Author: <span>Don Engelhardt</span>

Obie Logo (Large) History

Time to Purchase That Commemorative Brick

Spring is here and that means graduation is just around the corner . If you have a graduating bandsman, athlete, or student from WHS or college, a great way to honor them is with a brick in the Walk of Pride at Tiger Stadium.  They are available in 4 x 8 or 8 x 12 inch sizes for $100 or $250, respectively.  You may have the message of your choice inscribed on the brick along with a pre- selected location. Orders should be made by May 10 to insure arrival by graduation date .

Click this link to order a brick.

Any questions please call John Liebermann at 330-445-9250

History

The Bell Was Ringing for One Tiger Honorees

One Tiger, now in its ninth year of operation, is non-profit organization whose purpose is to “benefit Massillon youth by supporting and promoting the institutions and programs that deliver success skills.”  Annually, One Tiger honors individuals that have an extensive track record of giving support to the kids in this manner.  This year’s honorees are Dale Walterhouse and Esther Bryant.

One Tiger Managing Director Bob Clendenin kicks off the One Tiger 2018 Award Ceremony

A lunch at Washington High School kicked off the event and then the recipients were honored in the auditorium by proclamations from Mayor Kathy Catazoro-Perry, by those closest to them with short speeches (each one punctuated by an enthusiastic ring of the Massillon-McKinley victory bell) and finally by presentation of the One Tiger awards.  The event concluded with dinner at Tiger Town Grille and Pub.

One Tiger 2018 award recipients Esther Bryant and Dale Walterhouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dale Walterhouse accepts congratulations from Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro-Perry

Dale Walterhouse

At the request of his Upper Sandusky High School coach Leo Strang, Dale Walterhouse moved to Massillon to coach at Lorin Andrews Junior High. After stints as Jones Junior High and Washington High School sophomore coach, Walterhouse became varsity assistant and served under head coaches Strang, Earle Bruce, Bob Seaman, Bob Commings and Mike Currence. He coached six state championship and two national championship teams and was a member of the inaugural class of the Tiger Hall of Fame.  His Massillon coaching career spanned 24 seasons, compiling a record of 201 wins, 21 losses and 4 ties.

Coach Walterhouse taught health, physical education, and general chemistry in the Massillon School System, served as district supervisor of health and physical education, and was briefly Washington High School’s athletic director. An active member of the Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club, Walterhouse has served as president and treasurer as well as president of Sideliners.

Walterhouse has served his community through the Massillon Alumni Scholarship Committee, the Community Improvement Corporation, the Civil Service Commission, the Spring Hill Historic Home board of directors, the Lions Club as chairman of the eye screening program, the Ohio North-South All-Star football game assistant events director, and state football playoffs parking coordinator.  He served as a Massillon city councilman and the manager of The Elms Swim Club.

Dale Walterhouse receives One Tiger Award from Bob Clendenin

Walterhouse and his wife Jo have three children—Kathy, Kurt, and Steve, eleven grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

“You’ve been a wonderful asset for this city,” said presenter and former Tiger player and past Football Booster Club President Brock Herring.  “You always had the best interest of the Massillon kids in your heart. You were like a dad to many of us.”

“It’s our community that comes out on top because of people like these (Dale and Esther),” added former Football Booster Club President Steve Berecek.  “For Dale, it was a labor of love.  He always wanted to give back to the community.”

Dale graciously thanked One Tiger and all of the presenters.  “Massillon has been very good to us,” Dale said.  “I’ve surrounded myself with great people and it is great people that make you successful.  I give football a lot of credit for my being here today.  You can do a lot more with team than individual.”

Esther Bryant receives 2018 One Tiger Award from Bob Clendenin

Esther Bryant

A 1959 graduate of Washington High School, Esther Bryant studied at Kent State University and the Washington Beauty Academy in Akron, where she taught for many years.  She also taught at the Jane Skinner Modeling School and Christina’s Hair Weev (the inventor of the hair weave) before opening her own beauty salon and boutique in Massillon, Juannee’s Total Image.

As a Stark County Human Services foster parent, she recognized a need to provide basic life skills and cultural experiences for foster children. With the assistance of Rev. Reginald Hye at Friendship Baptist Church in Massillon, she founded Lighthouse Visions. For 22 years, as CEO/executive director of Lighthouse Visions, she tirelessly bettered the lives of foster children, until she suffered a serious stroke in 2015.

