1.
Exposition Park (Pittsburgh)
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Exposition Park was the name given to three historic stadiums, located in what is today Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The fields were used mainly for baseball and American football from c.1879 to c. The ballparks were located on the north side of the Allegheny River in Allegheny City. The city was annexed into Pittsburgh in 1907, which became the citys North Side, due to flooding from the nearby river, the three stadiums exact locations varied somewhat. The final version of the ballpark was between the sites of Three Rivers Stadium and PNC Park. In 1903, the incarnation of Exposition Park was the first National League ballpark to host a World Series game. Named for other expositions that would be there, including horse racing and circuses. Despite its reason for construction Exposition Park II was built closer to the River, the Alleghenys played at the second incarnation of the park until they moved to Recreation Park in 1884, which was several blocks north and out of the flood plain. While the Pittsburg Pirates were playing games at Recreation Park, owners John Beemer. Lennon of the Pittsburgh Burghers constructed a park near the former site of Exposition Park I and II. Exposition Park III included a wooden grandstand around the infield. Total capacity was about 10,000 spectators, the seats faced the Allegheny River and the Point. The Burghers played at the stadium during the 1890 Players League season— both the team and leagues only season in existence, on June 10,1890, Jocko Fields of the Pittsburgh Burghers hit the first home run at Exposition Park III. The Pittsburg Pirates moved to Exposition Park the following season, on April 24,1891, Fred Carroll hit the first home run by a Pirate in the stadium. Under the management of Fred Clarke the Pirates won the National League pennant in 1901,1902, after the 1903 season, Dreyfuss and Boston Americans owner Henry Killilea organized a best of nine game series to match the two pennant winners against each other. The first World Series held three games in Boston before moving to Exposition Park with the Pirates leading the series 2–1, on October 6,1903,7,600 people attended the first World Series game in a National League stadium—the Pirates won by one run. The following day 12,000 people attended the game, forcing spectators to stand behind a rope in the outfield. The Pirates lost three of four games at Exposition Park and eventually the Series, during a July 4,1902 doubleheader against the Brooklyn Superbas, an Allegheny flood caused water to rise to thigh level in center and right fields, and about head level in deep center
2.
Carnegie Library of Homestead
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The Carnegie Library of Homestead is a public library founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1896. It is one of 2,509 Carnegie libraries worldwide 1,689 built in the United States and it was the sixth Library commissioned by Carnegie in the U. S. and the seventh to open. Completed in November 1898, it is the third oldest Carnegie library in operation in its original structure in the U. S. after the Main Branch. The building houses a library holding over 34,000 volumes, a 1, 000-seat music hall, and an athletic club with a heated indoor pool. The Carnegie Library of Homestead is an independent entity, it is not a branch of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh and our works at Homestead are not to us as our works at Edgar Thomson. Our men there are not partners, Carnegie said, groundbreaking for the $300,000 project took place in April 1896. The French Renaissance design was the work of Pittsburgh architects Frank Alden, contractor William Miller and Sons used Pompein brick for construction of the 220 by 132 foot facility. Renovations and modifications have not altered the physical arrangement of the building. While Carnegie required communities to use funds to subsidize the operation of his libraries. Operation of the libraries in Braddock, Homestead and Duquesne were originally funded by Carnegies plants in those towns, after the sale of his business to U. S. Steel in 1901, Carnegie established a $1 million trust to support the three facilities. In the 1960s, the Braddock and Duquesne libraries were turned over to the districts in those communities by the Board of the Endowment for the Monongahela Valley. The Homestead library is now the sole beneficiary of Carnegies gift, when the financial crash of 2008 reduced the value of the endowment by $300,000, the library board furloughed its executive employees and assumed management responsibilities rather than cut services. Fundraising efforts, revenue from athletic club memberships, music hall rentals, in the early 20th century, the Homestead Library & Athletic Club football team, composed of many former star Ivy League players, was considered one of the top semi-professional teams in the country. Hall of Famer Rube Waddell played for the Clubs baseball team, the amateur teams at the library also won national championships in wrestling and track & field. In the 1920s and 1930s, four Olympians trained in the swimming pool. Gorman first swam in 1927 while on vacation, when she returned to Homestead she purchased a three-month membership at the library and pool for $1. At age 92 in 2008, Gorman still swam at the library, the building has rightfully in the center as the focus The Library-- Music Hall upon the right and the Working Mans Club upon the left. These three foundations from which healing waters are to flow for the Instruction, Entertainment and Happiness of the people, recreation of the working man has an important bearing upon his character and development as his hours of work
3.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie
4.
