1947 Hoover Vikings Football Team
FRONT ROW assistant coach Tony Misko, 55 Bill Owens, 53 Ray Sumser, 49 Bill Schreckengost, 37 Tom Braucher, 44 Ray Kaufman, 45 Bill Hummel, 56 Jim Heckaman, head coach Art Lave
SECOND ROW assistant coach Joe Esmont, 42 Charles Haun, 50 Jim Lear, 39 Blair Zimmerman, 47 Bill Powell, 29 Lee Schneider, 27 Bob Warburton, 48 Dick Seeman, assistant coach Clyde Vanaman
THIRD ROW 52 Howard Willaman, 26 Don Hinerman, 40 Don Kintz, 35 Bill Kobel, 46 Bill Bishop, 54 Jack Sponseller, Jerry Graham, Ted Hummel, Tom McDowell, 34 Ned Stull (some numbers obscured)
North Canton Memorial Stadium celebrates 60-year anniversary
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Chris Beaven, Canton Repository
NORTH CANTON Post-war America zoomed full-speed ahead in September 1947.
Americans pursued bright futures in a rapidly growing country. World War II was two years in the rearview mirror.
The Cold War was a problem for another day.
In a small but growing Stark County village, though, progress came with a reminder of the recent past.
North Canton Memorial Stadium, its name a tribute to those fallen in battle, opened its gates to high school football for the first time on Thursday, Sept. 11, 1947. The North Canton Vikings beat Central Catholic, 19-12, embarking on the school’s first unbeaten season.
But the players knew the stadium — with its covered stands and state-of-the-art lighting — was about more than them and those who would later call it home.
“We were certainly aware of the fact it was named for the soldiers who were lost in World War II,” said Bill Kobel, a senior on that North Canton team.
Sixty years later, some of the boys who played in that first game return to the stadium Friday as men eager to remind fans why it bears a simple but important name.
“I think the most significant part of that being a 60-year-old stadium is the fact the stadium was built in memory of the 20-some boys that lost their lives during the Second World War,” said Bill Owens, a senior captain in ’47. “That’s more significant than a bunch of old guys walking out there and saying these are the guys that played in the first game, especially in the current time that we have people over in Iraq that are defending our freedoms, so to speak.”
A pregame ceremony featuring players from the 1947 team will commemorate the stadium’s 60th anniversary before the Vikings open their season at 7:30 against Washington D.C. Dunbar.
“Over the years, I thought it was quite an honor to play the first game there,” said Jack Sponseller, a junior on the ’47 team. “ ... I felt very honored because I had two brothers, both were in the service, and a cousin was killed in the service.”
His brothers, Paul and Marvin, fought in the Pacific and Europe, respectively. Marvin was a part of Patton’s 3rd army, which was pivotal in relieving the surrounded 101st Airborne in Bastogne in December 1944. He was wounded in that battle.
Their cousin, Harold Sponseller, was killed in France during the Allied breakout after the Normandy landings. He had played on the 1939 North Canton basketball team that won a state title.
“I still have a picture of myself with my two brothers in uniform and my cousin in uniform,” Sponseller said. “I’m just a kid. I still cherish that picture.”
Many in the small town felt the losses of war.
“It was our neighbors or our relatives that had lost their lives,” Owens said. “ ... Those were the young men that, at the time, we looked up to. Some of those boys played on the 1939 basketball team that won the state championship in Class B and brought attention to North Canton.”
The Vikings finished 9-0-1 in 1947. They tied a school record by beating Norton 74-0 in their final game.
“We were a determined bunch of guys and afterwards (going unbeaten) grew more and more to us as what an accomplishment it was,” Kobel said.
A few of the Vikings went on to play in college. Some ended up in the military. Several of them still call North Canton home and watched sons and grandsons play for the Vikings in the stadium.
“But just like any other group of guys, we’re pretty well spread out around the country,” said Sponseller, a season-ticket holder for 30 years.
Kobel lives in Sun City Center, Fla., but has extended his visit to see family to be at the stadium Friday night. About a dozen men are expected.
They are excited about entering a stadium that current Hoover head coach Don Hertler Jr. said “feels like football when you walk in.”
A crowd of 5,000 greeted the Vikings that first night. Expect at least that many Friday.
“There’s people that sat in those seats for 50-plus years,” Owens said. “So the fans own, or are as much a part of this as, the team. It’s the fans that sat in those seats ... those people have brought support to that stadium and taken advantage of what that stadium offers.”
North Canton Memorial Stadium Anniversary
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