Bryant served the community in many capacities, volunteering with Westark Family Services, Downtown Massillon Association, Massillon WestStark Chamber of Commerce, the Fair Housing Board, Massillon Museum, Canton NAACP, Massillon Woman’s Club, CAN (Collaborative Agency Association), Board of Stark County Community Action and the Massillon Parks and Recreation board.

Bryant has two daughters—Judge Valarie Hill and Bridget Hill, three grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. She is a member of Friendship Baptist Church, where she served as pianist for more than 50 years.  She now sings in the choir. She also attends Massillon Connections Church and leads praise workshops.

Margy Vogt contributed to this story.

 

 

News

2018 Football Schedule Released

Massillon Head Coach Nate Moore has released the 2018 schedule, having filled the remaining open spot with Montclair, New Jersey.  Montclair joins two other out-of-state opponents, including East St. Louis, Illinois, and Sun Valley, Pennsylvania.  This marks the fifth time that three or more non-Ohio teams have appeared on the schedule.  The Tigers also have eight home games for the first time since 2004.  Once again it will be a very challenging schedule.

Here is a rundown of each opponent:

Akron St. Vincent-St. Mary – 2017 record: 10-4.  The Irish move to the opener from Week 9, replacing Mentor.  Last year St. V scored a touchdown with 3:15 remaining in the game to defeat the Tigers 13-10.  In the Division 3 playoffs they advanced to the state semifinals where they lost to Tri-Valley, 24-6.  The Irish have defeated Massillon in four of the last five years.

Canton GlenOak – 2017 record: 3-7.  Last year the Golden Eagles had an uncharacteristic subpar season, which included a 24-10 loss to Massillon.  The Tigers have won four of the last five matches.

Warren Harding – 2017 record: 3-6.  The Panthers suffered through the loss of graduated quarterback Lynn Bowdon.  One of the losses was to Massillon, 31-21.  The Tigers own a 3-2 edge over the past five years.

Montclair, NJ – 2017 record: 12-0.  Last year Montclair captured the New Jersey North I Group 5 championship with a 35-14 win over Union City.  This should be a balanced matchup for the Tigers.

Akron Firestone – 2017 record: 4-6.  The Falcons return to the schedule for the third consecutive year.  Last year the Tigers defeated Firestone 35-6.  The Falcons were 3-2 in Akron City Series competition.

Austintown Fitch – 2017 record: 6-4.  Last season Massillon broke a 28-28 tie in the fourth quarter by scoring 10 consecutive points.  The Tigers have now won the last two meetings following three consecutive losses.

East St. Louis, IL – 2017 record: 10-2.  This may be the toughest opponent on Massillon’s schedule.  East St. Louls, with Cleveland Glenville-like talent, is considered to be a national power and annually plays teams from across the country.  Last year they lost to another national power in Evangel Christian Academy (Shreveport, LA), 14-6.  There is a chance that this game will be televised nationally.

Sun Valley, PA – 2017 record: 5-7.

Louisville – 2017 record: 5-5.  Having been booted out of the NBC, the Leopards are now forced to schedule independently.  Ergo, the Tigers will visit Lousville this year in a first-ever meeting.  Last year the Leopards started out with three consecutive losses: Canfield (28-48), North Canton (14-41) and Austintown Fitch (21-42).

Canton McKinley – 2017 record: 8-3.  Last season Massillon held off the Bulldogs 16-15 in the inaugural meeting of these two teams at Canton’s Tom Benson Stadium.  The Tigers now have beaten McKinley in six of the last seven games, with the lone loss coming in 2015 by the score of 30-28.  The Bulldogs advanced to the playoffs last year but were defeated in the first round by Lakewood St. Edward.

Obie Logo (Large) Editorial

Rehashing the Infamous 1957 Clock Game

Story by Gary Vogt

Mention the Massillon-Warren football series to a Harding fan and he is sure to bring up the infamous “1957 Clock Game,” where it was claimed by Warren that the Tigers won by virtue of having an extra minute of time added at the end.  Here is that story.

The build up to the game was huge to say the least.  And the outcome would certainly go a long way that year in determining the eventual state champion.  The fact that the attendance that night was 21,322 fans attests to its magnitude.

Warren came into the game with a record of 6-0 and they were ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press Poll, which was used to select the state champ at that time.  The Tigers had a record of 4-1 having lost to Cleveland Benedictine 13-7 (they only played five games at that point in the season, as the contest with Mansfield was canceled due to a flu epidemic).

Massillon scored two first quarter touchdowns to take a 14-0 lead.  Warren then fought back with two second half touchdowns to tie it up at 14.  Then the epic drive and resulting controversy took place.

