1.
UMass Minutemen football
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The Massachusetts Minutemen football team is a collegiate football team representing the University of Massachusetts in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The Minutemen currently compete as an Independent, UMass began play in 1879 and have since appeared in three FCS National Championship games, winning the title in 1998. The Minutemen began a two-year Football Bowl Subdivision transition period in 2011, UMass announced that it would look for a more suitable conference for the team. Possibilities included going independent or joining the American Athletic Conference, Conference USA, in September 2014, UMass announced that they would be going independent in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. Mark Whipple is the football coach. UMass began playing football on November 22,1879, when the school was known as Massachusetts Agricultural College, and the team was known as the Aggies. They were first organized the previous fall by Francis Codman, but did not play their first game until November 22,1879, defeating the Amherst College freshman team 4–0. As this was their game that year,1879 is noted as their first undefeated season, matched only by the 1889 season. The first meeting between the Aggies and each of the schools resulted in a shutout win for Massachusetts, as they defeated Connecticut, 36–0, in 1897 and Rhode Island, 46–0. Massachusetts won their 100th game on October 2,1920, topping rival Connecticut in a 28–0 shutout, the team played their 1000th game on November 11,2000, losing to conference foe Delaware, 19-31. The teams nickname has endured several changes throughout the years, though the official nickname remained Aggies, Statesmen was also used interchangeably beginning when the school was renamed to Massachusetts State College in 1931. The nickname was changed to the Redmen when the name of the college became the University of Massachusetts in 1947. Pittsburgh assistant coach Vic Fusia took over the Redmen football program in 1961 and under his tutelage, the Fusia era included an undefeated 8–0–1 campaign in 1963 as well as records of 8–2, 7–2, 6–3 and 7–2 in the following years. However, two losing records in three seasons led to Fusias dismissal after the 1970 season, denver Broncos linebackers and defensive backs coach Dick MacPherson, a former UMass assistant from 1959-1960, took over after Fusias firing. Under MacPherson, the Redmen compiled a record of 45–27–1, bob Pickett was promoted from defensive coordinator to head coach of the Minutemen football program in 1978. Under Picketts tutelage, the Minutemen won four championships and compiled a record of 36–28. Despite the successes, back-to-back losing seasons in 1982 and 1983 led to Picketts dismissal, under Stull, the Minutemen struggled to a two-win campaign in 1984 but improved to seven wins in 1985. Jim Reid was promoted from defensive coordinator following Stulls departure and led the Minutemen for six seasons, Reid and UMass parted ways after the 1991 season
2.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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The University of Massachusetts Amherst is a public research and land-grant university in Amherst, Massachusetts, United States, and the flagship of the University of Massachusetts system. The university offers degrees, masters degrees, and doctoral degrees in 111 undergraduate,75 masters and 47 doctoral programs in nine schools. The main campus is situated north of downtown Amherst, in a 2009 article for MSN. com, Amherst was ranked first in Best College Towns in the United States. In 2012, U. S. News and World Report ranked Amherst among the Top 10 Great College Towns in America and it is also a member of the Five College Consortium. The University of Massachusetts Amherst is categorized as a Research University with Highest research activity by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, in fiscal year 2014, UMass Amherst had research expenditures exceeding $200 million. UMass Amherst sports teams are called the Minutemen and Minutewomen, the colors being maroon, black, and white, all teams participate in NCAA Division I. The university is a member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, while playing ice hockey in Hockey East, accordingly, the university was initially named the Massachusetts Agricultural College, popularly referred to as Mass Aggie or M. A. C. In 1867, the college had yet to admit any students, had been through two Presidents, and still had not completed any college buildings, in that year, William S. Clark was appointed President of the college and Professor of Botany. He quickly appointed a faculty, completed the plan. Clark became the first functioning President and arguably the founding father of the college. The original buildings consisted of Old South College, North College, the Chemistry Laboratory, also known as College Hall, the Boarding House, the Botanic Museum, although enrollment was slow during the 1870s, the fledgling college built momentum under the leadership of President Henry Hill Goodell. In the 1880s, Goodell implemented a plan, adding the College Drill Hall in 1883, the Old Chapel Library in 1885. The Campus Pond, now the focus of the University Campus, was created in 1893 by damming a small brook. The early 20th century saw expansion in terms of enrollment. The first female student was admitted in 1875 on a part-time basis, in 1903, Draper Hall was constructed for the dual purpose of a dining hall and female housing. The first female students graduated with the class of 1905, the first dedicated female dormitory, the Abigail Adams House was built in 1920. By the start of the 20th century, the college was thriving, the Education curriculum was established in 1907. In recognition of the enrollment and broader curriculum, the college was renamed Massachusetts State College in 1931
3.
