Illinois
Illinois is a state in the Midwestern and Great Lakes region of the United States. It has the fifth largest gross domestic product, the sixth largest population, the 25th largest land area of all U. S. states. Illinois is noted as a microcosm of the entire United States. With Chicago in northeastern Illinois, small industrial cities and immense agricultural productivity in the north and center of the state, natural resources such as coal and petroleum in the south, Illinois has a diverse economic base, is a major transportation hub. Chicagoland, Chicago's metropolitan area, encompasses over 65% of the state's population; the Port of Chicago connects the state to international ports via two main routes: from the Great Lakes, via the Saint Lawrence Seaway, to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Great Lakes to the Mississippi River, via the Illinois Waterway to the Illinois River. The Mississippi River, the Ohio River, the Wabash River form parts of the boundaries of Illinois. For decades, Chicago's O'Hare International Airport has been ranked as one of the world's busiest airports.
Illinois has long had a reputation as a bellwether both in social and cultural terms and, through the 1980s, in politics. The capital of Illinois is Springfield, located in the central part of the state. Although today's Illinois' largest population center is in its northeast, the state's European population grew first in the west as the French settled the vast Mississippi of the Illinois Country of New France. Following the American Revolutionary War, American settlers began arriving from Kentucky in the 1780s via the Ohio River, the population grew from south to north. In 1818, Illinois achieved statehood. Following increased commercial activity in the Great Lakes after the construction of the Erie Canal, Chicago was founded in the 1830s on the banks of the Chicago River at one of the few natural harbors on the southern section of Lake Michigan. John Deere's invention of the self-scouring steel plow turned Illinois's rich prairie into some of the world's most productive and valuable farmland, attracting immigrant farmers from Germany and Sweden.
The Illinois and Michigan Canal made transportation between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River valley faster and cheaper, new railroads carried immigrants to new homes in the country's west and shipped commodity crops to the nation's east. The state became a transportation hub for the nation. By 1900, the growth of industrial jobs in the northern cities and coal mining in the central and southern areas attracted immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. Illinois was an important manufacturing center during both world wars; the Great Migration from the South established a large community of African Americans in the state, including Chicago, who founded the city's famous jazz and blues cultures. Chicago, the center of the Chicago Metropolitan Area, is now recognized as a global alpha-level city. Three U. S. presidents have been elected while living in Illinois: Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Barack Obama. Additionally, Ronald Reagan, whose political career was based in California, was born and raised in the state.
Today, Illinois honors Lincoln with its official state slogan Land of Lincoln, displayed on its license plates since 1954. The state is the site of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield and the future home of the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago. "Illinois" is the modern spelling for the early French Catholic missionaries and explorers' name for the Illinois Native Americans, a name, spelled in many different ways in the early records. American scholars thought the name "Illinois" meant "man" or "men" in the Miami-Illinois language, with the original iliniwek transformed via French into Illinois; this etymology is not supported by the Illinois language, as the word for "man" is ireniwa, plural of "man" is ireniwaki. The name Illiniwek has been said to mean "tribe of superior men", a false etymology; the name "Illinois" derives from the Miami-Illinois verb irenwe·wa - "he speaks the regular way". This was taken into the Ojibwe language in the Ottawa dialect, modified into ilinwe·.
The French borrowed these forms, changing the /we/ ending to spell it as -ois, a transliteration for its pronunciation in French of that time. The current spelling form, began to appear in the early 1670s, when French colonists had settled in the western area; the Illinois's name for themselves, as attested in all three of the French missionary-period dictionaries of Illinois, was Inoka, of unknown meaning and unrelated to the other terms. American Indians of successive cultures lived along the waterways of the Illinois area for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans; the Koster Site demonstrates 7,000 years of continuous habitation. Cahokia, the largest regional chiefdom and urban center of the Pre-Columbian Mississippian culture, was located near present-day Collinsville, Illinois, they built an urban complex of more than 100 platform and burial mounds, a 50-acre plaza larger than 35 football fields, a woodhenge of sacred cedar, all in a planned design expressing the culture's cosmology.
