Factory of Sadness

Taken just prior to the start of the preseason
home opener in August

For this past season I was able to work for the Cleveland Browns in Guest Services. In my job I ended up being the security for the door from the ramps to the Press Level, making sure anyone who came in that door had the proper credentials. Many weeks I also checked four suites before and after the game to make sure everything was working properly.

Anyone who knows me knows I love sports and sports history, so being able to work in an NFL stadium was quite the experience for me. As most know by now, the Browns just finished their season at 7-9. While it's an improvement over last season (5-11), it ended on a five game losing streak. In early November, the Browns were in first place, but ended up in their all-too-familiar final place at the bottom of the AFC North. Since returning to the NFL in 1999, the Browns have had two winning seasons: 9-7 in 2002 (which was their only playoff appearance) and 10-6 in 2007

Working in the stadium gave me the opportunity to see the "behind the scenes" aspect of stadium operations, but I was also able to interact with a lot of fans during the season. At various times during each game, I would usually position myself out on the ramp just outside the door I was watching. Not only did it discourage smoking (mostly at halftime), but many times people would come ask me for directions or to verify they were headed in the right direction. Even though the ramps were designed mainly for exiting the stadium, they were quite popular for people entering the stadium if they didn't want to wait for the escalators or use the stairs. Being able to interact with the fans was usually a pretty good experience, especially after a Browns win. I would often say after a win that "peace and good will" was free-flowing at the stadium. It was especially evident after the season-opening win over the Saints (on a last-second field goal), the first hope-opener win for the Browns since 2004. A Saints fan even remarked how happy everyone was around her and I replied "we're not used to this!" She smiled and said a few years ago, Saints fans were the same way!

The front of the main press box. I was in the press box almost every game, usually passing through or directing people to where they needed to go.

The main press box, further back from the previous picture.

One thing I was really hoping for (besides the Browns making the playoffs) was for the team to have a winning season at home. I knew coming into the season that the Browns have had just one winning season at home, when they went 7-1 in 2007. While they started out 4-1 this year at FirstEnergy Stadium, they ended up 4-4 (though they could've easily ended up 6-2 as two losses were in the final minutes of play). I decided to look up their all-time records at home to see how they were at the old stadium and ended up finding some interesting pieces of information, at least for a statistical geek like me.

Panoramic shot I got of the stadium from the top corner of section 501 before the game against the Oakland Raiders, October 26, 2014

At FirstEnergy Stadium (previously known as Cleveland Browns Stadium until 2013), the Browns have an all-time record of 51-77-0 for a winning percentage of just .398. That is absolutely atrocious and is one of the reasons the stadium has become known as the "Factory of Sadness". The other reason is the nature of the losses. While I don't have all the scores, there seem to have been a large amount of close, excruciating losses at home where the Browns gave up the lead late in the 4th. There were two such home games this season. In going through the seasons, as I mentioned, the Browns have just one winning season there. In their 16 seasons at FE Stadium, they also have nine losing seasons and six .500 (4-4) seasons, including this past season. The stadium has never hosted a playoff game (the Browns haven't hosted a playoff game since 1994) and it's currently the only NFL stadium that hasn't hosted any postseason game. Of those nine losing seasons, the worst was the very first season when they went 0-8 in the inaugural 1999 season after being reactivated as an expansion team (team was 2-14 overall with both wins coming on the road), That was the first (and so far only) time in franchise history the team went winless at home. The second worst season was a 1-7 mark in 2008, the season after they had been 7-1.

Photo of old Cleveland Stadium my grandma took at my suggestion on a trip to the Great Lakes Science Center. This was taken  August 8, 1996, just a few weeks before the stadium was demolished.

