The convoluted (and sometimes controversial) chronology of Kent Stateâs mascot
Compiled by Jan Senn, Photos courtesy of Special Collections & Archives
There are multiple versions of this taleâand several claims to be the âfirst official mascotââbut we consulted previous histories and Kent Stateâs digital collection to piece together the puzzle using primary sources whenever possible. Hereâs our attempt to tell the story of how ĂÛŃżapparrived at its moniker and mascotâwhile grappling with the question, âWhat exactly is a Golden Flash, anyway?â
1920â25 ĂÛŃżappNormal College establishes its first âreal football team with full equipment [and] honest-to-goodness coachâ in 1920 (1921 Chestnut Burr), but goes without scoringâor a nameâuntil they call the 1923 team the âSilver Foxes,â after the silver fox ranch adjacent to campus that is co-owned by the schoolâs first president, John McGilvrey (1923 Chestnut Burr). The 1923 team scores the college's first touchdown and receives this accolade: âThe Silver Foxes . . . created a fighting spirit that will liveâan undying determination that will make the football record at ĂÛŃżappin the future a thing of joyâ (1924 Chestnut Burr). There is no mention of a silver fox (1) ever attending a game.
1926â27 The Board of Trustees dismisses President McGilvrey in January 1926, after his repeated attempts to advance the schoolâs standing antagonizes the Ohio legislature and the president of The Ohio State University. Acting president T. Howard Winters supposedly institutes a contest (with a $25 prize) to select a new name for ĂÛŃżappathletic teams, and Golden Flashes wins (The Years of Youth by Phillip R. Shriver). However, the Nov. 29, 1927 Kent Stater and the 1927 Chestnut Burr still refer to the athletic teams as the Silver Foxes.
1928 The name Golden Flashes appears without ceremony in the Jan. 13, 1928 Kent Stater and in the caption for the basketball team in the 1928 Chestnut Burr. However, an ad appears in the June 1, 1928 Kent Stater: âName still open, to be decided Wednesday. âGive Kentâs Athletic Teams a Name Contestâ will be decided once and for all at the Recognition Day Banquet . . . at the time to be named, the Orphans of Kent will officially have a name.â Names to be voted on include the already recognized âSilver Foxesâ and âGolden Flashes,â but âHurricanesâ and âWarriorsâ are strong contenders.
âGolden Flashes,â which apparently wins again, is said to be derived from the popular California Golden Bears at the University of California, Berkeley, national champions in 1920. Oliver Wolcott, who played football at ĂÛŃżappin 1922 and became sports editor of the Kent Courier-Tribune, perpetuates its use in his columns (as recalled in a recording, circa 1983, by Richard "Moose" Paskert â49, athlete, coach and administrator in the athletics program for more than 40 years). ĂÛŃżappteams use the symbol of a lightning bolt (2) for many years.
1941 The Sept. 25, 1941 Kent Stater claims that at the eveningâs pep rally, âMascot to be Surprise: Feature of the evening is to be the first appearance of a mascot on the Kent Campus.â Georgie Starn, young son of head coach Rosie Starn, leads a three-month-old German shepherd puppy named âKimâ onto the stage. The dog has been offered as a mascot by Jack Kauvar, sophomore cheerleader, to âcavort at all the Blue and Gold games.â However, subsequent issues of the Kent Stater report that Kauvar is accepting donations to pay for the dogâs hospital bills (Oct. 9), that he doesnât have time to keep Kim any more and needs to find him a good home (Oct. 15), that three people have offered to raise the puppy (Oct. 16) and finally that Kauvar has loaned Kim to the Sigma Tau Gamma Fraternity, but will continue to see that he is fed (Oct. 23).
1955 The cover of the December 1955 Kent Alumnus is a photo of a golden retriever puppy wearing a cape branded with a âKâ (3). The caption reads: âFour-month-old ĂÛŃżappUniversity Golden Flasher I is the universityâs first official mascot. A gift of the Ravenna Kennel Club, our mascot is a golden retriever from the Cheyenne Golden Kennels in Kansas and will weigh eighty pounds when full grown.â For a time, the dog appears at all home games, but develops a bone disease and has to be replaced (Paskert recording).
