Order Form
Book Website
Book Cover

Excerpts
Paul Brown
Obie

In Massillon, everyone's a Tiger.

It's hard to estimate how many games were won during the opponent's bus ride through downtown Massillon. Driving down Lincoln Way, the town's main thoroughfare, opposing players see the orange and black flags that line the street. A series of road signs that point the way to Tiger Stadium give visitors the feeling that football is "big time" in this town.

Virtually every store window proudly displays an oversized Massillon football schedule and a sign urging the Tigers to victory. An award-winning football mural adorns the side of a downtown building. A huge downtown sign elegantly displays the season schedule.

Two miles from the stadium you begin to encounter traffic. Are all the people going to the football game?

Approaching the stadium, it's a circus atmospher. Policemen directing traffic. A sea of orange-clad fans blanket the landscape. There is electricity in the air. The Massillon community is doing its job.

"I played for them. I played for Massillon, for the town, consciously, not subconsciously. Hey, I didn't want this guy going home, or going to work at Superior's, thinking, 'Man, we shouldn't have lost.' I wanted to carry that burden for them and make them go to work happy. Make them proud to wear their Tiger stuff around."

Chris Spielman
Massillon: 2-time All-Ohioan, All-American,
USA Today Defensive Player of the Year, 1983
Ohio State: 2-time All-American,
Lombardi Award Winner, 1983
NFL: Detroit Lions, Buffalo Bills, Since 1988
Four Pro Bowls

- on his desire to play for the people of Massillon.

"The people were probably a little bit anxious, primarily because we didn't beat Canton."

Paul E. Brown
Massillon Quarterback, 1923-25
Championship Coach: Massillon Tigers,
Ohio State Buckeyes and Cleveland Browns
Coach of 14 Championship Teams
Founder of the Cincinnati Bengals

- on public pressure after he had lost to Canton twice.

"Football is bred in Massillonians. The native citizen has heard it talked from the time he opened his eyes in the cradle, and new residents have frequently been bored to tears with the boasts of the old guard until they, too, became convinced that there's something more than usual about the game as it is played here, when a whole community enters into the spirit of the thing."

Luther Emery
Legendary Massillon Sportswriter
Editor of The Independent

- on the Massillon commmunity.

"I talked to at least 100 people in all walks of life, and everyone talked about and praised one thing, the Tigers of Massillon High School, and I said to myself, 'Grant Murray, you are in the perfect high school city, perhaps the only one of its kind in the world."

Grant Murray
Vice President, Toledo School Board

- on a fall visit to Massillon in 1940.

"It's easy to see why Massillon might well be termed the 'high school football capital of the world.' Washington High and its gridiron Tigers are the big news here. They come first and the town's business and social life hinges around them."

Jack Senn, Toledo Times, 1940