Howard “Bosey” Reiter dedicated 31 years of his life to Lehigh as a football coach and as the University’s first athletic director. He is perhaps more famous, though, for originating the overhand spiral pass.

Reiter played football at Princeton and was a member of the 1899 All-America Team. In 1902 he played for and coached the Philadelphia Athletics of the first National Football League. Reiter’s short arms limited his ability to throw for distance, so he began working on an overhand spiral pass for greater distance and accuracy.

Reiter went on to coach football at Wesleyan in 1903. He claimed that the first modern forward spiral pass in college football was thrown in a game between Wesleyan and Yale in 1906.

Reiter became Lehigh’s football coach in 1910. His legacy lives on through the Bosey Reiter Leadership Cup, awarded each year to an outstanding leader in Lehigh’s senior class.