Monks Mound, the center of the site, is the largest Pre-Columbian structure north of the Valley of Mexico. It is 100 feet high, 951 feet long, 836 feet wide, covers 13.8 acres. It contains about 814,000 cubic yards of earth, it was topped by a structure thought to have measured about 105 feet in length and 48 feet in width, covered an area 5,000 square feet, been as much as 50 feet high, making its peak 150 feet above the level of the pl
Eddie Anderson (American football coach)
Edward Nicholas Anderson was an American football player and coach of football and basketball. He served as the head football coach at Columbia College in Dubuque, now known as Loras College, DePaul University, the College of the Holy Cross, the University of Iowa, compiling a career college football record of 201–128–15. Anderson was the head basketball coach at DePaul from 1925 to 1929, tallying a mark of 25–21. Anderson played professional football in the National Football League for the Rochester Jeffersons in 1922 and the Chicago Cardinals from 1922 to 1925, he was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1971. Anderson attended Mason City High School in Mason City, before enrolling at the University of Notre Dame, he was a teammate of George Gipp. As a senior, he was named a consensus first team All-American and was the team captain of the 1921 Notre Dame football team. In his final three years at Notre Dame, the Irish had a record of 28–1. Anderson's only loss in his final three seasons was to Anderson's home state school, when Notre Dame lost to the Iowa Hawkeyes in 1921, 10–7.
Anderson coached at Columbia College in Dubuque, from 1922 to 1924, compiling a 16–6–1 record with one undefeated season. During that time, he was considered for an assistant coaching position at Iowa, but Iowa coach Howard Jones rejected the idea. Anderson served as a player/coach for the Chicago Cardinals professional football team in the early 1920s as well, he played on the Cardinals' controversial championship team in 1925. That same year, Anderson enrolled at Rush Medical College in Chicago. While in Chicago, Anderson coached football at DePaul University, compiling a 21–22–3 record from 1925 to 1931, he coached basketball at DePaul from 1925 to 1929, guiding them to a 25–21 record. After graduating from Rush, Anderson took a job as head football coach at the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts, he had a record of 47–7–4 in six years at Holy Cross from 1933 to 1938, including undefeated seasons in 1935 and 1937. During that time, Anderson served as the head of eye, ear and throat clinic at Boston's Veterans Hospital.
Anderson was hired as the 15th head football coach at the University of Iowa before the 1939 season. Iowa had a record of just 2–13–1 in 1937 and 1938 under Irl Tubbs, the Hawkeyes had finished among the worst three teams in the Big Ten Conference standings every year in the 1930s except 1933. Iowa had won just one conference game in the last three years, the team they beat, announced that they would be dropping their football program following the 1939 season. Anderson sought to change Iowa's fortunes immediately, he put the 85 football players. Only 37 players would earn football letters in 1939 for Iowa. Anderson felt. Before the first game, The Des Moines Register had a small note stating that "a set of iron men may be developed to play football for Iowa."The 1939 Hawkeyes, nicknamed the "Ironmen", would become one of the greatest teams in school history and the most romanticized. Led by Nile Kinnick, the 1939 Heisman Trophy winner, the Hawkeyes put together a 6–1–1 record, the best overall record in the Big Ten, though Ohio State edged out Iowa for the conference title.
Many of Anderson's players played complete games during that season for the Hawkeyes. Anderson was named national coach of the year by several organizations. Jim Gallager of the Chicago Herald-American wrote, "It's doubtful if any coach in football history accomplished such an amazing renaissance as Eddie Anderson has worked at Iowa."Anderson was given a Cadillac by Iowa fans and a bonus by the university after his performance during the 1939 season. He was given a significant share of stock in Amana Refrigeration by the founder and CEO of the company, George Foersner, as a reward for his coaching that season; when Anderson retired from football in the late 1960s, he cashed in his stock for over a million dollars. After two more average seasons, Iowa started the 1942 season with a 6–2 record and was in contention for the Big Ten title, but consecutive road conference losses at Minnesota and Michigan to end the season doomed Iowa's chances. After that season, Anderson took a leave of absence to serve in the U.
