 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ironton's Tank Stadium Dedication Day |
July 21, 2002 |
 |
Opened in 1926. Tanks Memorial Stadium became the home of the Ironton Tanks semi-professional football team. The Tanks were formed in 1919 and through the years played other semi-professional teams as well as well as teams from the American Professional Football Association that became the National Football League in 1930. In 12 seasons The Tanks had a record of 85 wins, 19 loses and 14 ties, including wins against the Chicago Bears and the New York Giants. The Tanks disbanded in 1931 but five players moved on to the Portsmouth Spartans, which became the Detroit Lions, and other NFL teams picked up four more players. Tanks Stadium is one of the few remaining roofed high school football stadiums in the country.
The Ohio Bicentennial Commission The
Longaberger Company
The Tiger Clan Athletic Boosters
The Ohio Historical Society
2002
Reverse Side Historical Marker
Semi-Professional football began in Ironton began in 1893 with a team known as "The Irontonians." The Ironton Tanks, founded in 1919, was a combination of two Ironton cross-town football rivals known as the "Irish Town Rags" and "The Lombards." The Ironton Tanks, perhaps one of the most appropriate nicknames of the period, one that evidently no other team in the nation adopted, is fitting because the returning World War I veterans combined with the local clubs likened themselves to the battlefield tanks that flattened the opposition. Ironton, a city heavily dependant on the iron industry, adopted the Tanks name with gusto. On April 16, 1926, a group called The Beechwood Stadium was raised to raise money to build the Tanks a permanent home. Six months later, the stadium was completed. The Tanks invented plays like looping and angle charges, that are still being used in The NFL today.
Inscription by Joe Unger.