Stories about Big Red

• FairwoodKing

  I'd like to share a story my dad told me about Punque Cartledge. He never was a teacher at Big Red because he didn't have a college degree. He was actually hired as a janitor at a janitor's salary. Most people think he retired from Big Red in 1940 and gave up football, but this is not true. He gave up football at Big Red because he started to go blind. Big Red officials found out about it and eased him out. He then went to Zanesville to coach. His vision was too far gone for him to succeed, so he only lasted there one year. It was a sad ending to a brilliant career.
• holdingout

  ManO'War;1077035 wrote:That schedule stuff is a bunch of BS. Big Red has defeated many teams who supposedly played a tougher schedule. Big Red was a few seconds away from beating Mooney last year, so schedules had nothing to do with it. Did their schedule make them tougher when their players were being carried off the field the whole game?? Maybe the back judge thought their schedule should should reward them with a few calls, because that was the difference in them winning and losing.

  Or, maybe the Big Red player should have kept his mouth shut. Then the back judge wouldn't have to throw his flag...correct?
• ichsnjb

  

  Didn't I hear something like Steubenville's gonna get some MAJOR stadium upgrades?
• FairwoodKing

  ichsnjb;1094209 wrote:Didn't I hear something like Steubenville's gonna get some MAJOR stadium upgrades?

  Yes. They started in 2010. All the seats will be replaced and a new press box is being built. I also imagine the visitors' locker room will be replaced and expanded.
• ManO'War

  

  holdingout;1094207 wrote:Or, maybe the Big Red player should have kept his mouth shut. Then the back judge wouldn't have to throw his flag...correct?

  Or maybe not hit them too hard so he wouldnt have thrown the other flag.
• FairwoodKing

  Here's a story about the Big Red Band that was reported in the Washington Post on January 21, 1961. President Kennedy's inauguration was held the day before, and the Big Red Band officially represented Ohio. The Post reported that Kennedy especially like three things about the parade: a guy riding a buffalo who lassoed him, Kennedy's old PT boat, and "that girl in red from Steubenville." He was referring to our head majorette who wore a sexy bright red uniform. See-- even the President likes Big Red!
• FairwoodKing

  And speaking of the Big Red Band and Presidents, Jimmy Carter taped most of his re-election ad in the Big Red Auditorium in 1980. Shortly before the election, he had a 15-miinute campaign ad on all networks throughout the country. I was taking night classes at the University of Dayton then, and didn't get home until the ad was nearly over. At the very, very end, they showed a stop-action closeup of Carter with the words on the screen "Re-elect the President." In the background was the Big Red Fight Song. I nearly sh*t my pants. Even though Carter was not re-elected, that was still a proud night for Steubenville.
• FairwoodKing

  My best memory of being in the Big Red Band was our participation in the 1965 Presidential Inaugural Parade. We took three days off from school to go there. We not only marched for the president on national TV but we took a tour of the city. It was just dazzling.
  
  My parents also had quite an experience that week. One of the girls in the band left her uniform on the front steps of the high school. She took someone else's uniform by mistake. She didn't know she didn't have her own until I told her in Washington. My parents flew in for the day. The superindentant asked my father to take it with him and to give it to the girl. When my parents arrived in Washington, my father found Tony Violi, the band director, and gave him the uniform. Violi said, "She's not going to march. It was her responsibility to take care of her own uniform." My father responded by saying, "Mr. Violi, if she doesn't march, you had better start looking for another job." She marched. As a footnote, my father still got rid of Violi. We then got Joe Grecco who was one of the best band directors in the country.
• Thinthickbigred

  FairwoodKing;1096007 wrote:And speaking of the Big Red Band and Presidents, Jimmy Carter taped most of his re-election ad in the Big Red Auditorium in 1980. Shortly before the election, he had a 15-miinute campaign ad on all networks throughout the country. I was taking night classes at the University of Dayton then, and didn't get home until the ad was nearly over. At the very, very end, they showed a stop-action closeup of Carter with the words on the screen "Re-elect the President." In the background was the Big Red Fight Song. I nearly sh*t my pants. Even though Carter was not re-elected, that was still a proud night for Steubenville.

