- Tom Hardesty
I recently finished reading Chas Madonio’s book “Bars, Bands, and Rock ‘n Roll: The Golden Era in Kent, Ohio,” which was published by Kent Historical Society Press in 2022. Like I said awhile back, I had a stack of books to get through, so I got to Chas’ eyewitness account of the wild Kent bar scene in the 1960s and ’70s a little late.
- Tom Hardesty
What happened? Where were all the football players? That’s what Novell wanted to know. Joe Adolph had some answers – and together they have come up with what they hope is a solution.
- Tom Hardesty
July 1 will mark 20 years since the day my dad died. He was only 63 years old and looked great. I had just talked to him on the phone two days earlier, and he sounded great. That was a Wednesday afternoon. By about 7 o’clock Friday evening, he was gone, the victim of a heart attack while sitting on the couch in his living room. Toward the end of our Wednesday conversation, Dad was trying to think of something […]
- Tom Hardesty
I was all set to write this as soon as the 2025 NFL Draft ended, but I figured: A. I’d let the dust settle a little bit, and B. Browns fans were crowding the ledge after the Shedeur Sanders pick so better to make sure everyone had gotten safely back inside.
- Tom Hardesty
April having come and gone, it got me thinking: April Fools’ Day just doesn’t cut it. Yeah, it’s a day for jokes, pranks and assorted other mischief, some of which are repeated year after year, others which are new and inventive. Some are clever, others are downright cruel. Some result in belly laughs and guffaws, others in fistfights.
- Tom Hardesty
Late July, 1983. I was camped out on the bed in my mom and dad’s room, my leg sporting a cast from the foot to the knee and propped up on some pillows, and sweat dripping from every pore in my body in the sweltering heat of the little bedroom, which, thanks to the fact our house didn’t have air conditioning, was like sitting in a blast furnace.
- Tom Hardesty
Buckeye Nation has been basking for a month now, Ryan Day has made the rounds on the talk show circuit, and the national championship trophy sits in Columbus, Ohio.
- Tom Hardesty
It’s been the better part of 40 to 50 years now, but I still vividly remember the big Christmas Day family gatherings at my grandparents’ house in Brimfield.
- Tom Hardesty
A lot of you probably spent the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 30 like I did: watching the Ohio State-Michigan game.
- Tom Hardesty
In November 2001, my wife Kim and I decided it would make for a nice little Thanksgiving trip if we went to see the Oglebay Winter Festival of Lights in Wheeling, West Virginia.
- Tom Hardesty
A year ago at this time, I wrote about the trials and tribulations of the 2.5 years I spent working in animal care.
- Tom Hardesty
Oct. 2 marked 10 years since the death of my mother, Laura (Willoughby) Hardesty.
- Tom Hardesty
So I’m right in the middle of reading Gerry Faust’s 1997 book “The Golden Dream,” detailing his tumultuous time as head coach at Notre Dame and the University of Akron, and it’s turning out to be quite the nostalgic experience for me — as well as a lesson in human nature.
- Tom Hardesty
The 2024 Paris Summer Games didn’t net Kent State’s seventh Olympic medal, but Corey Conners of Team Canada showed once again that he’s one of the world’s elite golfers.
- Tom Hardesty
Checking in on how our three Kent State Olympians are doing at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris …
- Tom Hardesty
The Kent State University athletic program has a long and rich history with the Olympic Games. And when the 2024 Summer Olympics get underway today in Paris, the Golden Flashes will once again be well represented.
- Tom Hardesty
Last week in Round Two, I discussed how almost nothing about college sports makes sense anymore, including simple math (the Big Ten Conference has 18 teams) and geography (two California schools, Stanford and Cal, are now in the Atlantic Coast Conference).
- Tom Hardesty
College football is my favorite sport.
Some of my earliest memories involve sitting in front of the television in the early 1970s watching the Ohio State-Michigan game and the Buckeyes playing in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day. The eye-catching visuals of the Scarlet and Gray lining up against those dreaded maize-and-blue wing-tip helmets, and the magical way the Buckeyes’ own silver helmets gleamed in the Southern California sunshine, were powerful images that are indelibly etched in my mind.