The Ironton Fighting Tiger
With just a little less than a month until physical fitness starts, lets go over some of the things I know and some I don’t know. This could become quite long so let’s get started.
I guess the most asked question is when will they start putting turf on Bob Lutz
Field? The way I understand things, they still don’t have the necessary funds to start
the project. Anyone wishing to donate to the fund can get an application to donate to the project off Tigertown.com. There is also a diagram of the field. The if ands and buts can also be found there. Looks like next year will be the earliest they can get the project started. This project will benefit the kids in our town more than any other thing I can think of at the present. I personally feel if we can find the necessary funds to put new seats in the Conley Center, surely we can find funds to turf the field. No athletic team provides more funds to the Athletic Department than the football program. It’s time we started taking care of what takes care of us.
It is with sadness I must report that Ironton Football Dot Com is no longer on the net.
This site did a lot for the parents of the athletes with the pictures they could get with just the click of a button. All of the records and schedules are now gone. The articles about the Tanks and all the other well known players from Ironton are also a thing of the past. John Brown was the owner of the site and although I haven’t talked with John about this, I would like to thank him for all the work he did keeping this site
going. We all will miss being able to go there and getting the necessary info about the
Ironton Fighting Tigers.
With physical fitness due to start soon, the season ticket order will soon be in the
Ironton Tribune. Get your order into the Athletic Department so you can get that perfect seat to all the games. This year we will have 6 home games. Let’s get out and fill the stadium and show all these young athletes just how much we
appreciate all of the hard work they do to put on a good show for us all.
I received an e-mail from my very good friend Billy Bruce. It’s nice to know that
someone out there is really reading what is being written. Thanks for the props Billy and thanks for being one of the best first basemen ever to play at Ironton Little League. He does an outstanding job with his articles in the Tribune.
I’ll try and keep the info flowing as it becomes available. Until next time God Bless and as always Go Tigers!
Joe Holtzapfel
Ironton Fighting Tigers Football-Today and Yesterday 
I’m going to miss John’s site. It was a great one stop visit for all things Tiger’s.
Regarding the turf. I still prefer natural surface but they have made great strides in synthetic field technology since I was playing. As far as the design, I believe Fighting Tigers should be in each endzone and Bob Lutz Field should straddle the 50 yard line facing each sideline.
Tim if Coach Lutz just had the turf at Rock Hill to choose from he would decline the offer. He does like the new turf at Coal Grove and South Point. It is more like natural grass and he would like to have that kind of turf. The stadium is in bad need of repairs also. It really needs a new roof and a new floor. Someone is going to go through that old floor and then we’ll all be sorry we didn’t do something sooner.
I can accept change as long is it is for the good. Tanks Memorial Stadium is such a historic venue, I wouldn’t want to see it become anything other than what it is…the best place in the state of Ohio to watch high school football. It really disappointed me to hear Portsmouth built a new stadium. I haven’t been there and may never go. It might be nice but it isn’t Spartan Stadium.
I moved away in’86 to Kalamazoo, MI, only 11- hours to I-town.after missing the ’87 season I missed FIGHTING TIGER sports soo much, that for the next 6 years I drove straight to the game on Fridays, to my parents home on Jeannine street for an extended weekend & straight back to KAZOO for a 6pm dinner shift.(restaurant server. What I’m trying to get to is that, I really appreciate this blog, as I’m now in Orlando(15years) & I’m completely lost without irontonfootball.com. I have few contacts back in ironton ,& the ones I depended on seem to not have the “roar” I still do for all things IHS. As my first cousins’ son’s graduated (played football), shockingly they know less than I do about IHS. I have probably embarrassed myself on SEOPS recently , as I’ve asked about the aforementioned site , because I have no clue what’s going on with it.
So, thanks for this blog. I will be reading & hope you can provide as much info as you’re free time allows. Thank the good LORD, for smartphones & I<3radio. Unfortunately, for the first time in 5 years I do not have Fridays off.
As we are unionized @ walt Disney world , where I work,we got a full-time transfer into my location with 2 days more seniority in march & during schedule bid Friday & Saturdays were taken by her. I even offered $$$ for her to take the Saturday & Sunday bid line, so I'm hoping there is someway to listen via archive when I get off around 11. If any1 knows that or what is going on with the football website,I'd really appreciate it. Sorry this is so long, but ya got me when I just finished coffee. Thanks gentleman, tim Hickman
Tim I will try and post anything of importance on this blog so you folks from out of town can follow what is going on with the Tigers. Tim Hodges also has a site and he also will post a few things that might interest you. Tim is going to see what we can do about Ironton football dot com. Stay tuned.