If you start at 933 W 4th St. in Mansfield, Ohio, jump on U.S. Route 30 heading east, and traverse just under 60 miles of highway, you’ll find yourself at 1 Paul E Brown Dr. in Massillon.
Between these two addresses, there’s 59.3 miles of history that includes decades of pure, unadulterated hatred.
For those keeping track at home, the two locations previously referenced are Arlin Field, home of the Mansfield Senior Tygers, and Paul Brown Tiger Stadium, home of the Massillon Tigers. These two teams are among the most successful in the state and share one of the oldest rivalries in Ohio.
While it doesn’t have the same notoriety as some rivalries, it has a rich and deep history involving mascots, some weird spellings, and the original radio broadcaster.
Starting with Massillon, the football program’s history dates back to Grover Cleveland’s second term as president in 1894, when they played their first football game against Canton Central.
Washington High School has produced some of the most legendary names in the history of football, both collegiate and professional.
From names like former Ohio State Buckeyes, Detroit Lions, and Cleveland Browns linebacker Chris Spielman (‘84), to the founder of both the Browns and the Cincinnati Bengals, Paul Brown (‘25), the Tigers have produced some of the largest figures in the history of the sport.
Massillon has won 25 outright state titles, most recently in 2023, and nine national championships as designated by the AP, with the last one coming in 1961.
On the other end, Mansfield Senior has seen some great years of their own. While it’s hard to match up to one of the greatest high school programs in the U.S., the T-Y-Tygers have sent two players into the professional ranks and many others to play collegiately, including 1995 NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year, Hugh Douglas.
The Tygers’ home, Arlin Field, is one of the oldest stadiums in the state, being in use since 1947.
According to Richland County History, the name comes from Harold Arlin, an engineer from Illinois. While working for Westinghouse, an electric company based out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, he became the very first commercial radio broadcaster for KDKA in Pittsburgh.
He became known as the ‘voice of America,’ announcing the results of the 1920 presidential election as the station’s first ever radio broadcast, of which Republican Warren G. Harding was victorious.
Coincidentally, Harding was born in Blooming Grove, Ohio, an unincorporated township just 22 minutes from Mansfield.
The legend of Harold Arlin continued on Oct. 8, 1921, when he was the play-by-play broadcaster for a game between West Virginia University and the University of Pittsburgh.
It was the very first time a football game was broadcast live on the radio. He was also the voice behind the first-ever radio broadcasts of a baseball game, tennis match, and boxing match.
His career with Westinghouse took him to ‘The Fun Center of Ohio,’ also known as Mansfield, where he immediately took an interest in the student life at the high school, becoming a lead booster and the president of the school board. He was a key promoter of the students and the school activities.
Senior High also claims the 1949 state championship, with a banner hung inside the school. The only problem with that is Massillon ALSO claims the 1949 state title. The Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) says that Massillon is the true state champion, however, the two schools played each other that season, and Mansfield Senior won, 16-12.
More recently, under former Bowling Green defensive back Chioke Bradley, who set the Senior High record for wins in a career with 103 and took the Tygers to heights the program hadn’t seen in over a century, winning at least 10 games four times across his 15 years at the helm.
Bradley opened a pipeline from north-central Ohio to Bowling Green, helping get former Falcons like defensive tackle Anthony Hawkins to Northwest Ohio, as well as his son, Myles, who is currently an outside linebacker on the team and dons his father’s old number 23.
His daughter, Lacee Bethea, was a forward for Bowling Green women’s soccer under Jimmy Walker from 2020-23.
If you’re paying close attention, you may have noticed the discrepancy between the spelling of each school’s mascot, and that’s another reason why these two schools hold so much disdain for each other.
Back in the early 20th century, in the infancy of the feud, both Massillon and Mansfield Senior were known as the Tigers. While the true reason for the switch for Mansfield Senior is unclear, there are two frontrunners for the change from ‘T-I’ to ‘T-Y’
Legend has it that the Tigers and the then-Tigers had agreed to put some skin on one of their annual matchups in the early 1900s – winner got to keep the Tigers moniker. It would appear that Massillon got the better of Mansfield that year, forcing Senior High to adopt the ‘Y’ in their nickname.
In a 2015 interview with the Mansfield News Journal, former Mansfield Senior athletic director Skip Fulton said, “That is perhaps my favorite story. To be honest, I can’t believe any part of that because it’s been Tygers for as long as anyone can remember, but I always enjoy that story.”
The other (and more widely accepted) theory stems from a poem published in 1794 by William Blake called ‘The Tyger,’ which uses the Middle English spelling of the word and has a verse painted onto the gymnasium wall at Senior High:
Tyger! Tyger! Burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
So, what exactly ties these two schools together with Bowling Green besides the Bradley family?