Aerial of Cleveland Stadium during the final game played there, December 17, 1995 against the Cincinnati Bengals. Photo credit Paul M. Walsh, uploaded at Wikimedia Commons

I decided to go through all of the Browns seasons and see how well they had been at home when they played at old Cleveland Municipal Stadium, their home from 1946-1995. I was only 13 when the move to Baltimore was announced, so I don't remember a lot of details from those previous seasons, but I do remember they typically won more at home. What I found in looking over the stats confirmed this. In the 50 seasons the team played at Cleveland Stadium they had nine losing seasons TOTAL. So, in just 15 seasons at FirstEnergy Stadium (since this 16th season was .500), the Browns have already equaled their total of losing seasons they had in 50 seasons at the old stadium. At Cleveland Stadium, the Browns also had five seasons where they finished at .500. Every other season was a winning season (36 total) for an overall record of 239-126-6 (.652), which includes their 28-2-1 record in the AAFC (1946-49) and a 12-5 (.705) mark in postseason games (3-0 in home AAFC games and 9-5 in home NFL games). They also had no winless seasons and five undefeated seasons (1948, 1949, 1951, 1953, 1957) at the old stadium. In fact, the Browns didn't even register their first losing season at home until their 11th season (1956), when they went 1-5. After that, they wouldn't have a losing season at home again until 1974 and 1975 when they went 3-4 both seasons. The longest stretch without a winning season at home was four seasons (1990-1993), and the 1992 and 1993 seasons were both .500 seasons.

The view I had if I went out on the ramp during a game. This is from the southwest corner.

Just to the right of the previous picture. The double doors go into the Press Level, which includes the scoreboard operations rooms and coaches booths. Several suites are on this level at the opposite end. The large door on the right is a freight elevator used mainly by food service.

In contrast, the Browns at FirstEnergy Stadium went eight seasons before having that sole winning season in 2007 and are currently on a seven season drought since then. FirstEnergy Stadium also holds the longest drought in team history of not hosting a playoff game, now at 16 seasons (17 total counting the final season at Cleveland Stadium). Prior to that, the longest drought was 14 seasons (hosted in 1971 and not again until 1986).

Looking west from southeast corner showing one of the new scoreboards and the reconfigured upper level in that end zone after the 2014 renovations. The Dawg Pound is just to the right of this photo.

Now, obviously, the record at home isn't much of an anomaly when you look at the team's overall record during the same period, and their road record is actually even worse than their home record. In their 16 seasons since being reactivated, the Browns, as I said, have only had two winning seasons and one playoff appearance, In general, the majority of the team's wins in a given season were at home. Only on four occasions have the Browns won more games on the road than they did at home: 1999 (0-8 at home, 2-6 on the road), 2002 (3-5 at home, 6-2 on the road), 2003 (2-6 at home, 3-5 on the road), and 2008 (1-7 at home, 3-5 on the road).

New scoreboard and reconfigured Dawg Pound after the 2014 renovations

2002 is also their only winning season on the road (6-2) since the return, while they have had 15 losing seasons on the road including two winless seasons (2004 and 2006), four 1-7 campaigns, and zero .500 seasons. The 51-77-0 record at home looks a lot better than the road record in that same span: 33-95-0, good for a dismal .258 winning percentage. Ouch. The Browns overall record since the return is 84-172-0, a .328 winning percentage.

Another panoramic shot from the aisle between sections 501 and 502 I got after the game against Baltimore, September 21, 2014

Obviously from a fan's perspective, I hope the team finally turns it around and starts having consistent winning seasons at home (and overall) as opposed to the consisted losing it currently has. The Browns still have a very large and loyal fanbase as evidenced by not only the attendance at home yet again this season, but the large crowds of Browns fans present at most road games this year, especially Atlanta, Carolina, Cincinnati, and Tennessee. It seems every sports league has a team like the Browns: a proud and illustrious history, but a long championship drought and no recent success, along with periods of dysfunction or other poor management or just bad luck. In the NHL, it's the Toronto Maple Leafs (no Stanley Cup since 1967, but second most overall), in the NBA, it seems to be the New York Knicks (might be the most dysfunctional team in the NBA...haven't won anything in decades), and in Major League Baseball, the Chicago Cubs (over 100 seasons since their last World Series championship and almost 70 years since their last World Series appearance) and Cleveland Indians (last World Series championship in 1948), and to a lesser extent, the Pittsburgh Pirates (20 straight losing seasons).

Even so, I'm still a Browns fan and will remain so. Hope springs eternal! Make the Factory of Sadness a Factory of Gladness!

Kent State's forgotten first football team

Ask just about anyone at Kent State what year the first football team played, and you'll get the answer: 1920. Indeed, KSU's first football game was against Ashland College and was played October 30, 1920 in Ashland, Ohio. The first home game was played a week later when KSU hosted Bowling Green at the first game at Rockwell Field, the grassy area now known as The Commons.

