1.
Halfback (American football)
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A halfback is an offensive position in American football, whose duties involve lining up in the backfield and carrying the ball on most rushing plays, i. e. a running back. The halfback position is one of the more glamorous positions on the field, sometimes the halfback can catch the ball from the backfield on short passing plays as he is an eligible receiver. Occasionally, they line up as wide receivers. When not running or catching the ball, the responsibility of a halfback is to aid the offensive linemen in blocking. Before the emergence of the T-formation in the 1940s, all members of the backfield were legitimate threats to run or pass the ball. Most teams used four offensive backs on every play, a quarterback, the quarterback began each play a quarter of the way back, the halfbacks began each play side by side and halfway back, and the fullback began each play the farthest back. Historically, from the 1870s through the 1950s, the position was both an offensive and defensive position. There has also been a shift in most offense’s dependence on halfbacks, however, the average output of the halfback has not changed. Older systems require the halfback be proficient at throwing the ball downfield as well, many of the “scat backs” in the modern era produce more total yards and touchdowns than their ancestor “power backs” by breaking off big plays on outside runs and receptions. The spread offense and the hurry-up offense change the halfback’s role, the spread, the hurry-up, and the pro-style offenses dominate American football but the “smash-mouth” style of play is far from extinct. A power-running scheme is often utilized to counter an effective Spread attack, as it allows a team to control the clock and this strategy is utilized in NFL, college, and all other forms of American football. The need for “power backs is very prevalent, alongside the need for “scat backs”, in the past few decades the role of the halfback has gone through a great shift as most offensive game plans are now fueled by creativity and finesse instead of raw force. Stamina and durability is more important than ever in the hurry-up offense, on the other hand, speed is often valued over strength, and pass-catching ability is sometimes valued over blocking proficiency. Power was once the most desired trait in a halfback, but has been taken by the need for a diverse skill set. In the last few decades the running back’s individual share of output has declined as quarterbacks are generally treated as the cornerstone of the offense. The demands of an up-tempo offense also favor a multiple running back system, from the dawn of American football through the 1880s most offensive schemes focused on the running game. In a running based game plan the halfback was typically the cornerstone of the offense and this system focused on a physical run attack concentrated in the inside of the field, and therefore depended on a skilled “power back”. There were no forward passes, and pure speed took a backseat to tackle-breaking and bucking ability, there was a focus on physicality over finesse, as this type of playing style earned the moniker of “smash mouth” football
2.
Columbus, Ohio
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Columbus is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Ohio. It is the 15th-largest city in the United States, with a population of 850,106 as of 2015 estimates and this makes Columbus the fourth-most populous state capital in the United States, and the third-largest city in the Midwestern United States. It is the city of the Columbus, Ohio, Metropolitan Statistical Area. With a population of 2,021,632, it is Ohios third-largest metropolitan area, Columbus is the county seat of Franklin County. The city proper has also expanded and annexed portions of adjoining Delaware County, named for explorer Christopher Columbus, the city was founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, and assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. As of 2013, the city has the headquarters of five corporations in the U. S, fortune 500, Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company, American Electric Power, L Brands, Big Lots, and Cardinal Health. In 2012, Columbus was ranked in BusinessWeeks 50 best cities in America. In 2013, Forbes gave Columbus an A rating as one of the top cities for business in the U. S. and later that included the city on its list of Best Places for Business. Columbus was also ranked as the No.1 up-and-coming tech city in the nation by Forbes in 2008, and the city was ranked a top-ten city by Relocate America in 2010. In 2007, fDi Magazine ranked the city no.3 in the U. S. for cities of the future, and the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium was rated no.1 in 2009 by USA Travel Guide. The area including modern-day Columbus once comprised the Ohio Country, under the control of the French colonial empire through the Viceroyalty of New France from 1663 until 1763. In the 18th century, European traders flocked to the area, the area found itself frequently caught between warring factions, including American Indian and European interests. In the 1740s, Pennsylvania traders overran the territory until the French forcibly evicted them, in the early 1750s, the Ohio Company sent George Washington to the Ohio Country to survey. Fighting for control of the territory in the French and Indian War became part of the international Seven Years War, during this period, the region routinely suffered turmoil, massacres, and battles. The 1763 Treaty of Paris ceded the Ohio Country to the British Empire, after the American Revolution, the Ohio Country became part of the Virginia Military District, under the control of the United States. Colonists from the East Coast moved in, but rather finding a empty frontier, they encountered people of the Miami, Delaware, Wyandot, Shawnee. The tribes resisted expansion by the fledgling United States, leading to years of bitter conflict, the decisive Battle of Fallen Timbers resulted in the Treaty of Greenville, which finally opened the way for new settlements. By 1797, a surveyor from Virginia named Lucas Sullivant had founded a permanent settlement on the west bank of the forks of the Scioto River
3.
