Kennesaw State University (KSU) is a public research university in the state of Georgia with two primary campuses in the Atlanta metropolitan area--one in Kennesaw and the other in Marietta. When the school opened in the fall of 1966, it was named Kennesaw Junior College and had an initial enrollment of 1,014 students. Today, enrollment exceeds 42,000 students per year, making KSU the second-largest university by enrollment in Georgia.

In 1996 Bill Malone and then athletic director Dave Waples designed "Scrappy the Owl", Kennesaw State's mascot, a battle-ready bird wearing sneakers and an Owls jersey whose "thumbs up" pose signifies the success of Kennesaw State athletics. Each year one Kennesaw State student earns the honor of being named Scrappy and gets to don the mascot uniform for select home games.

The coldest temperature ever recorded in Marietta was -3.6 °F on January 24, 1963.