Friday night at Unckrich Stadium will carry more history than most football games can hold. Galion and Shelby will renew one of north central Ohio’s oldest football rivalries. The Tigers will open Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference play against an unbeaten Whippets team that ended Galion’s season twice last year, once in the regular season and again deep in the playoffs.
But football will share the stage. September 11 will also be Alumni Band Night in Galion, part of a yearlong celebration marking 100 years of the Galion Tiger Marching Band. And because the game falls on the 25th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the evening will begin with a special performance of “The Star-Spangled Banner” featuring the combined Galion and Shelby bands. For a stadium accustomed to big Friday nights, this one has the ingredients to feel different before the football is even kicked.
One hundred years of Tiger music
The Galion City Schools have been marking the marching band’s centennial this fall, including commemorative 100th-anniversary apparel and fundraising efforts toward new uniforms. Friday brings that celebration into Unckrich Stadium with former Tiger musicians returning for Alumni Band Night.
The visiting Shelby Whippet Band will be there as well. Shelby’s official band calendar confirms the band will travel to Galion for Friday’s 7:00 PM game. Before kickoff, the present and past will come together in a particularly appropriate setting. The Galion and Shelby bands will combine for the national anthem as the community observes September 11, exactly 25 years after the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, at the Pentagon and aboard United Flight 93.
Then a very old football rivalry takes over.
Galion arrives the hard way
Galion’s 2-1 record does not fully describe its first three weeks. The Tigers opened with a 36-12 loss at St. Marys Memorial, but have since produced consecutive four-point victories, and both required substantial comebacks. Galion erased a 14-0 deficit to win 21-17 at Carey, then returned home and dug an even deeper hole against Columbus Bishop Ready.
Ready led 17-0 at halftime last Friday and 24-14 after three quarters. Galion answered with 14 points in the fourth and won 28-24. Junior quarterback Kane Hay was at the center of the turnaround. He figured in all four Tiger touchdowns, throwing three scoring passes, two to Jamesen Glew and another to Kurt Hay, before escaping pressure for the go-ahead touchdown run. Galion’s defense then protected the lead as Ready came up empty on its remaining possessions. Hay entered the Ready game already having thrown for 360 yards while rushing for another 122 through the first two weeks. Kale Early had supplied 193 rushing yards, while Glew and Kurt Hay had emerged as his leading receiving targets. That ability to recover has quickly become part of Galion’s 2026 identity. What the Tigers have not yet done is play from in front for an entire night.
Against Shelby, another large early deficit could be much harder to overcome.
Shelby has barely been touched
The Whippets arrive at 3-0, and their numbers are imposing. Shelby has beaten Madison 54-0, Lexington 48-6 and Bellevue 27-7. That is 129 points scored and just 13 allowed through three games.
The most revealing result may have been the latest.
Bellevue entered last Friday unbeaten, and Shelby did not overwhelm the Redmen immediately. The Whippets led only 7-0 at halftime. Then Brady Bowman changed the game. Bowman scored on a 32-yard reception in the first quarter and returned a punt 60 yards for another touchdown in the third. Shelby eventually pulled away 27-7 while holding advantages in first downs, total offense, rushing, passing and time of possession. Bowman finished with seven catches for 80 yards, added 40 yards rushing and supplied the punt-return touchdown. Gavin Baker ran 12 times for 76 yards and another score. Shelby also successfully used Branson Reed and Hayden Duval at quarterback, with each throwing a touchdown pass. Bowman is hardly a new problem for opposing defenses. He entered the season after catching 83 passes with 24 touchdowns last year and has already moved into Shelby’s record book. His second reception against Lexington gave him 169 for his career, tying his brother Blaine for the school record at that point.
Shelby may have graduated 18 seniors from last year’s team, including record-setting quarterback Brayden DeVito, but three weeks into 2026 there has been little evidence of a rebuilding season.
Last year still hangs over the matchup
No one on either sideline needs much introduction to the opponent. Galion went 11-2 last season, its highest win total since the 1985 state championship team, and advanced all the way to the Division IV regional championship game. Both losses came against Shelby. The first was competitive. Shelby won the regular-season meeting 45-34.
The second was decisive. When the teams met again November 21 at Mansfield’s Arlin Field with a regional championship at stake, Shelby won 41-7. It was the first postseason meeting between the longtime rivals. Galion’s season ended at 11 wins, while Shelby continued to the Division IV state championship game before falling to Cleveland Glenville.
Friday therefore carries an obvious question for Galion: how much has the gap changed? The Tigers have dropped to Division V this season and are in Region 18, while Shelby remains in Division IV, Region 14. Both, however, remain MOAC members, making Friday the first conference game for each.
A rivalry measured in generations
The rivalry reaches far beyond last November. Historical accounts place Galion-Shelby football competition more than a century in the past. A Shelby football history describes meetings with Galion in 1901 as part of the beginning of a rivalry that would endure for more than 100 years, while later accounts trace the roots of the series even further back. That history gives Friday’s centennial band celebration another layer. Generations of Galion musicians have played from the stands while generations of Tigers and Whippets met on the field below. On Friday, some of those musicians will be back.
Two very different early-season stories
Shelby has spent three weeks demonstrating control. Galion has spent two weeks demonstrating resilience.
The Whippets have yet to trail seriously and have allowed only two touchdowns all season. Galion, meanwhile, has already twice shown it can absorb an early blow and recover. That makes the opening quarter particularly interesting. If Galion can stay even with Shelby early, Unckrich Stadium could become a significant advantage as the evening builds. If Bowman and the Whippets generate the kind of explosive plays they have produced during their 3-0 start, the Tigers could again find themselves chasing a game. The difference Friday is the opponent waiting on the other side.
Under the lights at Unckrich
Kickoff is set for 7:00 PM Friday at Unckrich Stadium. Galion lists regular-season varsity admission at $8 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens, and the high school provides online event-ticket access through its website. For those unable to attend, MFDLive lists Shelby at Galion among its Friday night streaming games, with coverage scheduled for 7:00 PM on the Galion Tigers channel. The weather may cooperate nicely. The current Friday forecast calls for mostly sunny skies, lower humidity, a high near 80 and an overnight low around 61, a major improvement from Thursday’s more unsettled conditions.