Tigers Beat Bulldogs 21-12
To Win State Championship
Heavy
By LUTHER EMERY
The old adage “ox cannot lick tiger” was proved conclusively
again Saturday afternoon in Tiger stadium before a crowd of 22,000 spectators
as the
Hats off to Chuck Mather and staff
and their Tiger football players!
Battling against tremendous odds in weight they out generaled
and out charged the McKinley Bulldogs as they sped to their ninth victory in 10
games, their first victory over
Rolling to touchdowns in three of the four periods, and
narrowly missing a couple of others, the Tigers demonstrated to the spectators
their right to claim the state title as they handed the vaunted McKinley team
its first loss of the season. The Bulldogs
were ranked No. 1 in the
It was asking a lot and it took hearts on the part of the Tiger players to overcome the
15-pound per man weight advantage of the
Just for example, little Bill Morrow a 153 pounder was pitted against 200 pound John Kostas and moved him around at will most of the afternoon. And there was Pat Ebbert , 155 pounds, getting a head start on every defensive play, smashing through the center of the Bulldog line from his line-backing position to stack-up McKinley ball carriers.
Booster
Club
Rally
Tonight
Bob Willison,
president of the Tiger Booster club, has called a meeting of all Booster club
members for 8 o’clock tonight in the
Coach Chuck Mather
will be present at the meeting and will show motion pictures of the game.
In fact, a couple of pinch-hitters, Ebbert and Irvin Crable were most important cogs in the Tiger victory. Pat went in to fill limping Jack McVey’s shoes on defense and Crable replaced the injured Clarence Johnson at right halfback and roared to all three of the Tigers’ touchdowns.
* * *
BUT YOU couldn’t pick any
two guys out of Saturday’s game and say they carved the bacon. Give credit to the whole team, and to Capt.
Al Brown, who played his heart out in what was the greatest game of his three
years of football, and who fell hysterical on the sidelines when removed in the
last minute of the contest. Al and the
other seniors wanted to have a victory over Canton McKinley written in the
records of their high school athletic careers and they gave their all to
accomplish it in their last chance Saturday.
That goes for Mike Takacs, Bill Paul, Ben
Roderick, Joe Jones, McVey, Jack Houston, Jack Hill, Art James, Eddie Bush, Jim
Campbell, Chuck Crone and other seniors who didn’t get into the contest, but
who wound up their high school football careers with the defeat of
No wonder hysteria broke loose in the Tiger dressing room after the game. It began when substitutes at the crack of the final gun streamed from the bench to the playing field to embrace other members of the squad and join them in hoisting Coach Mather to their shoulders and carry him to the dressing room. You could hardly get into the room as fans streamed in – proud fathers to congratulate their sons; Boosters with broad smiles and hoarse voices; old alumni, including many former Tiger players now in college; as well as former Massillon men who are coaching in other cities and who arrange their schedules so that they can be home for the annual Canton-Massillon classic. Signs reading “state champs”, printed in advance, were hoisted immediately in the dressing room to resounding cheers.
It was an outpouring of spontaneous enthusiasm such as this city hasn’t seen in a long time and a deserving recognition to a great team.
The classy Tiger gridders were into the game up to their necks every minute, but as it turned out, they had the victory all the way. They controlled the ball, rolled up more yards, made more first downs, scored more points, gave Canton McKinley but two scoring opportunities both of which the Bulldogs cashed in on, and they were hammering at the red and black’s goal line all afternoon, narrowly missing two other touchdowns, one by a step and the other by a trip.
As Dave Stewart, who himself coached
* * *
MOST OF all the victory was a tribute to the coaching of Chuck Mather and his assistants, Paul Schofer, Carl Schroeder, Lauri Wartiainen, and Dave Putts, who have scouted McKinley every game, who figured out the Bulldog’s weaknesses and how to take advantage of them both on offense and defense.
They met
They went through the Bulldog defense through the execution of reverses and trap plays that drew the red and black out of position and permitted ball carriers to get into the secondary time and again.
* * *
THE TIGERS won without the ball carrying services of Clarence Johnson, their leading ground gainer of the season who has averaged almost three more yards per try than McKinley’s John Colceri, who likewise was unable to lug the leather because of injuries. Johnson got in only to kickoff a couple of times and boot the Tigers’ three points from placement.
McKinley undoubtedly would have had more offense with Colceri in the backfield, but whether he would have made any difference in the outcome of the game is a subject for folks to debate the next 12 months of the year.
The breaks of the game were fairly even. The Tigers recovered two McKinley fumbles and intercepted on pass, but the Bulldogs got the biggest break of all when Ben Roderick after leaping high in the air to snare a pass, came down with a foot out of the end zone that cost the Tigers a fourth touchdown.
The local gridders lost what might have been a couple of
others when in the second quarter with the ball on the 13-yard line, Crable tripped over Jack Hill’s foot on a statue play and
fell with an open field ahead of him on his left flank. Again in the third period he picked up a
bounce fumble of his own and ran 25 yards to the McKinley 17 where he was
ticked on the leg by a
* * *
THOUGH STATISTICS were 18 first downs to 11 in the Tigers’ favor and yards gained 317 to the Bulldogs’ 185, the outcome was hanging in the balance until the Tigers’ scored their third touchdown with only one minute and 36 seconds left to play.
