Massillon Tigers were an early professional football team from Massillon, Ohio.
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26 Facts About Massillon Tigers
1.
2.
The Tigers won Ohio League championships in 1903,1904,1905, and 1906, then merged to become "All-Massillons" to win another title in 1907.
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3.
Pro football was popularized in Ohio when the amateur Massillon Tigers hired four Pittsburgh pros to play in the season-ending game against Akron.
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4.
Massillon Tigers area had fielded several amateur football teams featuring only local players since the early 1890s.
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5.
However Massillon Tigers soon found itself in a troubling situation due to injuries to several of their star players.
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6.
However, after the Tigers began the 1904 season, many Massillonians were bored with the ease of the Tigers' wins, even at this early stage.
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7.
Marion never got another chance to handle the ball, as Massillon Tigers took kickoff after kickoff and moved down the field to touchdown after touchdown.
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8.
In fact the Bulldogs, or Canton Athletic Club as it was called at the time, formed their football team in 1905 with sole objective of beating the Massillon Tigers, who had won every Ohio League championship since 1903.
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9.
The only problem with Massillon Tigers's figures was that they only listed salaries, including railroad fare, at $6,740.
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10.
In 1906, the Bulldogs and Massillon Tigers were involved in a game-rigging scandal that effectively killed both teams.
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11.
However, in order to get the team fielded, Massillon Tigers planned to raid the Akron Indians roster of its key players.
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12.
Massillon Tigers did end up raiding the Indians team of their top players.
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13.
Massillon Tigers hired new ringers for a new bidding war with Canton, however Cusack signed the legendary Jim Thorpe to his squad.
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14.
The Massillon Tigers ended their 1915 season with a share of the 1915 championship with Canton.
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15.
One anonymous Massillon official revealed it had taken between $1,500 and $2,000 to bring in the Tigers lineup that opposed Canton in the final game, which included three players from Muhlenberg College, who had their college eligibility stripped when they were discovered.
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16.
Massillon Tigers rebirth, saw the team incorporate many of the top players of the era.
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17.
However, despite record crowds for two Bulldog-Tigers match-ups, Massillon lost money on the season, while Canton barely made a profit.
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18.
One reason for the disparity is that Massillon Tigers was smaller than Canton, meaning it had a smaller fan base to support its football team.
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19.
The Massillon Tigers had highly devoted following, however they weren't enough of them.
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20.
The only way to make the Massillon Tigers profitable was to use Peggy Parratt's old Akron scheme of bringing in just enough high-priced stars to win.
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21.
The Massillon Tigers had lost their first game with the Bulldogs by a larger margin and dropped two other games to lesser opponents.
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22.
Massillon Tigers had trouble with the increasing cost of players and would profit more by a salary cap than anyone else.
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23.
Maginnis' representative was not admitted to the meeting, however the Massillon Tigers were counted as present at the charter meeting of the NFL.
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24.
Hay, who'd tried to get a real Massillon Tigers team restarted, considered himself as their spokesman.
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25.
Once the meeting started, he stood up and announced that Massillon Tigers was withdrawing from professional football for the season of 1920.
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26.
Massillon Tigers is usually counted on a technicality: the team, under Hay, were there, they just never played in the new league.
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