1.
New York Knicks
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The New York Knickerbockers, commonly referred to as the Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in New York City. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its games at Madison Square Garden, located in the borough of Manhattan. They are one of two NBA teams located in New York City, the other is the Brooklyn Nets, along with the Boston Celtics, the Knicks are one of only two original NBA teams still located in its original city. The Knicks were successful during their years and were constant playoff contenders under the franchises first head coach Joe Lapchick. Beginning in 1950, the Knicks made three appearances in the NBA Finals, all of which were losing efforts. Lapchick resigned in 1956 and the team began to falter. It was not until the late 1960s when Red Holzman became head coach that the Knicks began to regain their former dominance, Holzman successfully guided the Knicks to two NBA championships, in 1970 and 1973. The Knicks of the 1980s had mixed success that included six playoff appearances, however, the playoff-level Knicks of the 1990s were led by future Hall of Fame center Patrick Ewing, this era was marked by passionate rivalries with the Chicago Bulls, Indiana Pacers, and Miami Heat. During this time, they were known for playing tough defense under head coaches Pat Riley, during this era, the Knicks made two appearances in the NBA Finals, in 1994 and 1999, though they were unable to win an NBA championship. Since 2000, the Knicks have struggled to regain their former glory, in 2012–13, the franchise won its first division title in 19 years, but was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers. According to a 2016 Forbes report, the Knicks were the most-valuable NBA franchise, in 1946, basketball, particularly college basketball, was a growing and increasingly profitable sport in New York City. Hockey was another sport at the time and generated considerable profits, however. Max Kase, a New York sportswriter, became the editor at the Boston American in the 1930s. Kase developed the idea of a professional league to showcase college players upon their graduation. Brown, intrigued by the opportunity to attain additional income when the teams were not playing or on the road. Ned Irish, a college basketball promoter, retired sportswriter and then president of Madison Square Garden, was in attendance, Kase originally planned to own and operate the New York franchise himself and approached Irish with a proposal to lease the Garden. Irish explained that the rules of the Arena Managers Association of America stated that Madison Square Garden was required to own any professional teams played in the arena
2.
Center (basketball)
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The center, also known as the five or the big man, is one of the five positions in a regular basketball game. The center is normally the tallest player on the team, and often has a deal of strength. The tallest player to ever be drafted in the NBA was the 78 Yasutaka Okayama from Japan, the tallest players to ever play in the NBA, at 77, are centers Gheorghe Mureșan and Manute Bol. Standing at 72, Margo Dydek is the tallest player to have played in the WNBA. The center is considered a component for a successful team. But recently, the NBA has turned into a point guard league, great centers have been the foundation for most of the dynasties in both the NBA and NCAA. In the 1960s, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain further transformed basketball by combining height with a level of athleticism than previous centers. Following the retirement of George Mikan, the rivalry of the two big men came to dominate the NBA, many of the records set by these two players have endured today. Most notably, Chamberlain and Russell hold the top eighteen season averages for rebounds, Bill Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA Championships. He joined the Boston Celtics and helped make them one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history, Russell revolutionized defensive strategy with his shot-blocking, rebounding and physical man-to-man defense. His principal rival, Wilt Chamberlain, listed at 71,275 pounds, Chamberlain played college ball for the Kansas Jayhawks, leading them to the 1957 title game against the North Carolina Tar Heels. Although the Jayhawks lost by one point in overtime, Chamberlain was named the tournaments Most Outstanding Player. He also won seven scoring titles, eleven rebounding titles, and four regular season Most Valuable Player awards, including the distinction, in 1960, stronger than any player of his era, he was usually capable of scoring and rebounding at will. Most notably, Chamberlain is the player in NBA history to average more than 50 points in a season. He also holds the NBAs all-time records for rebounding average, rebounds in a single game, in contrast to the Celtics dynasty of the 1960s, the 1970s were a decade of parity in the NBA, with eight different champions and no back-to-back winners. At the college level, the UCLA Bruins, under Coach John Wooden, built the greatest dynasty in NCAA basketball history, UCLA had already won two consecutive titles in 1964 and 1965 with teams that pressed and emphasized guard play. After not winning in 1966, Woodens teams changed their style when Lew Alcindor became eligible and he led UCLA to three championships-in 1967,68 and 69-while winning the first Naismith College Player of the Year Award. During his college career, the NCAA enacted a ban on dunking primarily because of Alcindors dominant use of the shot
3.