Each school produced a recruit from BGSU head coach Scot Loeffler’s 2024 recruiting class.
Dorian Pringle is a redshirt freshman inside linebacker hailing from Washington High School and was one of the leading forces in helping the Tigers win their 25th state championship in 2023. As a senior, he had 70 total tackles, seven sacks, and 19.5 tackles for loss, earning Sports Illustrated’s National Defensive Player of the Year Award.
Elias Owens, an outside linebacker of the same grade, spent three seasons under Bradley’s tutelage at Mansfield Senior after transferring in from nearby Ontario High School as a sophomore. He starred as a tight end and defensive end for the Tygers, accumulating 47 tackles, three sacks, and 3.5 tackles for loss as a junior.
The two youngsters had the opportunity to revive the Tigers-Tygers rivalry in 2022 and 2023, the first time the schools had matched up since 2005.
“I knew it was going to be a pretty hard game, [Massillon] being top-ranked in the state,” Owens said. “Getting our name on the radar for Mansfield, playing them because they’re a top-ranked team. Playing at the time, that was probably the biggest game of my career in high school.”
Unfortunately for Owens, Pringle and the Tigers got the best of Mansfield in both meetings, with Massillon winning 33-0 in 2022 and 51-10 in 2023.
“The first year that I played them was my junior year. [When the rivalry] first started off, both teams were T-I-Tiger, and whoever won the game out of Mansfield and Massillon got to keep the ‘I,’ and Massillon won, so [Mansfield] had to switch to the ‘Y,” said Owens. “It was pretty fun though, playing against [Dorian Pringle], not really knowing him at the time. We got to know each other pretty well once we both committed to BG.”
In their 2023 meeting, Pringle carried the rock three times for seven yards and a touchdown and defensively had three tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss.
Owens had the better game, totaling seven tackles and a 15-yard interception return.
All said and done, Pringle has indisputable bragging rights over Owens, with Massillon beating Mansfield both meetings by a combined score of 84-10.
Owens says it’s all in the past; however, Pringle says there’s still some locker room talk.
“Yeah, there was a little talk in the locker room. We know we got Myles [Bradley], he played at Mansfield too, and we had [Hawkins] too, and they always played each other,” he said. “We always played them, so there was a little talk how they could never beat the real Tigers.”
In 2024, the pair didn’t see the field much. Pringle appeared in 12 games and had two tackles in the Falcons’ season opener against Fordham. Owens, on the other hand, didn’t see any time on the gridiron.
With the departures in the 2024 offseason – 23 seniors and eight transfers (16 on the defensive side of the ball) – the pair will likely see an increase in playing time.
“As a young team, I feel like we’re going to get it done. The young players have to step up, and I feel like we’ll end up doing what we need to do to win,” Pringle said.
No matter the circumstance, the duo says they’ll be ready for whatever comes their way in 2025.
“Really just staying focused and holding our team accountable,” said Owens. “My job that I’m really trying to focus on is being a better person and player on and off the field.”
The team will be starting almost entirely fresh, with nine of 11 defensive starters and every starter on the Falcons’ front seven either on a new team or preparing for the 2025 NFL Draft in April.
While the team addressed some of these positions through the transfer portal (linebackers Gideon Lampron and Iosefa Saipaia, defensive linemen Marcus Moore Jr. and Collins Acheampong), the pair have a one-year head start on BG’s system run by co-defensive coordinators Steve Morrison and Sammy Lawanson.
The latter of the two was the one who convinced Owens to stay in the 419 and come to Bowling Green.
“One of the main reasons why I really came here was the coach, [Sammy] Lawanson. He was really the coach that called me every day, he just wanted me to be here,” Owens said. “And then Chioke [Bradley], him coming here, we came up to a few practices, he showed me around the city. I felt at home, not really too far from home. So I thought BG was going to be a good place for me.”
For Pringle, he’s proud to represent the city and the tradition of Massillon.
“It means a lot because that’s home to me. Everybody in the town, they make it feel like every time we go back, we’re welcome any place there, any store,” he said. “It just feels good to represent Massillon at BG, knowing all the great people that came out of Massillon; the great sponsors, the great support that we have in Massillon. It just means a lot to help support the community from BG.”
The duo have a bright future of tormenting opposing Mid-American Conference offenses with the support of entire cities behind them and the legacies of those who came before them lighting their paths.
“When I came here there were some people I knew I could come to if I ever needed help or anything, Myles [Bradley], me and him are really close, especially when I got up here, because he’s two years older than me – he graduated in [2022],” Owens said. “We played a year together when I had transferred over to Mansfield, we got way closer with us being on the team. [Hawkins], he’s like my brother for real. Helped me at the times when I was low.”
Pringle, Owens, and the rest of Bowling Green football open their season against FCS Lafayette on Aug. 30.
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