1.
Boston College Eagles football
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The Boston College Eagles football team represents Boston College in the sport of American football. The Eagles compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, begun in 1892, Boston Colleges football team was one of six Major College football programs in New England as designated by NCAA classifications, starting in 1938. By 1981, and for the remainder of the twentieth century and it has amassed a 624–444–37 record and is 99–54 since the turn of the 21st century. Steve Addazio is currently the head coach. Boston College is one of only two Catholic universities that field a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the other being Notre Dame, the Eagles home games are played at Alumni Stadium on the Boston College campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. In addition to success on the gridiron, Boston College football teams are ranked among the nations best for academic achievement. In 2005,2006 and 2007, the football teams Academic Progress Rate was the highest of any school that finished the season ranked in the AP or ESPN/USA Today Coaches polls, drum would become the first head coach, albeit an unpaid position and OConnell was captain. On October 26,1893, BC played its first official game against the St. Johns Literary Institute of Cambridge followed by its first intercollegiate game against MIT, BC won the first game 4–0, but lost 6–0 to MIT. In 1920, the Boston College football team adopted the nickname Eagles, the season was capped by a stirring 14-0 victory over Holy Cross before 40,000 fans at Braves Field. The win gave the team a perfect 8-0 season and the school’s first Eastern Championship, the 1940 season can arguably be called the greatest year in the history of Boston College football. BCs undefeated and untied team, captured the 1941 Sugar Bowl championship and it included a 19–18 victory over Georgetown before 41,700 fans at sold-out Fenway Park, that was called one of the greatest games ever by famed sportswriter Grantland Rice. Going into the game, the Hoyas had twenty-two consecutive victories spanning three seasons, BC trailed until the third quarter, when a 43-yard touchdown pass from Charlie ORourke to Monk Maznicki put the Eagles ahead. With just seconds remaining, BC had the ball on their own nine, Georgetown set up to return the Eagles punt. Instead of punting, ORourke scrambled in his own end zone for 45 seconds then took a safety, BC used the free kick to boot the ball far downfield and dashed the Hoyas three-season unbeaten record. The NCAA lists only Minnesota as the champion in 1940. Mike Holovak was named coach of BC in 1951. During his tenure as coach, the Eagles compiled a 49–29–3 record. Holovak won Coach of the Year honors in 1954 from New England football writers, ernie Hefferle, an assistant coach for the NFLs Washington Redskins, was hired as head coach of the Eagles following Holovaks firing
2.
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
3.
Boston College
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Boston College is a private Jesuit Catholic research university located in the village of Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States,6 miles west of downtown Boston. It has 9,100 full-time undergraduates and almost 5,000 graduate students, the universitys name reflects its early history as a liberal arts college and preparatory school in Bostons South End. It is a member of the 568 Group and the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities and its main campus is a historic district and features some of the earliest examples of collegiate gothic architecture in North America. Boston Colleges undergraduate program is currently ranked 31st in the National Universities ranking by U. S. News & World Report, Boston College is categorized as an R1, Highest Research Activity institution by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Students at the university earned 21 Fulbright Awards in 2012, ranking the school eighth among American research institutions, Boston College sports teams are called the Eagles, and their colors are maroon and gold, the school mascot is Baldwin the Eagle. The Eagles compete in NCAA Division I as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports offered by the ACC, the mens and womens ice hockey teams compete in Hockey East. Boston Colleges mens ice hockey team is one of the most decorated programs in the nation, in 1825, Benedict Joseph Fenwick, S. J. A Jesuit from Maryland, became the second Bishop of Boston and he was the first to articulate a vision for a College in the City of Boston that would raise a new generation of leaders to serve both the civic and spiritual needs of his fledgling diocese. In 1827, Bishop Fenwick opened a school in the basement of his cathedral and his efforts to attract other Jesuits to the faculty were hampered both by Bostons distance from the center of Jesuit activity in Maryland and by suspicion on the part of the citys Protestant elite. Meanwhile, the vision for a college in Boston was sustained by John McElroy, with little fanfare, the colleges two buildings—a schoolhouse and a church—welcomed their first class of scholastics in 1859. Two years later, with as little fanfare, BC closed again and its short-lived second incarnation was plagued by the outbreak of Civil War and disagreement within the Society over the colleges governance and finances. BCs inability to obtain a charter from the anti-Catholic Massachusetts legislature only compounded its troubles, on March 31,1863, more than three decades after its initial inception, Boston Colleges charter was formally approved by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. BC became the second Jesuit institution of learning in Massachusetts. A Swiss Jesuit from French-speaking Fribourg, was selected as BCs first president, for most of the 19th century, BC offered a singular 7-year program corresponding to both high school and college. Its entering class in the fall of 1864 included 22 students, the curriculum was based on the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, emphasizing Latin, Greek, philosophy, and theology. Boston Colleges enrollment reached nearly 500 by the turn of the 20th century, in 1907, newly installed President Thomas I. Gasson, S. J. determined that BCs cramped, urban quarters in Bostons South End were inadequate, inspired by John Winthrops early vision of Boston as a city upon a hill, he re-imagined Boston College as world-renowned university and a beacon of Jesuit scholarship. Less than a year after taking office, he purchased Amos Adams Lawrences farm on Chestnut Hill and he organized an international competition for the design of a campus master plan and set about raising funds for the construction of the new university
4.