The Tigers had returned a punt to their 38 yard line with 2:38 showing on the clock to set up the drive.  When it was over, the clock had expired and Massillon was celebrating a victory.  Along the way, the Tigers used three different quarterbacks and converted on two fourth downs.  The first conversion required a measurement, which the Tigers made by inches.  The second occurred on the last play of the game with the Tigers on Warren’s 38 yard line.  With just four seconds left, sophomore quarterback Joe Sparma tossed deep to end Clyde Childers for the game-winning touchdown.  Childers snagged the pass between two Warren defenders and lunged across the goal line for the score. Pandemonium broke loose and the try for the extra point never did not take place.

According to the Warren Tribune Chronicle a Warren fan contacted Harding coach Gene Slaughter on the sideline after the game and claimed that a minute of time was added to the clock after it reached the 0:59 mark, obviously aiding the Tigers during their final march to the endzone.  Thus began a detailed investigation conducted by both schools.

Background:

  1. The clock operator that night was Bill Archibald.
  2. The game was broadcast on WHBC radio.
  3. Referees – Stan Machock – Referee, Eric Calhoun – Umpire, Sam Hadnick – Head Linesman & C. W. Kupp – Field Judge.
  4. Warren’s head coach – Gene Slaughter
  5. Warren officials did contact OHSAA to ask if they could look into the clock operation that night. OHSAA assigned the investigation to an E. M. Ensminger, an OHSAA Commissioner. He later found in Massillon’s favor.

Without discounting this information, Coach Slaughter contacted Head Referee Stan Machock to inquire if his crew had noticed a clock malfunction.  Machock stated that no one on the crew was aware of any such malfunction.  Machock and Slaughter climbed the stands to the West Press Box where Bill Archibald, the clock operator, was wrapping up his evening’s work and was putting away his equipment.  Machock asked Archibald if he had noticed any clock malfunction during the conclusion of the game.  Archibald had not noticed any such malfunction.  Machock asked Archibald to re-run the clock down to check it’s reliability.  He re-ran the last four minutes three or four times for Machock.  The clock performed accurately each time.  Machock told Slaughter that there was nothing more he could do and they departed the Press Box.

The next day Warren school officials contacted the Ohio High School Athletic Association and asked if they would look into the Massillon clock situation from the night before.  The OSHAA then contacted the Massillon school officials to inquire about the clock and its operation.

The following Monday, October 28th, Massillon officials obtained an audio rebroadcast of the game from WHBC.  By replaying the tape they could determine if the time was properly gauged.  The process was repeated three or four times and the clock appeared to be operating properly.

The worksheet below outlining the last four minutes of the game was believed to be generated by the Massillon officials as they replayed the tape and prepared their response to OSHAA.  It shows a play by play account of the last four minutes of the game by displaying the start time, the time run off and the clock reading after the play.  It also describes what happened on the play and the yards gained or lost.  What is of tremendous significance is the red OK on the left edge of the worksheet.  Then trace across the line with the red OK to the right edge.  The pencil lead colored notes on the right edge justify the clock readings after the play in question.  The notes read “TAPE”, “CAK” and “POWELL”.  The term TAPE refers to the rebroadcast from WHBC, the term CAK refers to Massillon’s statistician Chuck Koch and POWELL refers to the Massillon Evening Independent’s sport writer Charlie Powell’s article on the game.  These three sources verify that the times are an accurate account of what is displayed on the worksheet.

The first question to consider: why didn’t the Warren coaching staff bring the clock malfunction to the attention of the referees when it occurred rather than wait until the game was over?  Either the Warren coaches were asleep at the switch or the clock had operated correctly.  Were they not paying attention to the clock with one minute left in the game and Massillon driving for the winning score?  The clock was probably the focus of everyone in the stadium at that time.

Let’s be clear.  No Warren official claimed that the clock was purposely configured to add an extra minute.  Again, how can someone reconfigure the clock without the Warren coaches observing the clock altering process?  Surely someone would have noticed if Mr. Archibald had purposely tried to add a minute.  No one did.

There is one possibility that cannot be proved or disproved.  It is possible that the clock went from 1:00 minute to 1:59 and then immediately corrected itself.  This may have occurred, but regardless it did not alter the timing of the game and no extra minute was added as some claimed.

The loss knocked Warren out of contention for the 1957 state championship, which was awarded to Cleveland Benedictine based on their victory over the Tigers and their 9-0 season record.

