1942: Massillon 40, Lincoln, NE 6

GREAT BLOCKING BEATS LINCOLN

Ball Carriers Given As Fine An Exhibition Of Downfield Blocking As Has Ever Been Seen Here; 15,819 Fans Stand Up and Cheer

By Luther Emery

Ox cannot lick Tiger.

This was proved convincingly to 15,819 fans who saw the Washington high Tigers outspeed and outfight a heavier Lincoln, Neb., high school team here Friday evening to extend their undefeated string of games to 46 with a rousing 40-6 victory.

There was fear in more than one Massillonian’s heart when the towering Lincoln players took the field, packing from eight to 10 more pounds per player than the Tigers.

Speed Excells Weight

The fears were justified in the first period, when Lincoln covered a Massillon fumble inside the 30-yard line and charged back after being stopped once, to score on a well executed forward pass that had the Tigers trailing 6-0 at the end of the quarter.

Then lightning struck with the suddenness of the jungle cat and it was evident to all that the superior speed and fight of the Massillonians could more than offset the weight advantage held by the visitors.

The Tigers were mad and even that isn’t saying it. Any fan who thought they might fold, folded under his own astonishment when the locals grabbed the kickoff following the Lincoln touchdown and in three running plays, tied the score at 6-6. Keve Bray lugged the leather over in a jaunt to the sidelines then a reverse of his field for 30 yards, on the opening play of the second period.

Holt was thrown back when he tried to lug the ball over for the extra point, but it mattered not as the final score shows, and the Nebraskans might well have turned to corn huskin’ the rest of the game as far as football was concerned.

The Lincoln defense collapsed completely after the touchdown and it was one steady parade of touchdowns through the heralded Nebraska forward wall from there on in.

Lead of 20-6 At Half

The Tigers drove 58 yards for another the next time they got the ball, with Chuck Holt bouncing over for the last six inches. Then came the third and final Massillon touchdown of the half, an 85-yard return of an intercepted Lincoln pass by halfback, Bob Graber. Brother, you can watch the ball carriers, our eyes are on the blockers from now on in.

Members of the Tiger team convoyed Graber, those 85 yards just like Uncle Sam protects his transports. All Bob had to do was run down the side line, and run he did. One tackler came after him just as he intercepted the ball. Wham, and Keve Bray removed him from his path. Fifteen yards down the sidelines, another Lincoln tackler boomed in, you could hear the thud in the stands when Tom Jasinski knocked him out of the play. Graber found another tackler awaiting him at the 50-yard stripe. Chuck Holt almost cut him in two. At the 35-yard line the last Lincoln player cut across the field to make the tackle. Bob was running a straight line, three feet in from the sidelines. He slowed up a bit, when up came Bob Wallace with a leveler that gave Graber a clear path the rest of the way. The stands roared for once the blockers were getting the same share of glory as a ball carrier. Old high school players who were stars in their day, like “Swig” Thomas bounced right out of their seats. “Never saw anything like it.”

Graber’s Run Is Longest

Massillon’s mighty Tigers, state title claimants the last seven years continued to prowl with a 40 to 6 win over Nebraska’s state champs from Lincoln – the 46th straight game without defeat for the Stark county powerhouse. Bob Graber, Massillon back, intercepted a pass and raced 80 yards for the week’s longest touchdown run.

It was a clear out demonstration of what good, hard blocking can do.

In fact the Tiger offense began to improve just as soon as Fred Cardinal, their regular blocker, got into the game. Dallas Power started in his place and did just as good as could be expected, considering that he has worked most of the time with the backs of the second team, and was not sufficiently timed with the first team backs. His blocking showed to better advantage when he was working with the second team than when he was on the first string eleven, and he laid some beauties into his opponents.

The 85-yard touchdown run by Graber, gave the Tigers a comfortable 20-6 lead at the end of the first half and fans leaned back in their seats the last two periods to enjoy the game with greater assurance of victory.

Lincoln Flashed “T”

Lincoln shot the works, forwards off laterals, spinners, and sneakers off the “T” formation, but the visitors lacked the speed to cope with the local eleven. Their best weapon was the forward pass and they had a fine thrower in Gene Kirkendall, who completed five throws for 87-yards, but his team lost more yards than it gained on running plays and as a result showed but two first downs in the summary, one in each half, against the Tigers 18 first downs, nine in each half.

The Tigers gained 380 yards by rushing, only lost one yard, and completed two passes for gains of 36 yards. They completed another for a touchdown but it was not allowed because Don Willmott, the receiver, was offside on the play.

To the spectator, the game was far better than the 40-6 score would indicate. The powerful first quarter, alone paid its dividends in interest and enthusiasm and the band show at the half would be a cinch in Madison Square Garden.

To the Massillon fan, the Tiger football team has doubled in improvements with each succeeding game, and in the opinion of Coach Elwood Kammer, it will have to double again in order to take the measure of Alliance high next Friday evening. Kammer trying to conceal his joy of victory after the game, got his players into a huddle and reminded them that a Youngstown newspaperman last week picked Alliance to win the Stark county championship this year.