S Army Medical Corps during World War II. Iowa left the football program in the hands of interim coaches Slip Madigan and Clem Crowe while Anderson was gone from 1943 to 1945. Anderson was a gifted doctor who performed at the University of Iowa Hospital in the morning before coaching in the afternoon, he had been studying urology at the Iowa hospital. When Anderson returned in 1946, he was told that if he retired from coaching, he would be named the successor to Dr. Alcock. Anderson continued practicing medicine on a part-time basis. By the time Anderson had returned from the service, Iowa football was again in the cellar of the Big Ten. Before the 1946 season, Anderson was hospitalized for 19 days with a parasite infection, he returned to lead Iowa to four wins in their first five games, as many wins as Iowa had during his three-year absence. Still, Iowa slumped to a 5–4 final record, leading two former players to write a scathing editorial about Anderson; the editorial asked, "How long will Dr. Anderson ride on the laurels that Nile Kinnick won for him?"In 1947, a 2–2–1 start was followed by three straight losses.
One day before Iowa's final game at Minnesota, Anderson submitted his resignation a
Chicago
Chicago the City of Chicago, is the most populous city in Illinois, as well as the third most populous city in the United States. With an estimated population of 2,716,450, it is the most populous city in the Midwest. Chicago is the principal city of the Chicago metropolitan area referred to as Chicagoland, the county seat of Cook County, the second most populous county in the United States; the metropolitan area, at nearly 10 million people, is the third-largest in the United States, the fourth largest in North America and the third largest metropolitan area in the world by land area. Located on the shores of freshwater Lake Michigan, Chicago was incorporated as a city in 1837 near a portage between the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed and grew in the mid-nineteenth century. After the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which destroyed several square miles and left more than 100,000 homeless, the city made a concerted effort to rebuild; the construction boom accelerated population growth throughout the following decades, by 1900 Chicago was the fifth largest city in the world.
Chicago made noted contributions to urban planning and zoning standards, including new construction styles, the development of the City Beautiful Movement, the steel-framed skyscraper. Chicago is an international hub for finance, commerce, technology, telecommunications, transportation, it is the site of the creation of the first standardized futures contracts at the Chicago Board of Trade, which today is the largest and most diverse derivatives market gobally, generating 20% of all volume in commodities and financial futures. O'Hare International Airport is the one of the busiest airports in the world, the region has the largest number of U. S. highways and greatest amount of railroad freight. In 2012, Chicago was listed as an alpha global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, it ranked seventh in the entire world in the 2017 Global Cities Index; the Chicago area has one of the highest gross domestic products in the world, generating $680 billion in 2017. In addition, the city has one of the world's most diversified and balanced economies, not being dependent on any one industry, with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce.
Chicago's 58 million domestic and international visitors in 2018, made it the second most visited city in the nation, behind New York City's approximate 65 million visitors. The city ranked first place in the 2018 Time Out City Life Index, a global quality of life survey of 15,000 people in 32 cities. Landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Grant Park, the Museum of Science and Industry, Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicago's culture includes the visual arts, film, comedy and music jazz, soul, hip-hop and electronic dance music including house music. Of the area's many colleges and universities, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, the University of Illinois at Chicago are classified as "highest research" doctoral universities. Chicago has professional sports teams in each of the major professional leagues, including two Major League Baseball teams; the name "Chicago" is derived from a French rendering of the indigenous Miami-Illinois word shikaakwa for a wild relative of the onion, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum and known more as ramps.