In conclusion, the evidence overwhelmingly supports that claim that the clock kept an accurate account of the time and no extra minute was granted to the Tigers.  The scoreboard and clock mechanism were state of the art equipment for the 1950s and ran accurately during the post-game trials.  The worksheet breaks down the final four minutes in detail and is supported by multiple sources.  The WHBC broadcast combined with the clock rerun proved that the clock had accurately kept the time of the game.  OHSAA investigated Warren’s claim and found in favor of the Tigers.  With little or no evidence to the contrary it becomes obvious that the clock at Tiger Stadium performed accurately in timing the game that night.

Obie Logo (Large) History

Five Former Tigers Take the Next Step

February is the time of year when football players from around the country determine if college football is in their future.  And this is no exception in Massillon, where five former Tigers, with much help from head coach Nate Moore, have determined their future endeavors.  They are:

  • Anthony Ballard, 5′-8″, 153 lb. cornerback, 3-year starter.  Committed to Division II Notre Dame of Cleveland.
  • Ty Keirns, 6′-5″, 231 lb. defensive lineman, 2-year starter.  Committed to Division II Ohio Dominican, which is located in Columbus, Ohio.
  • Lucas McGuire, 6′-2″, 272 lb. offensive lineman, 2-year starter.  Committed to Division II Fairmont State, which is located in Fairmont, West Virginia.
  • Austin Kutscher, 6′-1″, 180 lb. wide receiver, 2-year starter.  Committed to The Ohio State University.
  • Gaige Hodgson, 6′-10″, 160 lb. kicker.  Enlisted in the United States Air Force.

The Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club congratulates these fine players and wishes them success in all their future activities.

2018 Signees: Anthony Ballard, Ty Keirns, Lucas McGuire, Austin Kutscher and Gaige Hodgson.
Steve Studer Massillon Strength Coach History

An Interview with Steve Studer

A look back at a 2001 interview with the “muscle man.”

Steve Studer may no longer be with us in person (he passed away in February 2004), but his legacy as a sports fixture at WHS and the Massillon community will not be forgotten.  Very much a family man, he was also highly devoted to students of the school, motivating them to succeed in life through weight training and inspiration.  What made the program a success was his high energy level and passion to succeed, attributes that will not soon be replaced.  In 2001 I had the pleasure of talking with Coach Stu about the Massillon High School weight program.  Here is that interview.

A 2-year varsity football player for Massillon, Studer was the starting center on the 1970 state championship team that also featured Tiger greats Dennis Franklin, Steve Luke, Mike Mauger, Larry Harper, Tim Ridgley, Willie Spencer and Tom Hannon. He also played in 1971, before becoming the starting center for the Bowling Green Falcons. After college he had a couple tryouts with professional football teams, but eventually landed a position as strength and conditioning coach/phys-ed teacher at Massillon High School.

“Our weight room is 55’ by 70’,” said Studer.  “It’s the same size as the weight room we had at the old high school. When we built the new high school we patterned it after the old one. It pretty much consists of free weights.

“Our core lifts are the squat, the clean, the bench press, and the dead lift. The machines that we have in the weight room are pretty much hammer-strength machines and it’s all top of the line equipment. It’s the same equipment that they use at Michigan, Notre Dame, and a lot of the NFL teams.

“We really compare the weight room to a lot of Division 1 colleges. There’s going to be your Tennessees, your Nebraskas, and your Michigan States where they have a better facility than this. I would compare this to any MAC school.

“We get a lot done in here and every year I work with a good 200 kids that pass through this weight room, at least four days a week. We’re pretty proud of it and right now as you take the pictures it looks very clean and we keep it that way because we take good care of it.

“But, believe me, we use it, and in the evenings it’s a pretty gross picture in here as far as the way it smells and when I’m carrying buckets out of here. It reminds you of a Rocky movie when you see the kids in here training.”

If I recall, you won the Mr. Ohio contest a couple of times.

When I was in college in the 70s is really when weight training took off and it got started in Nebraska and everybody was trying to emulate as much as possible what they were doing. And I know that’s what we did at Bowling Green.

After college football and after trying out with the Chicago Bears and trying out with the USFL, I wasn’t ready to stop my competitive juices. I got into powerlifting for about five years and competed at that level and then got into some body buildings and physique for about five years and then it was after that I started coaching.

I had my own private gym where I had about 10-12 kids here from Massillon: the Spielman brothers, Johnny Miller, Jared Vance, Darrell Strickland. A really nice group of guys. We trained in my own private place. I didn’t make a penny doing it. I did it for the love of doing it. And that’s kind of when John Moronto had taken me in here.