Detroit Pistons
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The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the leagues Eastern Conference Central Division. The team plays its games at The Palace of Auburn Hills and was founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as the Fort Wayne Pistons in 1941. The Pistons joined the Basketball Association of America in 1948, in 1949, the NBL and BAA merged to become the NBA, and the Pistons became part of the merged league. Since moving to Detroit in 1957, the Pistons have won three NBA championships in 1989,1990 and 2004. The Detroit Pistons franchise was founded as the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, owners Fred Zollner and his sister Janets Zollner Corporation was a foundry, manufacturing pistons, primarily for car, truck and locomotive engines. The Zollner Pistons were NBL champions in 1944 and 1945 and they also won the World Professional Basketball Tournament in 1944,1945 and 1946. In 1948, the became the Fort Wayne Pistons, competing in the Basketball Association of America. In 1949, Fred Zollner brokered the formation of the National Basketball Association from the BAA, there are suggestions that Pistons players conspired with gamblers to shave points and throw various games during the 1953–54 and 1954–55 seasons. In particular, there are accusations that the team may have intentionally lost the 1955 NBA Finals to the Syracuse Nationals, in the decisive Game 7, the Pistons led Syracuse 41–24 early in the second quarter, then the Nationals rallied to win the game. Syracuse won on a throw by George King with twelve seconds left in the game. After the 1956–57 season, Zollner decided that Fort Wayne was too small to support an NBA team, although it was the fifth largest city in the United States at the time, Detroit had not seen professional basketball in a decade. In 1947, they had lost the Detroit Gems of the NBL, Zollner decided to keep the Pistons name, believing it made sense given Detroits status as the center of the automobile industry. The new Detroit Pistons played in Olympia Stadium for their first four seasons, the franchise was a consistent disappointment, struggling both on the court and at the box office. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Pistons were characterized by strong individuals. In fact, in their first 27 years in Detroit, they only had three winning seasons, some of the superstars who played for the team included Dave DeBusschere, Dave Bing, Jimmy Walker, and Bob Lanier. At one point DeBusschere was the youngest player-coach in the history of the NBA, DeBusschere became a key player in leading the Knicks to two NBA titles. Detroit qualified for the postseason in four seasons, but never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs
4.
NBA Coach of the Year Award
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The National Basketball Associations Coach of the Year is an annual National Basketball Association award given since the 1962–63 NBA season. The winner receives the Red Auerbach Trophy, which is named in honor of the coach who led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA Championships from 1956 to 1966. The winner is selected at the end of regular season by a panel of sportswriters from the United States and Canada, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is five points, each second-place vote is worth three points, and each third-place vote is worth one point. The person with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, since its inception, the award has been given to 40 different coaches. The most recent award winner is Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich, Don Nelson and Pat Riley have each won the award three times, while Hubie Brown, Bill Fitch, Cotton Fitzsimmons and Gene Shue have each won it twice. No coach has won consecutive Coach of the Year awards, Riley is the only coach to be named Coach of the Year with three different franchises. Larry Bird is the recipient to have also been named MVP as a player. Tom Heinsohn, Bill Sharman, and Lenny Wilkens are the recipients to have been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both player and coach. Johnny Kerr is the person to win the award with a losing record. Kerr was honored because he had guided the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs in their first season in the league, only five recipients also coached the team that won the championship the same season, Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Bill Sharman, Phil Jackson, and Gregg Popovich. Popovich is the only NBA Coach of the Year recipient to win the championship in the season twice. Assistant coach Luke Walton served as head coach for the other 43 games for the Warriors, receiving one second-place vote. National Basketball Association portal General Specific
5.
