Looking forward to 1/28...
Basketball series....
McKinley Bulldogs / Massillon Tigers
Total Games = 182
Regular Season Games = 159
--- McK 114 / Mass 45
Tournament Games = 23
--- McK 20 / Mass 3
Overall Series
Wins McK = 134 / Mass 48
First game ever played (1912) was won by Massillon 20 / 16 McKinley
Longest victory strings...
McK: 24 games 1971 Tournament game thru 1993 regular season game (a 22 year span)
...includes 18 regular season and 6 tournament games
Massillon: 5 games ~ 1951 thru 1953 (all regular season)
Last Bulldog win: 2019 regular season (64 - 39)
Last Tiger win: 2017 regular season (66 - 60 1-OT)
Last Bulldog Tournament win: 2016 (85 - 59) @ Can.Civic Center 1st round Sectional Game
Last Tiger Tournament win: 2003 (71 - 67) @ Can.Civic Center District Final Game
9 Overtime games (all in regular season) Massillon leads (6 ~ 3)
7 single OT games & 2 triple OT with McKinley winning both
Miscellaneous notes:
The 3 Massillon tournament wins...
... 1937 (33 - 28) State Semi-Final @ Columbus State Fairgrounds Coliseum
... 1993 (62 - 61) District Semi-Final @ Can.Civic Center
... 2003 (71 - 67) District Final @ Can.Civic Center
From the onset of the series (1912) thru the 1968 season the teams met twice
each season on a home and home basis.
under this format 112 games were played with McKinley winning 74 & Massillon winning 38.
There were also 7 tournament 'Rubber' matches with McKinley winning 6.
1937...
In the regular season McKinley won 36~29; Massillon took the second game 44~33
and as noted above defeated the Pups in the Final-4... The Tigers lost to Hamilton in the title game 28~33.
1940... Back then 16 teams met for the final round of the tournament winners had 2 games a day
to advance. The undefeated Bulldogs (under 'Bup' Rearick) and Tigers (coached by Paul Brown)
after both winning 2 contests on Friday face off in the State Semi-Finals on Saturday with
McKinley being a favorite; the Pups had defeated Massillon in both earlier regular season
games ( 30~20 and 40 ~ 38 OT ). Rumor had it that Brown had uttered to Rearick that McKinley
may win the game but not win the Championship.
During the ensuing game, play became so rough that the officials stopped the game at one point
and warned the coaches to "Clean it up, you are not in Stark County". McKinley won the game
46 to 14 with Massillon not able to put 5 players on the floor in the closing minute.
Epilogue:
McKinley had advanced to the Sweet-16 thru the NEO Youngstown tournament
Massillon advanced to the Sweet-16 thru the NEO Akron tournament
Entering the Tournament McKinley was undefeated; Massillon was 12-5
The 16 qualifers held at the State Fairgrounds Coliseum were...
Massillon, Bellefontaine, Akron Buchtel, Defiance, Canton McKinley, Martins Ferry, Findlay,
Marietta, Cincinnati Woodward, Canton Lehman, Dayton Fairview, Toledo Waite, Akron South,
Columbus Central, New Philadelphia, Bellevue.
Undefeated New Philadelphia beat McKinley 30-22 in the title game.
---
1945... A potential state title game between the Tigers and Bulldogs fell by the wayside
when both teams advanced to the Final-4 in Toledo (site of the Class A games University of
Toledo Fieldhouse / the Class B Final-4 were at Wittenberg College Gym in Springfield).
They were put in seperate halves of the bracket; Massillon lost to Bellevue 47 ~ 44,
and McKinley dropped a closer game to Middletown 29 ~ 28. Bellevue defeated the Middies
in the Title game 36 ~ 34.
---
There were no regular season games in 1987, '88, '89, '90 due to a site dispute in
the mid 1980-s. Massillon played it's home games in their cracker-box gym and in a
scheduled home game against Barberton (Bodner twins year) Massillon moved their home
game to Canton's Civic Center to accommodate the expected huge crowd (apx. 4K).
Conversely a few years later McKinley requested Massillon to move a scheduled Tiger
home game to the Civic Center to allow the huge McKinley following to attend. Massillon
refused the request and when the current 4 year contract expired, McKinley declined to
renew; the hiatus lasted for 4 years eliminating 4 regular season games, although the
two rivals would meet twice in OHSAA tournament play (the Bulldogs winning both).
The regular series was renewed in 1991 as Massillon had built a new school with a
larger gym.
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Special credit to DaveDawg who keeps the records available online at CantonMcKinley.com
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SF