Tell me a little bit about your background as coach of the strength program. 

Actually I started here underJohn Moronto (1985-87 football coach) at the old high school. As I started it was an after school thing. I actually worked for my father as a sign painter. At 3:00 when the school let out I would go to the old high school and the weight room down there and work out the team. I did that four days per week.

Then when Lee Owens (1988-91 football coach) came here and we actually started this as a class. I was hired here at the high school full time and left my father at the sign shop to come up here. It’s really my first love. I love being here because I love working with the kids and it’s not just football here with me.

I train every sport. And a lot of our football players do play other sports. It adds up to about 200 kids a year that I train. I enjoy it because it’s my alma mater and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I don’t think I’d like to be anywhere else. I’m happy. I enjoy coming to work and when you look forward to coming to work each morning it’s pretty good.

Each sport I’m sure has a different weight training program. How do you address that?

There are some things that we do. For instance, there are some things that we do differently for a baseball player than you would for a wrestler. But, pretty much the lifts that we do in this room are specifically to make kids stronger on the basketball court, like make them jump higher or enable them to shoot for a takedown in wrestling. And you come off the ball as an offensive lineman or make a big hit as a linebacker. And all the things we do are predicated to make kids jump higher, ran faster, be more explosive.

And a lot of things we do are things that are on our feet, like squatting and cleaning and dead lifting and lunging. Those things develop the center of the body, the hips, thighs, and lower back and we do a lot of work on our stomachs. And those are all the areas that make you faster and make you more athletic.

The days of having a lot of guys out there on the football field with big bellies are gone. It’s not what we’re looking for now. We want the kids to be able to move. Speed is the name of the game, but you have to have the strength in there, too. And you have to do things that are going to help prevent injury. You want to work the joints, especially the whole knee capsule. If a kid does get hurt and he would have to have surgery, he comes back from that surgery because he’s built that area up. Maybe, a lot of times, you’ll see kids that get hurt and because they’ve built those areas up they don’t need the surgery. And that’s what it’s all about there.

Describe the kids’ mental approaches to lifting?

We like to see that they all have the same approach and that approach would be to come in here and improve every time you walk in the place. That’s the attitude. And it’s one of the reasons why right now in the wintertime we try to get every football player.

Right now we have every football player not involved in a winter sport lifting together in this room as a team. The leadership kind of spreads throughout it because it’s a tough thing to do, and we want it to be tough, but we want that team unity to be formed out of it. That’s really the thing we are trying to accomplish right now.

Do you get many girls involved in the program?

We have two girls’ classes that I don’t teach. Barb Heigl is the phys-ed teacher who runs the two girls classes. As far as the classes go, I have six classes throughout the day with 25 kids in each class and then I’ve got the group that works out here after school. It depends on what time of the year and what phase we’re in, but this room gets used all year round. I take two weeks off in the summer and I’m still here in the summer keeping the place open for the guys.

That’s kind of my little pet peeve. Because, if you would have seen it last night when I was carrying the puke buckets out of here and the floor was full of sweat. Then what happens is I come in here at 5:00 am and I take an hour and a half or two hours scrubbing this place down. I’ve been doing it for ten years since this building was built. I don’t let the janitors in the room. I take care of it myself because I’m proud of it and the way I look at it is this is my classroom. I think when people come around and they look at the school and they walk in the weight room and see that it’s well kept, it’s just a pride thing.

The Lift-a-thon is coming up this Saturday at 10:00 am, so tell me a little about that event.

We always raise money every year and the kids vote on what they want to buy new and we always get a new piece of equipment or maybe some new rubber to put down on the floor or some more bars, whatever we need. It’s taken us 15 years to build this place up to what you see right now and I’m a big stickler of taking care of it.

We’ve raised all this money, not one tax dollar. Down to the lightest plate in here, it’s all raised through lift-a-thons since I’ve been here through John Moronto. Some people might think I’m crazy. ‘There’s Stu at 5:00 in the morning sweeping and mopping the weight room. And he takes better care of the weight room than he does his own house.’ I admit it, but that’s just the way it is.

The Lift-a-thon is how we end up the winter conditioning. Our off-season program this year has gone from January 4 to March 3. It’s a very intense time of the year. Just because we have the Lift-a-thon to close it up doesn’t mean we stop. It just means we go on to track season, maybe some different style of lifting during that time. The Lift-a-thon is a big test week. We’ll test on things during the week, especially speed. We’ll test on the 20, the 40, the pro-agility, the 60-yard shuttle; we’ll test on those things. And we’ll test on the clean and the squat at the Lift-a-thon. I kind of like to make it like a weight lifting meet, where I hand out medals, weigh them in. They all come in at different weight classes.

