I have often been told, (well, made fun of,) that I am guilty of living for the Massillon Tigers High School football team. I don’t live for them. I am alive because of them. And I’m just one Tiger fan among thousands. Massillon, Ohio is where football was born—me, too. The Massillon Tigers and the McKinley Bulldogs have the oldest rivalry in the country. They were the first 2 pro teams created and have now morphed into high school teams. They have played 130 times since 1894. (That isn’t a typo, I meant the actual 1800s.) I am a Massillon fan. McKinley is my sworn enemy. I don’t wear Red and Black ever, and I hardly even wear red at all. I wear, and bleed, Orange and Black only.
In 48 hours, the Massillon Tigers will have the chance to do something they have never done in their storied history. They can win a state championship on the football field. They have won 24 newspaper titles back in the days when sports writers picked the winning teams. The time before 1970. The time before me.
This Thursday, December 5th, they will play Cincinnati Lasalle in the Division 2 state championship game. This will be their 5th attempt to win at states on the field in the last 49 years. I have been at 4 of the 5 attempts. All have ended in losses. But this time…
I have been going to the games since as far as I can remember. My dad, mom, brother and I went and sat in Section 14, Row S, Seats 1-4. That started for me in the late 70s. My parents had those seats years before that. In the 80s, my brother stopped going and my first wife went with us. In the 90s, a McKinley fan sat behind us and started a fight with the people next to us. My mom never went to another game again.
When I had twins in the late 90s, my first wife stopped going and just my dad and I went. Once a year, we brought the twins for the first half and my wife took them home. In the late 2000s, my dad and I took both twins until just my son came with us. When I got divorced it was just dad and son till 2008 when my dad died. My son and I went together for a few years until my second wife started to come with us. We drive from Columbus every week. A 4-hour, round-trip drive back to my hometown to see the Tigers. We had to get extra seats so we could bring her kids too. That lasted 4 years until all the kids graduated from school, and then it was just my second wife and I. That has lasted up till 2019—this year. This year the Tigers have gone undefeated and earned a spot in the state championship game. This time?
I have asked my grown son to come back from Chicago to go to the game with us. My wife, my son and I will go—and watch—and see—if for the first time since I was on the planet they can win a state championship. For 49 years, I have ended each year experiencing a loss. Basically, 50 years of learning to deal with loss and then picking up and starting over with hope for another year. 49 years of starting over—and cheering—and supporting—and sitting in the same seat that my father sat in.
This year, we could end with a win. The town could win. The team could win. I could win. I would have to learn to live with being on the winning side. That will be something new.
I don’t live for the Tigers. I live because of them. When you grow up with something in your family since your birth, you don’t often discuss it with your family. The fact that I am at the games every Friday night is not something worth talking about with my mom. There is nowhere else I would be. In talking to her about the upcoming game, I learned a family fact that I never knew. In 1967, my dad placed a bet on the Massillon-McKinley game. The Tigers won 20-15. He took the money and bought an engagement ring. He asked my mom to marry him and she said, “Yes.” A year later my brother was born. 3 years later Massillon won their final “paper” state championship, and I was born. It’s been 49 years since then. Thursday is waiting. Massillon is waiting. Maybe somewhere my dad is waiting. My son, my wife and I will be there waiting. Believing. Cheering. Hoping. Supporting. Win or Lose, I know where I will be next year. Where I have always been: Section 14. Row S. Seats 1-4. Go Tigers.
Order the NEW book about the 2019 Massillon Tiger Football season written by David Lee Morgan, Jr.
Scott Ryan is the author of The Last Days of Letterman, thirtysomething at thirty and the upcoming book about Moonlighting. He is also the managing editor of The Blue Rose magazine and a co-founder of FMP publishing. He has written more about the Tigers in his ebook, Scott Luck Stories. Follow on Twitter:@scottluckstory
