'We're No. 1.' Massillon Tigers fans celebrate long-awaited championship

CANTON – Jon Ady, a Massillon Tigers wide receiver in 1993, drove 10 hours Thursday from North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to see his beloved football team play in the state championship game at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.

"I wouldn't miss this for anything. Massillon is the best place in the world," Ady, now a 47-year-old graphic designer for Coastal Carolina University, said during the game's first half. "This is the best team I've seen in decades. This team is amazing. ... If they win, downtown (Massillon) is going to go bananas."

His prediction was correct. Massillon won and downtown went bananas.

Reaction to decisive play

Akron Archbishop Hoban was trailing 7-2 with less than 90 seconds on the clock in the fourth quarter. Hoban was down to its final down.

"Come on! This is it! This is it!" a fan shouted in the section of the stands filled with Massillon Tigers supporters. Every Tigers fan appeared to be on their feet.

When Hoban quarterback Tylan Boykin's pass fell on the ground incomplete in the end zone, the Tigers fans erupted. One man on the concourse of the second level immediately jumped into the air, danced with joy and celebrated with his family. Then he hugged another Tigers fan that he didn't know.

With Hoban turning the ball over on downs, the Tigers ran out the clock and claimed their first state championship of the playoff era and their first state championship since 1970, when titles were decided by polls.

Related: Massillon Tigers fan Francis 'Frankie' Layfield: 'Hopefully, this (game) is the big one.'

"Oh my gosh! It's so awesome! Frigging awesome!" said Wendy Kernell, the aunt of Samuel Snodgrass, a lineman on Thursday's championship team. She's also the daughter of Wendell Snodgrass, a tackle on the 1959 Massillon Tiger championship team who died on May 19 at the age of 81.

Betty Young of Massillon waved her "Massillon Against the World Beat Hoban" sign.

"We're No. 1. I knew it from the very beginning of the year," she said.

Downtown Massillon 'goes bananas'

Within 90 minutes, about eight miles from the stadium, motorists driving east and west on Lincoln Way East in downtown Massillon were loudly honking their horns. Fans were raising their arms, heads and bodies out of car windows in triumph, and waving Massillon Tigers flags.

A large crowd gathered by the city's Christmas tree at Duncan Plaza awaiting the return of their state champions. Massillon police and Stark County sheriff's deputies sought to keep the fans from spilling onto Lincoln Way East.

Shortly after 11 p.m., a black sheriff's SUV with Massillon Tigers stickers on it and its sirens blaring, driven by Stark County Sheriff George Maier, led a procession on Lincoln Way with buses filled with players and the 112 members of the Tigers marching band. Crowds cheered and hollered amid a crescendo of honking horns.

The players and band members disembarked from the buses and stood on or near the pavilion stage in the packed plaza amid a sea of orange and black.

Defensive end Chase Bond addressed the excited fans.

"I give everybody here, lifetime support and respect for everything you've done for us through all the years. All the energy," said Bond. "I love you guys. You give (to us) every game, every week. We love you guys. Go Massillon!"

Speaking to a cheering crowd, quarterback DaOne Owens shouted, "How about them Tigers! We love you all!"

The marching band then played the Washington High School alma mater as the fans sang the lyrics in unison and moved their hands as if they were playing the drums during one segment of the song.

"Oh, Alma Mater Massillon. We're true to thee!"

Fan: 'This is absolutely unique to Massillon.'

Jen Tarbet, 42, a third-grade teacher at Franklin Elementary School, said, "It's a little crazy."

She laughed.

"This is absolutely unique to Massillon," she said while hanging out at Duncan Plaza, adding that she didn't grow up in Massillon but has lived in the city for nine years. "It's our tradition. It's who we are as a community, everything."

Davin Wenzel, who was a linebacker for the Tigers from 2018 to 2020, waved a large Tigers flag in the plaza. He said while the team came up short of a championship while he played, he does not envy the current team.

"This is huge for the city of Massillon. We love to see this kind of thing. It brings the whole community together. We just love it," he said. "I loved watching them play all season long. ... I'm glad they did it for the city because we've been chipping at the ice year after year and they finally did it. I'm happy. I'm ecstatic."

Dave Leffler, 68, of New Franklin and a member of the Washington High School Class of 1973, was smoking a cigar at the plaza he had saved for the victory. He had kept the cigar in his car at the game. He was wearing a fake tiger skin over his head and shoulders.

After the Tigers had come up short of a championship in recent years, Leffler said he started feeling some doubt when Hoban was moving late in the fourth quarter for a touchdown.

"I was ready to have my heart broken," he said. "It's tough to beat those guys. They're a tough team."

Tradition through generations

During the game, fans talked about being tied to the Massillon Tigers tradition. Often through multiple generations. They may have had family members who had been on the football team. Or they were former players themselves. Or if they grew up elsewhere, they had enthusiastically adopted Massillon as their home.

Christine Haddox, a member of the Washington High Class of 1997, said she had attended every Massillon Tigers football game since she was 2 years old. Her father was a Tigers player in the late 1960s.

About the game, Haddox said, "I love it. It's very exciting."

Steve Snodgrass, the brother of Wendy Kernell, speaking in the first half said, "It's so special. I lost my father this year and he played on the 1959 championship team. He was No. 53. My son's on tonight's team. No. 53. I was 53. And it's been 53 years since we won our last title. If it's meant to be, this town is going to go nuts tonight."

Snodgrass waved a banner with the No. 53.

Stojan "Steve" Gagovski, 71, said he didn't attend Washington High School. He grew up in what was the former Yugoslavia and is now Macedonia. But he moved to Massillon in his early 20s in 1972 and became a steel foundry worker. When he dated a Massillon cheerleader, he began attending the football games and got hooked.

"Come on Tigers! Put the screw in," he shouted, wearing his Cleveland Browns jacket.

During the game, he started a Facetime conversation on his phone with an Albanian friend in Australia. And he showed him snippets of the game.

When Hoban's decisive pass late in the game went incomplete, Gagovski said, "Oh man, this is a good feeling you know. I waited this for how long."

Allen Davisson, 48, of Massillon said while more offense would have been nice, he's fine with the team coming away with the win with defensive dominance.

"It's the defense that wins the games. 7-2. We'll take it," he said. "I've been around a long time waiting for this."

Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com. X formerly known as Twitter: @rwangREP.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: Massillon Tigers fans celebrate beating Hoban, winning championship