The Kent State Golden Flashes Men's Ice Hockey was an
NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...
Division I ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
team from 1980-1994. Kent State hockey was promoted to
Division I status by the Board of Trustees on June 12, 1980, following ten years as a club sport. The program joined fellow independent
Notre Dame to form the
American Collegiate Hockey Association
The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) is a college ice hockey association. The ACHA's purpose is to be an organization of collegiate affiliated non-varsity programs, which provides structure, regulates operations, and promotes qualit ...
from 1986-89 (not to be confused with the
ACHA formed in 1991). After a 19-win campaign in his third season with the club
John Wallin
John Wallin is an American former ice hockey head coach who previously headed the program at Kent State.
Career
Wallin arrived in Kent in the summer of 1984 and took over as head coach of the university's club team as well as becoming the direct ...
left to take over the
Sudbury Wolves
The Sudbury Wolves are an Ontario Hockey League (OHL) ice hockey team based in Greater Sudbury, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.
Sudbury has had various hockey teams competing at the Junior ice hockey, junior and senior ice hockey levels of the game k ...
of the
Ontario Hockey League
The Ontario Hockey League (OHL; french: Ligue de hockey de l'Ontario (LHO)) is one of the three major junior ice hockey leagues which constitute the Canadian Hockey League. The league is for players aged 16–19. There are exceptions for overag ...
in 1987. After Kent State alum
Tom Viggiano
Tom Viggiano is an American former ice hockey player and head coach who previously headed the program at Kent State.
Career
Tom Viggiano was named as the interim head coach for Kent State
Kent State University (KSU) is a public research uni ...
headed the program for the
1987–88 season,
Bill Switaj
Bill Switaj is an American ice hockey former player and head coach and current director of the Kent State University Ice Arena.
Career
Switaj began attending Boston College in the fall of 1979 and eventually worked his way onto the team as a wal ...
was brought in once it was confirmed that the program would continue to exist beyond 1988 despite budgetary concerns. The program's entire season was cancelled that September in response to a hazing incident.
The Golden Flashes would finally debut with Switaj as their coach in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...
. After three seasons they were eventually accepted into the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association
The Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) is a college athletic conference that participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference. The current CCHA began play in the 2021–22 season; a previous incarnation, which the curre ...
(CCHA) but Kent State's program ended in the spring of 1994 when university president
Carol Cartwright made a recommendation to the board of trustees that the program be discontinued.
Season-by-season results
Golden Flashes in the NHL
References
{{Central Collegiate Hockey Association