1957â61 An ad for postcards of Golden Flasher II appears in the Jan. 23, 1957 Daily Kent Stater, and the 1958 Chestnut Burr notes that âBy selling dinks to freshmen and mums for Homecoming, the Golden K group [formed to encourage student support at athletic activities] makes enough money to care for the KSU mascot, Golden Flasher II.â However, a three-month disagreement between the Golden K and the Student Council over expenditures results in Golden K âgiftingâ the dog to the council, which then debates what to do with it (Feb. 9, 1961 Daily Kent Stater). Golden K eventually gives the dog away and asks to use the funds formerly allocated for its care to make âa mascot out of a person dressed in a costume.â Council holds the funds in reserve until Golden K can be more specific about the project and its cost (June 1, 1961 Daily Kent Stater).
1968â74 Grog, the caveman character from the popular comic strip B.C., arrives on the scene. Conceived of in the spring of 1967 by Joe Joyce â69 and Gene Ferrara â74 of the Chestnut League (the revamped spirit organization formed in 1964), he doesnât show up at games until the fall of 1968 (Feb. 26, 1969 Daily Kent Stater). In the meantime, Chuck Ayers â71, cartoonist for the Daily Kent Stater, requests permission to use Grog as Kent Stateâs mascot from its creator, cartoonist Johnny Hart (March 4, 1971, Daily Kent Stater).
The eight-foot-tall, 50-pound costume is made of wood supports and furry cloth by Esser Costume Co. of Pittsburgh for $500 ( 1978 Homecoming supplement, Daily Kent Stater).
âIt was heavy and hotââ says then ĂÛŃżappbaseball player Ron DeGrand â74, who wore the costume in 1970â72 at both football and basketball games. âI would be wringing wet after a basketball game. But nobody could figure out what a Flash was, so Grog was as good a mascot as any.â
Despite misadventures when the costume temporarily goes missing several times, Grog (4) continues to amuse fans until 1974, when he is phased out as mascot by the athletic department. He still shows up as a logo on DuBois Bookstore bags for years afterward.
1971â74 During the tenure of head football coach Don James, the athletic department introduces a western-themed horse and rider (5) for all Dix Stadium games. The horse cantors up and down the sidelines during the game and up the 50-yard line following a touchdown. Gary Urchek â77, whose father was friends with Don James, rode his Arabian stallion, Raffstar, for one season, but says he also borrowed a golden palomino at the request of the athletic department (who called it Golden Flasher). His sister, Diane Urchek Coe â76, â86 MEd, took over the next season and also rode Raffstar, as seen in a photo (6) from the 1974 Chestnut Burr (Paskert recording, Urchek interview).
In 1972, members of a Name Change Committee mount an effort to change the athletic team name. âItâs a dynamic name and an original one,â protests sports writer Dave Wolfson â72 in the April 7, 1972 Daily Kent Stater. âAsk current team members and past members, and the overwhelming majority will favor keeping the current nickname. They carried the name of âGolden Flashesâ with pride and they are not ready for it to be needlessly thrown out.â The name stays.
1977 A golden retriever mascot returns to the scene and is proclaimed KSUâs âfirst official mascotâ (Oct. 14, 1977, Daily Kent Stater). The 19-week-old golden retrieverâdonated by the Blue and Gold Club, a KSU booster organizationâis named âMAC the Flashâ by Karen Fuller â73, who wins a âname the mascotâ contest held by the athletic department and WKNT radio. âThere was no poll or contest for students to help decide what mascot would be selected,â Terry Barnardâ sports information director says. âButâ officially, Flash represents the intercollegiate athletic department, not the student bodyâ (Oct. 6â 1978 Daily Kent Stater). He remains the mascot (7) at least until 1979.