In going through Kent State yearbooks to find information about Rockwell Field, I found that while the 1920 team was the first team to actually play, it actually wasn't the first football team at what was then the Kent State Normal School. The 1915 Chestnut Burr, Kent State's yearbook, not only makes mention of a team being assembled, but it has the 12 man roster listed so we know who was on the team and what position they played.

Page 132 of the 1915 Chestnut Burr

This first team, though, as the Burr explains,  never played a formal game. It had two practice games against local high schools (which was common in those days since football players weren't the size we think of today). After those two practice games, it says the Executive Board and Faculty voted to discontinue to the team to focus on basketball. While there was hope that the team would return in 1915, there is no indication of any football team until the 1921 yearbook, which highlights that inaugural 1920 season. I thought it was interesting that I found mention of this first Kent State football team exactly 100 years after that first attempt!

Considering that the 1914-15 academic year was Kent State's second year of full existence (first classes were held in 1912 with the first classes on campus in May 1913), and the fact that the school was still a teacher training school (i.e. a "normal" school), it should be of no surprise that there was hardly a large amount of men on campus. Teaching was still a largely female dominated profession, far more so than today, and the school simply had few people period. The 1914 yearbook mentions that there were just five "boys" at the first meeting of the athletic association in 1913, out of 140 total students.  But later in the year, there were enough men on campus to start a men's basketball team, though the team only played local high schools the first season. The spring of 1914 saw the establishment of the first collegiate team, the baseball team, which was known as the "Normal Nine". The 1914 yearbook refers to them in the caption as the "Ex Tempore Base Ball Team".

Another important factor as to why the football team couldn't take root in 1914 beyond simple numbers was the lack of suitable playing field. In 1914, Kent did not have any dedicated football field anywhere in town. The local high school at the time (Kent High School...now known as Theodore Roosevelt High School) had a football team, but where, exactly, they played isn't totally clear. Early references mention a "Central field"--most likely the yard in front of the old Union or Central School on North Mantua Street--but no other mentions are made. If it was played in the front yard of Central School (now occupied by the current Central School building built in 1952-53), then it was played on a sloped field as that was never leveled or graded in any way. Hardly ideal for any team, but especially a college one. Kent State would finally get a dedicated football field by 1920, but did not have a gymnasium until 1925.

From the 1917 Chestnut Burr, page 147, showing a summer term baseball game on front campus on or near the site of Rockwell Hall. Merrill Hall can be seen in the background center with the original facade of the Auditorium Building (Cartwright Hall) on the right.

Early Kent State athletic events were played on front campus on and around where Rockwell Hall is now, but the fields seem have been very primitive and makeshift and I have, so far, only been able to find one picture of such an event, a 1916 summer term baseball game. The first dedicated football field in Kent opened in 1917 with the dedication of DePeyster Field at the corner of Crain and Highland Avenues (which still is an open field where pickup games are regularly held), behind the DePeyster School (current Kent City Schools administrative offices). It served as the home of Kent High School football through the 1922 season (the first year the school was called Roosevelt) until the opening of Bowers Field behind the new high school building, now Davey Elementary School.

The first football team on campus that played was actually a high school team. Kent State Normal College had a teacher training school on campus that included a high school starting in 1914. It was first known as the Kent Normal High School (or Kent State Normal High School) and later simply as Kent State High School, "State", or "the University School" locally (official name was the Kent State University School, which included the Kent State University High School). By 1917, the beginning of the year for the high school's first graduating seniors (class of 1918), the school fielded its first competitive football team, though there are references to them playing scrimmages in years prior. I know at least one of their games was played at DePeyster Field that season, so I have assumed most, if not all, of their home games were also played there.

Dix Stadium

It's no secret that I love local history, but I also love history of sports, stadiums and arenas in particular. So it's of no surprise that I have studied the athletic facilities in this area, especially those at Kent State University. Thank goodness for the abundance of records available digitally that I can access, and also for the Kent State University Special Collections and Archives on the 12th floor of the library, where I spent quite a bit of time poring over old blueprints, athletic programs, and other documents!

Dix Stadium is the football stadium at Kent State University and is a place where I have spent a lot of time. My grandparents took my siblings and me to games as kids and I have attended games on my own every year that I have lived in Kent. Not only have I gone to dozens and dozens of games over the years, but I grew up all of a half mile from the stadium. Growing up, we could easily hear announcements from the stadium in our back yard. Even now, I drive past the stadium almost every day for various commutes to the southern and eastern parts of Portage County.

