1.
Bloomington, Illinois
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Bloomington is a city in Illinois, United States and the county seat of McLean County. It is adjacent to Normal, and is the populous of the two principal municipalities of the Bloomington-Normal metropolitan area. The 2010 census showed the city had a population of 76,610, making it the 12th most populated city in Illinois, combined with Normal, the twin cities have a population of roughly 130,000. Bloomington is located at 40°29′03″N 88°59′37″W, the city is at an elevation of 797 feet above sea level. According to the 2010 census, Bloomington has an area of 27.229 square miles. Average monthly precipitation ranged from 1.71 inches in February to 4.52 inches in May, the Bloomington area was at the edge of a large grove occupied by the Kickapoo people before the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the early 1820s. Springing from the settlement of Keg Grove, later called Blooming Grove, Bloomington was named as county seat on December 25,1830, when the County of McLean was incorporated, a county seat was established. However, the legislation stated the site of Bloomington would be located later, james Allin, one of the new countys promoters, offered to donate 60 acres of his land for the new town. His offer was accepted, and Bloomington was laid out and its lots were sold at a well-attended and noisy auction on the 4th of July 1831. At this time there were few roads, but rich soils brought new farmers who began commerce by conducting their business in the newly formed county. People came from all over to trade and do business at the center, known today as Downtown Bloomington, including Abraham Lincoln who was working as a lawyer in nearby Springfield. In 1900 an officer on patrol discovered a fire in a laundry across the street from the old City Hall and he sounded the alarm but the fire destroyed the majority of the downtown, especially the areas north and east of the courthouse. However, the burnt area was rebuilt from the designs of local architects George Miller. During the first two decades of the 20th century, Bloomington continued to grow, agriculture, the construction of highways and railroads, and the growth of the insurance business all influenced the growth of Bloomington and its downtown area. The downtown area became a shopping center attracting trade from adjoining counties. This trend has continued to the present day, where expansion has included many restaurants, as of the census of 2010, there were 76,610 people and 30,454 households within the city. The population density was 2,814.8 people per square mile, there were 34,339 housing units at an average density of 1,261.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 77. 5% White,10. 1% African American,0. 3% Native American,7. 0% Asian,1. 42% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 5. 6% of the population
2.
Football helmet
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The football helmet is a piece of protective equipment used mainly in American football and Canadian football. It consists of a plastic shell with thick padding on the inside, a face mask made of one or more plastic-coated metal bars. Helmets are a requirement at all levels of organized football, except for variations such as flag football. Although they are protective, players can and do still suffer head injuries such as concussions, one of the first instances of football headgear dates to 1896 when Lafayette College halfback George Rose Barclay began to use straps and earpieces to protect his ears. It is not certain who invented the football helmet, reeves had been advised by a Navy doctor that another kick to his head would result in instant insanity or even death, so he commissioned an Annapolis shoemaker to make him a helmet out of leather. Later, helmets were made of padded leather and resembled aviators helmets or modern day scrum caps, at least in professional football, they were optional. Some National Football League players, notably Hall-of-Famer Bill Hewitt, played all or most of their careers without a helmet, one innovation from the early 1900s period was hardened leather. 1917 marked the first time helmets were raised above the head in an attempt to direct blows away from the top of the head, ear flaps also had their downfall during this period as they had little ventilation and made it difficult for players to hear. The 1920s marked the first time helmets were widely used in the sport of football. These helmets were made of leather and had some padding on the inside, in addition, they lacked face masks. As a result, injuries were very common, early helmets also absorbed a lot of heat, making them very uncomfortable to wear. In 1939, the Riddell Company of Chicago, Illinois started manufacturing plastic helmets because it felt that plastic helmets would be safer than those made of leather, plastic was found to be more effective because it held its shape when full collision contact occurred on a play. These helmets were also more comfortable and had more padding to cushion the head in an impact. Included with the helmet came plastic face mask, which allowed the helmet to protect the entire head. By the mid-1940s, helmets were required in the NFL and they were still made of leather, but with improved manufacturing techniques had assumed their more familiar spherical shape. By the 1950s, the introduction of polymers ended the leather helmet era, the NFL also recommended face masks for players in 1955, reducing the number of broken noses and teeth, but also necessitating new rules prohibiting opposing players from grabbing the face mask. Vin Ferrara, a former Harvard quarterback, accidentally discovered a new way to cushion football helmets, one night, Ferrara was looking for an aspirin when he saw a squirt bottle in his medicine cabinet. As he pumped it and then punched it, he realized that the bottle withstood the blows of different forces, Ferrara immediately came up with the idea to encase football helmets with a number of inflatable pockets in order to cushion the blows a football player receives to reduce concussions
3.
