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From 1921 to 1942, a WWI-vintage cannon stood on a knoll overlooking Rockwell Hall, then home to the University Library. It was loaned by the U.S. War Department to the Kent American Legion Post 496, which intended to present it to the city of Kent. When city officials could not decide on a suitable location, the cannon found a home on the campus of Kent State Normal College. 

The 6-inch, 2-ton 1913 Howitzer had come from the battlefields of Belgium and was dedicated on Armistice Day, Nov. 6, 1921, as a memorial to the “Great War.”

A portion of the dedication speech read: “It is our hope that such implements of this monster of war may never again have to be used by nations against each other to determine questions which should be settled in the diplomatic courts of the world.”

A touchstone of tradition

On Kent State’s relatively small campus, the cannon became a landmark and a favorite backdrop for students taking photographs. Students said it was “as much a part of the campus as the ‘K’ in the hillside near it.”

Sweethearts carved their initials onto its weathered surface. Freshmen were required to remove their “dink” caps as they passed the “Ole Gun.” Upperclassmen pranked freshmen by telling them the cannon would fire “every time a girl who had never been kissed walked past.” A mathematics professor brought his class to the cannon to teach about the calculations used in firing artillery. 

In 1931, a plan to move the cannon from campus to a designated area in Kent’s Standing Rock Cemetery was met with protests by students. The plan, proposed by the university president and Board of Trustees and approved by the American Legion, was never carried out, however. 

The war in Europe

In November 1941 a ceremony was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the dedication of the cannon as a memorial to “the war to end all wars.” 

At the time there was considerable controversy about whether the United States should intervene in the ongoing conflict in Europe. In October 1941, U.S. Sen. Robert A. Taft, a noted isolationist, spoke on campus, calling for America’s youth to “close ranks” to avoid being “funneled into Europe’s hysteria.” It was a sentiment echoed by 54% of 500 students polled by The Kent Stater.

Kent State goes to war

A fiery debate continued on campus through the first week of December 1941. However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, the controversy ceased as the United States entered World War II. 

Student enrollment declined sharply as Kent State students voluntarily enlisted, were drafted or entered defense work. Total enrollment went from 2,707 in September 1940, to 777 in September 1943 and 696 in spring 1944. More than 40% of Kent State’s full-time instructors either joined the armed forces or went to work for the government or private companies related to the war effort. 

The cannon serves once more

In November 1942, as wartime casualties mounted, an honor roll was dedicated to the Kent State students who had lost their lives. In light of this somber dedication and because of great need for metal and other supplies, Stephen A. Harbourt, biology professor and Kent’s salvage chairman, proposed donating the cannon to a wartime scrap drive and sent an inquiry to the War Department. The local American Legion initially opposed the idea, but later, with its permission and the authorization of the War Department, the cannon was removed from campus in December 1942.

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Recalling the somewhat scandalous campus never-been-kissed legend attached to the cannon, one female student made this sly comment to a reporter for The Kent Stater about the donation: “We might just as well make use of the cannon; it will never go off in Kent.”

Some students writing in The Kent Stater, who evidently misunderstood how the cannon would be contributing to the war effort, thought it would return to battle “fighting once more against the Germans.” Actually, it was disassembled by the Kent Salvage Co. and eventually melted down to serve in other forms, no less valiantly, in the latter part of the war. 

Multiple reports in The Kent Stater say the U.S. government planned to replace the cannon after the war, but it seems this plan never came to pass. 

War-related memorials on campus today

In 1956, Kent State Memorial Gymnasium (now the Memorial Athletic and Convocation Center) was dedicated to Kent State students who lost their lives in WWI and WWII. Daffodil Hill, on the May 4 National Historic Landmark site, honors all U.S. soldiers who died in the Vietnam War. Kent State’s Lt. Jack Rittichier Trophy, named for the Golden Flashes football star who perished on a rescue mission while serving as a Coast Guard airman in Vietnam, is awarded annually to a player who displays characteristics of the hero for which the award is named. The Student Memorial Garden on Manchester Field is set aside as a place to remember all Kent State students who have died.