In just the past 10-15 years I've seen quite a few changes made to the stadium, but only recently have I really dug into its origins and early years. Some of what I've found is surprising, while other information is either confusing or not totally clear.

One of the great things about having my grandparents around is I can get a lot of first-hand information from them about the early years of the stadium. My grandpa is 89 and still has a very sharp memory. He served as the assistant dean the KSU College of Business until 1985 and was a season ticket holder for football and men's basketball for many years, so he spent a lot of time at Dix Stadium over the years until he was simply no longer able to come to games and stay comfortable.

Dix Stadium in 1969, with only the first few rows installed on the
new west stands
(Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives)

My grandpa was one of the 8,172 fans who were on hand for the very first game at Dix Stadium in 1969. At the time the stadium wasn't even completed yet. On the west ("home") stands, only 16 of 58 rows of seats had been installed and the locker rooms and press box were also not complete. In doing some research, there was apparently a construction accident earlier in the year that put work back several months. The stadium itself wasn't done until after the 1969 season, finished in either December 1969 or early 1970.

The most bizarre aspect of Dix Stadium is that it wasn't regarded as a new stadium, but rather as an "expansion and relocation" of the old Memorial Stadium. Memorial Stadium was located where the parking lot is for the KSU Student Center now. It was built in phases, the oldest of which opened in 1950, though the field had been used since 1941. Rather than just build an entirely new stadium in the late 60s, instead KSU dismantled all the main seating sections of Memorial Stadium and moved them about a mile down Summit Street to the new stadium site. The construction at Dix Stadium was to build a 12,772-seat grandstand on the west side of the field that had a new press box and locker rooms, along with 4 free-standing restroom facilities on each corner of the field. The seating sections from Memorial Stadium were used on the other three sides. Memorial Stadium's sideline grandstands became the new end zone seats at Dix Stadium while the 4 auxiliary bleacher sections became the new east stands, known mostly as the "visitor's section" (visitor fans no longer sit on that side of the stadium, however, as it is now the student section). Because Dix Stadium incorporated virtually all of Memorial Stadium's seats, obviously the university couldn't use the old stadium after the new stadium wasn't totally ready in time.

Memorial Stadium ca. 1968. All seating visible in this photo except the end zone bleachers
was moved to Dix Stadium in 1969. The buildings adjacent to the stadium from left are:
Bowman Hall, Lake-Olson Halls, and the Memorial Athletic & Convocation Center. This area is now
mainly occupied by the visitor parking lot for the Student Center
(Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives)

Top photo is of Memorial Stadium when it was new in 1950. Bottom photo is the same
grandstand in 2008, but now in the north end zone of Dix Stadium. The old press box was
removed in 2007.
(Top photo from 1951 Chestnut Burr; Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives)

Those Who Fail to Plan...

Document outlining the future plans for what is now
Dix Stadium. 

The most surprising aspect of Dix Stadium that I discovered were the original long-range plans for its development, most of which were never followed. The most disappointing one to me is the plan for the east side seating area. As I mentioned above, the east side seating, which up until about 2000 was where fans from the visiting team sat, was actually made up of four separate stands of wooden bleacher seats. In the original plans for Dix Stadium, those were considered temporary seats and were supposed to have been removed by 1973 and replaced with an 18-row section of concrete seating. Eventually, that would have been extended to 58 rows to duplicate the west side stands, bringing the seating capacity to around 35,000. The last phase of expansion would have been to add an upper deck on each side of the stadium, bringing total capacity to around 50,000. I would love to see an architectural rendering of what that would've looked like as it's hard to imagine an upper deck at Dix Stadium.

Those "temporary" wooden bleachers ended up being removed, but not for over 30 years. After the 2001 season they were condemned and torn down. During the 2002 season, that area was left empty before a new, smaller section of aluminium bleachers were built on that site for the student section.

Why weren't the plans followed? Well, for one, they were contingent on the team continuing to win, which didn't happen much. Even so, the first few years at Dix Stadium, KSU football did very well and was drawing decent crowds. The two largest crowds in stadium history were both set in 1973 (27,363 and 25,137), though the first recorded sellout didn't occur until 2010 (with a smaller seating capacity). After that, though, attendance was pretty low and crowds above 20,000 were rare.

