Today, Thursday, will be known forever for those who lived through it simply as Kent State Day.

It was on this day 53 years ago, May 4, 1970, that the tragic killing at Kent State University by National Guardsmen took place. It is a horrible memory and it was a horrible experience with horrible ramifications, even all these years later.

I was an eighth-grader at Manchester Junior High School, located a few miles south of Akron in the last community in Summit County before you get into Stark County heading south on Ohio 93. I was a big Browns fan, as were all my buddies, and the team was coming off a decade of excellence in the 1960s, having appeared in the NFL (NFC) Championship Game four times, winning one title. In 1968 and ‘69, they lost the chance to go to the Super Bowl, being defeated first by Baltimore, Colts and then by the Minnesota Vikings.

It was an innocent time, both in society and in the way people followed the Browns. We all just thought that the winning, the competition for championships and the turning out of Pro Football Hall of Fame players would just continue on and on and on.

But, sad to say, it didn’t.

Things changed greatly in the 1970s in society and with the Browns. It was the Browns’ first sustained period of losing, and it was hard for fans to take. By the end of the 1970s, the Kardiac Kids were making football fun again. They didn’t win a championship, but they were so enjoyable to watch.

The Browns as they go forward need to get back to those winning ways of the 1960s. All this losing takes a toll both on the fans and on the organization itself. Nobody working at Browns Headquarters in Berea right now renembet ithe 1960s Browns or the 1970s.  They just don’t. The Browns of the expansion era have become the 1970s Browns. The era was not successful, and it was hard to take.

I don’t know if there’s a correlation between that long-ago time and now, other than if the people running things in Berea would look back on that era, they would learn some lessons. But they’re never going to do that, because too many of them think that they are always the smartest person in the room. And when you think that, what is always the case is you find that just the opposite is true.

Anyway, have a great day and know that May 5 does not carry with it the ugly vibe of May 4. It will most assuredly be a better day, and hopefully better times are also ahead for the Browns.

Steve King