Ohio State Buckeyes football
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Ohio State has played their home games at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio since 1922. Football was introduced to the university by George Cole and Alexander S. Lilley in 1890, Ohio State was a football independent from 1890 to 1901 before joining the Ohio Athletic Conference as a charter member in 1902. The Buckeyes won two conference championships while members of the OAC and in 1912 became members of the Big Ten Conference, Ohio State won their first national championship in 1942 under head coach Paul Brown. Following World War II, Ohio State saw sparse success on the field with three separate coaches and in 1951 hired Woody Hayes to coach the team. Under Hayes, Ohio State won over 200 total games,13 Big Ten championships and five national championships, following Hayes dismissal in 1978, Earle Bruce and later John Cooper coached the team to a combined seven conference championships between them. Jim Tressel was hired as coach in 2001 and led Ohio State to its seventh national championship in 2002 with a win in the Fiesta Bowl. Ohio State won seven Big Ten championships under Tressel and appeared in eight Bowl Championship Series games, on November 28,2011, two-time National Championship winning coach and Ohio native Urban Meyer became head coach. Meyer led his team to five championships in his first five seasons as well as a school record 24 straight victories. He led OSU to both the Big Ten and the first College Football Playoff National Championship of its kind in the 2014 season, giving Meyer his third title overall. In the spring of 1890, George Cole, an undergraduate, the Buckeyes first game, played on May 3,1890, at Delaware, Ohio, against Ohio Wesleyan University, was a victory. OSUs first home game took place at 2,30 p. m. on November 1,1890, the Ohio State University played the University of Wooster on this site, which was then called Recreation Park. Just east of historic German Village, the park occupied the side of Schiller between Ebner and Jaeger in what is now Schumacher Place. The weather was perfect, and the crowd cheered loudly, nonetheless, OSU lost to Wooster, 64–0. Wooster, physically fit for the game, showed OSU that training is critical to winning, thus, the tradition of training continues. Over the next eight years, under a number of coaches, the played to a cumulative record of 31 wins,39 losses. The first game against the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, was a 34–0 loss in 1897, a year that saw the low point in Buckeye football history with a 1–7–1 record. Jack Ryder was Ohio States first paid coach, earning $150 per season, in 1899 the university hired John Eckstorm to bring professional coaching skills to the program and immediately went undefeated. In 1901, however, center John Segrist was fatally injured in a game against Western Reserve University, although the schools athletic board let the team decide its future, Eckstorm resigned
4.
Cleveland Browns
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The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Browns compete in the National Football League as a club of the American Football Conference North division. The Browns play their games at FirstEnergy Stadium, which opened in 1999, with administrative offices and training facilities in Berea. The Browns official colors are brown, orange and white and they are unique among the 32 member franchises of the NFL in that they do not have a logo on their helmets and are the only team named after a specific person, original coach Paul Brown. The franchise was founded in 1945 by businessman Arthur B, McBride and coach Paul Brown as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference. The Browns dominated the AAFC, compiling a 47–4–3 record in the four active seasons. When the AAFC folded after the 1949 season, the Browns joined the National Football League along with the San Francisco 49ers, from 1965 to 1995, they made the playoffs 14 times, but did not win another championship or appear in the Super Bowl in that period. In 1995, owner Art Modell, who had purchased the Browns in 1961, announced plans to move the team to Baltimore, Maryland. The Browns intellectual property, including name, logos, training facility, and history, were kept in trust. A new team would be established by 1999 either by expansion or relocation, the Browns were announced as an expansion team in 1998 and resumed play in 1999. Since resuming operations in 1999, the Browns have struggled to find success and they have had only two winning seasons, one playoff appearance, and no playoff wins. The franchise has also noted for a lack of stability with quarterbacks. To date, the Browns overall win-loss record since 1999 is 88–200, the Browns origins date to 1944, when taxicab magnate Arthur B. Mickey McBride secured the rights to a Cleveland franchise in the newly formed All-America Football Conference. S, early in 1945, McBride named 36-year-old Ohio State Buckeyes coach Paul Brown as the teams head coach and general manager and gave him a share in its profits. The move surprised and upset Buckeye fans, who had hoped he would resume his successful run at the school after the war, the name of the team was at first left up to Paul Brown, who rejected calls for it to be christened the Browns. The franchise and the Cleveland Plain Dealer then held a naming contest to publicize the team, in June 1945, a committee selected Panthers as the new teams name, named after a failed American Football League franchise in Cleveland which only lasted a single season in 1926. It is unclear whether Panthers was the highest vote-getter, or if it was second-highest behind Browns, however, the owner of the failed AFL Panthers franchise, General C. X. Zimmerman, indicated that he owned the name Cleveland Panthers, at this point, Paul Brown bowed to popular sentiment and agreed to the Browns name
5.