Rebound (basketball)
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In basketball, a rebound, colloquially referred to as a board, is a statistic awarded to a player who retrieves the ball after a missed field goal or free throw. Rebounds are also given to a player who tips in a shot on his teams offensive end. Rebounds in basketball are a part in the game, as all possessions change after a shot is successfully made. A rebound can be grabbed by either a player or a defensive player. The majority of rebounds are defensive because the team on defense tends to be in position to recover missed shots. Offensive rebounds give the team another opportunity to score whether right away or by resetting the offense. A block is not considered a rebound, a ball does not need to actually rebound off the rim or backboard for a rebound to be credited. Rebounds are credited after any missed shot, including air balls, if a player takes a shot and misses and the ball bounces on the ground before someone picks it up, then the person who picks up the ball is credited for a rebound. Rebounds are credited to the first player that gains possession of the ball or to the player that successfully deflects the ball into the basket for a score. A rebound is credited to a team when it gains possession of the ball after any missed shot that is not cleared by a single player, great rebounders tend to be tall and strong. Because height is so important, most rebounds are made by centers and power forwards, the lack of height can sometimes be compensated by the strength to box out taller players away from the ball to capture the rebound. For example, Charles Barkley once led the league in rebounding despite usually being much shorter than his counterparts, also, some shorter guards can be excellent rebounders as well such as point guard Jason Kidd who led the New Jersey Nets in rebounding for several years. Great rebounders must also have a sense of timing and positioning. Great leaping ability is an important asset, but not absolutely necessary, players such as Larry Bird and Moses Malone were excellent rebounders, but were never known for their leaping ability. Bird has stated, Most rebounds are taken below the rim, the action can also be called blocking out. A team can be boxed out by players using this technique to stop the other team from rebounding. Because fighting for a rebound can be physical, rebounding is often regarded as grunt work or a hustle play. Overly aggressive boxing out or preventing being boxed out can lead to personal fouls, statistics of a players rebounds per game or rebounding average measure a players rebounding effectiveness by dividing the number of rebounds by the number of games played
6.
Basketball
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Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking. The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable. Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
7.
Truman State University
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Truman State University is a public liberal arts and sciences university located in Kirksville, Missouri, United States. It is a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges and it had 6,379 enrolled students in the fall of 2015, with 6,039 undergraduate and 340 postgraduate students, pursuing degrees in 48 undergraduate, and eight graduate programs. The university is named after U. S. President Harry Truman, until 1996, the school was known as Northeast Missouri State University, but the Board of Trustees voted to change the schools name to better reflect its statewide mission. In the 2016 U. S. News & World Report College Rankings, Truman State is the only public institution in Missouri that is officially designated to pursue highly selective admissions standards. Truman State University was founded in 1867 by Joseph Baldwin as the North Missouri Normal School, Baldwin was a pioneer in education, and his school quickly gained official recognition in 1870 by the Missouri General Assembly, which designated it as the first public teaching college in Missouri. Charles, Schuyler, Scotland, Shelby, Sullivan, and Warren, Purple and white were adopted as the schools official colors after Basil Brewer wrote a school song entitled The Purple and the White. They have remained as the colors since. In 1924, a fire destroyed old Baldwin Hall and the library, the lake that once filled the current quadrangle, or The Quad, was pumped dry in a futile attempt to douse the fire. The Quad now serves as a gathering place where students study, play games, hold events. Northeast Missouri State continued pushing for excellence, on June 20,1985, Governor John Ashcroft signed a bill that designated the university as Missouris only statewide public liberal arts and sciences university. This changed the mission to a statewide rather than a regional objective. As such, nearly 100 programs were dropped in the span of six years, the university continued to win praise from such publications as US News and World Report and its reputation continued to spread. By the 1990s, the university was no longer solely a teachers college, but also had a nationally known accounting division and schools of science, mathematics, computer science, just 10 years after Governor Ashcrofts designation, Governor Mel Carnahan signed legislation renaming the school Truman State University. The university is designated by statute as Missouris premier public liberal arts, Trumans Board of Governors consists of ten members. Each member is appointed by the Governor of Missouri to serve a four-year term, the ten members must meet residential requirements defined by Missouri law. The campus is located on the side of Kirksville. Trumans main campus is situated around a slightly wooded quadrangle, also known as the Quad and it is two blocks south of the town square, which includes an eight screen movie theatre and various eateries and other shops. The oldest building is not Kirk Building, but is instead the purple doored Physical Plant building located between the Health Services building and Magruder Hall
8.