Florida State Seminoles football
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The Florida State Seminoles football team represents Florida State University in the sport of American football. The Florida State Seminoles compete in the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the team is known for its storied history, distinctive helmet, fight song and colors as well as the many traditions associated with the school. They are considered to be one of the most successful football programs ever. Florida State has won three championships, eighteen conference titles and six division titles along with a playoff appearance. The Seminoles have achieved three undefeated seasons and finished ranked in the top four of the AP Poll for 14 straight years from 1987 through 2000, ESPN ranks the 1999 team among the top teams in college football history. The team has produced three Heisman Trophy winners, quarterbacks Charlie Ward in 1993, Chris Weinke in 2000 and Jameis Winston in 2013, the Biletnikoff Award, presented annually to the top receiver in college football, is named for Florida State hall of famer Fred Biletnikoff. Many former Seminoles have gone on to have careers in the NFL. The program has produced 218 All-Americans and 250 professional players, the Seminoles have the tenth-highest winning percentage among all college football programs in Division I FBS history with over 500 victories. Florida State has appeared in postseason bowl games and rank ninth nationally for bowl winning percentage. The Seminoles archrivals are Florida, whom they meet annually in the last game of the regular season, a rivalry with Clemson has developed and grown due to both teams competing yearly for the ACC Atlantic division. Florida State University joined the Atlantic Coast Conference in July 1991, Florida State is considered one of the teams that brought the conference to its pinnacle becoming the overall most successful program in the ACC. Since the ACC expanded from nine to twelve universities in 2005, and instituted divisional play in football, Florida State plays an eight-game ACC football schedule. Six of these contests pit the Seminoles against the members of the ACC Atlantic Division, Boston College, Clemson, Louisville, North Carolina State, Syracuse. Throughout a rotation schedule, Florida State plays each coastal division team at least twice every six years with possible meetings in the game in between regular season meetings. Florida State will also play Notre Dame as a home-and-home twice every six years per a conference agreement, in addition to the conference foes, the Seminoles face in-state rival Florida from the SEC at the end of the regular season. The two teams emergence as perennial football powers in the 1980s and 1990s helped build the Florida–Florida State football rivalry into a game that has held national title implications. Florida State remains the team in the state of Florida to play both powers, Florida and Miami, every year. The remaining dates on Florida States regular season schedule are filled with various non-conference opponents that vary year to year
4.
Ford Edge
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The Ford Edge is a mid-sized crossover SUV manufactured by Ford. The first generation Edge is based on the Ford CD3 platform shared with the first generation Ford Fusion, Mazda CX-9, first & second generation Mazda 6 and Lincoln MKX. Along with a premium variant, the Lincoln MKX, the Edge, is manufactured at Fords Oakville Assembly Complex in Oakville, Ontario. The first generation Edge debuted at Detroits North American International Auto Show in January 2006, the SE includes cloth seats, single-zone manual air-conditioning, AM/FM stereo with single-disc CD/MP3 player, and 17-inch painted aluminum wheels. The Limited trim level replaced the SEL Plus in 2008, the Sport trim level debuted at the 2008 Chicago Auto Show, with sales beginning as a 2009 model. Standard transmission is a 6F50 6-speed automatic transmission, Edge earns IIHS Top Safety Pick rating for models built after January 20073. 