By DR. TERRY COOMER
Noblesville High School has had many great athletes and many great athletic achievements. I am always glad to be able to say I grew up in Noblesville, Indiana. All the athletes who have done great things have had a wonderful support system from the community, great coaches who have inspired, taught, coached, and helped us to do great things.
I was recently thinking about one of Noblesville’s great athletes, my friend Butch Reel. As time goes by and athletes go off the scene, it is always well to remember what they have accomplished. I appreciate the opportunity to share about my friend and his achievements at Noblesville High School from first-hand experience.
Butch Reel was one the best football players in Noblesville High School history. I first met Butch when I was a freshman baseball player in 1969. Coach Don Dunker put me on the varsity roster. He needed a bat and I was able to provide it by hitting .400 as a freshman. Butch was a junior beside me in the outfield. He kind of took me under his wing and told me not to worry about being young, just play! We became friends.
In football, Butch was a straight-forward player. He was a fullback. There was not much finesse to Butch. When he hit the hole, the defensive guy either got ran over or needed a lot of help to bring Butch down!
As a sophomore linebacker on the defensive team, I hated trying to tackle him in practice. You had to hit him with “good technique,” as Coach Jim Belden used to say, and get your arms around him, hold on, and hope for help!
I backed up Butch as a fullback on the offense. I remember in one game we needed a first down when it was fourth down and 13 yards to go! Coach Belden decided to go for it. We were our own side of the 50 yard line. Who do you go to when you need 13 yards? Butch Reel!
The play was a screen pass to the right side. Butch got the ball in the flat. After five yards, the first defensive player hit Butch, and Butch ran over him. In the course of it, three other players latched on. Butch dragged them to the first down!
Coach Belden was a pretty emotional guy and he was running up the side line right beside Butch, screaming “yes” and other things! He was so excited and since they were on our sideline, he jumped down into the pile to pick Butch up patting him on the helmet and dragging him to the sideline. The crowd went wild. We got the first down!
Why am I writing about Butch today? I am remembering my friend, and because it is November. Butch went to be with his Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, on Wednesday, November 27, 2013 after a long battle with cancer. He was 60 years old.
At Noblesville, Butch was named First Team All-State at running back in football as a junior after rushing for 1,139 yards, which set the school record at the time. He broke both NHS and Hamilton County rushing records with 2,662 career yards. He is the third all-time leading rusher in Noblesville Football history. He was inducted into the NHS Sports Hall of Fame in the Class of 2014.
When Butch graduated from NHS he told me for my junior year that he wanted me to wear his number, 32. Butch told Coach Belden, and coach agreed. I had an outstanding junior year on defense, as linebacker on a great Noblesville football team. I was proud to wear the number of my friend. He teased me and said, “Now you get to follow my footsteps!”
Butch was recruited to play football for Baylor University, and moved to Waco in 1971. Butch graduated from Baylor in 1975, where he was part of the 1974 Southwest Conference championship team. Butch went on to graduate from Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi. From there, he answered his call to pastor, and served as senior pastor in five different Baptist churches in Indiana, West Virginia, and Texas, where he touched many lives.
After I came to know Jesus Christ as my Saviour in 1974, during the off season from my first year in the San Francisco Giants farm system, I then went to Bible College. After graduation I took my first church as a Baptist pastor. Butch called me, and said, “Congratulations! You are still following my footsteps!” I laughed and told him he set a good example.
Forty-one years later I have now pastored five different Baptist churches in Ohio, Indiana, and Arkansas. I will now join my friend, Butch Reel, in the NHS Sports Hall of fame in the Class of 2020. Looks like I am still following Butch’s footsteps! I wish he was here to see it happen. I wish we could both wear number 32 again!
Butch represented NHS well, Baylor well, and his Saviour well. Truly one of the great athletes in Noblesville sports history!
You can email Dr. Terry Coomer at drterrycoomer@gmail.com
Butch Reel (32) left several opposing players in his wake as a straight-forward fullback for the Noblesville football team. Reel was a First Team All-State running back for the Millers and went on to play football at Baylor University in Waco. (Photo provided by Terry Coomer)
Butch Reel (32) was inducted into the Noblesville High School Sports Hall of Fame in the Class of 2014. (Photo provided by Terry Coomer)