Reynolds attended Capitol Hill High School and the Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College (A&M), where he was a multi-sport athlete.

[1] Reynolds attended Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City, where he starred in American football as a quarterback and running back, and at track and field, where he excelled at the javelin throw and 100-yard dash.

[3] Oklahoma Agricultural & Mechanical College (A&M) provided Reynolds a scholarship to attend and participate in track.

[3] Henry Iba, coach of the baseball team, first noticed Reynolds when he was practicing his javelin throws.

[4] Iba asked Reynolds to throw batting practice while his pitchers recovered from sore arms.

Reynolds played right field for the Raiders when he wasn't pitching, as roster sizes were reduced to 17 as a result of the Great Depression.

[8] Reynolds started the 1941 season with the Wilkes-Barre Barons of the Class-A Eastern League, but was demoted to Cedar Rapids after three appearances.

[9] Becoming increasingly homesick and not wanting to spend his entire professional career in the minor leagues, Reynolds considered retiring after the 1942 season if he did not get promoted to the majors.

Reynolds took a pre-enlistment physical,[12] but due to his family and football injuries, he did not enlist in the military and was not eligible to be drafted.

[16] On October 11, 1946, the Indians traded Reynolds to the New York Yankees for second baseman Joe Gordon.

[17] Cleveland wanted Gordon and offered the Yankees any pitcher on their staff, with the exception of Bob Feller.

In 1949, joined by Vic Raschi and Eddie Lopat, he was a star of a Yankee team that won the first of five consecutive league championships, a feat that had never been achieved before.

Bob Feller also threw a strong game and didn't allow a hit until the sixth inning, when Mickey Mantle doubled.

[22] His second no-hitter, on September 28, 1951, was an 8–0 defeat of the Boston Red Sox which allowed the Yankees to clinch at least a tie of the American League pennant.

With two outs in the ninth inning, Ted Williams hit a pop fly to Yankees catcher Yogi Berra.

[23] In the spring of 1953, Stengel made Reynolds predominantly a reliever, although he notched 15 starts and 5 complete games, because of Reynolds' ability to pitch without much rest and to use his blazing fastball late in the Yankees' afternoon games when the shadows crept over the mound.

[31] Reynolds suffered a back injury when the Yankees' charter bus crashed into an overpass in Philadelphia during the 1953 season.

[2] David Dupree explained a common view of how he was given the nickname, Superchief, "he was part Creek Indian and always in command on the pitching mound.

Jeffrey Powers-Beck explains that in the early half of the 20th century, "it appeared virtually impossible for a baseball player of admitted native origin to be known popularly as anything but "Chief".

[32] Former teammate and American League President Bobby Brown noted his heritage and a popular railroad influenced the baseball media to use the nickname, "But for some of you too young to remember, the Santa Fe Railroad at that time had a crack train (called the Super Chief) that ran from California to Chicago, and it was known for its elegance, its power and its speed.

It is presented annually to the Oklahoma "high school senior who best reflects the spirit of Allie Reynolds by maintaining the highest standards in scholarship, leadership, civic contributions and character".

[20] That year, he finished ahead of future Hall of Famers Arky Vaughan, Pee Wee Reese, Phil Rizzuto, George Kell, Hal Newhouser, Bob Lemon, and Bobby Doerr.

"[20] Adapting Bill James' sabermetric statistic known as win shares, Dr. Michael Hoban, a professor emeritus of mathematics at City University of New York, found that Reynolds falls short of his threshold for induction, and scored lower than Haines and Gomez.

[20] On November 5, 2021, he was selected to the final ballot for the Baseball Hall of Fame's Early Days Committee for consideration in the Class of 2022.

[43] Despite retiring, Reynolds was allowed to remain a member of the Major League Baseball Players Association.

[2][44] He later sued administrators of the pension plan in federal court for "whittling away" the rights of retired players.

[45] In 1969, Reynolds was named the President of the American Association, a Class AAA baseball league.

[46] Reynolds served as president until 1971, when he resigned to spend more time with his family and due to competing business interests.

[47] He was also the President of the National Hall of Fame for Famous American Indians in Anadarko, Oklahoma, from 1978 until his death.