The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as "Checagou" was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir. Henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the eponymous wild "garlic" grew abundantly in the area. According to his diary of late September 1687:...when we arrived at the said place called "Chicagou" which, according to what we were able to learn of it, has taken this name because of the quantity of garlic which grows in the forests in this region. The city has had several nicknames throughout its history such as the Windy City, Chi-Town, Second City, the City of the Big Shoulders, which refers to the city's numerous skyscrapers and high-rises. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, who had taken the place of the Miami and Sauk and Fox peoples; the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable arrived in the 1780s, he is known as the "Founder of Chicago".
In 1795, following the Northwest Indian War, an area, to be part of Chicago was turned over to the United States for a military post by native tribes in accordance with the Treaty of Greenville. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn and rebuilt; the Ottawa and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis; the Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833. On August 12, 1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people. On June 15, 1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. Receiver of Public Monies; the City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4, 1837, for several decades was the world's fastest-growing city. As the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States.
Chicago's first railway and Chicago Union Railroad, the Illi
Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball
The Oklahoma Sooners men's basketball team represents the University of Oklahoma in men's NCAA Division I basketball. The Sooners play in the Big 12 Conference; the Sooners enjoyed moderate success on the court during this era, posting just 16 losing records in their first 72 seasons. They were led by 9 different coaches during this period, beginning with Bennie Owen and ending with Dave Bliss in 1980; the Sooners participated in the first Final Four in 1939. OU made a second appearance in the championship game in 1947; the program gained national prominence under Billy Tubbs when he took over in 1981. Star players Wayman Tisdale, Mookie Blaylock, Stacey King guided the Sooners to several deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. In 1988, the Sooners reached the NCAA title game in Kansas City, where they fell four points shy of their first national title to the 11-loss Kansas Jayhawks, a team which they had beaten twice in regular season play. Tubbs resigned on April 10, 1994, indicating that "he did not feel appreciated enough working at a football school".
Tubbs' base salary at Oklahoma in his final season was $107,000 annually. Tubbs, 59 years old at the time, left to take over the struggling Texas Christian University basketball program, signing a 5-year contract worth between $200,000 and $400,000 per season. Tubbs' record at OU was 333-132 overall, 126-70 conference, with 10 NCAA Tournament appearances, one Final Four appearance, one National Title Game appearance. Tubbs finished with 5 Big 8 regular season titles and 2 Conference Tournament titles. Tubbs averaged 9 conference wins per season. Kelvin Sampson became the 11th head coach at the University of Oklahoma on April 25, 1994. Sampson was named national coach of the year in 1995 by the Associated Press, United States Basketball Writers Association and Basketball Weekly after guiding the Sooners to 23–9 overall and 15–0 home marks, it was the second-best overall record posted by a first-year coach in Big 8 history. Sampson possesses the highest winning percentage in Oklahoma history, he guided OU to nine consecutive 20-win seasons.
He averaged 24.4 wins over those nine campaigns. He directed the Sooners to postseason tournament berths in each of his 12 seasons, with a Sweet 16 showing in 1999, a Final Four appearance in 2002 and an Elite Eight appearance in 2003, his teams played in the Big 12 Tournament title game on five occasions during the 10 seasons he coached in the Big 12. In 2001, 2002, 2003 the Sooners won that tournament. Sampson finished with a Big 12 Tournament record of 17-7. Standouts Eduardo Nájera and Hollis Price helped the Sooners maintain a streak of 25 straight post season appearances, the longest in the nation. Sampson left OU in 2006 to take a head job at Indiana. Sampson's record at OU was 279-109 overall, 128-60 conference, with 11 NCAA Tournament Appearances, including one Final Four appearance. In the Big 12, Sampson had 1 Conference Regular Season Title. During his final season at OU, Sampson's salary was $900,000 annually, not including bonuses. Sampson left OU in 2006 to become the head basketball coach at Indiana University, signing a 7-year, $10,500,000 contract, at $1,500,000 per season.
