Team of the Day: Reading High Red Knights
2024 Berks football coverage
presented by UECU
No one in Berks County has a longer football history than the Red Knights: Their first game was played in 1892, and they were among the first high school football teams in the nation.
This will be Reading High’s 131st season; it has played more than 1,250 games, far more than any Berks team.
The Red Knights were a top team in the powerful Central Penn League in the 1940’s and 1950’s and produced perhaps the greatest player in Berks football history: Pro Football Hall of Famer Lenny Moore. Moore’s 22 touchdowns in 1951 remain a program record.
The Red Knights rose to prominence again in the early 1990’s with their feared “Air Jet” passing attack, orchestrated by head coach John “Jet” Johnston, and again later in the decade under Al Wolski.
Wolski’s powerhouse teams featured the Bryant brothers, Sam and James, and a bevy of fast backs who could score from any spot on the field.
They set a Berks record by averaging 43.5 points per game in 2001 and two years later set a program record by winning 10 games.
Reading’s all-time roster is loaded with Hall of Fame talent, including standouts such as Rosie Ciatto, John Dallessandro, Amedeo and Lou DeAngelis, Bart and John Jankans, Tommy Miller, and Tony Hardy.
The Red Knights have spent much of the past two decades attempting to reclaim those past glories: They have winning marks just twice in the last 20 years. They have cracked the District 3 Tournament field just once in that span, in 2014.
They have not had a coach leave the program with a winning record since Wolski departed following the 2003 season. He has the highest winning percentage in program history (.699) and is one of just two Reading coaches to win more than 60 percent of his games.
To find out more about Red Knights football history, including the newly expanded team records page, click on the Red Knights Team Page.
You can find this season’s schedule, the Red Knights’ series record against all current opponents, results from recent seasons and team rushing, scoring and passing records you won’t find anywhere else.
Throughout the preseason MikeDragoSports.com will feature a different Berks County team.
Up next: Schuylkill Valley Panthers.