East side stands (student section) with Field House in the rear in 2010.
The north stands can be seen on the left.

The other factor was likely the effects of the 1970 Kent State shootings, which occurred just after the stadium was initially completed. The shootings caused a decline in enrollment at KSU, which in turn led to budget cuts across the university, so it is of no surprise to me that stadium expansion or upgrades may have been one of those casualties. The only major athletic-related capital project in the 1970s was the controversial construction of the Gym Annex in 1977, and that was more related to physical education than to athletics.  The plans that did largely come to pass are that Dix Stadium is the center of an athletic complex, though not quite as large as the original plans, which included a new basketball arena in the field across Summit Street from the stadium. The field house, built in 1989, was mentioned in the 1970s plans as well as including other athletic fields. As of 2014, field hockey, women's soccer, softball, and indoor track all have facilities in and around Dix Stadium along with football.

Personally I wish KSU would look back on those original plans and use them in their current upgrades to the stadium. I don't think anyone expects the 50,000 seat plan to be followed, but the original idea to have the east side and west side look similar would be quite an improvement over the current setup. The east side stands built in 2003 just don't look like something you'd expect to see at a Division I FBS school. It's made worse by the fact that television cameras are located on the much larger west stands, so TV audiences see the very small east stands in the background (which seats just 4,104), so the stadium looks even smaller than it actually is. Originally, the cameras were located at the top of the east stands, so the west stands were in the background. Aesthetically it's also bizarre that you have a section with almost 13,000 opposite a section with just 4,000, while the north end zone section between them has almost 6,000 seats.

Dix?

Another interesting aspect of Dix Stadium is the name itself. The stadium is named for Robert C. Dix, who was a member of the Kent State Board of Trustees for some 30 years and also was editor of the Record-Courier newspaper. Locally, the Dix name is known for Dix Communications, which owns several media outlets, including the Record-Courier. Dix Communications is now partially headquartered in Kent while the rest of its headquarters is in Wooster, Ohio. Anyway, my aforementioned grandpa was part of a committee established in the early 1970s to name the stadium. When it opened in 1969, it was known as Memorial Stadium since it was regarded as an expansion and relocation of the existing Memorial Stadium, rather than a new facility.

My grandpa said there was no consensus in the committee (which included the likes of Jack Lambert) on who to name it for, but the various ideas floating around were all athletic-related such as former KSU players and coaches. He said no one even mentioned Robert C. Dix as an option. After the university announced that the stadium was to be named for Dix, my grandpa wrote a letter to the university letting them know to never again call him to be on such a committee that he felt was a complete waste of his time since they did not use any of the naming recommendations the committee gave. One of the suggestions from a committee member, though, was selling the naming rights to a company. While that is commonplace now, it wasn't the case in the early 1970s. In any case, the "Dix Stadium" name became official in 1973.

Just How Many?

Another sort of mystery or source of confusion for me is the actual seating capacity of the stadium. News articles from the time it opened list its capacity at 28,748. Later, the capacity was listed at 30,520 in media guides. This number is listed as the capacity until 2003 (it's even used in the 2002 guides even though the east stands weren't there the entire season). In 2003, with the opening of a newer and smaller east stand, the capacity was changed to 29,287, a loss of 1,233 seats. In 2008, after the south end zone seating was removed, the capacity was listed at a generic "25,000", until 2010, when the capacity suddenly "dropped" to 20,500. That was the official listed capacity until 2013, when, despite no new construction, the stadium got about 5,000 more seats to have a listed capacity of 25,319.

The one consistent number I have found is that the west stands have seating for 12,772. That number is present in the architectural plans and news reports from the late 1960s and in media guides over several decades, plus the west stands have had no major changes made beyond new paint. I could only find one game program that listed the seating capacities for each section, from the mid 1980s: 12,772 for the west stands, 5,976 for the original east stands, and 5,726 for both the north and south end zone sections (which were virtually identical). It also has a "Southeast Corner" section with 320 seats that isn't on the stadium seating diagram nor is it one I remember ever seeing in all my years going to games. All of that added together was where the 30,520 total comes from. The new east stands built in 2003 were listed in a 2008 media guide as having 4,104 seats, so that explains why capacity went down in 2003, though the new section is 1,872 seats smaller than its predecessor yet the overall stadium capacity only dropped by 1,233 even though there were no additional seats added elsewhere that I am aware of.