Philadelphia Eagles
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The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football franchise based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Eagles compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference East division. The franchise was established in 1933 as a replacement for the bankrupt Frankford Yellow Jackets, when a group led by Bert Bell secured the rights to an NFL franchise in Philadelphia. Bell, Chuck Bednarik, Bob Brown, Reggie White, Steve Van Buren, Tommy McDonald, Greasy Neale, Pete Pihos, Sonny Jurgensen, the team has an intense rivalry with the New York Giants. This rivalry is the oldest in the NFC East and is among the oldest in the NFL and they also have a historic rivalry with the Washington Redskins, as well as their bitter rivalry with the Dallas Cowboys, which has become more high-profile in the last three decades. The team consistently ranks in the top three in attendance and has sold out every game since the 1999 season, in a Sports Illustrated poll of 321 NFL players, Eagles fans were selected the most intimidating fans in the NFL. Midway through the 1931 season, the Frankford Yellow Jackets went bankrupt, the Bell-Wray group had to pay an entry fee of $3,500 and assumed a total debt of $11,000 that was owed to three other NFL franchises. Neither the Eagles nor the NFL officially regard the two franchises as the same, citing the period of dormancy. Furthermore, almost no Yellow Jackets players were on the Eagles first roster, the Eagles, along with the Pittsburgh Steelers and the now-defunct Cincinnati Reds, joined the NFL as expansion teams. To accommodate football at Shibe Park during the winter, management set up stands in right field, some 20 feet high, these east stands had 22 rows of seats. The goalposts stood along the first base line and in left field, the uncovered east stands enlarged capacity of Shibe Park to over 39,000, but the Eagles rarely drew more than 25 to 30,000. The Eagles struggled over the course of their first decade, enduring repeated losing seasons, soon after, Bell and Rooney traded the Eagles franchise to Thompson and moved it to Pittsburgh, while Thompson moved the Steelers franchise to Philadelphia. By the late 1940s, head coach Earle Greasy Neale and running back Steve Van Buren led the team to three consecutive NFL Championship Games, winning two of them in 1948 and 1949. After the 1957 season, the Eagles moved from Connie Mack Stadium to Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania, Franklin Field would seat over 60,000 for the Eagles, whereas Connie Mack had a capacity of 39,000. The stadium switched from grass to AstroTurf in 1969 and it was the first NFL stadium to use artificial turf. In 1960, the Eagles won their third NFL championship, under the leadership of future Pro Football Hall of Famers Norm Van Brocklin and Chuck Bednarik, the head coach was Buck Shaw. The 1960 Eagles, by a score of 17–13, became the team to defeat Vince Lombardi. The Eagles had a good 1961 season and then fell on hard times in 1962
6.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie
7.
