For 100 years, The Kent Stater has chronicled the people, events and moments that have transformed Kent State and the world beyond its campus.
This fall, as Kent State celebrates its centennial with the Homecoming theme “Every Flash Has a Story,” generations of those storytellers will return to campus. Former Kent Stater staff members have been invited to serve as grand marshals of the Homecoming parade, celebrating a century of student journalism and countless stories told along the way.
The story of The Kent Stater began Feb. 25, 1926, when the first issue of the student publication, then known as The Searchlight, was published. In July of that same year, the publication took the name it carries today. In 1953, The Kent Stater adopted a daily publishing schedule, further establishing its place in the life of the growing university.
From its earliest days, the newspaper has chronicled more than just campus events. Its pages have captured moments of local, national and international significance, offering generations of Kent State students a view of the world and maintaining a record of how that world was experienced on campus.
The Kent Stater’s pages have long connected Kent State to the larger world. In 1927, the newspaper chronicled Charles Lindbergh’s historic transatlantic flight, capturing a moment that had taken over the nation. The story appeared alongside the everyday news of campus life, reflecting the role the student publication would continue to play for the next century.
The Kent Stater’s coverage of V-E Day in 1945, brought the end of the war in Europe directly into the Kent State community. Students gathered around radios waiting for official confirmation of Germany’s surrender. Others thought about family members serving overseas and the possibility that they might finally return home. The issue did more than report the news; it captured the emotions surrounding it. Students expressed relief and hope while recognizing that the war in the Pacific continued. The paper also identified Kent State students who were missing in action overseas, connecting a historic global event to the university’s own community.
Eighteen years later, The Kent Stater documented a moment of national tragedy. Following the assasination of President John F. Kennedy in November 1963, the newspaper reported on the implications of the assasination through the perspectives of Kent State professors, while also capturing the immediate reactions of students. Classes and campus activities were canceled as the university observed a period of mourning.
Then, in 1970, the story was no longer happening somewhere else. There was no issue of The Kent Stater published on May 4, 1970. At the time, despite its title, the newspaper was published Tuesday through Friday during the regular academic term. Following the shootings that day, campus closed for several weeks and students were sent home. Publication was suspended until students returned to campus and the Kent State University Summer News resumed publication on June 26.
The absence of a May 4 issue is itself part of the newspaper’s history. The events that unfolded on campus changed the university, the nation and the lives of generations of Flashes. The Kent Stater would go on to chronicle the aftermath and the continuing conversation surrounding May 4. A year later, the publication reported on the Pulitzer Prize awarded to John Filo, a Kent State senior journalism major, for photographs he took during May 4.
May 4 demonstrated another role The Kent Stater has played throughout history. It has not only brought events from around the world to Kent State, but also helped document events that would go on to define Kent State itself.
Nearly two decades later, the newspaper once again turned its attention beyond Kent. In 1989, The Kent Stater covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, a defining moment in the end of the Cold War. The coverage examined the significance of the event while also relying on Kent State faculty for insight into what the changes might mean.
On Sept. 11, 2001, history once again arrived in a way that would change the world. The Kent Stater’s coverage of the terrorist attacks documented the immediate impact of the events and their effect on the Kent State community. Like the issues that came before it, the paper served as both a record of a historic moment and a reflection of how students, faculty and the university community were experiencing it.
For a century, students have stepped into the newsroom to report on the experiences shaping their university and their world. They have documented the moments that made national headlines and the stories that mattered to the people who lived them. The medium has changed. The way students receive news has changed. The world itself has changed. But the need for students to tell Kent State’s story has remained.
Now, 100 years after the first issue, the people who helped tell those stories will become part of one themselves. As former Kent Stater staff members lead the Homecoming parade, they will mark a century of student journalism and a tradition that has connected generations of Golden Flashes.
To sign up as a grand marshal, please complete this brief form.
To share your story as part of Every Flash Has a Story, visit the survey page and share your experience as a video or written entry.
Visit the Homecoming website to learn more about what’s in store for Oct. 3 and to sign up to receive text messages so you don’t miss any of the action!
