Liberty High School brings back a cherished tradition

LIBERTY, Ohio (WKBN) – After decades of not having a victory bell for their football team, Liberty High School was finally able to get one.

It’s rumored that in the ’80s or ’90s, the Liberty High School bell was stolen by a rival school. The students tried to steal the bell back but were unsuccessful, and the Liberty Bell’s story ended there.

However, alumni Elaine Jacobs wanted to bring the victory bell tradition back.

“I saw that they were using a bell that was in a wheelbarrow, and it really was not what I felt like the tradition was and we wanted to recapture it,” Jacobs said.

After some thinking and collaboration with other alumni, Jacobs decided to go for a new bell. She created a GoFundMe and posted it to different Facebook pages to fundraise for a $4000 bell.

Before reaching their goal, an even bigger–and cheaper–bell was found. Jacobs gave an update to the GoFundMe page that they were now closer to the goal than they thought.

“I said, ‘Hey, we have an update. We found a bigger bell. This bell we have now is 28 inches in diameter and it’s less expensive. We’re like $600 to $700 away from our goal, come on,'” Jacobs said.

Jacobs said that just 24 hours after the update, they reached their goal of $2,500.

Jacobs and other alumni hoped the bell would bring back some school pride after a victory, a sound that can inspire athletes and fans.

“And hopefully–no pressure Coach Simon–hopefully we’re going to be ringing that bell pretty frequently and allow the fans and the players to enjoy a victory when they do occur,” said Jacobs.

Before football season starts the bell will have some cosmetic changes done. The plan is to have the bell on the 50-yard line in front of the home-side stadium.

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