The 5,726 total for the north and south end zones is interesting because when Memorial Stadium opened in 1950, it consisted of one grandstand (which is now the Dix Stadium north end zone...pictured above) and some auxiliary bleachers on the opposite side of the field. The listed seating capacity for Memorial Stadium then was 5,600. Obviously that's an estimate, but it seems odd that the 1980s total for that section of seats is higher than the 1950 total without auxiliary seating in the count. Edit: turns out, the initial capacity for Memorial Stadium was actually about 7,000, which included the main grandstand and auxiliary seating, so the 5,726 for that section seems accurate!

If the totals from that 1980s game program are correct along with the 4,104 total for the current east stands, then the current seating capacity of Dix Stadium is 22,602. Now, there is a difference between seating capacity and total capacity too. Obviously since the stadium has a large plaza in the south end zone, smaller open areas on either side of the east stands, and virtually all of the seating is made of of bleachers, more people than the total seating capacity can be in the stadium, but still, I do wonder where the current 25,319 figure comes from and why there is so much discrepancy, especially in the last few years. Have they started counting seats that hadn't previously been counted? Has the university changed how they divide the bleacher seats in the various sections? Do they include the standing room only sections in the capacity? At this point, the latter is the only explanation I can find. The largest crowd since the most recent renovations was 24,221 in 2010. At the time, it was almost 4,000 over the listed capacity, but now it appears it was slightly below the listed capacity even though no changes to the seating have been made between 2008 and now. That game, however, was the first official sellout for Kent State football at Dix Stadium.

Location, Location, Location

The other aspect of Dix Stadium's history I've always wondered about is why the stadium was built where it is. In studying the contemporary news stories, there aren't any specific reasons given by those who were responsible for the stadium's development.  Based on reading those stories and what I know about developments that were going on around it at the time, though, I can make a fairly educated guess.

Dix Stadium in 1970. The rest of campus can be seen in the upper
right corner of the picture
(Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives)

First, the reason they needed to move the stadium away from the Memorial Stadium site was due to the growth of campus in the 1950s. When the athletic fields that later became Memorial Stadium were built, that was the edge of campus. By 1964, there were several more buildings and campus was starting to "pass" Memorial Stadium to the point that it was becoming more central to the campus instead of the edge. University officials wanted to build a new University Center (library and student center), and that location seemed to be best geographically based on the how campus was at the time and the long-range plans.

OK, but why did they choose a site that was, at the time, off-campus? That specific reason is never mentioned, but my guesses have to do first with cars. A big part of the Dix Stadium project was the parking lot for a few thousand cars, so they needed a very large area. The Dix Stadium site is about a mile from the edge of campus (at that time), though today it doesn't seem nearly as far as it did in 1969 as campus has expanded further east. I don't consider Dix Stadium to be "off-campus". It has plenty of space not only for ample parking, but has allowed for the other athletic facilities to be built there. The university did want an athletic complex at that site in time.

Another reason that may have played into the decision to locate there specifically was the proximity to what is now State Route 261. In the late 1960s, plans were in place to make what is now SR 261 a 4-lane limited access freeway that would have had an exit at Summit right near the stadium site (at the time, SR 261 entered Kent via Cherry Street, then followed South Water Street and SR 43 north to downtown Kent where it ended at the intersection of Main and Water Streets). The portion of 261 now that runs north-south from SR 59 to just past Summit Street was originally going to be part of a divided 4-lane limited access highway SR 435 going between SR 14 in the north and I-76 in the south. 261 was supposed to tie in to SR 435 just south of Summit. The overall project was only partially realized with 261 being built as a divided highway from just south of Summit to just east of the Kent-Tallmadge border, completed in the early 1970s. The property lines, though, still reflect where the on-ramps and interchanges would have been. It makes sense that having the stadium and its huge parking lot directly accessible to the highways would have been preferable, especially in the late 60s when the general planning mindset favored more highway construction.

1968 Land Use and Thoroughfare Plan for Kent and Franklin Township. I added a few labels.
Of these plans, part of SR 261 was built (without any highway interchanges) and Haymaker
Parkway, which can be seen on the left side. 435 was never built, though part of SR 261 follows
the SR 435 route between Summit Street and SR 59. 

