Richard Immel

“Unbelievable” is the only word that describes the 1962 Tiger season. Inexperience and injuries would dominate the entire season. Only six lettermen, including 3 starters, returned from the 1961 team. Two of these returning lettermen would be lost prior to the start of fall practice – one due to heart surgery and the other to a train accident. During the season, injuries were so rampant that one week Coach Strang lost the entire left side of his offensive line and his starting backfield. However, this Tiger team showed grit and had a winning season. The final game of the season gave Coach Leo Strang his 100th career victory when the Tigers defeated Canton Lincoln 35-16. Lincoln replaced Canton McKinley on the schedule after McKinley was suspended for the 1962 season by the OHSAA.

A crowd of 625, the largest ever to attend a banquet at the WHS cafeteria, braved 10 inches of snow and 35 MPH winds to honor the Tigers and hear Woody Hayes speak. It’s an old cliché, but “Coach Hayes was just what the doctor ordered”. He drew a big laugh when he said, “Who would have ever thought that the Cleveland Browns, Ohio State and Massillon would go down the drain in the same year.”Coach Hayes and I. W. Snyder, WHS principal, both applauded the large crowd that turned out to honor a 6-5-0 team. They reminded the players not to forget this support. President Dick Immel and his fellow officers did a super job in a difficult year.