Homestead, Pennsylvania
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Homestead is a borough in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA, in the Monongahela River valley 7 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh and directly across the river from the city limit line. The borough is known for the Homestead Strike of 1892, an important event in the history of relations in the United States. The population of Homestead was 3,165 at the 2010 census, the area on the south bank of the Monongahela River now comprising the boroughs of Homestead, Munhall and West Homestead saw the first white settlers arrive in the 1770s. One hundred years later, much of the farmland on the flats and hillsides by the river was purchased, laid out in lots and sold by local banks. The town was chartered in 1880, the building of a railroad, glass factory, and in 1881 the first iron mill began a period of rapid growth and prosperity. In 1883, Andrew Carnegie bought out Homestead Steel Works, adding it to his empire of steel, Carnegie had recently acquired a controlling interest in Henry Clay Fricks coke works on the Monongahela, setting the stage for the dramatic labor clash in Homestead. Homestead gained international notoriety in July 1892 as the site of a violent clash between locked-out steelworkers and hired Pinkerton guards, known as the Homestead Strike, carnegies management locked the workforce out, declaring that the union would no longer be recognized at the steel works. To break the strike and secure the mill from the disgruntled workers, when barges carrying the Pinkertons arrived at the mill on the morning of July 6, workers and townspeople met them at the riverbanks. Though eyewitness accounts differed on which side first fired a shot, the governor of Pennsylvania eventually called out the National Guard to restore order to the town and take control of the mill. Frick successfully destroyed the union in Homestead and, by extension, the Battle of Homestead, as the event came to be known, represented a stunning setback for unionization in the highly mechanized steel industry. It also set the stage for the steel strike of 1919. At the turn of the 20th century, in 1900, the population of Homestead was 12,554 people, due mostly to immigration from Eastern and Southern Europe, by 1910 the population jumped to 18,713, then to 20,452 in 1920. In 1940,19,041 people lived in Homestead, during the early 1940s half the population was displaced as the United States government added to the steel mills to have the capacity for armor plating for ships and tanks. After the end of the war, a decline in the industry of the United States took place. By 1980, it had become difficult to obtain employment at the Homestead Works, the Homestead Works was demolished in the early 1990s, replaced in 1999 by The Waterfront shopping mall. As a direct result of the loss of employment, the number of people living in Homestead dwindled. By the time of the 2010 census, the population was 3,165. The borough began financially recovering in 2002, with the retail tax base
5.
Pittsburgh
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Pittsburgh is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in the United States, and is the county seat of Allegheny County. The city proper has a population of 304,391. The metropolitan population of 2,353,045 is the largest in both the Ohio Valley and Appalachia, the second-largest in Pennsylvania, and the 26th-largest in the U. S. The city features 30 skyscrapers, two inclines, a fortification and the Point State Park at the confluence of the rivers. Aside from steel, Pittsburgh has led in manufacturing of aluminum, glass, shipbuilding, petroleum, foods, sports, transportation, computing, autos, and electronics. For part of the 20th century, Pittsburgh was behind only New York and Chicago in corporate headquarters employment, Americas 1980s deindustrialization laid off area blue-collar workers and thousands of downtown white-collar workers when the longtime Pittsburgh-based world headquarters moved out. The area has served also as the federal agency headquarters for cyber defense, software engineering, robotics, energy research. The area is home to 68 colleges and universities, including research and development leaders Carnegie Mellon University, the region is a hub for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, sustainable energy, and energy extraction. Pittsburgh was named in 1758 by General John Forbes, in honor of British statesman William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham. The current pronunciation, which is unusual in English speaking countries, is almost certainly a result of a printing error in some copies of the City Charter of March 18,1816. The error was repeated commonly enough throughout the rest of the 19th century that the pronunciation was lost. After a public campaign the original spelling was restored by the United States Board on Geographic Names in 1911. The area of the Ohio headwaters was long inhabited by the Shawnee, the first known European to enter the region was the French explorer/trader Robert de La Salle from Quebec during his 1669 expedition down the Ohio River. European pioneers, primarily Dutch, followed in the early 18th century, Michael Bezallion was the first to describe the forks of the Ohio in a 1717 manuscript, and later that year European fur traders established area posts and settlements. In 1749, French soldiers from Quebec launched an expedition to the forks to unite Canada with French Louisiana via the rivers, during 1753–54, the British hastily built Fort Prince George before a larger French force drove them off. The French built Fort Duquesne based on LaSalles 1669 claims, the French and Indian War, the North American front of the Seven Years War, began with the future Pittsburgh as its center. British General Edward Braddock was dispatched with Major George Washington as his aide to take Fort Duquesne, the British and colonial force were defeated at Braddocks Field. General John Forbes finally took the forks in 1758, Forbes began construction on Fort Pitt, named after William Pitt the Elder while the settlement was named Pittsborough
6.
