Don Snavely Inducted into Massillon Tiger Football Hall of Fame
Don Snavely, a 1938 graduate, was recently inducted into the Massillon Tiger Football Hall of Fame. Snavely was an offensive center and middle linebacker for Coach Paul Brown from 1935 to 1937. During his sophomore year Massillon set a scoring record with 48.3 points per game, while recording eight shutouts enroute to both state and national championships. It was also the first year that Brown defeated Canton McKinley.
In his junior year the Tigers repeated those feats: 10-0 record, state championship and national championship. The team outscored the opposition, 443-14, with eight shutouts, and defeated McKinley, 21-0. They also handed News Castle, PA, their first home loss in three years. Playing at 151 lbs., Snavely was named 1st Team All-Ohio.
As a senior, now at 160 lbs., he was moved to offensive end, in addition to being team captain, while on defense he remained at middle linebacker in a 7-1-2-1 formation. Snavely also excelled on special teams, blocking a punt out of the end zone, returning a blocked punt for a touchdown and recovering a blocked punt in the end zone for another score.
It was against McKinley following a 19-6 victory that one sportswriter wrote: “Snavely’s defensive work was superb. In the face of severe and almost constant roughing, he made tackle after tackle to stop the charges of the Canton backs. Once he had to take time out because of an injured knee, but he shook out the kink and continued in the game as did every other Massillon player from the opening whistle to the finish. It was the second straight time that the Tigers had played through an entire game without a single substitution.”
The team finished 8-1-1 that year, with a 6-6 tie against Mansfield and a 7-0 loss to New Castle, during which Snavely played sparingly due to knee injury he suffered in a practice leading up to the game. However, he was again named 1st Team All-Ohio.
Following high school, he played four years at center for Columbia University.
