news-record.com

WINSTON-SALEM — The words still ring through the years, from the last time death visited Reynolds football, and they still sting.

“Then the locals punted out, and on the eve of what was to be the most brilliant victory in the history of the school came the most horrible catastrophe that fate could send; for it was in this play that Leo Caldwell, our star halfback, in making a tackle, lost his life.”

The words were written in 1923 in the first Black and Gold annual after the school opened 85 years ago. A plaque outside the gymnasium honors the fallen student, and a scholarship in Caldwell’s name has been awarded each year since his death.

A large banner hung from the railroad bridge below the historic campus Friday afternoon. "Home Football Game — RJR.” Another hung from the giant windows of the school. “We will never forget.” By its side, another. “Remember Matt Gfeller — 57.”

Death returned to Reynolds football 85 years after the tragic death of the 1923 team’s star halfback. Gfeller, a sophomore linebacker, Eagle Scout and artist, died from an injury sustained in last Friday’s game against Page. A week later, on the same football field, the Demons played again.

“I wasn’t sure we would be able to do this,” athletics director Jim Spivey said before Reynolds’ 37-16 loss. “The players wanted to play.”

And so they played.

Friday was a normal school day at Reynolds. There were no announcements, no instructions about the counselors on the school grounds or about the special ceremonies planned before the game against rival East. Most everyone knew about them, anyway. It had been a long, tough week at Reynolds, and most everyone agreed that it was time to begin the slow and painful process of moving on.

They buried their 15-year-old classmate Wednesday. Gfeller died Sunday morning from a brain injury suffered in a freak accident during the game against Page.

The football team decided earlier Wednesday that it needed to go to the stadium as a group, stand on the 30-yard line where the accident occurred and allow the players to have their own service for their teammate.

Friday night, as parents and alumni and teachers and administrators stood in silence, the players walked into Deaton-Thompson Stadium again, this time along with the East Forsyth players, all of whom wore the No. 57 on patches and helmet stickers. In fact, several schools in the area have decided to wear the number for the rest of the season.

Since the Reynolds team could only practice sparingly this week, East decided to do the same.

The teams were nervous Friday night, even scared. A moment of silence was held in the uncomfortable minutes before the playing of the national anthem, and then a football game was played on the hallowed ground where a player was fatally injured seven days earlier.

Reynolds is one of the oldest high schools in North Carolina, a school originally named Winston-Salem High School, a school that has produced state football champions and All-America collegians and NFL players dating back years and years. The brick-and-mortar outer walls are built with classic lines, narrow hallways wind around courtyards and catacombs stretch underground filled with artifacts from the Roaring ’20s.

Reynolds is a proud old school, and its community is tight, a black-and-gold line stretching 85 years.

That community came together this week in memorials and services for Gfeller, a kid who often told his friends, “I won’t let you down.” Almost to a person, they wore a T-shirt Friday with that quote on the front and the number 57 on the back.

He was a kid who touched people, a talented actor and a son and a brother who loved football more than anything else. His dream, the family said, had always been to wear the black and gold, to play football for his school.

A foundation was set up 85 years ago to provide scholarships in the name of Leo Caldwell, the star halfback who fell in the great victory over Charlotte in the first year of the new school building. All these years later, the school and the city that grew around it continue to honor his memory.

Matt Gfeller died after playing the only game he would ever play for R.J. Reynolds. A community of friends came to honor his memory Friday night, each of them pledging to remember him forever, as is tradition, beneath the pines of Reynolds High.

Ed Hardin, RJR class of ’74, can be reached at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com