and the first overtime loss in school history. After the game, a special ceremony with current and former players and coaches was held to honor the 68-year history of the stadium. Other uses The Kent State Golden Flashes football team played select games in the Rubber Bowl during the 1940s, prior to the opening of Memorial Stadium in 1950. The stadium also hosted professional football on a number of occasions: the Cleveland Rams of the National Football League (NFL) played two regular-season games at the Rubber Bowl, one in 1941 and one in 1942, and the NFL's Cleveland Browns used the stadium for 19 preseason games between 1950 and 1973. On November 27, 1952, the Rubber Bowl hosted a "home" game for the financially troubled and league-controlled Dallas Texans. The Texans recorded their only win in franchise history, a 27–23 victory over the George Halas-led Chicago Bears, in front of approximately 2,500 fans: Halas had been so confident the Bears would beat the lowly Texans that he started his second-string players. The Rubber Bowl has also hosted around 1,500 football games for the high schools in Akron, as well as for Ohio High School Athletic Association (OHSAA) playoff games. The Rubber Bowl was also a regular performance venue: the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus gave its first performance since the Hartford circus fire on July 6, 1944. Music groups such as Black Sabbath, Simon & Garfunkel, Alice Cooper, Three Dog Night, and The Rolling Stones played there in the 1970s. In the 1980s, the New Jersey tour of Bon Jovi and the Monsters of Rock Tour 1988 that featured Van Halen, the Scorpions, Dokken, Metallica, and Kingdom Come had stops at the Rubber Bowl. Simon & Garfunkel returned in 1983 in front of a crowd of around 37,000 during their first tour together in 13 years. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Bob Dylan, and The Grateful Dead toured together in 1986 and played at the Rubber Bowl, which featured Bob Dylan performing live on stage for the first time with The Grateful Dead. The stadium also hosted a Veterans Memorial Jam concert with Aretha Franklin, Ringo Starr, and Three Dog Night in 1997 and Ozzfest in 1998. Purchase and demolition On June 28, 2012, it was revealed that local marketing company Team1 Marketing Group of Canton was pursuing the Rubber Bowl for a potential United States Football League