Forty years ago today, members of the Ohio National Guard fired on protesting college students, killing four and wounding nine in a matter of seconds. It since been known as

the Kent State massacre

, a dark day in our nation's history.

Nick Saban was a freshman at the university when it happened.

Alabama's head coach reflects on that tragic day in an interesting column today by Mike Lopresti of USA Today. ...

A defensive back, Saban went on to finish his collegiate career at Kent State. WIth his wife Terry still attending classes, Saban then stayed around campus and accepted his first coaching position as a KSU graduate assistant from 1972-74, eventually becoming a full-time KSU position coach.

On this same topic, Missouri coach Gary Pinkel, then a high school student, looks back on the day in a story by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.