5L Duratec 35 V6 named one of the worlds 10 Best Engines by Ward. Ford Edge named 2007 Urban Truck of the Year by On Wheels, Edge wins J. D. Power and Associates 2007 APEAL Award Ford Canada announced in June 2007, that a gasoline-electric hybrid version of the Edge will debut in the 2010 model year. The model is expected to use a new system from Ford. Additionally, after public presentation in 2007, Ford has been carefully pointing at future production of its HySeries Edge and this is a hybrid electric vehicle that uses hydrogen fuel along with plug-in charging of its lithium-ion battery pack, for a combined range of over 320 kilometres. The HySeries system was first introduced in the Ford Airstream concept from the 2007 Detroit Auto Show, a concept of the Ford Edge with the HySeries Drive was unveiled in the 2007 Washington DC Auto Show. The HySeries system is related to General Motors E-Flex platform, the E-Flex Platform was introduced in the 2007 Detroit Auto Show as the power train of the Chevrolet Volt concept. This vehicle was featured in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace starring Daniel Craig as Bond, in 2002, starting with Die Another Day, Ford and Eon Productions agreed to a three film contract to have their vehicles displayed and/or used in the Bond movies. After Quantum of Solace, their contract expired, the facelifted Ford Edge was unveiled on February 12,2010 at the 2010 Chicago Auto Show. The turbocharger in the new 2. 0L engine is designed for 150,000 miles or 10 years, in Israel this trim is called SEL Plus. Limited options include HID headlamps, BLIS, and Adaptive Cruise Control, for 2015, the Ford Edge is all-new from the ground-up with a new Taurus and Explorer-like grille, new headlights, LED combination taillights, increased interior room, and a rear-view camera. This generation of the Edge comes with a standard EcoBoost engine, the all-new 2. 0-liter, unlike the previous 2. 0-liter EcoBoost, the 2015 generation has a towing capacity of 3500 pounds and is available with all-wheel drive. Mid-spec engine is a 3. 5-liter V-6, with reduced power output. The highest engine in the range, powering Sport models, is the new 2. 7-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V-6, for the first time, Ford markets the Edge in European markets, it sits above the Ford Kuga
5.
Sonic Drive-In
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Sonic Drive-In, more commonly known as Sonic, is an American drive-in fast-food restaurant chain based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. As of August 31,2016,3,557 restaurants were in 45 U. S. states, in 2011, it was ranked 10th in QSR Magazines rankings of the top 50 quick-service and fast-casual restaurant brands in the nation. Known for its use of carhops on roller skates, the company hosts a competition to determine the top skating carhop in its system. It also hosts, with Dr Pepper, a competition between drive-in employees. Although Sonic has operated since the early 1950s, Sonic Corp. incorporated in Delaware in 1990 and it has its corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City, the headquarters building features a dine-in Sonic restaurant in an adjacent building. Its stock trades on NASDAQ with the symbol SONC, company restaurants are owned and operated by Sonic Restaurants, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary. Total 2011 revenues were around $546 million with net income of $19 million, Sonics menu consists of hamburgers and French fries, as well as onion rings, corn dogs, chili dogs and breakfast toaster sandwiches. Drink options include soft drinks, slushes, and milkshakes, customers can combine various drinks and flavors to create thousands of possible drink combinations. Ice cream desserts include sundaes and banana splits, at a standard Sonic Drive-In, a customer drives into a covered drive-in stall, orders through an intercom speaker system, and has the food delivered by a carhop. Most drive-ins also have seating, and many have drive-thru lanes. Following World War II, Sonic founder Troy N. Smith Sr. returned to his hometown of Seminole, Oklahoma and he decided to work delivering bread because bread was not as heavy as milk. Soon afterwards, Smith purchased the Cottage Cafe, a diner in Shawnee. Before long, he sold it and opened a fast food restaurant, Troys Pan Full of Chicken, on the edge of town. In 1953, Smith went in with a partner to purchase a five-acre parcel of land that had a log house. The two men continued with the operation of the beer stand and converted the log house into a steak restaurant. After realizing that the stand was averaging $700 a week in the sale of beer, hamburgers. He also bought out his business partner, originally, Top Hat customers would park their automobiles anywhere on the gravel parking lot and walk up to place their orders. However, on a trip to Louisiana, Smith saw a drive-in that used speakers for ordering and he suspected that he could increase his sales by controlling the parking and having the customers order from speakers at their cars, with carhops delivering the food to the cars
6.