Brown University
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Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution. At its foundation, Brown was the first college in the United States to accept students regardless of their religious affiliation and its engineering program was established in 1847 and was the first in the Ivy League. It was one of the early doctoral-granting U. S. institutions in the late 19th century, adding master, Browns New Curriculum is sometimes referred to in education theory as the Brown Curriculum and was adopted by faculty vote in 1969 after a period of student lobbying. In 1971, Browns coordinate womens institution Pembroke College was fully merged into the university, Pembroke Campus now operates as a place for dorms and classrooms. Undergraduate admissions is very selective, with a rate of 8.3 percent for the class of 2021. The University comprises The College, the Graduate School, Alpert Medical School, the School of Engineering, the School of Public Health, and the School of Professional Studies. The Brown/RISD Dual Degree Program, offered in conjunction with the Rhode Island School of Design, is a course that awards degrees from both institutions. Browns main campus is located in the College Hill Historic District in the city of Providence, the Universitys neighborhood is a federally listed architectural district with a dense concentration of Colonial-era buildings. On the western edge of the campus, Benefit Street contains one of the finest cohesive collections of restored seventeenth-, Browns faculty and alumni include eight Nobel Prize laureates, five National Humanities Medalists, and ten National Medal of Science laureates. Other notable alumni include eight billionaire graduates, a U. S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, to erect a public Building or Buildings for the boarding of the youth & the Residence of the Professors. Stiles and Ellery were co-authors of the Charter of the College two years later, there is further documentary evidence that Stiles was making plans for a college in 1762. On January 20, Chauncey Whittelsey, pastor of the First Church of New Haven, answered a letter from Stiles, should you make any Progress in the Affair of a Colledge, I should be glad to hear of it, I heartily wish you Success therein. Isaac Backus was the historian of the New England Baptists and an inaugural Trustee of Brown, Mr. James Manning, who took his first degree in New-Jersey college in September,1762, was esteemed a suitable leader in this important work. Manning arrived at Newport in July 1763 and was introduced to Stiles, stiless first draft was read to the General Assembly in August 1763 and rejected by Baptist members who worried that the College Board of Fellows would under-represent the Baptists. A revised Charter written by Stiles and Ellery was adopted by the Assembly on March 3,1764, in September 1764, the inaugural meeting of the College Corporation was held at Newport. Governor Stephen Hopkins was chosen chancellor, former and future governor Samuel Ward was vice chancellor, John Tillinghast treasurer, the Charter stipulated that the Board of Trustees be composed of 22 Baptists, five Quakers, five Episcopalians, and four Congregationalists. Of the 12 Fellows, eight should be Baptists—including the College president—and the rest indifferently of any or all Denominations, the Charter was not the grant of King George III, as is sometimes supposed, but rather an Act of the colonial General Assembly. In two particulars, the Charter may be said to be a uniquely progressive document, the oft-repeated statement is inaccurate that Browns Charter alone prohibited a religious test for College membership, other college charters were also liberal in that particular
7.