University of Iowa
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The University of Iowa is a flagship public research university in Iowa City, Iowa. Founded in 1847, Iowa is the oldest university in the state, the University of Iowa is organized into eleven colleges offering more than 200 areas of study and seven professional degrees. The university was the developer of the Master of Fine Arts degree. The Iowa alumni network exceeds 250,000, and the university budgeted revenues and expenses of $3.513 billion for 2015, the University of Iowas athletic teams, the Hawkeyes, compete in Division I of the NCAA and are members of the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes field 24 varsity teams and have won 27 national championships, the University of Iowa was founded on February 25,1847, just 59 days after Iowa was admitted to the Union. The Constitution of the State of Iowa refers to a State University to be established in Iowa City without branches at any other place. The legal name of the university is the State University of Iowa, the first faculty offered instruction at the university beginning in March 1855 to students in the Old Mechanics Building, located where Seashore Hall is now. In September 1855, there were 124 students, of whom forty-one were women, the first president of the university was Amos Dean. The original campus consisted of the Iowa Old Capitol Building and the 10 acres of land on which it stood, until that date, it had been the third capitol of the Territory of Iowa. When the capitol of Iowa was moved to Des Moines in 1857, in 1855, Iowa became the first public university in the United States to admit men and women on an equal basis. The university offered its first doctorate in 1898, the university was the first state university to recognize the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Allied Union. Also, the University of Iowa was the first Big Ten institution to promote an African American to the position of vice president. A shooting took place on campus on November 1,1991, in the summer of 2008, flood waters breached the Coralville Reservoir spillway, damaging more than 20 major campus buildings. Several weeks after the waters receded university officials placed a preliminary estimate on flood damage at $231.75 million. Later, the university estimated that repairs would cost about $743 million, later in 2008, UNESCO designated Iowa City the worlds third City of Literature, making it part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Iowa legislators ultimately did not support the plan, in 2015, the Iowa Board of Regents selected Bruce Harreld, a business consultant with limited experience in academic administration, to succeed Sally Mason as president. In July 2016, the university took over the former AIB College of Business in Des Moines, Four bachelors programs are offered in Des Moines, an additional four masters-level programs are offered in Des Moines at the universitys site in the citys Western Gateway Park. The University of Iowas main campus, located in Iowa City, was designed by architect D. Elwood Cook
9.
Atlanta Hawks
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The Atlanta Hawks are a professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association as a team of the leagues Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its games at Philips Arena. The teams origins can be traced to the establishment of the Buffalo Bisons in 1946 in Buffalo, New York, after 38 days in Buffalo, the team moved to Moline, Illinois, where they were renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks. In 1949, they joined the NBA as part of the merger between the NBL and the Basketball Association of America, and had Red Auerbach as coach briefly, in 1951, Kerner moved the team to Milwaukee, where they changed their name to the Hawks. Kerner and the team moved again in 1955 to St. Louis, the Hawks played the Boston Celtics in all four of their trips to the NBA Finals. The St. Louis Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968, when Kerner sold the franchise to Thomas Cousins, the Hawks currently own the second-longest drought of not winning an NBA championship at 57 seasons. The franchises lone NBA championship, as well as all four NBA Finals appearances, meanwhile, they went 48 years without advancing past the second round of the playoffs in any format, until finally breaking through in 2015. Much of the failure theyve experienced in the postseason can be traced back to their history in the NBA draft. Since 1980, the Hawks have drafted four players who have been chosen to play in an NBA All-Star Game. Dominique Wilkins was actually selected by the Utah Jazz and traded to the Hawks a few months after the draft, the origins of the Atlanta Hawks can be traced to the Buffalo Bisons franchise, which was founded in 1946. The Bisons were a member of the National Basketball League, the club was organized by the Erie County American Legion and was coached by Nat Hickey. Their first game – a 50–39 victory over the Syracuse Nationals – was played on November 8,1946, on the team was William Pop Gates, who, along with William Dolly King, was one of the first two African-American players in the NBL. The team, which needed to draw 3,600 fans per game to break even struggled to draw 1,000 fans per game to the Auditorium. Upon relocation to Moline, the team was renamed the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and played their games at Wharton Field House. The team featured guard/forward and coach Deanglo King, and was owned by Leo Ferris, Pop Gates remained on the Blackhawks roster, and finished second on the team in scoring behind future 1948 NBL MVP Don Otten. A Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame member, Gates helped to integrate the league and later become the first African-American coach in a sports league. In 1949 the Blackhawks became one of the National Basketball Associations 17 original teams after a merger of the 12-year-old NBL and they reached the playoffs in the NBAs inaugural year under the leadership of coach Red Auerbach
10.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
11.
