PORTSMOUTH, Ohio – Portsmouth, Ohio is about a 5 hour car ride south of Detroit, but it may be worth it to the die-hard Lions fans who wants to see where the franchise began nearly 100 years ago as the Portsmouth Spartans.
In fact, the field and stadium where the Spartans once played is still there. Names like Dutch Clark and Glenn Presnell, who held the Lions record for longest field goal for decades, were once the pride of Portsmouth before becoming Detroit Lions.
You don’t have to be a Lions fan to be a little awestruck as you walk into what is now Spartan Municipal Stadium.
“It’s just awesome to be back here, to say an NFL team started here,” said Gerald Cadogan, the Athletics Director at Shawnee State University in Portsmouth, which just acquired the stadium.
The plan now is to revamp the field and build a new track while upgrading the entire facility so it can host new championship events.
“It’s continuing to thrive for this community and be a place for championships and memories for the future,” said Cadogan, who started his own football career on the same field where Jim Thorpe once played for the Portsmouth Shoe Steels.
Cadogan also played at Penn State and later in the NFL briefly. And he understands the importance of preserving the stadium’s history.
“I think that’s part of my responsibility and why I’m still in this community, he said. “To show (today’s kids) the old VHS videos of football games and the history that has been here and then to create new memories.”
It’s not unusual for visitors to show up at the stadium -- which is a historical site. But what are the odds that on the day we were there, a Lions fan from West Virginia would happen by?
“It’s been on my to-do list (to visit the Stadium) for about 6 months,” said Justin Mooney, who made the Portsmouth-Detroit Lions connection recently.
But wait, how does a guy from West Virginia become a Lions fan? You know there must be a back story . . . and a good one.
“I saw the original Lion king -- Barry Sanders -- when I was 7 years old watching Monday Night Football on a black and white TV in my bedroom,” Mooney remembers. “I fell in love with Barry Sanders and that led me to the Detroit Lions.”
He got the same vibes as I did, walking into the stadium, which is the second-oldest in the country behind Soldier Field, where pro football was played.
“The walls are so unique,” he said as he looked around. “You can see the history . . . you can feel it permeate through the walls.”
The Iron Man Game
One of the biggest games in NFL history was played in Portsmouth.
In 1932, the Spartans beat the Packers 19-0 to advance to the championship in what became known as the Iron Man Game. It was called that because the Spartans only had 11 players.
“The same guys played offense, defense -- the whole game -- and they beat the World Champions,” said Dr. Drew Feight, who teaches history at Shawnee State University.
He also oversees some of the football artifacts from that time. Pictures, newspaper clippings -- even a copy of stock certificates for Portsmouth National Football League Corporation.
“We’re a football town -- have been for a long time. Even though the Spartans left we’re still a football town,” Feight said. “A lot of people follow the Bengals or Browns, but there’s a core of people who follow the Lions.”
“We see a lot of Lions football sweatshirts come football season,” said Portsmouth Mayor Charlotte Gordon.
She walked us down memory lane . . . literally. Along the flood wall keeping the Ohio River out, is a mural depicting the city’s history scene by scene -- and of course the football team checks in right around the 1930 mark with a huge drawing of the Iron Man Game.
“It is part of the fabric -- part of the community memory of this town,” said Gordon. “It was such an important part of our history that has been carried forth and it’s fun -- even kids talk about it.”
For many, it’s both the past and the present that combine to create an added layer of excitement for the Detroit Lions of today.
“I feel like when you’ve went through the strife Detroit Lions fans have and you have the ups that we have now -- it makes it that much more incredible,” said Mooney.
Championships were the norm in the early days of the Lions franchise, and clearly this year’s team and the fans -- from all over the country -- are hoping it’s about time for history to repeat itself.