West Palm Beach, Florida
West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, United States. It is located to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon; the population was 99,919 at the 2010 census. West Palm Beach is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, home to an estimated 6,158,824 people in 2017, it is the oldest incorporated municipality in Greater Miami, having been incorporated as a city two years before Miami in November 1894. West Palm Beach is located 68 miles north of Downtown Miami; the beginning of the historic period in south Florida is marked by Juan Ponce de León's first contact with native people in 1513. Europeans found a thriving native population, which they categorized into separate tribes: the Mayaimi in the Lake Okeechobee Basin and the Jaega and Ais people in the East Okeechobee area and on the east coast north of the Tequesta; when the Spanish arrived, there were about 20,000 Native Americans in south Florida. By 1763, when the English gained control of Florida, the native peoples had all but been wiped out through war, enslavement, or European diseases.
Other native peoples from Alabama and Georgia moved into Florida in the early 18th century. They were of varied ancestry, but Europeans called them all "Creeks." In Florida, they were known as the Miccosukee Indians. The Seminoles clashed with American settlers over land and over escaped slaves who found refuge among them, they resisted the government's efforts to move them to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi. Between 1818 and 1858, three wars were fought between the United States government. By 1858, there were few Seminoles remaining in Florida; the area, to become West Palm Beach was settled in the late 1870s and 1880s by a few hundred settlers who called the vicinity "Lake Worth Country." These settlers were a diverse community from different parts of the world. They included founding families such at the Potters and the Lainharts, who would go on to become leading members of the business community in the fledgling city; the first white settlers in Palm Beach County lived around Lake Worth an enclosed freshwater lake, named for Colonel William Jenkins Worth, who had fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida in 1842.
Most settlers engaged in the growing of tropical fruits and vegetables for shipment the north via Lake Worth and the Indian River. By 1890, the U. S. Census counted over 200 people settled along Lake Worth in the vicinity of what would become West Palm Beach; the area at this time boasted a hotel, the "Cocoanut House", a church, a post office. The city was platted by Henry Flagler as a community to house the servants working in the two grand hotels on the neighboring island of Palm Beach, across Lake Worth in 1893, coinciding with the arrival of the Florida East Coast railroad. Flagler paid two area settlers, Captain Porter and Louie Hillhouse, a combined sum of $45,000 for the original town site, stretching from Clear Lake to Lake Worth. On November 5, 1894, 78 people met at the "Calaboose" and passed the motion to incorporate the Town of West Palm Beach in what was Dade County; this made West Palm Beach the first incorporated municipality in South Florida. The town council addressed the building codes and the tents and shanties were replaced by brick, brick veneer, stone buildings.
The city grew during the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, most residents were engaged in the tourist industry and related services or winter vegetable market and tropical fruit trade. In 1909, Palm Beach County was formed by the Florida State Legislature and West Palm Beach became the county seat. In 1916, a new neo-classical courthouse was opened, painstakingly restored back to its original condition, is now used as the local history museum; the city grew in the 1920s as part of the Florida land boom. The population of West Palm Beach quadrupled from 1920 to 1927, all kinds of businesses and public services grew along with it. Many of the city's landmark structures and preserved neighborhoods were constructed during this period. Flagler intended for his Florida East Coast Railway to have its terminus in West Palm, but after the area experienced a deep freeze, he chose to extend the railroad to Miami instead; the land boom was faltering when city was devastated by the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane.
The Depression years of the 1930s were a quiet time for the area, which saw slight population growth and property values lower than during the 1920s. The city only recovered with the onset of World War II, which saw the construction of Palm Beach Air Force Base, which brought thousands of military personnel to the city; the base was vital to the allied war effort, as it provided an excellent training facility and had unparalleled access to North Africa for a North American city. During World War II, German U-Boats sank dozens of merchant ships and oil tankers just off the coast of West Palm Beach. Nearby Palm Beach was under black out conditions to minimize night visibility to German U-boats; the 1950s saw another boom in population due to the return of many soldiers and airmen who had served in the vicinity during the war. The advent of air conditioning encouraged growth, as year-round living in a tropical climate became more acceptable to northerners. West Palm Beach became the one of the nation's fastest growing metropolitan areas during the 1950s.