Alaska Wild
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The Alaska Wild was a professional indoor football team based in Anchorage, Alaska. The team was a member of the Pacific North Division of the Intense Conference of the Indoor Football League, the Alaska Wild played their home games in the Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. The team suspended operations nine games of the 2010 season. At that time, Alaska was the state in the United States that did not have football played above the high school level or basketball played above the collegiate level. The original APS Business Plan was written by David Weatherholt during the winter, APS was also in talks with Mikal Duilio, founder of the International Basketball League to form a professional basketball team to be called the Anchorage Ice. During the business planning process, Weatherholt was in contact with Arena Footballs af2 league headquartered in Chicago about joining that league, the original goal was to join the af2, and on April 25,2006, Weatherholt paid the application fee for admission to the league. The next step was to secure funding and form the team, the goal was to incorporate APS, which took place on May 4,2006, and to raise equity capital by selling common stock in the newly formed corporation. On Friday May 5,2006, Weatherholt made his plan public when a release was sent to the Alaska media outlets announcing his plans for bringing a professional indoor football team to Alaska. The Alaska Wild team name was selected as part of a Name the Team contest hosted by APS, over 1,500 names were submitted online by football fans across the United States and Canada. United States Air Force TSgt Deryl Morse submitted the winning team name, Morse was on hand to accept a family four-pack season pass to inaugural season from Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich and Weatherholt. A public offering for the sale of stock was approved by the State of Alaska on August 28,2006. This made Alaska Professional Sports, Inc. one of three professional sports teams that were publicly owned. The public offering did not raise capital to meet the October 1,2006 deadline for admission to the af2. On September 29,2006, Weatherholt made an announcement that the deadline was missed. Two weeks after Weatherholt announced the delay, Chad Dittman, President of the Intense Football League, Weatherholt flew to Dallas, Texas and signed an agreement to join the Intense Football League on October 26,2006. Then on January 17,2007, APS announced that the Alaska Wild had concluded a national search, Evans, of Tacoma, Washington, visited team executives in early January for an interview and to familiarize himself with Alaska and the organization. Evans was selected from other applicants because of his west coast background. On April 12,2007, at 7,00 pm Alaska sports history was made when the Frisco Thunder, an expansion team, narrowly defeated the Alaska Wild in front of a sellout crowd of over 6,100 excited fans
7.
Indoor American football
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In the United States, indoor football is football played at ice hockey-sized indoor arenas. While varied, the rules of football are designed to allow for play in a smaller arena. The indoor football season typically begins in mid- to late-winter and ends by mid-summer, the first documented indoor football games were those played at Madison Square Garden in 1902 and 1903, known as the World Series of Pro Football. The games were played on a 70-yard by 35-yard dirt field, poor attendance led to the tournament being discontinued after two years. The first major football game was the 1932 NFL Playoff Game. A dirt floor was brought in, and to compensate for the 80-yard length of the field, in the 1960s the Boardwalk Bowl, a post-season game involving small college teams, was contested at the convention center. The Bowl was an attempt to make Atlantic City more of a resort in the pre-gambling era as opposed to a single-season one. The Philadelphia-based Liberty Bowl game, which had played at Municipal Stadium from 1959–1963, was moved into the Convention Center in 1964 for the contest between Utah and West Virginia. The game drew just over 6,000 fans, though, and the Liberty Bowl moved to Memphis the next year, the end zones were slightly shorter—eight yards instead of the standard ten. He devised his game while watching indoor soccer, another game derived from a sport played outdoors, when the USFL ceased operations, Foster saw his opportunity. He staged a test game in Rockford, Illinois in 1986 and put together a league for a demonstration season in the spring of 1987. This resulted in the field being 50 yards long with eight-yard end zones, and the field being slightly over half as wide as a standard football field. Although it was not as much of an issue then as it is now, Foster adopted artificial turf for the field, Foster adopted a modified version of eight-man football. He also mandated a system that required at least six players go both ways, playing on both offensive and defensive downs. This had the desirable effect of limiting team payrolls. The placing of rebound nets around the ends of the surface, kicked and passed balls bounced off these nets. This means that on every kicking play except an extra point attempt, either team may have a shot to regain the ball and advance it, only kicked or passed balls touching the slack nets behind the goalposts are ruled dead at that point. To further an offensive passing advantage over the defense, Foster also imposed restrictions on the defensive formation
8.