Arthur Mosse
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While at Pittsburgh, he coached the university to its first undefeated season in 1904. Mosse also played football for the Homestead Library & Athletic Club in 1901. Mosse was born to Arthur Wellesley Mosse and Sophia Mosse in Queenstown, Ireland and he emigrated with his family at the young age of 16 to Kansas City, Kansas via New York City. He and his family moved on to Arkansas City, Kansas where he went to high school. He quickly developed a strong interest in and started playing American football not long after arriving in Kansas and he moved to Leavenworth, Kansas around 1890 where he lived and worked for several years in the furniture business. Mosse went on to guard for the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas from 1895 to 1898. He met his wife, Ruth Stella Mosse, while attending the University of Kansas and they married on December 28,1898 in St. Joseph, Missouri during his last year at KU. The farm had been acquired by her father, Charles H. Grover. Mosse was brought to Pittsburgh from Kansas to become coach at the Western University of Pennsylvania, now known as the University of Pittsburgh, or Pitt. Following a disastrous 0-9-1 season that year, a decision was made by the alumni, in addition, money was raised to subsidize the program, including the funding of the teams first athletic dormitory and training table. Mosse also obtained a lease to play fall games in Exposition Park from Barney Dreyfuss. What ensued was a one year turn around that the saw the University post a 10-0 record, its first undefeated season. Media attention and attendance also grew tremendously with multiple newspaper articles, the increased support and success of the football program under Mosse has been pin pointed as the start of big football enterprise at the University of Pittsburgh. However, during the following the 1904 season, controversy and scandal erupted when Joe Thompson sought to acquire Mosses job as coach. However, things were settled in time for the 1905 season in which Mosse guided his team to a 10-2 record, however, by the 1906 E. R. Wingard had assumed coaching duties, and in 1908, Joe Thompson finally acquired the head coaching position he desired. In total, Mosse held the coaching position at Pittsburgh from 1903-1905 compiling a 20-11-1 record. While at Pitt, Mosse also helped coach the track and field team, was an instructor in gymnasium, Mosse also coached at his Alma mater, the University of Kansas, for two seasons, from 1912 until 1913. His overall coaching record at Kansas was 9 wins,7 losses and this ranks him 21st at Kansas in terms of total wins and 15th at Kansas in terms of winning percentage
8.
University of Cincinnati
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The University of Cincinnati is a comprehensive public research university in Cincinnati, in the U. S. state of Ohio, and a part of the University System of Ohio. In the 2010 survey by Times Higher Education, the university was ranked in the top 100 universities in North America, beginning with the 2011 edition of the U. S. This includes being the number 3 ranked university in the nation in the Up-and-Coming National Universities section of the 2014 edition, in 2014, U. S. News & World Report ranked UC in the top 200 of universities worldwide. The university garners roughly $400 million per annum in research funding, ranking 22nd among public universities in the United States. The school offers over 100 bachelors degrees, over 300 degree-granting programs, with an economic impact of over $3.5 billion per year, it is the largest single employer in Greater Cincinnati. In 1819, Cincinnati College and the Medical College of Ohio were founded in Cincinnati, local benefactor Dr. Daniel Drake founded and funded the Medical College of Ohio. William Lytle of the Lytle family donated the land, funded the Cincinnati College and Law College, the college survived only six years before financial difficulties forced it to close. In 1835, Daniel Drake reestablished the institution, which joined with the Cincinnati Law School. In 1858, Charles McMicken died of pneumonia and in his will he allocated most of his estate to the City of Cincinnati to found a university, the universitys board of rectors changed the institutions name to the University of Cincinnati. By 1893, the University expanded beyond its primary location on Clifton Avenue, as the university expanded, the rectors merged the institution with Cincinnati Law School, establishing the University of Cincinnati College of Law. In 1896, the Ohio Medical College joined Miami Medical College to form the Ohio-Miami Medical Department of the University of Cincinnati in 1909. As political movements for temperance and suffrage grew, the university established Teachers College in 1905, the Queen City College of Pharmacy, acquired from Wilmington College, became the present James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy. In 1962, the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music was acquired by the university, the Ohio legislature in Columbus declared the university a municipally-sponsored, state-affiliated institution in 1968. During this time, the University of Cincinnati was the second oldest and second-largest municipal university in the United States, by an act of the legislature, the University of Cincinnati became a state institution in 1977. In 1989, President Joseph A. Steger released a Master Plan for a stronger academy, over this time, the university invested nearly $2 billion in campus construction, renovation, and expansion ranging from the student union to a new recreation center to the medical school. It included renovation and construction of buildings, a campus forest. Upon her inauguration in 2005, President Nancy L. Zimpher developed the UC|21 plan, in addition, it includes putting liberal arts education at the center, increasing research funding, and expanding involvement in the city. In 2009, Gregory H. Williams was named the 27th president of the University of Cincinnati and his presidency expanded the accreditation and property of the institution to regions throughout Ohio to compete with private and specialized state institutions, such as Ohio State University
9.
