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

Hi Guys,

New to the forum but have been a KSU fan for a long time. My buddy just told me about this place and I have read back about 3 pages or so and there are some great fans here. I hope that I will be able to contribute to this very cool forum

I was lucky enough to be at the game last night. Wow, we played probably our best game of the year. Simpson was nothing short of fantastic!! We took their fans right out of the game by the ten minute mark of the first half and I thought our team and fans were terrific.

I just wanted to bring something up that I didn't see posted anywhere. There are some bad apples at the games and on some of the forums that just like to stir up crap. We have a few and Akron has a few as well.Sure, some of the fun of sports is tossing barbs back and forth but some take it a little too far. The snowball comment from the Akron guy was disgraceful. Thankfully, I saw none of that last night.

In reality, most people from both sides are good and very decent people. We sat with Zip fans all around us and had a great time. We traded some playful taunts at one another but at all times we were treated with respect and were congratulated at the buzzer.

I was really floored by the presentation that the Akron AD made to Laing Kennedy. For those that were not there, Laing received an engraved wagon wheel from UA in honor of his retirement. At the same time a huge picture of Laing hugging Zippy was displayed on the scoreboard. I thought that was a very classy move from the guys that we are supposed to hate. For one, I will give the Akron staff big props for that.

Now on to the MAC tourney we go. If we continue to play like we did last night thare is not one team in the MAC that can stop us. We are just way more athletic than Akron or anybody else.

Thanks for hearing me out, GO FLASHES !

You take that gesture as brotherhood. I take it as an insult. To give a replica, miniature of the trophy is like saying here it is, you could not win the real one. And our AD hugging our rivals mascot, get real. Welcome to the board. It is mostly fun.

the rowdy section turned their backs during the presentation.

(03-06-2010 12:21 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  You take that gesture as brotherhood. I take it as an insult. To give a replica, miniature of the trophy is like saying here it is, you could not win the real one. And our AD hugging our rivals mascot, get real. Welcome to the board. It is mostly fun.

LOL! That was my initial reaction to it too.

(03-06-2010 12:28 PM)KentKrazy Wrote:  the rowdy section turned their backs during the presentation.

What else should we expect from such a self-proclaimed classless bunch? Just glad the boys were able to whip up on them last night and shut them up.

(03-06-2010 12:21 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  You take that gesture as brotherhood. I take it as an insult. To give a replica, miniature of the trophy is like saying here it is, you could not win the real one. And our AD hugging our rivals mascot, get real. Welcome to the board. It is mostly fun.

For real? That is an interesting response. I really do not think that was the case. I can assure you that Mr. Kennedy did not think so as well. The picture was meant to be funny and the fans from both schools got a pretty good laugh from it. Laing appeared to be very pleased with the gift. I am glad that the players and staffs are not nearly as petty and disrespectful as some of the fans.

I do thank you for the welcome however.

(03-06-2010 12:28 PM)KentKrazy Wrote:  the rowdy section turned their backs during the presentation.

I do agree with that. They are truly a bunch of punks. My point was despite the lack of class of some, there are good people that represent all of the schools that we compete against. Nothing more, nothing less.

(03-06-2010 12:35 PM)NEW FLASH Wrote:  

(03-06-2010 12:21 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  You take that gesture as brotherhood. I take it as an insult. To give a replica, miniature of the trophy is like saying here it is, you could not win the real one. And our AD hugging our rivals mascot, get real. Welcome to the board. It is mostly fun.

For real? That is an interesting response. I really do not think that was the case. I can assure you that Mr. Kennedy did not think so as well. The picture was meant to be funny and the fans from both schools got a pretty good laugh from it. Laing appeared to be very pleased with the gift. I am glad that the players and staffs are not nearly as petty and disrespectful as some of the fans.

I do thank you for the welcome however.

I'm not taking it as anything more than a retirement gesture. As that, it was nice. Despite what we may think, the KSU and Akron Athletic Departments get along. And, remember, Keith Dambrot is one of KSU's biggest basketball fans.

No debate here that The Rowdies represent the worst of Akron. Just the fact that they had to witness that thrashing on their home court makes me happy.

Welcome, New Flash.

Hate to tell you but our band tuns their backs on the opposing players when they are intoduced. The cheerleaders also give one sarcastic clap for each introduction. All student fans do something similar. I remember when Bosely played for Akron and during warm ups the student section all took out their car keys and jingled them at Bosely. For those that don't remember he was kicked out of Ohio St. for stealing cars over th summer. Most of it's good natured and its a competition to see which fan base can come up with the best ideas.

It was "Bosley", and he wasn't actually stealing cars. It was one incident of breaking into cars. Bad judgement. He had been drinking. I was hoping he would end up at Kent State (remember, he WAS first team all-MAC his junior year). But yeah, the car key thing was something that fans do when an opposing player ends up on the police blotter. That's fair game. What I don't like, and I haven't seen at any Kent State games, is when chants or taunts are bigoted, or racial, or religious in nature. Things like that. Or "class" based (unlikely to be seen in the MAC!). Patrick Ewing faced some ugly taunts when he was at Georgetown.

It was a nice gesture plain and simple. Teams in the MAC respect each other. All you have to do is listen to Ford talk about Akron, Dambrot talk about Kent, anybody in the league talk about Witherspoon and Charlie Coles talk about anybody in the league. The people that are really in the know speak very highly of each other. The real people at Akron recognize Kennedy's contributions at Kent and in the conference as a whole.

The Akron fan base is actually quite a nice lot. I ate in one of their cafeterias and even kids with Go Zips/Beat Kent t-shirts on were basically just ribbing me in a fun way. One young man even stopped to talk a little hoops. Same thing at the game, sat around a group of 30 something Akron fans and they wanted to talk hoops. Now, as for the Rowdies:

I am 30 years old (give or take). I am not an intimidating looking guy at all. I was watching Kent warm up and was verbally assaulted by three or four of those idiots. Not fun "Kent State Sucks" stuff, more like "F" this and "F" you kind of stuff. I just smiled and clapped for Kent. But the biggest jokers are the guys at zipsnation. My god. Fair weather, idealistic, rose colored glasses, laugh at their own jokes are only a few of the things that make them look idiotic. The sad part is that they give a pretty good basketball program a black eye. Worst part is, they believe that they are the class of the MAC!!!! I love it. In fact, now that I am home for dinner, I am going to read what those guys have to say!

THURSDAY!!!!