Dr. David Reese to be Inducted into the Massillon Wall of Champions
The Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club is proud to announce that Dr. David Reese will be inducted this year into the “Massillon Wall of Champions.” The formal ceremony will be held in conjunction with the Club’s Reverse Raffle event, which will be held this July at Eagles 190.
The Wall of Champions is reserved for Massillon grads who played a varsity sport and then went on to accomplish something remarkable later in life. The Wall currently has 44 members, including previous inductees Paul Brown, Chris Spielman, Steve Studer, Joe Sparma, Harry Stuhldreher and Mike Hershberger.
Reese played center on the Massillon High School football team in 1908. He also played tennis, winning the school championship as a sophomore. As a freshman, he was the class president.
In the photo below of the 1908 Massillon team, Reese is believed to be the player that is laying down on the right side.
Two years after graduating he enrolled at Denison University, where he achieved a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Aside from pursuing a career in dentistry, he also made quite an impact on the sports field. In each of his four years there he received letters in football, basketball, baseball and tennis, becoming the only Denison athlete to earn twelve letters. In football, his team won the Ohio Conference championship in 1914. A standout in basketball, he received 1st Team All-Ohio and 1st Team All-Conference honors as a senior.
Later, Reese was inducted into the Denison Varsity “D” Hall of Fame, while also heading up the Denison Society of the Alumni from 1949-50.
And he did finish his dentistry education, receiving DDS and OCDS degrees from the University of Cincinnati.
After Denison, Reese pursued a career in professional football. In 1915 he played for the Cincinnati Celts and then from 1918 through 1923 with the Dayton Triangles, which joined the NFL in 1920. He also played some professional basketball.
But he never left the sports arena, serving as a referee for over thirty years in high school, college and professional games. He was even one of the referees for the 1940 Massillon-McKinley game. And the 1944 Notre Dame-Army game. Unfortunately, in that one he was run over by Army’s famed running back “Doc” Blanchard and suffered a broken leg and arm. Reese later boasted that he stopped Blanchard better than the Irish did all day in losing 58-0.
His defining moment came when he was named the first commissioner of the Mid-American Conference (MAC. In that position he served from 1946 through 1964, managing expansion of the league from its initial five members of Ohio University, Butler, Cincinnati, Wayne and Western Reserve to seven, with the addition of Bowling Green, Kent State, Marshall, Miami, Toledo and Western Michigan and with the departure of four original members (except Ohio).
As a tribute to Dr. Reese, the MAC annually awards the Reese Trophy to the MAC team that achieves the greatest success. He was also inducted into the MAC Hall of Fame.
Now it’s Massillon’s turn.
Dr. Reese died on June 26, 1976.