Rock River Raptors
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This page is for the Continental Indoor Football League team, for the National Premier Soccer League team also based in Rockford, see Rockford Raptors. The Rock River Raptors were an indoor football team based in Rockford. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League, the franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a charter member of af2. The franchise was based at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, coincidentally, Rockford was the site of the first-ever Arena Football game in 1986. The Owner of the Raptors was Art Clarkson, the Raptors played their home games at Rockford MetroCentre in Rockford, Illinois. The financial demands on the af2 member teams were such that since the league was founded in 2000, Clarkson wasted little time naming veteran coach, Dick Adams, as the teams head coach. In late January, the changed their name to the Tennessee Valley Raptors. On October 1,2007, the Raptors announced they would not play in the UIF in 2008, eighteen days later, they announced they would move to the CIFL to begin play there for the 2008 season. Raptors website Raptors 2005 Stats Raptors 2006 Stats Raptors 2007 Stats Raptors Photos
9.
Naming rights
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For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three to 20 years. Longer terms are common for higher profile venues such as a professional sports facility. The distinctive characteristic for this type of naming rights is that the buyer gets a marketing property to promote products and services, there are several forms of corporate sponsored names. A presenting sponsor attaches the name of the corporation or brand at the end of a generic, usually traditional, a title sponsor replaces the original name of the property with a corporate-sponsored one, with no reference to the previous name. In a few cases, naming rights contracts have been terminated prematurely, such terminations may be the result of contractual options, sponsor bankruptcy, or scandals. Stadium naming may have shifted in recent years to promoting corporate trade names, the record for the highest amount paid for naming rights belongs to Citi Field and Barclays Center, both located in New York City, US. Each garnered deals of $20 million per year for at least 20 years and it ultimately fell short of that benchmark, with MetLife Stadium earning $17 million annually from its naming rights deal with MetLife. Naming rights in United States may have traced back to 1912 with the opening of Fenway Park in Boston. The stadiums owner had owned a realty company called Fenway Realty, despite this, it is more widely believed to have begun in 1926 when William Wrigley, the chewing gum magnate and owner of the Chicago Cubs, named his teams stadium Wrigley Field. In 1953, Anheuser-Busch head and St. Louis Cardinals owner August Busch, Jr. proposed renaming Sportsmans Park, occupied by the Cardinals, Budweiser Stadium. When this idea was rejected by Ford Frick, the Commissioner of Baseball at that time, the name was readily approved, and Anheuser-Busch subsequently released a new product called Busch Bavarian Beer. The name would later be shifted to the Busch Memorial Stadium in 1966, shortened in the 1970s to Busch Stadium, the public reaction to this practice is mixed. Selling the naming rights to a venue has been notably less successful. The general public continued to call the facility what it had known as for over three decades–i. e. After the agreement with 3Com expired, the rights were resold to Monster Cable, the initiative proved largely ceremonial, however, and it was overturned by the passage of Proposition C in 2009 in response to desperate economic times. The naming rights to the park were never resold and the closed in 2014. Sports stadiums with naming rights deals are not limited to the United States, in cricket, the most famous example is The Oval, home of Surrey County Cricket Club. It has had several sponsors over the years, and is known as The Kia Oval, having originally been known as the Kennington Oval
10.
Grossinger Motors Arena
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Cellular Coliseum is an arena in downtown Bloomington, Illinois that opened to the public on April 1,2006. It is on the southwest corner of Madison Street and Front Street and it hosts the Bloomington Edge of Champions Indoor Football, the Bloomington Thunder of the United States Hockey League and the Bloomington Flex of the Midwest Professional Basketball Association. The arenas seating capacity is approximately 7,000 for hockey, the arena also has a basketball floor and a sand volleyball floor. The arena is home to the Pepsi Ice center which is located in the same building. Coliseum has all rights to the Pepsi Ice center, attached to the arena is the Pepsi Ice Center, which is a public ice rink run by Bloomington Parks & Rec. The center features open skating, as well as lessons and hockey leagues, the arena has 800 club seats,24 luxury suites, and 2 party suites. U. S. Cellular, a telephone company, has sponsored several sports venues. Cellular Center - an indoor arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa U. S. Cellular Field at the Resch Center - Home of the Green Bay Blizzard of the IFL U. S, Cellular Community Park, a multi-field, multi-sport athletic complex in Medford, Oregon Official site
Current season