The air was tense when the Bulldogs struck back after each
Coach Mather sent in his offensive
substitutes but before doing so wrapped a big arm around Capt. Brown. “Al, you gotta hold
that ball. Anytime
Here the Tigers demonstrated their greatest courage of the game. Against a suddenly inspired McKinley team they took the kickoff on their own 20 and methodically pounded all the way to their third touchdown. They used up six minutes and 47 seconds in the drive, and crossed the Bulldog goal with only a minute and 36 seconds remaining to be played.
That last touchdown drive was a clear cut demonstration of
the championship caliber and determination of the
There were those at the half who thought Bulldog power and weight would surely be a deciding factor before the end of the contest, but in the Tigers final march to points, they actually beat the Cantonians down to their size and appeared the stronger team at the final gun.
* * *
DESPITE the hard play of members of both teams, none was seriously injured. Members of the local eleven came out of the contest in as good a condition as they entered it.
Dick Jacobs took as hard a beating as anyone, and several times was the victim of a pileup that knocked the wind out of him.
Both teams were strictly offensive minded all afternoon and as a result each punted only once. The Bulldogs in their desperation to catch the Tigers were thrown back once on fourth down when they failed to make yardage on the Tiger 39. But on another occasion while back in their own territory and 11 yards needed for a first down, they caught the Tigers napping and fired a long pass that started them on the way to their second touchdown.
* * *
THE TIGERS appeared tense
when the game got underway. They won the
toss and elected to receive, but the
Then the Tigers got a break that made up for Al’s fumble of the kickoff. Mariano, on first down fumbled and old reliable Mike Takacs pounced on the ball for the Tigers.
The Tigers launched their first touchdown march. After Brown got but two yards at right end,
Hill dropped back and shot a long pass that Ben Roderick took to the
* * *
THE BULLDOGS took the kickoff and came roaring back for six points themselves. With Mariano and Tony Ranalli doing most of the leather lugging, they started from their 33 and 12 plays later were on the one foot line as the quarter ended.
Came the second period and on the first play,
The
* * *
McKINLEY
took over on the 20 and got by the midfield stripe before Crable
intercepted
McKinley received to open the third period, Mariano making a great return of the kickoff and almost getting away to take the ball to the Tiger 48. Three plays gained seven yards and the Bulldogs tried to run the ball on fourth down. The Tigers were equal to the occasion, however and Ranalli was thrown before he could make the necessary yardage.
Taking the ball on their own 39, Crable went for eight yards and Brown made it first down on
the
* * *
EIGHT MINUTES and 23
seconds of the game remained to be played when Mariano kicked off to
The
That didn’t stop Brown. Mather had said, “all the way” and that’s the way it was going to be. He smashed through for four yards and on the next play Crable ran his right end for the final touchdown of the game.
Johnson missed his first try for the extra point but
Krisher kicked off to
State Champs
ENDS – RODERICK, HOUSTON, Slicker.
TACKLES – KRISHER, TAKACS, Jones, Schumacher, A. James, Campbell.
GUARDS – MORROW, REICHENBACK, Paul, Ebbert.
CENTER – McVEY.
QUARTERBACKS – HILL, D. James.
HALFBACKS – JACOBS, CRABLE, Johnson, Bush, Crone.
FULLBACKS – BROWN, Shine.
McKINLEY
ENDS – WEBER, LIPKINS, Mozaco.
TACKLES – GHEZZI, O’BROVAC, McCullough, Scrimo, Ripper.
GUARDS – JOHNS and JIM KOSTAS, Byers.
CENTER – PUCCI.
QUARTERBACKS – ROGERS, Prandine.
HALFBACKS – RANALLI, MARIANO, Parks.
FULLBACKS – STOSIC, Palombo.
Score by periods:
McKinley 0 6 0 6 12
Touchdowns:
McKinley
–
Points after touchdown:
Referee – Titus Lobach.
Umpire – C.W. rupp.
Head Linesman – Verlin Jenkins.
Field Judge – Ralph Shafer.
Statistics Of The Game
First downs 18 11
Passes attempted 6 6
Passes completed 3 3
Had passes intercepted 0 1
Yards gained passing 59 52
Yards gained rushing 285 164
Total yards gained 344 216
Yards lost 37 31
Net yards gained 317 185
Times punted 1 1
Average punt (yards) 20 32
Times kicked off 4 3
Average kickoff (yards) 47 51
Yards punts returned by 22 0
Yards kickoffs returned by 39 70
Times fumbled 1 2
Lost ball on fumble 0 2
Times penalized 3 1
Yards penalized 25 2
INDIVIDUAL
Carried Gained Lost Net
Brown 22 105 1 104
Jacobs 11 90 10 80
Crable 17 112 10 102
Hill 3 3 5 -2
Roderick 2 1 0 1
_____ _____ _____ _____
TOTALS 55 311 26 285
Mariano 16 93 1 92
Ranalli 11 46 0 46
Stosic 4 18 3 15
____ _____ ____ ____
TOTALS 36 168 5 164