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Red Reese

American basketball player (1899-1974)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ23620836
Source-derived summary

William Bryan "Red" Reese (March 2, 1899 – April 18, 1974) was athletic director and coach of multiple sports (football, basketball, and track & field) at Eastern Washington University in Cheney (then named the Cheney State Normal School, later Eastern Washington College of Education, and Eastern Washington State College) from 1930 to 1964.

Reese Court on Eastern's campus was named in his honor in September 1980.

College playing career

"Red" Reese started his playing career as a three sport athlete (basketball, football, and track), taking honors in all three sports. Reese participated in the same three sports for Washington State College from 1921 to 1925. He won his letters for football and basketball as a freshman, and played varsity in both sports all three years following. He was captain of the basketball team for his senior year.

High school teaching and coaching career

Reese coached the basketball team at Cashmere High School from 1925 to 1928, with a record of 44–7 (.863). He then succeeded Jack Friel as basketball and baseball coach at North Central High School in Spokane, where he coached from 1928 to 1930: his 1928–29 team went 17–4 and won the city championship, and his 1929–30 team went 15–3, repeating as city champions and then won the state title. At both Cashmere and North Central, Reese was responsible for coaching all sports and teaching physical education classes.

Collegiate coaching career (1930–1964)

Reese began his collegiate coaching career at Cheney State Normal School in 1930 after leaving his position at North Central, and remained active as a coach (with the exception of his years in the military) until his retirement in 1964.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Red Reese” as american basketball player (1899-1974). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1899, 1974, 1930, 1964—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1899-03-02. The account is most persuasive where Reese, American and basketball can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american basketball player (1899-1974). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23620836. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1899, 1974, 1930 and 1964.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Red Reese”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Red Reese primary sources, Red Reese archive and Reese research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Red Reese”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Red Reese” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.