COMMUNITY
The College Rivalry COMPETITION GOES BEYOND THE WAGON WHEEL The Kent State and Akron University contention spans decades, but it inspires healthy competition
WORDS BY
Collin Cunningham ILLUSTRATION BY
Sophia DelCapio
A
s legend has it, University of Akron founder John R. Buchtel set out in the spring of 1870 to establish another college in the town of Kent. While traveling by horse-drawn wagon across leagues of muddy fields, Buchtel’s carriage became entrenched in the earth, causing the wheel to break off. After construction, employees uncovered the wheel while working on a Western Reserve Trail pipeline in 1902. It found its way into the hands of Raymond E. Manchester, the Kent State Dean of Men at the time. Manchester wasn’t sure if the wooden hoop he’d been given
was actually Buchtel’s, but he made the most of the situation. In 1945, he declared the wheel a trophy to be given to the winner of the annual Kent versus Akron football game. Like that, a rivalry was born, though Manchester never could have imagined how a football game between Kent and Akron might look today. The excited fans, wearing “Beat Akron” T-shirts, holding signs urging on their favorite teams, both of which confusingly sport extremely similar colors. “It’s part of what college, just being in college, is all about,” Kent State Director of
Athletics Joel Nielsen explains. Nielsen started in his position in 2010. Five years ago, Nielsen collaborated with Tom Wistrcill, the former director of athletics for Akron, to create the Wagon Wheel Challenge, an athletics comparison system that scores the 14 different men’s and women’s sports that play against each other. “I think it’s just been a great rivalry,” George Van Horne, the University of Akron’s senior associate athletics director says. He also explains the origin of the wagon wheel. “We’re two of 130 schools playing in the
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