Tiger Legacy: Stories of Massillon Football

Tiger Legacy: Stories of Massillon Football is a community storytelling project that includes images and first-person narratives of all those who contribute to the Massillon, Ohio, high school football experience: the players, the coaches and staff, the principal, members of the Tiger Swing Band, the cheerleaders, the Pep Club, the Orangeman, the Sideliners, the Touchdown Club, the Tiger Moms, the mayor, the season ticket holders, the orange and black-clad fans, and the beloved mascot, Obie, the live tiger cub. The story of Massillon football can be seen in the extraordinary ways that the community comes together to support its Tigers season after season, generation after generation.

Tiger Legacy is rooted in a more than one hundred-year history that traces back to the origins of the sport. While football was not created in Massillon, it took root there in ways that popularized the game. The rivalry between Massillon and the nearby Canton McKinley Bulldogs began in 1894 and is considered among the greatest high school football rivalries in the United States. Both teams are in the top ten nationally for total team victories, and historians believe the rivalry had a key role in the evolution of pro-football. The American Professional Football Association was formed in Canton, Ohio, in 1920 and a few years later, it would become the National Football League. In 1963, the Pro Football Hall of Fame was established in Canton.