Massillon mascot Obie to get bronze treatment; anonymous benefactor funds 8-foot statue

MASSILLON – Obie has symbolized the Tigers and the Massillon City Schools community for more than 80 years.

From leading the Tiger Swing Band down the field to cheering on the football team and getting high fives from the littlest of Tigers, he's one of the most recognizable residents of the City of Champions.

He soon will become a permanent part of the city's landscape.

More: Obie, Tiger Swing Band hit the streets to fire up fans

This summer, an 8-foot bronze Obie statue will be put up in the center of town.

An anonymous benefactor has donated funding to the Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club to create and construct the larger-than-life piece.

Obie history: 'O' is for orange and 'B' is for black

In 1926, Washington High senior Viola Black won a contest to name the school's mascot.

Taking an "O" for the orange and "B" for the black from the school colors, Black suggested the mascot should be known as Obie.

"It looks like they had a ceramic or maybe a paper-mache tiger," said Bob Wenzel, the long-time announcer for the Tiger Swing Band.

After the name was created, it all but disappeared from Tiger history until legendary football coach Paul Brown suggests a costumed mascot could fire up the crowd on the sidelines of a Friday night football game in 1938.

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Band Director George "Red" Bird used his Hollywood connections to purchase a real tiger skin and have it made into a student costume.

"Paul Brown graduated in the spring of 1926, could he have remembered the Obie name?" Wenzel asked. "They named the tiger in the fall of 1926. Did he remember it or did he come up with the name again?"

Once Obie joined the band, the name took off, he added.

But the drawing of the Obie seen everywhere today — a lovable tiger holding a football and sporting a black sweater with a large orange "M" and an old-school football helmet — didn't appear until the 1940s when an ad from the Tyson Roller Bearing Co. appeared in a football program.

"We have no idea who drew it," Wenzel said. "There are no initials on it. There is just no way of crediting who actually drew it."

Used sparingly during the 1950s and '60s, the drawing of Obie appeared on the back of a Washington High School yearbook around 1960, Wenzel said.

The image took life in 1962 when Junie Studer began using the picture.

Studer started, owned and operated Studer Signs and lived and breathed the Tigers. A native of Springfield, Studer fell in love with Massillon while visiting family and later moved to Massillon, met his wife and raised his children as Tigers.

Studer, a former Massillon Tiger Football Booster Club president, hand-painted his first hoop for the team to run through in 1952 and continued to do so until 1996.

"(The image of Obie) was easy to draw and easy to duplicate and he really put it out there," Wenzel said. "From then on, it emerged to become the permanent (image of the) Obie mascot."

While several versions of Obie have been adopted by the school, school clubs and athletic teams, the version of Obie holding the football has remained the standard, he said.

"I've got stories. People will be on vacation down South or out West and someone will see a bumper sticker on a car (of Obie) and right away they say Massillon," he said. "It's become readily recognized."

Now, the two-dimensional image has been re-imagined into a 3D replica.

Zanesville sculptor Alan Cottrill has been tasked with creating the figure.

Who is sculptor Alan Cottrill?

Cottrill, a former high school football player and coach, knew about the Tigers and the team's success.

During a visit to Paul Brown Tiger Stadium in his early 20s, Cottrill could see where the success began.

"We went to the high school and there was the weight room with the pictures of the NFL players on the wall," he said. "We didn't have that (at our school). No wonder these kids are so good."

So when he got the call to create the Obie statue, he couldn't pass it up.

"I loved Paul Brown, he was one of my heroes," Cottrill said. "Obie is Massillon football and Massillon is the epitome of high school football. I got goosebumps.

"Massillon is known nationwide, especially the rivalry with Canton McKinley. It's one of the premier programs in the country. I coached some high school football and I still dream about playing football even though I am almost 70."

For the past few months, Cottrill has worked daily on the Obie statue.

After working off the iconic image and researching tigers, Cottrill created a maquette, a miniature version of the piece.

He had to imagine what Obie looked like from behind.

"All you see is the front. You only see one ear," he said.

Standing in front of the massive clay version of Obie, Cottrill shared how the piece draws you in from its face to one paw to the other and finally to the football.

"I attacked Obie the way that I love football," he said. "It has gravitas. If he was standing upright, he would be 9 feet tall."

The artist and those heading up the project for the booster club are putting the finishing touches on the clay version that will then be transformed into the bronze statue.

It will go through an extensive process before the finished project is ready to be placed in its new home.

Cottrill explained the 26-step process that includes creating the clay version, which is affixed to foam and a steel armature. The statue is sealed with shellac and metal shims are placed in the sculpture to allow the mold to be separated into sections.

Cottrill estimates Obie will be broken down into 20 to 30 pieces that will be pieced together to create the finished bronze figure.

Those pieces will be welded together, grinding and blending to hide any lines, he said.

When completed, the statue will weigh about 1,400 pounds with the steel reinforcements that will be placed inside the tiger to ensure stability.

The Obie statue will not be the first Cottrill creation in Massillon and Stark County.

The artist sculpted the Vietnam veteran statue that stands in front of Perry High School.

He also created the Medal of Honor statues in Veterans Memorial Park in downtown Massillon. Those pieces were dedicated in 2005.

Since he began sculpting in his late 30s, the 69-year-old Cottrill has sculpted more than 360 life-size pieces, including historical figures such as presidents and inventor Thomas Edison whose statue is at National Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol. From Jesse Owens, to Woody Hayes to soldiers, coal miners and firefighters, Cottrill's work can be seen across the U.S.

A piece of Massillon Tiger history

Plans call for the statue to be placed at Lincoln Way E and First Street NE next to Benders. The backdrop will be the mural created by Eric Groh in 1997. The "Century of Heroes" mural showcases the history and traditions of Massillon Tiger football.

School board member John Paquelet said plans call for a sandstone wall with benches to be constructed behind the statue to help obscure the parking lot that abuts the area.

The stone would be sourced from Ohio and would match the older buildings that line downtown streets.

Architect John Patrick Picard is working with the group to design the space.

The booster club hopes to install and dedicate the statue ahead of this year's football season.

The more than $90,000 project is funded entirely by the donor and the booster club. No city funds are being used. The city has been asked to maintain the area.

City Council gave a first reading Monday night to an ordinance accepting the gift and will consider full passage in the coming weeks.

"This is an amazing gift for the city and we are lucky to be receiving this statue," Massillon Mayor Kathy Catazaro said last week.

Dr. Charles Paquelet, who is spearheading the project for the booster club, envisions the joy the statue will bring to city residents as well as visitors.

He envisions children and adults taking pictures with the famous tiger.

"It's a natural spinoff," the 1952 WHS grad said. "It's a popular motif around town and why not make a statue out of it?

"You recognize the Obie mascot and it represents the football team, the school and also the city of Massillon. Tell anyone where you are from Massillon and they say football."

Reach Amy at 330-775-1135 or amy.knapp@indeonline.com.

On Twitter: @aknappINDE

This article originally appeared on The Independent: 8-foot bronze Obie statue to be erected in downtown Massillon