The unofficial online home for fans of the Kent State University Golden Flashes. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Is there any ambition for this to become our student section's name? I'm lobbying for it to happen. Our student section needs something and having Josh Cribbs' endorsement on this would be ideal.
I'm also posting this to halt the mid-summer lull, so please, comment.

The Cowbell Crew has a twitter account @TheKrewKSU and a website http://www.thecowbellcrew.webs.com.

Whatever you call it just start showing up. It's a hell of a lot better when you do. I know I am preaching to the choir on this site but spread the word.

I am not speaking to everyone, as there are always exceptions. But our fans are fair weathered. 2002 tourney run brought out so many people that hadn't been to a basketball game in years, if not ever. They all showed up in Lexington acting like they were KSU lifetime basketball fans. Where are all those people now? This year in Omaha proves no different. We had a great turnout. But how many of those people were listening to MAC tourney games on the radio (or watching on TV if it was on TV in NE Ohio)? How many went to see the baseball team play a game in the regular season?

Our students are no different. They come and go as the wins come and go. They learn to be fair weathered at a young age, from either watching their parents, or just not really being a true sports fan. It's a shame, because the student/athletes deserve better, but I don't see it changing anytime soon. Doesn't matter if we call them the cowbell crew or the flash mob, they are still going to be sparse unless we make a deep tourney run.

Cowbell Crew? I can hear the insults beginning.

Cowbell Crew is awful. It doesn't even utilize cowbells anymore.

Flash Mob it is.

I never understood the Cowbell Crew. I appreciated someone trying to get a student section organization together but I always thought it was kind of dumb that they centered it on the cowbell. I didn't see it having a lasting impact since "Cowbell Crew" tells me nothing about KSU basketball.

I love the Flash Mob moniker!

Everybody comes out of the proverbial woodwork when you are winning, but I have season tix and make every game regardless. Guess sometimes we forget what it was like to be a student, partying, chasing girls, partying, chasing girls. Whoops, forgot studying. Is there anything else they can do to get the students there. There are the giveaways.....

What they need to do is instill a culture of going which is a hard, long, and slow process. First we have to deal with people coming in knowing little or nothing of our school's athletics (I fit into this group since I lived in NY), 2nd we have to deal with generations of allumni who treat our teams as being 2nd rate or just not mattering, and 3rd we do not have the luxury of being the only game in town. As many might recall despite having a large number of students living on campus a large number go home on the weekends since they live so close and even if they don't there are so many things to do in the area that Kent sports are lower on the totem pole. Think about places like Ohio U which are the only thing for a long ways. About the only thing to do in Athens most days are school events and drinking which tends to support stronger student presence (though it may hurt alumni and casual fans but it is hard to get those without student fans first).

I had mentioned that "Flash Mob" should be the student section/cheering section name during the CWS after Josh Cribbs had all those people wear a Flash Mob t-shirt in Omaha. I think this is an opportunity for the dedicated fans that do show up to gain an identity that is instantly understandable to the casual fan or student. I would hate to see this not gain any momentum and just die on the vine.

To that end, I am offering $250 as "seed" money to move this forward. Although I can't tell you how this would functionally or practically work, I imagine nothing gets started without some cash involved (way of the world, I suppose). I'm sure there needs to be some kind of grass roots movement too, but it helps if there is some kind of support behind it, even if it is only $250.

All of the points above this post about the current enviroment and obstacles and are correctly stated and true. However, you have to start somewhere to turn things around.

If you all think this is silly or a waste of time, tell me so. Or I would like to hear some better ideas. Or if there is some merit to it, what the likely next steps should be.

How about instead of just the student section being part of the "Flash Mob" why not make it the basis for all Flash fans. If we make for all then it can start right here right now. I know we have some creative people on this board that could make a pretty sweet looking shirt for us to buy and wear to the games. Maybe even throw on this site somewhere on the shirt to increase the fans we get through here. I think if we suck up to Ty Linder a little bit he might mention the group during the broadcasts.

(07-13-2012 09:45 AM)DunbarAtTheTopOfTheHill Wrote:  I had mentioned that "Flash Mob" should be the student section/cheering section name during the CWS after Josh Cribbs had all those people wear a Flash Mob t-shirt in Omaha. I think this is an opportunity for the dedicated fans that do show up to gain an identity that is instantly understandable to the casual fan or student. I would hate to see this not gain any momentum and just die on the vine.

To that end, I am offering $250 as "seed" money to move this forward. Although I can't tell you how this would functionally or practically work, I imagine nothing gets started without some cash involved (way of the world, I suppose). I'm sure there needs to be some kind of grass roots movement too, but it helps if there is some kind of support behind it, even if it is only $250.

All of the points above this post about the current enviroment and obstacles and are correctly stated and true. However, you have to start somewhere to turn things around.

If you all think this is silly or a waste of time, tell me so. Or I would like to hear some better ideas. Or if there is some merit to it, what the likely next steps should be.

I think you're on to something... What if the the Athletic Dept started seeing donations, even from a dozen people, even for $10 or $20, earmarked to "Flash Mob." I'm thankful you can throw in $250 and I'll do my part, but that would open some eyes.
Thanks for doing that, Dunbar.

changing the mindset of our fans is just like changing the mindset of our football program. No one wants to go to games even the basketball team because the students just assume that they are bad. Everything goes through the football program, if they become good then more people will show up to their games and it will trinkle down to the other sports. Unless the basketball team makes the tourney every year it needs to happen that way before the students realize that there are sports teams at Kent, and that some of them are actually pretty good.