At the other end of the stadium, in the Lincoln dressing room, players and coaches were trying to figure out what had happened. “We don’t know,” one of the players remarked, and he was sporting about it.

No Alibi For Defeat

Noticing his disappointment, we ventured the suggestion that it isn’t easy to ride all night in a railroad coach and play football the next day.

“No, that didn’t have anything to do with it,” the game youngsters replied, “we are not going to use that for an alibi, we were beaten good, and that’s all there is to it. But we didn’t quit, did we? I know I didn’t,” and the abrasions on his nose, forehead, and cheek certainly testified to that.

The visitors were sporting about the whole affair, and admitted that this venture into Ohio football, was considerably different from the two occasions years ago, when they knocked Toledo Waite loose from the Ohio pedestal when the Maumee gridders were ruling the Buckeye football throne.

The whole story seems to be that the Massillon eleven last night actually showed the type of football it is capable of playing. The Links, with a big, strong and heavier forward wall, thought they could stop the Tiger running attack with a six-man line, so they deployed five men in the secondary in 2-2-1 fashion to guard against passes. The latter worked fairly successful, but the six-man line wasn’t equal to the task as was clearly demonstrated when the Tigers roared back in three plays after the Lincoln touchdown to tie the score. Occasional passes were thrown, and even though only two of them worked, they were effective from a strategic standpoint in that they forced the Lincoln secondary to stay back, and thereby opened the way for the running attack.

The Tigers were in a hole most of the first period, and though they pulled themselves out, a bad punt or a bit of bad judgment got them in again and helped to open the way for Lincoln’s touchdown.

On the second play of the game, Holt fumbled and Bob Patton of Lincoln flopped on the ball on the Tiger 32. You could almost get a ping out of the tense anxiety in the stands, but on fourth down, Graber ended the threat when he snared on of Kirkendall’s passes on the 17-yard stripe.

Lincoln Scores First

Then and there Lincoln showed signs of not being any too strong defensively, for the Tigers marched up the field to the Lincoln 43. Then with fourth down coming up and a yard needed for a first down, Graber punted and the ball slanted off his foot and out of bounds on the 35-yard line. The Links gained 10 yards on an exchange of punts and got the ball on their 45. They went to work and made Massillon hearts sink as they moved deeper and deeper into Tiger territory. Kirkendall worked a pass to Roger O’Donnell for a first down on the Tiger 35-yard line, but three more downs only gained five yards and it was fourth down and five to go. Everybody in the park seemed to know a forward pass was coming and so did the Tigers, but this fellow O’Donnell has the fightin’ Irish in his blood and he took off over the heads of the Massillon secondary to pull in the leather and stiff arm one-two-three tacklers before going over the goal in a heap. He went down in a thud with a Massillon player on top of him, but there’s no denying he made it and everybody in the stands asked the same question, “Is this the night!”

They felt a little better when Patton’s attempted kick for the extra point was wide of the upright for they saw the possibility of a 7-6 defeat removed, but still neither team had been thoroughly tested and it was only the first period.

Coach Kammer was concerned too, for he sent Cardinal, his first string blocker, into the lineup, to muster all the strength possible for this next thrust.

Maybe the Tigers didn’t need Cardinal. Maybe they could have done it without him, but what followed was legalized mayhem on the football field.

Cardinal got the kickoff and went back 20 yards to his 36. Holt’s blockers exploded a bomb in the middle of the Lincoln line and he raced to the visitors 46, a dash of 18 yards. Graber tried to pass but it didn’t connect, so he turned again to the running attack. This time he carried the ball and went 16 yards to he Lincoln 30. There the quarter ended.

Bray Ties It Up

Now it was Keve Bray’s turn to show what he could do and did he do it? He came around left end like the Broadway limited and cut back through the middle of the field to go over with room to spare, a 30-yard run that tied the score. An attempt to plunge the ball over failed.

The Tiger defense bristled and stopped Lincoln after the kickoff with a one-yard gain in three plays. Kirkendall kicked to the Massillon 42, and the Tigers were on the loose again. Holt banged to the Lincoln 34 and Graber, almost stopped twice, ran to a first down on the Lincoln 34. Thus in five running plays the Tigers had made four first downs and a touchdown.

Graber pitched to Willmot for what looked like a touchdown but Willmot got a head start on the ball and was offside, so Graber turned around and threw it to Bray for a first down on the 19.

Holt and Bray put the leather on the six-inch line and Holt carried it over, for the touchdown and Cardinal for the extra point.

The two teams took turns intercepting passes after that, but Graber got in the last lick on the brilliant 85-yard dash you have already been told about.

Just to show they had no intention of letting up, the bloodthirsty Tigers scored the first time they got their hands on the ball in the third period. Lincoln received the kickoff, and failing to make more than five yards, punted to Graber who came back to his 33. Graber and Holt smashed for 12 and a 20-yard pass to Jasinski, placed the leather on the Lincoln 38. Graber and Cardinal carried to the 22 and the whole left side of the Lincoln line was torn apart as Graber circled right end for the touchdown. Holt kicked the extra point.