United States Armed Forces
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The United States Armed Forces are the federal armed forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, from the time of its inception, the military played a decisive role in the history of the United States. A sense of unity and identity was forged as a result of victory in the First Barbary War. Even so, the Founders were suspicious of a permanent military force and it played an important role in the American Civil War, where leading generals on both sides were picked from members of the United States military. Not until the outbreak of World War II did a standing army become officially established. The National Security Act of 1947, adopted following World War II and during the Cold Wars onset, the U. S. military is one of the largest militaries in terms of number of personnel. It draws its personnel from a pool of paid volunteers. As of 2016, the United States spends about $580.3 billion annually to fund its military forces, put together, the United States constitutes roughly 40 percent of the worlds military expenditures. For the period 2010–14, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute found that the United States was the worlds largest exporter of major arms, the United States was also the worlds eighth largest importer of major weapons for the same period. The history of the U. S. military dates to 1775 and these forces demobilized in 1784 after the Treaty of Paris ended the War for Independence. All three services trace their origins to the founding of the Continental Army, the Continental Navy, the United States President is the U. S. militarys commander-in-chief. Rising tensions at various times with Britain and France and the ensuing Quasi-War and War of 1812 quickened the development of the U. S. Navy, the reserve branches formed a military strategic reserve during the Cold War, to be called into service in case of war. Time magazines Mark Thompson has suggested that with the War on Terror, Command over the armed forces is established in the United States Constitution. The sole power of command is vested in the President by Article II as Commander-in-Chief, the Constitution also allows for the creation of executive Departments headed principal officers whose opinion the President can require. This allowance in the Constitution formed the basis for creation of the Department of Defense in 1947 by the National Security Act, the Defense Department is headed by the Secretary of Defense, who is a civilian and member of the Cabinet. The Defense Secretary is second in the chain of command, just below the President. Together, the President and the Secretary of Defense comprise the National Command Authority, to coordinate military strategy with political affairs, the President has a National Security Council headed by the National Security Advisor. The collective body has only power to the President
4.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
5.
Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium
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Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium is a 17, 000-seat multi-purpose stadium in Hadley, Massachusetts on the campus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It was home for all games for the UMass Minutemen football team through the 2011 season, the football team played half their home games here in 2014, and will continue to host some games moving forward. The stadium is named for Warren P. McGuirk, who was the UMass Athletic Director from 1948 to 1971, although it is located within the Universitys campus, which is almost entirely in Amherst, the stadium itself lies just across the border in Hadley. Replacing Alumni Field, the stadium hosted its first game on September 25,1965, with UMass beating American International College, the stadium was officially dedicated on October 16,1965, when UMass defeated Rhode Island 30-7 in a homecoming contest. The most recent sellout at the stadium was on December 2,2006 with UMass defeating New Hampshire, the stadium is also the site of UMass Amherst graduation ceremonies, and hosted the 1987 NCAA women’s soccer championship. On April 10,2009, an Amherst resident fell from the stadium in what police believe was a suicide, UMass now plays in the Football Bowl Subdivision. McGuirk Stadiums current capacity is only modestly above the NCAAs requirement of 15,000 average attendance for FBS membership, the school upgraded its press box to meet NCAA requirements to bring some games back to campus, and upgraded its indoor training facilities. Lights were installed in the stadium for the 2008 football season, the first game played under the permanent lights was the season opener on August 30,2008, with UMass beating Albany 28-16. A video scoreboard was installed during the 2009 season, a new FieldTurf playing surface was installed in McGuirk Stadium for the 2014 football season. The plaza on the east side of the stadium behind the gates, MinuteFan Park, hosts food and souvenir vendors. On April 20,2011, the officially accepted an invitation to become a football-only member of the Division I FBS Mid-American Conference. Consequently, the 2011 season was the last at McGuirk Stadium before a renovation project to upgrade it to FBS standards. For the 2012 and 2013 seasons, the Minutemen played all of their games at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. The north end has a new training facility and locker rooms added, the old press box was demolished, with a new box constructed to two levels with more TV/radio booths as well as luxury suites added. The stadium was not suitable for FBS football in its previous configuration and it would have been prohibitively difficult to meet the minimum FBS attendance of least 15,000 fans per game, and its press box and replay facilities were well below MAC standards. The cost of construction is estimated at $20 million and was completed in time for the 2014 season. McCutcheon also said there are presently no plans to expand the stadium, which would make it the smallest stadium in the MAC. On September 14,2012, the UMass trustees approved a five-year, included in the plan was $30 million to be spent renovating the stadium as part of the transition to FBS football play
6.