Property map of the Dix Stadium area today. The location of the planned interchange of what would have been SRs 261 and 435 and the exit ramp to Summit Street (all visible in the bottom right of the picture above) can still be seen in the property lines even though the project was abandoned years ago.
(Portage County Auditor)

I haven't really touched on all the more recent changes made in 2007 and 2008, or the upcoming plans for the stadium and the entire athletic complex. To see more, be sure to visit www.ksubuildingchampions.com.

The Wagon Wheel myth

Locally, the big college rivalry is between Kent State University and The University of Akron. Both schools are roughly the same size and since they're only about 10 miles apart, it's pretty natural that not only would there be a rivalry, but it would something that is regularly contested in sports. Like most rivalries, the biggest games are the football and men's basketball. The rivalry also features a trophy that goes to the winner of that year's football game. For Kent State and Akron, that trophy is an old wagon wheel pained blue and gold, which are the school colors for both schools. While the trophy itself continues to be held by the team that wins that year's football game, since 2011, the Wagon Wheel Challenge is held involving all sports. The background of the actual Wagon Wheel, though, is another example of folk history that has become accepted as truth despite having no real basis.

Wagon Wheel Challenge logo showing the current point total for each school. Points are from wins in head-to-head competition between the two schools. In addition to winning the actual Wagon Wheel trophy in 2011 and 2012, KSU also won the challenges each year.

The Kent State-Akron football rivalry was first held in 1923, a 32-0 Akron win, though it was not a regularly held contest at first. No games were played between the two schools from 1924 until 1928. It became an annual game from 1928 through the 1936 game, all of which were Akron wins except a scoreless tie in 1932. The game took another hiatus from 1937 until 1940. After one more more Akron win, Kent finally broke through in 1942 with a 23-7 win. World War II would be the next interruption for the series from 1943 through the 1945 season as neither school fielded a football team during those years, which was the case for many other schools across the country. The game resumed in 1946, which is the first year the Wagon Wheel was contested. Kent State went on a dominating run from then on, including a 31-0 win in 1948, a 47-0 win in 1949, a 48-7 win in 1951, and a 54-19 win in 1953 culminated by a 58-18 win in 1954. After that game, which was Kent State's 10th consecutive win over the Zips, the series was discontinued as being noncompetitive. It would not be played again until 1972, which resulted in a 13-13 tie. After that, it was played in 1974, 1979, and 1981 and has been played every year since the 1983 game, with the exception of 1991. Akron joining the Mid-American Conference in 1992 made the game a conference game again for the first time since 1950, when both teams were members of the Ohio Athletic Conference.

The Wagon Wheel in 2012 after Kent State won 35-24 in Kent.
Photo is originally from the Akron Beacon Journal and was also used
on Cleveland.com.

The Wagon Wheel trophy was the idea of Dr. Raymond Manchester at Kent State, who was the dean of men during the 1940s. How or where he got the wheel is not recorded, but he had it in 1945 and suggested it be used as a trophy between the schools. He concocted a myth about the wheel's history connecting it to both John R. Buchtel (pronounced BOOK tul), the namesake for the original name of The University of Akron (Buchtel College), and Kent State, near where the wheel was reportedly found in 1902, to make it something that both schools would want to play for.

The legend passed around in the newspapers and media guides for both schools is that the wheel was part of a wagon of John R. Buchtel, who was searching for a site for a new school. While in Kent around 1870 near the future site of Kent State University, the wagon got stuck in the mud and the horses pulled it apart as they tried to break free. One of the wheels got buried in the mud and was found in 1902 during construction of a pipeline or a building (different accounts use one or the other). Eventually, Buchtel chose Akron as the site for the school, known as Buchtel College, which eventually became The University of Akron. An "account" of the story from the 1955 KSU yearbook Chestnut Burr states that Buchtel chose Akron right after the horses broke his wagon in the mud. In any account, that's the basic legend and while there are some real people (John R. Buchtel) and places (Akron and Kent), the rest of the story fails miserably when put up against actual history.

Explanation of the wheel from the 1955 Chestnut Burr at Kent State, the year after the rivalry was ended until 1972.