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
5.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days
6.
College football
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It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities
7.
National Collegiate Athletic Association
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non-profit association which regulates athletes of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals. It also organizes the programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2014, the NCAA generated almost a billion dollars in revenue. 80 to 90% of this revenue was due to the Division I Mens Basketball Tournament and this revenue is then distributed back into various organizations and institutions across the United States. In August 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships, generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently, the term Division I-AAA was briefly added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all, in 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision. Inter-collegiate sports began in the US in 1852 when crews from Harvard University, as other sports emerged, notably football and basketball, many of these same concepts and standards were adopted. Football, in particular, began to emerge as a marquee sport, the IAAUS was officially established on March 31,1906, and took its present name, the NCAA, in 1910. For several years, the NCAA was a group and rules-making body, but in 1921, the first NCAA national championship was conducted. Gradually, more rules committees were formed and more championships were created, a series of crises brought the NCAA to a crossroads after World War II. The Sanity Code – adopted to establish guidelines for recruiting and financial aid – failed to curb abuses, postseason football games were multiplying with little control, and member schools were increasingly concerned about how the new medium of television would affect football attendance. The complexity of problems and the growth in membership and championships demonstrated the need for full-time professional leadership. Walter Byers, previously an executive assistant, was named executive director in 1951. Byers wasted no time placing his stamp on the Association, as college athletics grew, the scope of the nations athletics programs diverged, forcing the NCAA to create a structure that recognized varying levels of emphasis. In 1973, the Associations membership was divided into three legislative and competitive divisions – I, II, and III, five years later in 1978, Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA in football. Until the 1980s, the association did not offer womens athletics, instead, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, with nearly 1000 member schools, governed womens collegiate sports in the United States
8.
NCAA Division I
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Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. This level was called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower level College Division. For football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A, Division I-AA, in 2006, Division I-A and I-AA were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision, respectively. FCS teams are allowed to award scholarships, a practice technically allowed. FBS teams also have to meet attendance requirements, while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements. Another difference is post season play, starting with the 2014 postseason, a four-team playoff called the College Football Playoff, replaced the previous one game championship format. Even so, Division I FBS football is still the only NCAA sport in which a champion is not determined by an NCAA-sanctioned championship event. All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender. Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well, there are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. Mens and womens teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams, for men, they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena. The NCAA has limits on the financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. Equivalency sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport, the term counter is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a counter as an individual who is receiving financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport. The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in sport is listed below. In this table, scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a point, for equivalency sports, they are listed with a decimal point. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport, participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football
9.
Amherst, Massachusetts
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Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States in the Connecticut River valley. As of the 2010 census, the population was 37,819, the town is home to Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, three of the Five Colleges. The name of the town is pronounced without the h, giving rise to the saying, only the h is silent. The communities of Amherst Center, North Amherst, and South Amherst are census-designated places, Amherst is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. Lying 18 miles northeast of the city of Springfield, Amherst is considered the northernmost town in the Hartford-Springfield Knowledge Corridor Metropolitan Region, Amherst celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2009. The Amherst 250th Anniversary Celebration Committee was established to oversee the creation and implementation of activities throughout 2009. The first permanent English settlements arrived in 1727 and it gained precinct status in 1734 and eventually township in 1759. When it incorporated, the governor assigned the town the name Amherst after Jeffery Amherst, 1st Baron Amherst. Many colonial governors at the time scattered his name amidst the influx of new town applications, Amherst was a hero of the French and Indian War who, according to popular legend, singlehandedly won Canada for the British and banished France from North America. Popular belief has it that he supported the American side in the Revolutionary war, nonetheless, his previous service in the French and Indian War meant he remained popular in New England. For this reason, there have been occasional ad hoc movements to rename the town, suggested new names have included Emily, after Emily Dickinson. According to the United States Census Bureau, Amherst has an area of 27.8 square miles. The town is bordered by Hadley to the west, Sunderland and Leverett to the north, Shutesbury, Pelham, and Belchertown to the east, and Granby and South Hadley to the south. The highest point in the town is on the shoulder of Mount Norwottuck. The town is equidistant from both the northern and southern state lines. For interactive mapping provided by the Town of Amherst, see External Links on this page, Amhersts ZIP code of 01002 is the second-lowest number in the continental United States after Agawam. Amherst has a continental climate that under the Köppen system marginally falls into the warm-summer category. It is interchangeable with the hot-summer subtype dfa with July means hovering around 71.4 °F, winters are cold and snowy, albeit daytime temperatures often remain above freezing