Gillette Stadium
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Gillette Stadium is a stadium located in Foxborough, Massachusetts,24 miles southwest of downtown Boston and 20 miles northeast of downtown Providence, Rhode Island. It serves as the stadium and administrative offices for both the NFLs New England Patriots football franchise and MLSs New England Revolution soccer team. In 2012, it became the home stadium for the football program of the University of Massachusetts. Gillette will continue to host higher attended home games, the facility opened in 2002, replacing the old Foxboro Stadium. The seating capacity is 68,756, including 6,000 club seats and 87 luxury suites, the stadium is owned and operated by Kraft Sports Group, a subsidiary of The Kraft Group, the company through which businessman Robert Kraft owns the Patriots and Revolution. The stadium was known as CMGI Field before the naming rights were bought by Gillette after the dot-com bust. Gillette and the Patriots jointly announced in September 2010 that their partnership, additionally, uBid as of 2009 continues to sponsor one of the main entrance gates to the stadium. The Town of Foxborough approved plans for the construction on December 6,1999. The first official event was a New England Revolution soccer game on May 11,2002, the Rolling Stones played at Gillette Stadium on September 5,2002 on the bands Licks Tour. Jeremiah Freed was the first band to play at the WBCN river rave on June 9th,2002 making them the first band to ever play Gillette Stadium. Gillette Stadium is accessible by rail via the Providence/Stoughton and Franklin lines at the Foxboro MBTA station, the Patriots have sold out every home game since moving to the stadium—preseason, regular season, and playoffs. This streak dates back to the 1994 season, while the team was still at Foxboro Stadium, as of September 11,2016 this streak was at 231 straight games. From the 1971 NFL season until the 2001 NFL season, the Patriots played all of their games at Foxboro Stadium. The stadium was funded on an extremely small budget and featured few amenities. Its aluminum benches would freeze over during games with cold weather and it had an unorganized dirt parking lot. Foxboro Stadium did not prove to bring in the profit that was needed to keep an NFL team in New England, as it was one of the smallest stadiums in the NFL, with just over 60,000 seats. The team had fallen into debt after team executive Chuck Sullivan funded the Jackson Victory Tour, Tickets sales failed, however, and the teams debt increased even further – to a final total of US$126 million. After two unsuccessful owners bought the team and stadium, it was clear that a new stadium had to be built for the team to stay in New England
7.
Colonial Clash
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The Colonial Clash was an annual college football rivalry game played between University of Massachusetts Amherst and University of New Hampshire. UMass has transitioned to the Football Bowl subdivision of NCAA Division I, the two teams played each other first in 1897, and annually from the 1950s until UMass made the move to FBS in 2012. The rivalry was named The Colonial Clash beginning with the game in 2010, the MVP of the game is awarded the Bill Knight Trophy. The first game played between the two took place on October 2,1897, in Amherst, Massachusetts. Massachusetts won the game by a score of 10–4, at the time, UMass was known as Massachusetts Agricultural College and New Hampshire was officially New Hampshire College of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts. They had formed an association with other public colleges in New England such as present day UConn. The colleges continued to schedule matches intermittently through 1922, Massachusetts affiliated with the New England Conference in 1923, and the schools would not meet again on the gridiron until New Hampshire joined Massachusetts in the Yankee Conference in 1952. UMass and New Hampshire have met at least once a year every season since, UMass leads the all-time series 43–27–3, though it has been decidedly more even within the past 30 years. From 1958 through 1989, UMass won 26 of the meetings, losing six times. The most successful run for New Hampshire occurred from 1990 to 2002, in April 2011, UMass announced plans to join the Mid-American Conference and move up to the NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of college football in the country. UNH plans to remain in the Colonial Athletic Association of the Football Championship Subdivision, no more meetings are currently scheduled, leaving the future of the rivalry in doubt
8.
Sam the Minuteman
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Sam the Minuteman is the mascot of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, representing the University and its athletic teams on campus and in the community. Sam placed second in the 2005 Capital One Mascot Of The Year competition, sam has also finished in the top ten at the National Cheerleading Associations Mascot Nationals for the last four years. He was also named the Mascot of the Month by Playboy. com in October 2005, sam was featured in a This is SportsCenter commercial, knocking a tennis ball away from Andy Roddick, presumably from frustration over the sound of the ball hitting the racket. The commercial was a play on the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, Paul Reveres Ride
9.
Fight Mass
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Fight Mass is the fight song of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. It was written by Captain Edwin Sumner, an instructor in the spring of 1930. It is performed at games and other events by the University of Massachusetts Minuteman Marching Band. Fight, fi-i-ight Massachusetts, Fight, fi-i-ight every play, Fight, fi-i-ight for a touchdown, Fight down the field Massachusetts, The stars and the stripes will gleam, Fi-i-ght, Fi-i-ght for old Bay State, Fight for the team, team, team