Under Sampson's watch, Oklahoma was placed under a three-year investigation by the NCAA for recruiting violations. At the end of their investigation, the NCAA issued a report citing more than 550 illegal calls made by Sampson and his staff to 17 different recruits; the NCAA barred Sampson from recruiting off campus and making phone calls for one year, ending May 24, 2007. Sampson averaged 11 conference wins per season. On April 11, 2006, Jeff Capel was named the 12th head basketball coach at Oklahoma, succeeding Kelvin Sampson. Though the Sooner Nation as a whole greeted Capel's hiring with optimism, one notable downside of the coaching change emerged—Sampson's departure caused three of the players who had signed with OU to rethink each's decision to attend OU. Scottie Reynolds went on to Villanova, Damion James to Texas. Capel was signed to a four-year, $3,000,000 contract, at $750,000 annually. In his first year, after going 8–4 in non-conference games, with losses to Memphis, Purdue and Alabama, the Sooners started 6–3 in conference play, before losing their final 7 conference games.
After winning only one game in the Big 12 Conference Tournament, losing to eventual conference tournament champion Kansas, the Sooners missed any form of postseason play, which snapped the nation's longest streak of 25 consecutive years in the postseason, starting with Billy Tubbs' second year in 1982 and ending with Kelvin Sampson's final year in 2006. In his second year, after signing McDonald's All-American Forward Blake Griffin, the Sooners finished 21–10 during the regular season earning them a No. 4 seed in the Big 12 Tournament, where they won one game before losing to Texas in the semi-finals. They received a No. 6 seed in the NCAA Tournament, where they defeated St. Joseph's in the first round before losing to No. 3 seed Louisville in the second round, finishing the season at 23–12, an improvement of 7 wins over the previous season. After this successful second season, Capel's name began to surface among many head coaching vacancies. In an effort to keep Capel, OU Athletic Director Joe Castiglione and the OU Board of Regents extended Capel's contract through 2014, increased his salary to $1,050,000 per year.
Player
2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament
The 2004 NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament involved 65 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 16, 2004, ended with the championship game on April 5 at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. A total of 64 games were played; the NCAA named, for the first time, the four tournament regions after regional site host cities instead of the "East", "Midwest", "South", "West" designations. It was the first year that the matchups for the national semifinals were determined at least in part by the overall seeding of the top team in each regional; the top four teams in the tournament were Kentucky, Duke and Saint Joseph's. Had all of those teams advanced to the Final Four, Kentucky would have played Saint Joseph's and Duke would have played Stanford in the semifinal games. Of those teams, only Duke advanced to the Final Four, they were joined by Connecticut, making their first appearance since defeating Duke for the national championship in 1999, Oklahoma State, making their first appearance since 1995, Georgia Tech, making their first appearance since 1990.
Connecticut defeated Georgia Tech 82-73 to win their second national championship in as many tries. Emeka Okafor of Connecticut was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player; as they had in 1999, Connecticut won their regional championship in Arizona. Two of the tournament's top seeds failed to make it past the opening weekend. Kentucky, number one seed of the St. Louis region, Stanford, #1 seed of the Phoenix region, both were defeated. Incidentally, both teams were defeated by schools from Alabama, as Kentucky fell to UAB while Stanford lost to Alabama. Due to their strong 2003–04 season, Gonzaga achieved its highest NCAA tournament seed until 2013 by receiving the #2 seed in the St. Louis region. Gonzaga would receive a #1 seed in the 2013 tournament; the team failed to advance beyond the first weekend of the tournament, however. The following were the sites that hosted rounds during the 2004 tournament: March 16 University of Dayton Arena, Ohio March 18 and 20 HSBC Arena, New York KeyArena, Washington Pepsi Center, Colorado RBC Center, North Carolina March 19 and 21 Bradley Center, Wisconsin Kemper Arena, Kansas City, Missouri Nationwide Arena, Ohio TD Waterhouse Centre, Florida March 25 and 27 East Rutherford Regional, Continental Airlines Arena, East Rutherford, New Jersey Phoenix Regional, America West Arena, Arizona March 26 and 28 Atlanta Regional, Georgia Dome, Georgia St. Louis Regional, Edward Jones Dome, St. Louis, Missouri April 3 and 5 Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas San Antonio and the Alamodome became the hosts of the Final Four for the second time in 2004.
