Joe Reiff

Who was Joe Reiff?

Joseph "Joe" Reiff was an American basketball player and referee. He was a three-time All-American center at Northwestern University.

Reiff, a 6'3 center from Crane Technical High School in Chicago, chose to attend nearby Northwestern University and play for Hall of Fame coach Dutch Lonborg. Reiff led the Wildcats to a Western Conference championship in his sophomore year. Reiff led the league in scoring with a 10.0 average. Northwestern finished 13-1 and would later be retroactively named 1931 National Champions by the Helms Athletic Foundation and Reiff was named a consensus All-American.

In his junior year, Reiff finished second in the conference in scoring to Purdue senior John Wooden. In his senior year, Reiff again led Northwestern to a conference title and led the league in scoring for a second time at 14.0 points per game. He was once again named a consensus All-American

After graduating from Northwestern, Reiff played for Rosenberg-Avery of Chicago in the Amateur Athletic Union and was named to the All-AAU team. He then became a basketball referee in the Western Conference from 1937-1947.

Joe Reiff was a charter inductee into the Northwestern athletics Hall of Fame, elected in 1984.