We have a record board up here on the wall and the kids try and break records. We started the record board in ’91, so the record board’s now ten years old. And it’s harder and harder to get up there on that board every year. We still have a couple ‘91s up there. But, they shoot for those kinds of goals at the Lift-a-thon. It gets intense and they all get to go out and raise a little money and at the end of it we add all the money up and figure out what we want to do for the weight room.

Thanks, Coach Stu.

News

Tiger Fundraiser at Smoke The Burger Joint

Smoke The Burger Joint has generously offered to host a fundraiser for the Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club.  The event will be held at the Massillon restaurant (15 Tommy Henrich Drive NW) on Thursday, February 22, 2018, from 4:00 pm to 8:00.  Fifty percent of the proceeds during the sale event will be donated to the Booster Club, which helps support the Tiger football program with items such as post-game meals and training equipment.  Be sure to come and bring all your friends and relatives.

News

Massillon Perry Returns to Division 2 for the 2018…

Perry’s foray into the ranks of Division 1 for the post-season playoffs turned out to be a brief one year.  Next season the Panthers will return to Division 2, most likely aligned with the Massillon Tigers in Region 7.  Starting with last year’s introduction of competitive balance by the Ohio High School Athletic Association, team assignments are now made annually rather than every other year.  The reassignment must be welcome news for the Perry camp, which qualified for the playoffs last year with a fine 9-1 record only to lose 24-7 to Cleveland St. Ignatius in the first round.  In each of the two previous years the Panthers advanced to the Division 2 state finals, losing both times to Cincinnati LaSalle.

Several schools have vacated Division 2 due to changes in effective enrollment, but they are being replaced by Perry and the following:

  • Cuyahoga Falls (dropping from Division 1)
  • Maple Heights (moving up from Division 3)
  • Toledo Central Catholic (moving up from Division 4 due to a high number of transfers; note that the OHSAA has rescinded the one-division restriction)
  • Dover (moving up from Division 3)
  • Tri-Valley (returning to Division 2 from Division 3)

Given these changes, and if the OHSAA continues with the current assignment scheme, Region 5 will have 28 members, Region 6 will have 26 members, Region 7 will have 30 members and Region 8 will have 23 members.  To balance out the regions, expect the OHSAA to reassign some of the teams in Region 7 to Region 8.

Notes:

  • Perry has the highest effective enrollment in Division 2 with 617 (adder of 6)
  • Massillon is ranked 18th out of 107 schools with an effective enrollment of 550 (adder of 50, which is the highest adder of all D2 public schools)
  • Tri-Valley and Dover were both moved up to D2 on account of the adder.
  • 23 schools have zero adder.
  • The average adder among public schools that have a adders is 10.
  • Parochial school adders are as follows: Toledo Central (200), Cleveland Benedictine (169), Cincinnati LaSalle (137), Akron Hoban (136), Toledo St. Francis (134), Walsh Jesuit (114), Columbus St. Charles (99) and Toledo St. John’s (97).
  • Toledo Central’s adder of 200 increased their base enrollment by 85%, which is by far the highest percentage increase of all schools in the state.
  • Regions 5, 6 and 8 each have at least one significant parochial school member.,
History

Victory Bell Gets a New Paint Job

The “Victory Bell” has been repainted to reflect the final score of Massillon’s recent encounter with Canton McKinley. The Bell is awarded annually to the winner of the Massillon-McKinley regular season game, of which the Tigers have won five of the last seven.  The recent win was also the inaugural game against the Bulldogs in the new Tom Benson Stadium.

Victory Bell 2017

The Bell was originally a component of Locomotive Engine No. 922, which was owned by the Wheeling and Lake Erie District of the Nickel Plate Railroad.  In 1957, after 2,000,000 miles of service, the engine was retired and the bell was then donated to Massillon and McKinley as a trophy going to the winner of the annual rivalry game.

Massillon won that first contest 25-7 and kept the Bell for nine consecutive years before the Bulldogs finally had a chance to see it in 1966.  Overall, the Tigers have claimed ownership 37 times compared to McKinley’s 24.  However, after those first nine games, the series record has been fairly even with neither team keeping it for more than four years.  This is the mark of a healthy rivalry.

 

 

 

 

Tiger Celebrate by Retaining the Victory Bell