After 53 years of being labeled "paper champions," the long drought is finally over for the Massillon Tigers football program.
For the first time since 1970, the Tigers are state football champions of Ohio, beating the Archbishop Hoban Knights 7-2 in Thursday night's Division II title game in Canton. It's the program's 25th state championship in its history, but the first of the playoff era.
Massillon also set a school record with 16 wins and completed its first unbeaten season since 1978. With their most recent title previously coming in the poll era, Thursday's victory also snaps a streak of six straight championship game losses dating back to 1972, including a pair to Hoban in 2018 and '20.
Hoban, winners of five state championships since 2015, has now lost in the D-II finals each of the past three seasons.
The game drew 14,846 to Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium, the fourth largest crowd to watch a Division II state championship game and the largest crowd for any state title game since 2018, when 16,213 watched Hoban defeat Massillon in the Division II title game.