There were no new host cities in this tournament but there were three new venues. For the first time since 1970, the tournament returned to Columbus, this time at Nationwide Arena, home to the NHL's Columbus Blue Jackets and sister venue to the Value City Arena on the campus of Ohio State University. After a shorter absence of only five years, basketball returned to the Mile High City at the Pepsi Center, home to the NBA's Denver Nuggets and the NHL's Colorado Avalanche, and for the first time since 1982, the tournament returned to Raleigh, North Carolina at the RBC Center, the off-campus home to the NC State Wolfpack, which replaced the Reynolds Coliseum, NC State's former basketball arena and the former site of tournament games in the city. This was the last tournament to feature games held at the TD Waterhouse Centre. *Florida A&M University won the Opening Round game. The America East, Atlantic Sun, Big Sky, Big South, CAA, Horizon League, Mid-Continent, Ivy, MAC, MEAC, Ohio Valley, Patriot, SoCon, Southland, SWAC, Sun Belt conferences all went 0–1.
The columns R32, S16, E8, F4, CG stand for the Round of 32, Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight, Final Four, Championship Game. At Alamodome, San Antonio, Texas April 3, 2004 Connecticut 79, Duke 78 With the Connecticut Huskies trailing by 8 points with less than 3 minutes to go, it looked as if the Duke Blue Devils were going to spoil Jim Calhoun's chance at a second national title. Connecticut's All-American center Emeka Okafor was limited to just 22 minutes because of early foul trouble, but he came up clutch with several big plays down the stretch and finished with 18 points and only 3 fouls. By contrast, all three of Duke's centers fouled out, including Shelden Williams, who committed his fifth foul with 3:04 to play. In addition, Duke went without a field goal for the last 41/2 minutes until Chris Duhon's meaningless three-pointer at the buzzer. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski was denied his 65th NCAA Tournament victory which would have tied him with Dean Smith for the all-time record, he broke that record.
Georgia Tech 67, Oklahoma State 65Will Bynum's layup in the final moments kept the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets dream for a National Championship alive as they defeated the Oklahoma State Cowboys, in a nail-biter, in the first of the National Semifinal doubleheader. Georgia Tech led for most
DePaul University
DePaul University is a private, Roman Catholic university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul. In 1998, it became the largest Catholic university by enrollment in the United States. In 2018 it was still considered nation's largest Catholic university. Following in the footsteps of its founders, DePaul places special emphasis on recruiting first-generation students and others from disadvantaged backgrounds. DePaul's two campuses are located in the Loop; the Lincoln Park Campus is home to the Colleges of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences and Health, Education. It houses the School of Music, the Theatre School, the John T. Richardson Library; the Loop campus houses the Colleges of Communication and Digital Media, Law, as well as the School of Public Service and the School for New Learning. It is home to the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business, part of the nationally ranked Driehaus College of Business, the tenth oldest business school in the nation.
The Loop campus houses the Loop Library, the Rinn Law Library, the Barnes and Noble-based Student Center. The university enrolls around 16,000 undergraduate and about 7,600 graduate/law students, making DePaul the 13th largest private university by enrollment in the United States, the largest private university in Illinois. According to the Division of Student Affairs website, about 90% of DePaul's students commute or live off campus; the student body represents a wide array of religious and geographic backgrounds, including over 60 foreign countries. DePaul's intercollegiate athletic teams, known as the DePaul Blue Demons, compete in the Big East Conference. DePaul's men's basketball team has made 18 NCAA tournament appearances and appeared in two Final Fours. Named St. Vincent's College, DePaul University was founded in 1898 by the Congregation of the Mission priests and brothers, known as the Vincentians. Followers of 17th-century French priest Saint Vincent de Paul, they founded the university to serve Roman Catholic children of immigrants.
