athletic director F.E. Cope and Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens, who roomed together in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and participated in the 1943 Salem Relays; Alan Freed, 1940 Salem grad who coined the phrase Rock ‘n Roll; Barbara Butler Greene, 1944 Salem grad who composed Salem’s alma mater; entrepreneur/philanthropist Bob Sebo who played football and ran track for the Quakers, graduating in 1954; Salem football athlete and 1977 grad Rich Karlis who played in the NFL with the Denver Broncos; and Salem track athlete Lauren Teal, a West Point graduate serving in the U.S. Army.

mgreier@salemnews.net

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