Bethalto, Illinois
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Bethalto is a village located in Madison County, Illinois, United States. Bethalto, like the rest of Madison County, is part of the Illinois Metro East portion of the Greater St. Louis metropolitan area, the population of Bethalto was 9,521 at the 2010 census. Bethalto is located at 38°54′15″N 90°2′48″W, according to the 2010 census, Bethalto has a total area of 7.6 square miles, of which 7.52 square miles is land and 0.08 square miles is water. Bethalto was founded in 1834, incorporated April 19,1869, under a special charter and it is governed by a Village President and six trustees elected at large. The original name of Bethalto was Bethel, however, when the first post office was established, it was discovered that there was already a Bethel, Illinois. There is a consensus that the name Bethalto came from the first four letters of Bethel. The Bethalto Village Hall is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, as of the census of 2000, there were 9,454 people,3,810 households, and 2,647 families residing in the village. The population density was 1,437.3 people per square mile, there were 4,007 housing units at an average density of 609.2 per square mile. The racial makeup of the village was 97. 84% White,0. 76% African American,0. 22% Native American,0. 40% Asian,0. 33% from other races, hispanic or Latino of any race were 1. 00% of the population. 26. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 12. 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 2.98. In the village, the population was out with 25. 7% under the age of 18,8. 5% from 18 to 24,28. 7% from 25 to 44,22. 9% from 45 to 64. The median age was 37 years, for every 100 females there were 91.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 85.0 males, the median income for a household in the village was $42,201, and the median income for a family was $50,764. Males had an income of $41,512 versus $22,981 for females. The per capita income for the village was $18,697, about 6. 5% of families and 9. 2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13. 1% of those under age 18 and 6. 4% of those age 65 or over. Major governmental institutions include St. Louis Regional Airport, Bethalto Community Unit School District 8, local restaurants include Genos 140 Club, The Eagles Nest, El Mezcal, The GrindHouse, and Romas Pizza. In late October 2006, the segment of four-lane, controlled-access Illinois Route 255 between Illinois Route 143 and Fosterburg Road was opened and this highway provides Bethalto residents with convenient access to the areas freeway system and provides greater through traffic to further economic development for the region. The main park in Bethalto consists of an amphitheater, swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, baseball fields, soccer fields, skateboard park
12.
Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
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The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as the sports most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball, dedicated to Canadian physician and inventor of the sport James Naismith, it was opened and inducted its first class in 1959. As of the induction of the Class of 2016 on September 9,2016, the Naismith Hall of Fame was established in 1959 by Lee Williams, a former athletic director at Colby College. In the 1960s, the Basketball Hall of Fame struggled to raise money for the construction of its first facility. The Basketball Hall of Fames Board named four inductees in its first year, in addition to honoring those who contributed to basketball, the Hall of Fame sought to make contributions of its own. In 1979, the Hall of Fame sponsored the Tip-Off Classic and this Tip-Off Classic has been the start to the college basketball season ever since, and although it does not always take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, generally it returns every few years. In the 17 years that the original Basketball Hall of Fame operated at Springfield College, the popularity of the Basketball Hall of Fame necessitated that a new facility be constructed, and in 1985, an $11 million facility was built beside the scenic Connecticut River in Springfield. As the new hall opened, it also recognized women for the first time, with such as Senda Berenson Abbott. In 2002, the Basketball Hall of Fame moved again—albeit merely 100 yards south along Springfields riverfront—into a $47 million facility designed by renowned architects Gwathmey Siegel & Associates, the buildings architecture features a metallic silver, basketball-shaped sphere flanked by two similarly symmetrical rhombuses. The dome is illuminated at night and features 80,000 square foot, including numerous restaurants, the second Basketball Hall of Fame was not torn down but rather converted into an LA Fitness health clubs. The current Basketball Hall of Fame features Center Court, a basketball court on which visitors can play. Inside the building there are a gallery, many interactive exhibits, several theaters. A large theater for ceremonies seats up to 300, the honorees inducted in 2002 included the Harlem Globetrotters and Magic Johnson, a five-time NBA champion, three-time NBA finals MVP and Olympic gold medalist. As of 2011, the current Basketball Hall of Fame has greatly exceeded attendance expectations, despite the new facilitys success, a logistical problem remains for the Basketball Hall of Fame and the City of Springfield. Urban planners at universities such as UMass Amherst have called for the I-91 to be moved, in 2010, the Urban Land Institute announced a plan to make the walk between Springfields Metro Center and the Hall of Fame easier. Since 2011, the induction process employs a total of seven committees to both screen and elect candidates, since 2011, the Veterans and International Committees also vote to directly induct one candidate for each induction class. Contributor Direct Election Committee Note that other committees may choose to elect contributors, for example, the 2014 class included two contributors. However, each screening committee is limited as to the number of candidates it can put forth to the Honors Committee—10 from the North American Committee, any individual receiving at least 18 affirmative votes from the Honors Committee is approved for induction into the Hall of Fame