First is the role of John R. Buchtel in the founding of the University of Akron. Yes, it is true that the school originally was named after him. What is not true is that the decision of what town to put the college was Buchtel's to make nor is it true that it was Buchtel's school. The University of Akron was founded in 1870 and was first known as Buchtel College, because of a large monetary gift from Buchtel. According to the 1908 Centennial History of Summit County, Ohio, initially, the Universalist convention wanted to name the school "Murray Centennial College" or "Buchtel Universalist College." When Buchtel was asked what his opinion was, he said: "name it what you like. The college is yours, not mine. It shall have my hearty support. If prospered, I expect to give it one hundred thousand dollars." The account continues: "Then it was unanimously voted to name the child of the Ohio Universalist convention Buchtel College, in honor of the man who financially most loyally aided it in its infancy."(pp. 203-204) The University of Akron's own history page also states "The Universalist Church founded Buchtel College, the forerunner of The University of Akron, in 1870."

John R. Buchtel. One of the high
schools in Akron is also named for him

So, the school was created by the Ohio Universalist convention, not Buchtel, and was associated with the Universalists until 1913, when the school was sold to the city of Akron. It became a state university in 1968. Buchtel did have ties to Kent as he was a member of the Kent Universalist congregation, founded in 1866, which, for a time, was the closest Universalist congregation. Akron had previously been home to a Universalist congregation, but it closed in 1853 and a new Akron congregation wasn't established until 1872 when the college opened. That means he was certainly in Kent multiple times during this time period and he most definitely had a horse-drawn carriage.

In their search to locate this new college, the Universalists did consider Kent, along with some other cities in the state (Mt. Gilead in particular and initially Oxford, home of Miami University). The site in Kent offered was the eventual site of the original campus (what is known as Front Campus) at Kent State University, the former William S. Kent farm at Lincoln and Main. While Kent had financial backing to secure the school, "there was a strong prejudice on account of its reputation of unhealthfulness" (Centennial History of Summit County, Ohio, p. 202) which basically eliminated Kent as a possibility. The convention nearly put the school in Mt. Gilead (more centrally located in Ohio) as they had investigated Akron as a site but with "unsatisfactory results." Later, several Akron businessmen met together and convinced the actual man in charge, financial secretary Rev. H.L. Miller, to come back to Akron and "re-investigate." The second visit was much better than the first as there was an organized push to get subscribers. Buchtel became a strong supporter of putting the school in his hometown and donated the initial $6,000 for the $60,000 building fund and $2,500 for the endowment.

So, Buchtel clearly did not establish the school himself (though he is sometimes referred as the "founder" and clearly played a large role in the establishment of it), nor did he go out and search for a host community. Again, it was not his decision and he clearly advocated for Akron to host the new school.

Statue of John R. Buchtel on the campus of The University of Akron that describes him as the
"Founder" of Buchtel College (photo from Wikipedia)

Kent's other connection to the founding of Buchtel College is that the person who first proposed the Ohio Universalist convention establish a school was Rev. Andrew Willson, who was the pastor of the Kent congregation at that time and also served as the chairman of the convention's Committee on Education. He first presented the plan in 1867 in Mt. Gilead and again in 1868 at Dayton. Willson, of course, favored putting the school in Kent, but after it was apparent that Kent would not be chosen, he supported Akron as the site for the new school.

The other issue in the story is where the wheel came from and if that's true. 1902 for the discovery of the wheel seems plausible at the very least. Kent had a municipal water system by the late 19th century, so a pipe could've been constructed, or a building, depending on exactly where it was found. There really wasn't a whole lot in the area where campus is now even in 1902, but an old wagon wheel buried in the mud is entirely possible. Heck, it could've very well been John R. Buchtel's own wagon, but he certainly wasn't scouting a site for the Universalist college.

In conclusion, while the evidence does not conclusively rule out the possibility that the Wagon Wheel was part of John R. Buchtel's carriage, it seems to indicate it's most likely not his, though. The evidence certainly eliminates the possibility that even if it did happen to be from Buchtel's carriage, it certainly wasn't part of him scouting for a site for a school in Kent and it had absolutely no bearing on the college being located in Akron. What is true, though, is that the histories of Kent State University and The University of Akron do have connections, which is hardly surprising considering how close they are to one another. What is now Kent State University could very well have started off much earlier as a Universalist college. Who knows, if history had been different, maybe the rivalry would be between The University of Kent and Akron State University?