In Memoriam

Joe "BlackCat" Reilly

1922 – February 16, 2006

Visitation at Cathedral of the Incarnation
Fleming Center from 4-8 pm on Sunday, February 19

Service at Cathedral of the Incarnation
at 10:00 am on Monday. February 20

excerpts from "Joseph Reilly: The Real Black Cat"
by Senior Alex Craw, guest writer for the Moina, 75.4 Feb 2006, 1+

Joseph Reilly, known best by the name of Black Cat, is and will always be a famous personality to both the city of Nashville and to all those involved with Father Ryan High School.

Born in 1922, Joseph Reilly was in school only into the third grade.  After that, he got a job with the Nashville Banner delivering papers.  He stayed on that paper route for more than sixty-five years, even when it became The Tennessean. Black Cat was famous for delivering papers to every state official down at Legislative Plaza for the past six decades. Black Cat always walked to his destination or got a ride there.  I can't recall him ever driving a car by himself. He would lumber down the street with a sack of papers hanging from his shoulder.  Since I've known him, Joe always slumped over when he walked due to osteoporosis.  He would wear basically the same outfit every day as he walked the downtown streets of Nashville: a flannel shirt, his red Nashville Sounds hat, black long pants, and either a Father Ryan or New York Yankees jacket.  He also sported a watch on each wrist, for reasons unbeknownst to most.

Black Cat grew up a coach and sports advocate.  To this day, he remembers every baseball statistic from the 1950s through the 1970s.  Anything you wanted to know about the New York Yankees, Black Cat could tell you.  Throughout his life, he's collected sports memorabilia.  I can't remember a sports team from Nashville who hasn't autographed anything for him.  He'd tell me, "You know what Big Al, I know more about baseball than any coach you've ever played for."  I always agreed with him and his advice was consistently helpful.  Black Cat keeps things simple.  He'll say, "You know something, you need to throw the ball over the plate for a strike and don't walk anybody!"

 He has attended almost every Nashville Sounds game, Father Ryan football game, and Father Ryan home baseball game ever played.  Ironically, Black Cat has been known as a good luck charm to all that come in contact with him.  If the wrong team was winning the game, he'd put what's called the "Black Cat Hex" on the other team…this is how he received the name Black Cat.  It was because of his good luck that Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner, invited him to Florida for the Yankees' preseason games for consecutive seasons.

A wonderful quality of Joe Reilly is that you never knew what would come out of his mouth.  When I talked to him, I had to get really close to him especially when he was walking.  He slurs his words badly sometimes, and it takes him awhile to find the words he wants to say.  He is willing to talk to anybody just as long as they are willing to listen to what he said.  Black Cat, although eighty-three years-old, was still a kid at heart. 
 
 When he was feeling better, Black Cat would come to Father Ryan at around eleven in the morning, go in the coaches' office, and watch his Western movies.  I usually got a message from the front office that Mr. Reilly had arrived and was waiting for his lunch.  I look back at those times we ate lunch together and smile.  I have been fortunate to know Joseph Reilly these past eleven years.