  I remember hearing our band . We do have the best band as well as football in the state
• FairwoodKing

  My father never tired of telling me about the greatest single play in Big Red history. It took place in 1930 against Dayton Stivers. It was late in the game and Big Red was up 6-0. Stivers had the ball in their own territory. A Stivers running back broke loose and took off for the end zone for the winning score. Puck Burgwin was lined up on the wrong side of the field. He ran diagonally down the field and caught the guy on the five yard line. Stivers did not score. Big Red ultimately completed an undefeated, untied, and un-scored-upon season and won the state championship, largely because of that one play.
• Thinthickbigred

  FairwoodKing;1107719 wrote:My father never tired of telling me about the greatest single play in Big Red history. It took place in 1930 against Dayton Stivers. It was late in the game and Big Red was up 6-0. Stivers had the ball in their own territory. A Stivers running back broke loose and took off for the end zone for the winning score. Puck Burgwin was lined up on the wrong side of the field. He ran diagonally down the field and caught the guy on the five yard line. Stivers did not score. Big Red ultimately completed an undefeated, untied, and un-scored-upon season and won the state championship, largely because of that one play.

  Interesting . Id like to read about it in the old paper like they do on the Massillon site. Massillon you can go back and read there paper about every single game in every single year . Its very informative . They even give the starting lineups from both squads. I wonder if www.rollredroll.com can come up with something like that . Im sure it would be alot of work though
• ManO'War

  

  I have the game articles and stats for every game that Big Red has ever played, but I'm not going to type all of those articles into the site. I did all of the playoff games, Wintersville games, and Central games, and that took forever. I did have the "Most Important Games" in the early days of the website on there, but when I switched servers it got lost.
  
  Even scanning them would take a long time, as every decade is a big city phone book thick.
• Thinthickbigred

  ManO'War;1108691 wrote:I have the game articles and stats for every game that Big Red has ever played, but I'm not going to type all of those articles into the site. I did all of the playoff games, Wintersville games, and Central games, and that took forever. I did have the "Most Important Games" in the early days of the website on there, but when I switched servers it got lost.
  
  Even scanning them would take a long time, as every decade is a big city phone book thick.

  I gotcha Im not sure how Massillon did it but I went through there articles and I couldnt stop reading . So interesting . You guys do a fantastic job on the site and its cool . Maybe if you felt like it you could cherry pick an interesting game once in awhile from a long time ago ,if you have the material from the 30's or 40's and even 20's . just a thought but in any case the site is very nice and appreciated
• ManO'War

  

  Thanks. I think Massillon links the articles directly to the newspapers website. We dont have that luxury with the Herald Star.
  
  We are working on a video project right now...a playoff history video.
  
  If there are any old games that you are interested in let me know and ill put it on for you.
• FairwoodKing

  Another of my favorite Steubenville stories took place around 2007. The Big Red was playing at Canton CC. It was the ninth or tenth game of the season and both teams were undefeated. CCC had never beaten Big Red.
  
  CCC lead throughout the game. It was in the fourth quarter and Big Red was down by two touchdowns. My dad and I were listening to the game on the internet. He said to me, "Wouldn't it be something if Big Red won?" I told him he was crazy.
  
  We scored to bring it to within six points. We got the ball with less than a minute, no time outs, and the entire field to navigate. It looked very bleak for Big Red. Our sophomore quarterback started completing passes. He finally completed a pass on the 14-yard line where the receiver ran out of bounds with one second on the clock. If the clock operator had let that second go, CCC would have won. But we had one more play. Our qb threaded the needle and threw a perfect pass into the end zone. It was caught, and the score was tied. We kicked the extra point and won 35-34. The CCC qb was heard leaving the stadium screaming to himself. Then two weeks later we played them again in the playoffs and again we came from behind to beat them. They ended the year 10-2 and we were the 2.
  
  As a footnote, CCC dropped us from their schedule and we haven't played each other since.