Student enrollment grew from 70 in 1898 to 200 in 1903 in what is now the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. In that year, James Quigley, Archbishop of Chicago, announced plans to create a preparatory seminary, now Archbishop Quigley Preparatory Seminary, for the archdiocese and allow the Jesuit Saint Ignatius College, now Loyola University Chicago to move its collegiate programs to the north side, threatening St. Vincent College's survival. In response, the Vincentians re-chartered in 1907 as DePaul University, expressly offering all of its courses of study to men and women of any religious background. DePaul began admitting women in 1911 and awarded degrees to its first female graduates in 1912, it was one of the first Catholic universities to admit female students in a co-educational setting. DePaul established the School of Music and the College of Commerce, the latter becoming one of the oldest business schools in the nation. In 1914, the College began offering courses in Chicago's Loop, the precursor of DePaul's second primary campus.
In 1915, the Illinois College of Law completed its affiliation with the university and became the DePaul University College of Law. Enrollment totaled more than 1,100. Although finances were rocky, the university continued to build in the 1920s. In 1926, the university was first accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Universities; when DePaul's first sports teams were formed in the early 1900s, the monogram "D" was selected for the uniforms. From this originated the nickname "D-men" which evolved into "Demons"; the color blue, which signifies loyalty and was chosen in 1901 by a vote of the student body, was added to the name to create the "Blue Demons". By 1930 more than 5,000 students were enrolled in eight schools on two campuses; the Great Depression led to fluctuations in enrollment and tuition as well as cutbacks, including elimination of the football team in 1939. In 1938, the Department of Elementary Education was established the only one in the Midwest and one of six in the United States.
With the entry of the United States into World War I in 1918, DePaul formed a unit of the US Army Reserve Officer Training Corps and converted its College Theatre into Army barracks. DePaul mobilized for World War II, offering its facilities for war training and free courses to train people for industry work; the G. I. Bill, which paid the tuition of veterans enrolled in college, turned the financial tide for DePaul. Enrollment in 1945 skyrocketed to 8,857 students, twice as many as the previous year, totaled more than 11,000 in 1948. Although a consulting firm recommended relocating from its deteriorating Lincoln Park neighborhood to the suburbs, trustees voted to remain and support revitalization of the neighborhood. In 1942, DePaul named Ray Meyer as head basketball coach. Meyer coached for DePaul until he retired in 1984, leading the 1945 team to the championship of the National Invitation Tournament and earning numerous honors, including election to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979, the fourth active coach to be so honored.
The university would go on to honor Ray Meyer by naming their fitness center after him. In 1954, DePaul adopted its current armorial seal with coat of arms and motto: "Viam sapientiae monstrabo tibi". In 1955, the Frank J. Lewis Foundation donated the 18-story Kimball Building, rechristened the Lewis Center, at 25 East Jackson Boulevard, to the university; the building, still used today, was the hub of the Loop campus until 1993, when the DePaul Center opened at 1 East Jackson Boulevard (at State Str
Rod Strickland
Rodney Strickland is an American basketball executive and retired National Basketball Association player. He is the program manager for the NBA G League's professional path. Strickland played college basketball at DePaul University, he enjoyed a long career in the NBA, playing from 1988 to 2005. Strickland was an assistant coach for the South Florida Bulls, under Orlando Antigua from 2014 to 2017, he served in an administrative role for the University of Kentucky basketball team under head coach John Calipari and was the director of basketball operations at the University of Memphis under Calipari. He is the godfather of current NBA player Kyrie Irving. A native of the Bronx, Strickland played for the New York Gauchos. While a junior he led Truman High School in Co-Op City to the state championship and was ranked as one of the top 10 high school recruits in the nation; as a senior, he transferred to Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. Strickland became a college star at DePaul University; as a junior, he was a First Team All-American after averaging 7.8 assists.