1981â83 After the golden retriever, the mascot reverts back âto costumed individuals roaming about in attire with lightning boltsâ (Paskert recording), perhaps based on a drawing of a superhero brandishing lightning flashes and signed âHinkel â81â (8). The costumed characters apparently go under various namesâ including Freddie Flashâ Golden Flashâ Flashman and Captain Flash (9)â as seen in a photo from the 1982 Chestnut Burr.
1985 To increase school spirit and introduce a new era during the universityâs sesquicentennial, the athletics department hatches an elaborate and carefully scripted campaign to unveil âKent Stateâs first official mascot, FlashâThe Golden Eagleâ during the Oct. 12 Homecoming game against the University of Texas-El Paso (Oct. 15, 1985 Daily Kent Stater). Terry Barnardâ then director of Athletic Marketing and Communicationsâ says an eagle was chosen because the university wanted something proud and âthere is nothing prouder than an eagleâ (Sept. 3, 1985, Daily Kent Stater). A new logo also includes an eagle.
Many people prepare for the reveal, including students in the Kent Technology Education Club who put in more than 300 hours to construct a giant egg (10) out of fiberglass and resin, which is brought onto the field at halftime. As the band plays, the egg opens, a student in a golden eagle costume (11) runs to the 50-yard line, and a live golden eagle flies from the band tunnel to a perch on centerfield. The 23-year-old golden eagle, formerly named Wembli, is christened as âFlashâ (12) during the festivities. It lives in Baden, Pa., with its handler, Earl Shriver Jr. and appears at select home events until the mid-90s.
Additional costumes are made, such as this 1986 one (13) for basketball games. Although the golden eagle is met with some scorn by students who object to having no part in creating âa unique mascot,â (Oct. 22, 1985 Daily Kent Stater), it endures, in updated versions, as the schoolâs official mascot (14).
2008 A new live golden eagle, Flash, makes its debut as Kent Stateâs official mascot on Jan. 23, 2008, prior to a menâs basketball game with Akron (15). Hit by a truck in Californiaâ the rescued bird was sent to Back to the Wild, a wildlife rehabilitation and nature education center in Castalia, Ohio. It is disabled and unable to return to the wild, says Mona Rutger, founder of Back to the Wild, who uses fees from renting the eagle to benefit the centerâs mission.
However, a representative from PETA, contacted by someone concerned about the eagleâs role at sporting events, writes a letter urging ĂÛŃżappto use a costumed mascot instead. Rutger says the eagle preens its feathers and eats after the games, signs that it is not stressed. Stillâ she agrees that having a bird at a sporting event isnât ideal (June 18, 2008 Summer Kent Stater).
Flash Today
âFrom what I understandâ there are no plans to use a live animal as a mascotââ says James Tunney â15, who handles the scheduling for Flash in both human and inflatable form. âLife is easier with a human inside a furry suit. I think weâre going to stick with that.â
Facts about Flash
- Flash is always referred to as a maleâ no matter the sex of the person inside the suit.
- There is one main Flash for football games (scheduled from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and alternate Flashes for one-hour events.
- Students who audition for Flash (preferably 5'5" to 5'9") are scored in eight categories: enthusiasmâ creativityâ interaction with studentsâ reaction to surroundingsâ portrayal of emotionâ animationâ ease of movementâ overall appearance and presence.
- The Flash mascot costumes are built by Scollon Productions Inc. in White Rock, S.C.
- Each suit is washed after use if the event is over one hour in length; the bicycle helmet inside the Flash head is disinfected once a week, as are the feet; and the fur on both the head and suit is brushed two to three times per month or as needed. So Flash is fresh!
Flash attends all football, menâs/womenâs basketball and volleyball matches; select wrestling, gymnastics, baseball and softball games; and campus and community events when needed.
For more information or to hire Flash for a corporate or private event, contact ksuflashesmascot@gmail.com, call 330-672-3970, or fill out the .