The intercollegiate athletic teams of Kent state University are known as the Golden Flashes or simply as the Flashes. The university field’s sixteen varsity athletic teams and all of the teams play in the Mid-American Conference and in the NCAA's Division I (Division I-A Football Bowl Subdivision for football).
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The head coach of the Golden Flashes football team is Doug Martin. Martin came to Kent State as an offensive coordinator in the year 2003 after spending 11 seasons (1992-2002) as an assistant coach at East Carolina. He has an overall record of 12-18, which includes a 6-6 overall mark and 5-3 in Mid-American Conference play for the year 2006.
Kent State met with defeats in the two post-season bowl appearances. In the year 1954 trip to the now-defunct Refrigerator Bowl in Evansville, Indiana, they lost to the Delaware Blue Hens by a margin of 19-7 and in the year 1972 bid to the Tangerine Bowl in Orlando, Florida, they lost to the University of Tampa by a margin of 21-18. Although the team is not credited with many successes, but the University has sent a fair amount of players to the ranks of the National Football League as well as in other areas of college football. Current Alabama head coach, Nick Saban played for the Golden Flashes from the years 1971 to 1974. The players who presently play football at Kent State include Joshua Cribbs of the Cleveland Browns and James Harrison of the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Dix stadium that houses the Golden Flashes team was named in honor of Robert C. Dix, a member of Kent's Board of Trustees for more than three decades and it has a seating capacity of 29,287 spectators.