Jim O'Donnell: Keith Reinhard selected for media wing of prep basketball Hall of Fame
KEITH REINHARD WAS ONCE one of the most energizing, intellectually eclectic members of the Chicago sports media community.
He loved life, adventure and the possibilities of the universe - any universe.
Reinhard walked off the face of the earth 34 years ago in a small Colorado ghost town while on a 90-day summer sabbatical from the Daily Herald. Since then, he has been the center riddle of an open-ended puzzle that still stirs some interstate imaginations.
No trace of him has ever been found. Local authorities have long insisted the most likely conclusive solution would be one of three: "murder, mountain or Mexico."
THE NAME OF REINHARD has come around again this week with the announcement that he has been chosen as a 2023 inductee into the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association's Hall of Fame.
Reinhard - and longtime Daily Herald prep sideliner Dick Quagliano - will be enshrined next May as media selectees during the IBCA's annual HOF dinner at Illinois State.
According to Mark Kleemann, a member of the organization's board of directors, Reinhard's inclusion will be a residual from the establishment of a Legacy Committee in 2018.
"We established the Legacy Committee in hopes of soliciting and finding possible inductees who may have been previously overlooked," Kleemann said. "The cutoff date for the start of an individual's career for consideration in this cycle was 1982."
REINHARD BEGAN WORK at the Daily Herald in late 1968.
Fresh out of the Air Force, he eventually held two and a half jobs to support first wife Astrid and his growing brood of Sven (who died in a 2001 touring bus mishap), Kai and Tiffany.
Besides the Daily Herald, Reinhard was a full-time postman by day in his native Deerfield for close to a decade. He also owned "SporTraits," a for-profit initiative that took portrait and posed-action pictures of high school athletes.
His fascination with the Rocky Mountains began in 1983-84. That passion was partially driven by Reinhard's determination to overcome his fear of heights.
Then, late one Sunday afternoon in August 1988 - five weeks shy of his 50th birthday - he disappeared while purportedly out on an impromptu "mountain hike."
The freewheeling Reinhard himself would endorse one conclusion: He will probably not show to accept his honor next May.
Probably.
STREET-BEATIN':
Most intriguing line of the Power Five championship games this weekend is TCU - 2½ over Kansas State for the Big 12 crown (ABC; Saturday, 11 a.m.). QB Max Duggan and the Horned Frogs (12-0) do nothing but win. Still, that number is suspiciously low. …
Stevenson High's Aidan O'Connell deserves highest props for getting Purdue to the Big Ten title match vs. Michigan (-16½) Saturday (Fox, 7 p.m.). But Jim Harbaugh and the Wolverines are a blue-and-maize juggernaut who have every reason to be thinking about a national title. …
With or without Christian Pulisic, the U.S is in tough vs. The Netherlands in Round of 16 play at the FIFA World Cup Saturday (Fox, Telemundo, 9 a.m.). The unit simply hasn't played together frequently enough to establish consistent offensive impact against international soccer's bigger boys. …
Odds of Tom Brady winning an eighth Super Bowl ring with an 8-9 band of Buccaneers this postseason? If only his stature as a TV drawing card wasn't waning - the NFL's yellow pixies could take care of the rest. …
Also on the autumnal marquee, Tiger Woods hosts The Hero World Challenge from the Bahamas on Golf Channel beginning Thursday at 12:30 p.m. Coverage switches to NBC for final rounds on Saturday and Sunday; Collin Morikawa should be a money maker. …
A droning, D-tier sports talk bore now grooming his high school-age son to follow in his snoozy ear buds? Only in as desolate a major radio market as Chicago. …
ESPN / ABC will carry the first-ever Professional Pickleball Association bubly Team Championship from Mandalay Bay on Sunday, December 18. Golden princess of the craze is 15-year-old Anna Leigh Waters. With a pot of only $175K, the PPA needs the Saudis and their filthy blood money. …
And Steve Van Wye, on the Bulls' "secret" contract extension to head coach Billy Donovan: "Why couldn't Jerry Reinsdorf have played this sort of hide-and-seek with Phil Jackson back in 1998?"
• Jim O'Donnell's Sports and Media column appears Sunday. and Thursday. Reach him at jimodonnelldh@yahoo.com. All communications may be considered for publication.