A 1987 and 1988 All-America pick, Strickland helped lead the Blue Demons to four-straight NCAA Tournament appearances from 1985–88, including Sweet Sixteen showings in 1986 and 1987. The four-time Blue Demon letterwinner ranks among the program's career leaders in scoring average and steals, he averaged 3.4 rebounds while shooting 53.4% during his college career. He was selected in the first round of the 1988 NBA draft by his hometown New York Knicks where he backed up point guard Mark Jackson, the 1988 NBA Rookie of the Year, he was seen as sort of an odd choice by some observers. Jackson and Strickland shared time that season. Strickland played in all 82 games and averaged 8.9 points and 3.9 assists in 16.8 minutes per game where he was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team. Knowing that having both Jackson and Strickland play for the same position would not work, the Knicks dealt Strickland to the San Antonio Spurs for veteran Maurice Cheeks in the middle of the 1989–1990 season. Strickland flourished in San Antonio.
The Spurs went 18-6 with him in the starting lineup. He averaged 12.3 points and 11.2 assists in 10 playoff games. In the 1990–91 season Strickland lived up to his expectations as an exciting performer when he was healthy, he missed 24 games that year because of a broken bone in his right hand. In the 58 games he played, Strickland averaged 13.8 points and 8.0 assists, shooting.482 from the field and.763 from the free throw line. He in steals 30 times. Strickland finished the year tied with Terry Porter for 12th in the NBA in assists, and in a four-game series loss to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 1991 NBA Playoffs, he posted terrific numbers: 18.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 2.25 steals in 42.0 minutes per game. Starting the 1991–92 NBA season in a contract dispute with the Spurs management, Strickland didn't play in the first 24 games of the season, he signed on December 23 started 54 of 57 games and averaged 13.8 points, 8.6 assists, 4.6 rebounds, 2.07 steals in 36.0 minutes per game.
He scored 20 or more points on eight occasions. He notched a career-high 28 points against the Indiana Pacers on February 6 and made a career-high 19 assists versus the Minnesota Timberwolves on March 3. Strickland started two playoff games against the Phoenix Suns before missing the third with a broken bone in his left hand; the Suns swept the series in three games. Before the start of the 1992–93 season, Strickland signed as a free agent with the Portland Trail Blazers. In four seasons with the Blazers, Strickland averaged 8.6 apg. In a move that helped both franchises and teammate Harvey Grant were traded to the Washington Bullets for Rasheed Wallace and Mitchell Butler in 1996. In his first season in Washington, Strickland averaged 17.2 ppg and 8.9 apg helping the Bullets make the playoffs in 1997 for the first time in 8 seasons. In 1997–98, Strickland had the best season of his career as he averaged 17.8 ppg and a league leading 10.5 apg. During the year, Strickland became only the 25th player in NBA history to record 10,000 points and 5,000 assists.
Strickland was selected to the Second Team All-NBA. While his individual stats improved over the next few seasons for the Wizards, the team got worse, leading to a buyout of his contract. Strickland would go on to spend time with the Miami Heat, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Toronto Raptors, the Houston Rockets to conclude his NBA career, he scored over 14,000 points and dished out nearly 8,000 assists. He ranked among the NBA's top 10 in assists per game in 1991–92, 1993–94, 1994–95, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1997–98, 1998–99. Strickland averaged 13.2 points, 3.7 rebounds, 7.3 assists, 1.5 steals and 30.7 minutes of floor time per game. Strickland was hired as an assistant coach at USF under former Kentucky assistant coach Orlando Antigua from 2014 to 2017. Prior to that, he served in an administrative role at the University of Kentucky under Coach John Calipari. Strickland started his coaching career as director of basketball operations at the University of Memphis, taking over the job held by former NBA player, Milt Wagner.
In September 2008, Strickland was inducted into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame along with NBA stars Kenny Anderson and Sam Perkins, coach Pete Gillen and pioneers Lou Bender and Eddie Younger. Strick
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