A Man for Canton: How One Man Turned a Mob Town into a Hall of Fame City

Man or Myth?

Many people who live in Canton, Ohio, or Stark County know of the many accomplishments that their beloved Midwest city has achieved over the past century. What most do not know, is that one man led the charge to make many of those accomplishments a reality. And that one man was Clayton Horn.

“Clayton Horn seems bigger than life … some people think there is a myth, how could one person do all those things? One person (Horn) was responsible for all those things, and it was because of his love for this community,” HOF President Jim Porter, one-time Canton Repository editor, related on a video Canton’s promotion of civic leadership.

Horn was an old-school newspaperman, with Superman-like, Perry White (fictional Daily Planet editor) skills, and a cigar-chomping, desk-pounding way of making his point.

Learn how Horn and legendary Canton Safety Director and future mayor, Stan Cmich would take on the mob crime, gambling and bawdy house elements and replace them with new paved safe streets, lights, and highways for commerce. Horn promoted the cause through his newspaper and Cmich did the rest on the streets. They were Canton’s Untouchables!

It was a boomtown atmosphere, and soon the one-time crime-riddled town became an All-American city, and within a few brief years the Pro Football Hall of Fame landed in Canton.

Canton was where the NFL started in 1920, Jim Thorpe and his Canton Bulldogs pro team became the new league’s champion in 1922 and 1923. Thus the NFL was inspired to make Canton the home of the Hall of Fame in 1961. Half a century later, the multifaceted HOF Village began its massive project to combine the Gridiron museum with its new additions, a modern-day vacation destination.

Over his 43-year career at The Canton Repository, Horn ascended to the powerful post of newspaper editor and the executive editor. He not only won over their town but left his handprint on with other key initiatives such as Route 77 going through Canton and created new avenues of commerce travel. His love of education would springboard the creation, and improvements of local institutions of education such as: Kent State Stark, Malone University, Walsh University, Stark State College and Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Dive in and learn how all these upward city steps would eventually lead to the greatest achievements in Canton’s history. The crucial and philanthropic funding from Timken Company President Bill Umstaddt for the HOF museum’s creation and the ongoing partnership of the Canton Chamber of Commerce and Junior Chamber of Commerce that has made the Pro Football HOF a civic success every year.

Yes, one man did these things, with the help of several. Read about it all in the soon to be released, “A Man For Canton: How One Man Turned a Mob Town into a Hall of Fame City.” Buy it today!