Obie

In 1938 Massillon (Washington) High School football coach Paul Brown [1932–1940 (80–8–2)] wanted  a student in a tiger skin costume, and so began Obie. O is for orange, B is for black, the school colors. The school began play in 1894 with many boys who were not in school, but worked. In 1903 Massillon had a professional team in the Ohio League. The company that sold jerseys only had those that looked like Princeton Tigers. Later the high school became the Tigers. The school had a live Obie from 1970–2020.  The 2022 season was greeted by a statue at the center of town. Alan Cottrill, a prolific Ohio sculptor, had some 50 bronze pieces welded to form an 8' running tiger footballer.

Ohio has celebrated football in high school, college, and professional levels. Brown was successful everywhere he went, and it began at his alma mater high school. I think Obie is great, and cannot think of a better mascot in Ohio. Yes, he is better than Brutus Buckeye. Brutus has a statue inside an OSU building, and one outside a store bordering campus. Then there was that one time Brutus was tackled by Rufus Bobcat. As with the schools, Rufus is older (1960) than Brutus (1965).

A mascot that has topped a list is Zippy (1953) the U of Akron kangaroo. One of the few female mascots. Zippy has played tuba for Christmas [click]. The Akron Zips were lucky to get her as a replacement, previously the Zip was a locally made rubber galosh. Akron was Rubber City. For Ohio high schools the most popular mascot name on a recent (2014) easy to read list [click] is Tigers at 36. Eagles and Panthers were nipping at their heels at 35.

Paul Brown has a statue outside Paul Brown Tiger Stadium next to the high school. He has one at Miami U, where he was starting quarterback as a junior and senior. In autumn of 2023, his birth town of Norwalk got a statue. The professional team in Cleveland is named after him. They have their headquarters at Berea. I went there, once, and saw a statue in front of the building. Thinking it would be of Brown, it was not, it was of a later team owner. Ohio State had its first national championship in 1942 with coach Brown, and after him many successful years. Cleveland has been for longer than a generation (33+ years) the worst team in professional football.