Penn State Nittany Lions football
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The Penn State Nittany Lions team represents the Pennsylvania State University in college football. The team is also #8 all-time in total-wins, one game behind Oklahoma and Alabama, the Nittany Lions play their home games at Beaver Stadium, located on-campus in University Park, Pennsylvania. With an official seating capacity of 106,572, Beaver Stadium is the second-largest stadium in the hemisphere, behind only Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor. The team is coached by James Franklin. The first recorded game occurred on November 12,1881, when Penn State traveled to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania to play Bucknell, Penn State won 9–0, which was nine goals to none. At the time, this was really a game of American rugby, the father of American football, Walter Camp, did not develop the scrimmage, the first down and the gridiron until 1882. Although this game was reported in two State College newspapers and the Mirror, Bucknell denies that this ever happened. Penn State did not field teams from 1882 through 1886, Penn State played its first season in 1887, but had no head coach for their first five years, from 1887–1891. The teams played its games on the Old Main lawn on campus in State College. They compiled a 12–8–1 record in these seasons, playing as an independent from 1887–1890, in 1891, the Pennsylvania Intercollegiate Football Association was formed. It consisted of Bucknell, Dickinson, Franklin & Marshall, Haverford, Penn State, lafayette and Lehigh were excluded because it was felt they would dominate the Association. Penn State won the championship with a 4–1–0 record, the Association was dissolved prior to the 1892 season. George W. Hoskins was the first head coach at Penn State. He posted a 17–4–4 record in his four seasons from 1892–1895 as head coach and his first team played its home game on the Old Main lawn on campus in State College, Pennsylvania, before the 500-seat Beaver Field opened in 1893. He was succeeded by Samuel B, newton, who posted a 12–14 record in three seasons, 1896–1898. Sam Boyle coached for one year in 1899 and compiled a 4–6–1 record. Pop Golden coached the Nittany Lions for three seasons from 1900–1902, tallying a record of 16–12–1, daniel A. Reed took over for the 1903 season and went 5–3. Tom Fennell coached the Nittany Lions for five seasons from 1904–1908, in 1907 the school adopted the Nittany Lion mascot, a mountain lion named after nearby Mount Nittany
10.
Lafayette College
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Lafayette College is a private liberal arts college based in Easton, Pennsylvania, with a campus in New York City, NY. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter, son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown, and the citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832. The founders voted to name the school after General Lafayette, who toured the country in 1824–25, as a testimony of respect for talents, virtues. In the great cause of freedom, located on College Hill in Easton, the campus is in the Lehigh Valley, about 70 mi west of New York City and 60 mi north of Philadelphia. Lafayette College guarantees campus housing to all enrolled students, the school requires students to live in campus housing unless approved for residing in private off-campus housing or home as a commuter. The student body, consisting entirely of undergraduates, comes from 46 U. S. states and Territories, students at Lafayette are involved in over 250 clubs and organizations including athletics, fraternities and sororities, special interest groups, community service clubs and honor societies. Lafayette Colleges athletic program is notable for The Rivalry with nearby Lehigh University, since 1884, the two football teams have met 152 times, making it the most played rivalry in the history of college football. The College leads American liberal arts colleges with the most Goldwater Scholarship recipients in the past six years, a group of Easton citizens led by James Madison Porter met on December 27,1824 at Whites Tavern to explore the possibility of opening a college. The recent visit of General Lafayette to New York during his tour of the US in 1824 and 1825 prompted the founders to name the school after the French military officer. The group also established the 35-member Board of Trustees, a system of governance that has remained at the college to this day, in need of an education plan, the meeting gave the responsibility to Porter, lawyer Jacob Wagener, and Yale-educated lawyer Joel Jones. The charter gained approval and on March 9,1826, Pennsylvania Governor John Andrew Shulzes signature made the college official, along with establishing Lafayette as a Liberal Arts College, the charter called for religious equality amongst professors, students, and staff. Over the next few years, the Board met several times to discuss property, six years after the first meeting, Lafayette began to enroll students. The College opened on May 1,1829, with four students under the guidance of Rev. John Monteith, classes began on May 9,1832, with the instruction of 43 students on the south bank of the Lehigh River in a rented farmhouse. In order to earn money to support the students had to labor in the fields. This manual labor infused College took the place of the original Military/Civil Engineering focus on which the school was founded, later that year, Lafayette purchased property on what is now known as College Hill – nine acres of elevated land across Bushkill Creek. The Colleges first building was constructed two years later on the current site of South College, a dispute between Porter and Rev. Junkin led to his resignation of the presidency in 1841. Though still young, Lafayette was beginning to shape, grappling with the possibility of religious affiliation for financial stability. In 1854, Lafayette College became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, by relinquishing their control, the College was able to collect $1000 a year from the Presbyterian Church Board of Education as regularly as the latter could pay it
11.
