Kent, Ohio - Sports

Sports

See also: Kent State Golden Flashes

As the home of Kent State University, Kent is also the home of the university's athletic teams, the Golden Flashes, who compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division I level as a member of the Mid-American Conference East Division. Several of Kent State's teams have enjoyed league and national success, the most notable being the men's basketball team's run to the Elite Eight in the 2002 NCAA Basketball Tournament. The 6,327-seat Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center, commonly referred to as the MAC Center, is the site of a number of athletic events in multiple sports, including periodically hosting the Mid-American Conference's wrestling and women's gymnastics championships.

In addition to hosting the KSU football team, Kent State's 20,500-seat Dix Stadium has been a venue for high school football games both in the regular-season and the state playoffs. The adjacent Murphy-Mellis Field is a location for Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) field hockey tournament games and the Diamond at Dix is a site for OHSAA regional softball tournament games. From 1975 to 1981 the Cleveland Browns held their training camp in Kent at Kent State University.

The Kent State University Ice Arena serves as host to several local ice hockey programs including youth leagues, high school and professional teams, and as a site for OHSAA high school tournament games and ice skating competitions in addition to being home of KSU's club team, which competes in the American Collegiate Hockey Association. The ice arena is also the home of the Kent Twisters, a member of the Pennsylvania-Ohio Women's Hockey Association, an adult amateur women's ice hockey league. Kent also plays host to the Portage County Open tennis tournament, held annually at the tennis courts of Theodore Roosevelt High School.

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Famous quotes containing the word sports:

    “There be some sports are painful, and their labor
    Delight in them sets off. Some kinds of baseness
    Are nobly undergone, and most poor matters
    Point to rich ends.”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his Neighbour.”
    —Joseph Addison (1672–1719)

    “The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?”
    —Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)