Steubenville Football Fan Digitizes Decades of Game Film To Preserve History
Christopher Dacanay Trending
STEUBENVILLE -- As media progresses further into the digital era, legacy devices used to screen film and tapes are becoming increasingly scarce. The problem is that individuals are left with reels of film and boxes of cassette tapes they no longer have the capability to watch.
Locally, the issue extends to old film recordings of Steubenville Big Red football games. However, a Steubenville man is on a mission, inspired by his late father, to bring those recordings into the digital era and preserve the history he loves.
Rich Blackburn is a 1982 graduate of Steubenville High School, a former Big Red player and a passionate football fan. As of Tuesday, Blackburn had converted 2,322 old films to digital in his home, a major part of that total being Big Red football game films Blackburn acquired from his father.
Blackburn recalled how his late father, Jim Blackburn, was a local businessman who loved athletics. Jim Blackburn became familiar with emerging videotape technology through capturing footage of homes for clients. His familiarity with the format led him to begin videotaping games for Steubenville High School in 1978, helping current videographers transition away from film.
"He had a big belief in preserving history," Rich Blackburn said of his father, who continued to attend games up until the 2000s and died at the age of 90 in 2020.
Now, Rich Blackburn has taken up the role of recording Big Red games. Together with his father's efforts, the two have been able to record every Big Red game since 1978.
Rich Blackburn said his father left easily more than 500 videotapes and just as many film reels. His father had acquired the film reels over the years, with some even coming from his good friend, Reno Saccoccia, current Big Red head coach and all-time career win leader in Ohio. Though composed mostly of Big Red, other film subjects include Wheeling High School, the College of Steubenville and other teams, as well as some Steubenville community events, including the city's sesquicentennial celebration.
Having inherited his father's passion for preserving and sharing history, Rich Blackburn undertook the mission to digitize the older formats. He started in 2021 by converting films and tapes onto DVDs and now into online videos through a rudimentary, yet effective, process.
Blackburn has DVDs of Big Red football from 1978 to the present but is still working to convert the massive amount of film. The process for converting a film reel involves projecting the film onto a plain surface. Blackburn then aims a digital camera at the screen and records the images.
The recorded product is transferred to his computer, edited with Final Cut Pro and uploaded to his YouTube channel, named after himself and bearing 392 videos of Big Red and more. The old films are largely in black and white and have no sound, Blackburn said, but the film itself is "crisp" and makes for a great final product online.
Oldest in Blackburn's converted catalog is a 1941 game between Big Red and Alliance High School, which shows a very different and yet undeveloped Harding Stadium, along with a Big Red Band member carrying a U.S. flag with only 48 stars.
None of the effort is just meant for his own enjoyment. Blackburn said his motto is "Memories are nothing unless you share them with someone."
Blackburn has had opportunities to share his converted films in big ways, aided by various reference sources -- from a shelf full of SHS yearbooks, courtesy of his father, to the Public Library of Steubenville and Jefferson County's newspaper archive.
One instance was with film he acquired of the 1954 Big Red homecoming game.
Using a yearbook, Blackburn was able to identify the 1954 homecoming queen, who was alive and living in Florida at the time. With much excitement, Blackburn connected with her on Facebook and sent her the converted video of the game, which also was a celebration of the school's 100-year anniversary.
Yet another instance was when Blackburn sent a converted film of the 1972-73 football season to the SHS Class of 1973 for its reunion.
Just as his father helped transition the recording of games from film to videotape, Blackburn is moving his father's techniques forward. Although familiar with digital techniques, Blackburn said he can always learn more about the art and how to improve.
"This was a passion of my dad's and it's fun to keep it going," he said.
Blackburn is one of three individuals who record SHS games, the others being his brother-in-law George Gresko and Tim Pierce, owner of Pierce Media Productions in Steubenville. His comrades in high school football film conversion are Mike Stone of Amsterdam, Gary Masters of Weirton and Tom Fitzgerald of Mingo Junction, who Blackburn was able to find playing in a Harding Elementary School game film. Other big supporters of Blackburn's work are SHS booster Craig Klein and Blackburn's own mother, Vincetta Blackburn.
Having played on Big Red's 1980-81 team, Blackburn is a football fan like his father, who played at the former Jefferson Union High School in Richmond. Blackburn added that football "kept my dad young."
One of Blackburn's prized possessions is a memorial illustration of Calvin Jones, the SHS graduate and one of only two University of Iowa players to have his jersey number retired. Jones became the first Black player to win the Outland Trophy and the first Black athlete to be pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
The illustration, originally presented to Jones' mother, was drawn by Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Frank Miller and given to Blackburn's father by Jones' brother.
The film conversions take up much free time for Blackburn, who still works. He anticipates the winter months will bring plenty of time to continue the venture.
Blackburn noted that he's always looking for more projects and said anyone who has film they need to have converted can reach out to him at rhblackburn@comcast.net. It's a pleasure for Blackburn to unite individuals with the film they're seeking and to fill holes in his own collection, he explained.
Blackburn said it's important to him to share the films with those who have a sentimental attachment to them, saying, "If I can find that film, I try to share it with them."