College Football Hall of Fame
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The College Football Hall of Fame is a hall of fame and museum devoted to college football. The National Football Foundation launched the Hall in 1951 to immortalize the players, from 1995 to 2012, the Hall was located in South Bend, Indiana. It was connected to a center and situated in the citys renovated downtown district,2 miles south of the University of Notre Dame campus. In August 2014, the College Football Hall of Fame and Chick-fil-A Fan Experience opened in downtown Atlanta, rutgers donated land near its football stadium, office space, and administrative support. In response, the Foundation moved its operations to New York City, when the New York Attorney Generals office began its own investigation, the foundation moved to Kings Mills, Ohio, where a building finally was constructed adjacent to Kings Island in 1978. The Hall opened with good attendance figures early on, but visitation dwindled dramatically as time went on, nearby Galbreath Field remained open as the home of Moeller High School football until 2003. A new building was opened in South Bend, Indiana on August 25,1995. Despite estimates that the South Bend location would more than 150,000 visitors a year, the Hall of Fame drew about 115,000 people the first year. In 2009, the National Football Foundation decided to move the College Football Hall of Fame to Atlanta, the possibility of moving the museum has been brought up in other cities, including Dallas, which had the financial backing of billionaire T. Boone Pickens. However, the National Football Foundation ultimately decided on Atlanta for the next site, the new $68.5 million museum opened on August 23,2014. It is located next to Centennial Olympic Park, which is near other attractions such as the Georgia Aquarium, the World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. The Hall of Fame is located near the Georgia Institute of Technology of the ACC, the new building broke ground on January 28,2013. Sections of the architecture are reminiscent of a football in shape, the facility is 94,256 square feet and contains approximately 50,000 square feet of exhibit and event space, interactive displays and a 45-yard indoor football field. Atlanta Hall Management operates the College Football Hall of Fame, as of 2017, there are 987 players and 214 coaches enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame, representing 306 schools. The National Football Foundation outlines specific criteria that may be used for evaluating a candidate for induction into the Hall of Fame. A player must have received major first team All-America recognition, a player becomes eligible for consideration 10 years after his last year of intercollegiate football played. Football achievements are considered first, but the record as a citizen is also weighed. Players must have played their last year of football within the last 50 years
8.
Wisconsin Badgers football
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The Wisconsin Badgers football team is the intercollegiate football team of University of Wisconsin–Madison. The Badgers have competed in the Big Ten Conference since its formation in 1896 and they play their home games at Camp Randall Stadium, the fourth-oldest stadium in college football. Wisconsin has had two Heisman Trophy winners, Alan Ameche and Ron Dayne, and have had nine former players inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame, as of January 2,2017, the Badgers have an all-time record of 685–489–53. The teams nickname originates in the history of Wisconsin. In the 1820s and 1830s, prospectors came to the looking for minerals. Without shelter in the winter, the miners had to live like badgers in tunnels burrowed into hillsides, the first Badger football team took the field in 1889, losing the only two games it played that season. In 1890, Wisconsin earned its first victory with a 106–0 drubbing of Whitewater Normal School, however, the very next week the Badgers suffered what remains their most lopsided defeat, a humiliating 63–0 loss at the hands of the University of Minnesota. Since then, the Badgers and Gophers have met 122 times, upon the formation of the Big Ten conference in 1896, Wisconsin became the first-ever conference champion with a 7–1–1 record. Over the next ten years, the Badgers won or shared the title three more times, and recorded their first undefeated season, going 9–0–0. With the exception of their undefeated season in 1912, in which they won their fifth Big Ten title. The 1912 season would be their last conference title until 1952, the team posted mostly winning seasons over the next several seasons however. 1942 was an important year for Wisconsin football, on October 24, the #6 ranked Badgers defeated the #1 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes at Camp Randall, catapulting Wisconsin to the #2 spot in the AP poll. Unfortunately for the Badgers, their championship hopes were dashed in a 6–0 defeat by the Iowa Hawkeyes the following week. Nevertheless, Wisconsin won the remainder of its games, finishing the season 8–1–1 and #3 in the AP, afterwards, the Badgers struggled to regain their momentum, with their efforts hampered by many of their star players leaving as a result of World War II. In the late 1940s, fans began insisting that head coach Harry Stuhldreher resign, many times chanting Goodbye Harry, especially during 1948, Stuhldreher stepped down as head coach, while keeping his duties as athletic director. Stuhldreher then named Ivy Williamson as head coach The Badgers experienced great success during the 1950s under Williamson, in one stretch, from 1950-1954, the Badgers went 26-8-3. In 1952, the received its first #1 ranking by the Associated Press. That season, the Badgers again claimed the Big Ten title, there they were defeated 7–0 by the Southern California, and would finish the season ranked #11 in the AP
9.
Baseball
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Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
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