My first blog is about the Panthers first win ever North Canton Hoover when I was a junior. Im not a writer, but jotted down some notes and put them all together the best I could from memory of a game 45 years ago... In the summer of 1969, the Perry football team was on a mission. We knew we had a good team, many starters back and a deep hunger to become Federal League Champions. There were no playoffs then so the brass ring was the league title. There was another hunger this team had, especially the seniors and it was to do something no other Perry team had done before....beat North Canton Hoover. For some strange reason Perry could beat teams Hoover lost to, but it had been 12 seasons of frustration for the Panthers. Many games looked like Perry would win, but in those games some type of turnover or bad luck would befall those teams and the Vikings would win. Some even thought there was a jinx. It was decided that anything we did, wed do extra for Hoover. During summer workouts, there was an extra 40 yard sprint, an extra set of lifts, an extra drill, you name it, we did an extra one dedicated to beating the Vikings. With all that said, we opened the season against Canton Timken. North Canton was week two. Two a days came and the scrimmages. We didnt play well against Central in our final scrimmage, which ended in a tie. That resulted in a full pad practice later that Saturday afternoon, which wasnt pleasant. We beat Timken somewhat unimpressively 19-0. To say we were looking ahead was a probably an understatement, but we had such a talented, hard working group, it didnt bite us in the butt. Things I will never forget about the week of the Hoover game was how intense the practices were and how emotional we got as each day passed, building up to that Friday. There were two pep rallies that day, one in the morning after Homeroom and one the last period of the day. The students were really into it. You could barely walk down the main hallway for signs, streamers and balloons hanging from every conceivable spot. They sensed something good was imminent. We got to Memorial Stadium and did our traditional walk around the home teams field in our street clothes after we got off the bus. We had a timetable on when we had to get dressed, some down time, position meetings, team meeting, special teams on the field and everyone out for Cals. Once we hit the locker room everyone got dressed immediately. During our down time where we were required to sit down either by ourselves or with our buds and gather our thoughts. The coaches would come around and talk to each of us briefly, saying encouraging things and shake our hands. When the on the field pre game was over, we went back to the locker room for some final thoughts from the Captains, seniors and any other players who wished to speak. Not to mention the coaches, who also had pre game speeches. That night the coaches didnt have to say much. Thats because the Captains and some seniors spoke some of the most moving words Ive been ever heard before a game. The emotion was so thick in that room, you could have cut it with a knife. One of the Captains almost came to tears telling us how badly he wanted to win that game. Another reminded us of all the extra work wed done during the summer preparing us for this moment. By the time the speeches were done, all of us had goosebumps and the hair stood up on the back of my neck. We levitated out of that locker room. I knew we were going to win and we did, 22-16. It wasnt easy. North Canton played hard, as they usually do, but we were never behind and we imposed our will on them. Just as side note, it was the 13th meeting in the series and of course our mascot is a big black cat. Just a coincidence...maybe. The celebration on the field and locker room was epic and there were a few more watered eyes, but with happiness, joy and a feeling of great accomplishment. Speaking of epic, the bus ride home was that and some. Then an unexpected surprise, not only were our parents waiting, but many fans showed up to cheer us off the buses. Eight more games followed and we conquered every challenge. The Panthers went 10-0 and became the schools first undefeated team and outright Federal League Champs, finishing 13th in the final AP poll, falling from 9th after week 8, even though we never lost. Our head coach Tom Winkhart was voted Stark County Coach Of The Year and our running back Tim Laps was named a Stark County MVP. A great memory, one Ill never forget.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 21:20:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015