History of the Philadelphia Athletics
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The Oakland Athletics, a current Major League Baseball franchise, originated in Philadelphia. This article details the history of the Philadelphia Athletics, from 1901 to 1954, see also, Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame The Western League had been renamed the American League in 1900 by league president Bancroft Johnson, and declared itself the second major league in 1901. Johnson created new franchises in the east and eliminated some franchises in the West, Philadelphia had a new franchise created to compete with the National Leagues Philadelphia Phillies. Former catcher Connie Mack was recruited to manage the club, Mack in turn persuaded Phillies minority owner Ben Shibe as well as others to invest in the team, which would be called the Philadelphia Athletics. Mack himself bought a 25% interest, while the remaining 25% was sold to Philadelphia sportswriters Sam Jones, the new league recruited many of its players from the existing National League, persuading them to jump to the American League in defiance of their National League contracts. One of the players who jumped to the new league was second baseman Nap Lajoie and he won the A. L. s first batting title with a.426 batting average, still a league record. The Athletics and the American League received a setback when, on April 21,1902, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court invalidated Lajoies contract with the Athletics and this order, though, was only enforceable in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Lajoie was sold to Cleveland, but was out of road games in Philadelphia until the National Agreement was signed between the two leagues in 1903. In the early years, the As established themselves as one of the dominant teams in the new league, winning the A. L. pennant six times and they won over 100 games in 1910 and 1911, and 99 games in 1914. The team was known for its $100,000 Infield, consisting of Stuffy McInnis, Eddie Collins, Jack Barry, Rube Waddell was also a major pitching star for the As in the early 1900s. According to Lamont Buchanan in The World Series and Highlights of Baseball, Plank holds the franchise record for career victories, with 284. In 1909, the As moved into the leagues first concrete-and-steel ballpark. This remains the second and last time in history where a new ballpark was built specifically for the As. Later in the decade, Mack bought the 25% of the stock owned by Jones. Shibe ceded Mack full control over the side while retaining control over the business side. In 1914, the Athletics lost the 1914 World Series to the Miracle Braves in a four-game sweep, Mack traded, sold or released most of the teams star players soon after. In his book To Every Thing a Season, Bruce Kuklick points out there were suspicions that the As had thrown the Series, or at least laid down. Mack himself alluded to that years later, but debunked it
12.
Washington & Jefferson Presidents football
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The Washington & Jefferson Presidents football team represents Washington & Jefferson College in collegiate level football. The team competes in NCAA Division III and is affiliated with the Presidents Athletic Conference, since its founding in 1890, the team has played their home games at College Field, which was remodeled and renamed Cameron Stadium in 2001. A number of players were named to the College Football All-America Team, the team has been coached by some of the best-known coaches in football history, including John Heisman, Greasy Neale, and Andy Kerr. Founded in 1890, the quickly became well known for drawing large crowds. The faculty and administration expressed concern over the strength of the team, during the 1910s, some sportswriters suggested that the Presidents were one of the top teams in the nation. The greatest achievement in the history was in 1921, when the Presidents appeared in the 1922 Rose Bowl. As college football evolved in the 1930s and 1940s, the Presidents fell far behind their larger competitors, controversy over the poor play of the football team, and a lack of play against larger teams, contributed to the resignation of a college president. In the 1950s the team joined NCAA Division III and the Presidents Athletic Conference, by the 1980s, the team had learned to thrive in that environment, winning a number of conference championships and regularly qualifying for the NCAA Division III playoffs. The football team played its first game on November 1,1890, the Red and Blacks third game of the inaugural season, against College of Wooster, remains disputed to this day, with both schools claiming a victory. By 1894, the communitys interest in the sport had grown considerably, with stronger opponents. A special train from Washington to Pittsburgh was chartered to carry fans, John Brallier, who was the first openly professional football player, played football for Washington & Jefferson College in 1895 before returning to the Greensburg Athletic Association. This incident, and others, caused the faculty to adopt the colleges first eligibility requirements for student athletes, at the same time its activities was becoming more scrutinized, the football team became more successful. But was the September 29,1897, game against the University of Pennsylvania Quakers that marked the birth of football at W&J. The Red and Black lost 18-4 to the national champions. In a game against Denison University on Sept.19,1908, in 1910, the football program was in danger of being dissolved due to crushing debt. The Student Athletic Committee proposed a $1 per term student fee to fund the team, however, team manager and beloved student solicitor Robert M. Murphy, was able to convince the students to accept the fee. However, the Faculty Athletic Committee balked, vetoing the new rules, wells highlighted the growing tension between athletics and academics. As orchestrated by a group of football supporters, the two professors were brought before a faculty committee for not having the requisite support for the athletic programs