Tiger substitutes were steaming into the game the rest of the way as they made two touchdowns. They marched 58 yards with Gibson and Henry Mastriann doing most of the lugging. The latter plunged over from the 12-yard line for the score. His attempted kick for the extra point was blocked, but Jasinski was on the alert, picked up the bouncing ball and lugged it over to hoist the score to 34-6.

The final touchdown came on another 53-yard drive, with Gibson running 15 yards to the 35, then 21 yards to the 10, nine yards to the one-yard line, where Romeo Pellegrini took it over.

Coach Kammer cleaned his bench of substitutes the last period, giving every boy an opportunity to play.

Game Statistics
Tigers Lincoln
Total First Downs 18 2
Yards Gained by Rushing 380 19
Yards Lost by Rushing 1 83
Net Yards Gained by Rushing 379 -64
Net Yards Gained by Passing (a) 36 87
Forward Passes Attempted 18 39
Forward Passes Completed 2 5
Passes Had Intercepted 3 6
Number of Punts 4 1
Average Distance of Punts (b) 34 42
Number of Kickoffs 8 2
Number of Fumbles 2 0
Times Ball Lost on Fumbles 1 0
Number of Penalties Against 2 6
Yards Lost By Penalties 20 45

Great Victory

Massillon Pos. Lincoln
Willmot le Kremarik
Edwards lt McKay
R. Wallace lg Means
B. Wallace c Galter
Weisgarber rg Lee
Paulik rt Patton
Jasinski re Fox
Power qb O’Donnell
Graber lh Kirkendall
Bray rh Valencia
Holt fb Glenn

Score by periods:
Massillon 0 20 7 13 – 40
Lincoln 6 0 0 0 – 6

Substitutions – Massillon: Cardinal, qb; Yelic,rt; Kanney, lg; Pellegrini, lh; Gibson, rh; Mastriann, fb; Williams, c; Oberlin, le; Gable, re; Tongas, lg; Schuler, rg; Berger, lt; Fulton, rh; Turkall, lh; Profant, c; Bamberger, re; Adams, qb; Kiefer, fb; Keller, le;l Richards, lg; Cicchinelli, rg; Luke, le; Parsetti, lh; Belch, rt; Ilsch, lt.
Lincoln: Becker, rt; Epp, lt; Jacobsen, rh; M. McDermott, re; J. McDermott, lh; Mulder, rg.

Touchdowns – Bray, Graber 2, Holt, Mastriann, Pellegrini, O’Donnell.

Points after touchdown – Holt 2 (kick and plunge), Jasinski (carried), Cardinal (carried).

Referee – Lobach.
Umpire – Graf.
Headlineman – Rupp.
Field judge – Long.

The Greatest Show On Earth! That’s Massillon Grid Extravaganza

By Jeff Schlemmer

You will pardon, I hope, the many rave notices on Massillon high school football which appear on these pages.

There is one real reason for them. The Massillon Tigers and the Tiger band make up the greatest football show in this part of the country, and until there is evidence to the contrary, the greatest football show in the nation.

This great spectacle is coming to an end, of course. All such spectacles are nearing the end for the duration. I fully believe I am doing Akronites a favor by urging that they see the Massillon show at least once before the season’s end.

The diminutive Tiger gridders who beat the Lincoln Neb. giant Links Friday night 40-6 represented the best coordinated, most precise ball club seen around these parts in years.

Forty-six games have gone into the books since Massillon last lost. That defeat was by new Castle in 1937. No Ohio team has beaten the Tigers since 1934. And this is 1942!

Elwood Kammer is the third head coach the Tigers have had in three years. Paul Brown was the originating wizard behind the “Massillon system.” When he went to Ohio State, Bud Houghton took over and became the “miracle man of 1941” with he undefeated team.

Now comes Kammer up from the junior high level to head the Tiger football squad and in three games he has proved to the most critical fans that this year’s team, lacking big name stars, is playing better football than its predecessors for as far back as memory can be stretched.

Long ago we exhausted our supply of superlatives in describing George “Red” Bird’s band. To go into that subject now would only be to say the greatest tribute paid it is that other high school bands try to copy its every move and every feature…and none comes close.

A new feature was added Friday night when the G.A.B.S. made their debut. The G.A.B.S. are the girls’ auxiliary band salesmen corps, a group of 80 brilliantly uniformed girls from Washington high school, 79 of whom have a father or brother in the armed forces. The 80th had a brother in the service. He was killed.

Directed by Bernadine Bell, a teacher in the high school, with Norma Ackley as commander and Caroline Smith as vice commander, these girls sold stamps and war bonds to Friday’s crowd after having been beautifully introduced in conjunction with the band show.

What was the result? Well, they took only $1,200 in stamps to the stadium . They sold all $1,200 worth in a few minutes. In addition they sold $500 in bonds, without really emphasizing bond sales.

This was their first attempt. The G.A.B.S. will be a regular feature at the Massillon football show for the duration. Who can say this isn’t worthwhile?