However, many of the city's residents
Find a Grave
Find A Grave is a website that allows the public to search and add to an online database of cemetery records. It is owned by Ancestry.com. It receives and uploads digital photographs of headstones from burial sites, taken by unpaid volunteers at cemeteries. Find A Grave posts the photo on its website; the site was created in 1995 by Salt Lake City resident Jim Tipton to support his hobby of visiting the burial sites of famous celebrities. He added an online forum. Find A Grave was launched as a commercial entity in 1998, first as a trade name and incorporated in 2000; the site expanded to include graves of non-celebrities, in order to allow online visitors to pay respect to their deceased relatives or friends. In 2013, Tipton sold Find A Grave to Ancestry.com, saying that the genealogy company had "been linking and driving traffic to the site for several years. Burial information is a wonderful source for people researching their family history." In a September 30, 2013, press release, Ancestry.com officials said they would "launch a new mobile app, improve customer support, introduce an enhanced edit system for submitting updates to memorials, foreign-language support, other site improvements."As of October 2017, Find A Grave contained over 165 million burial records and 75 million photos.
In March 2017, a beta website for a redesigned Find A Grave was launched at gravestage.com. Public feedback was mixed. Sometime between May 29 and July 10 of that year, the beta website was migrated to new.findagrave.com, a new front end for it was deployed at beta.findagrave.com. In November 2017, the new site became the old site was deprecated. On August 20, 2018, the original Find; the website contains listings of graves from around the world. American cemeteries are organized by state and county, many cemetery records contain Google Maps and photographs of the cemeteries and gravesites. Individual grave records may contain dates and places of birth and death, biographical information and plot information and contributor information. Interment listings are added by individuals, genealogical societies, other institutions such as the International Wargraves Photography Project. Contributors must register as members to submit listings, called memorials, on the site; the submitter may transfer management.
Only the current manager of a listing may edit it, although any member may use the site's features to send correction requests to the listing's manager. Managers may add links to other listings of deceased spouses and siblings for genealogical purposes. Any member may add photographs and notations to individual listings. Members may post requests for photos of a specific grave. Although it does not ask permission from immediate family members before uploading the photos, it will remove and take down photos or a URL for a deceased loved one at the request of an immediate family member. Find A Grave maintains lists of memorials of famous persons by their "claim to fame", such as Medal of Honor recipients, religious figures, educators. Find A Grave exercises editorial control over these listings. Canadian Headstones Interment.net United States National Cemetery System's nationwide gravesite locator Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness Tombstone tourist Official website
Sarasota, Florida
Sarasota is a city in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U. S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches and the Sarasota School of Architecture; the city is at the southern end of the Tampa Bay Area, north of Punta Gorda. Its official limits include Sarasota Bay and several barrier islands between the bay and the Gulf of Mexico. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, in 2013 Sarasota had a population of 53,326. In 1986 it became designated as a certified local government. Sarasota is a principal city of the Sarasota metropolitan area, is the seat of Sarasota County; the islands separating Sarasota Bay from the gulf near the city, known as keys, include Lido Key and Siesta Key, which are famous worldwide for the quality of their sandy beaches. The keys that are included in the boundary of Sarasota are Lido Key, St. Armands Key, Otter Key, Casey Key, Coon Key, Bird Key, portions of Siesta Key. Siesta Key was named Sarasota Key. At one time, it and all of Longboat Key were considered part of Sarasota and confusing contemporaneous references may be found discussing them.
Longboat Key is the largest key separating the bay from the gulf, but it was evenly divided by the new county line of 1921. The portion of the key that parallels the Sarasota city boundary that extends to that new county line along the bay front of the mainland was removed from the city boundaries at the request of John Ringling in the mid-1920s, who sought to avoid city taxation of his planned developments at the southern tip of the key. Although they never were completed in the faltering economy, those development concessions granted by the city never were reversed and the county has retained regulation of those lands; the city limits had expanded with the real estate rush of the early twentieth century, reaching 70 square miles. The wild speculation boom began to crash in 1926 and following that, the city limits began to contract, shrinking to less than a quarter of that area; the area known today as Sarasota, Florida first appeared on a sheepskin Spanish map from 1763 with the word "Zarazote" over present day Sarasota and Bradenton.
The municipal government of Sarasota was established when it was incorporated as a town in 1902. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 25.9 square miles, of which 14.9 sq mi is land and 11.0 sq mi is water. Sarasota has a humid subtropical climate bordering a tropical savanna climate, with hot, humid summers, warm, dry winters. There are distinct rainy and dry seasons, with the rainy season lasting from June to September, the dry season from October to May; the most recent recorded freezes in Sarasota took place on January 18, 2018, when the temperature dropped to 30 °F at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. However, Sarasota averages less than one frost annually; as of the 2010 U. S. Census, there were 51,917 people residing in the city; the population density was 3,541.4 inhabitants per square mile. There were 29,151 housing units at an average density of 1,988.5 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 75.41% White, 15.11% African American, 0.43% Native American, 1.33% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 5.22% from other races, 2.34% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 16.63% of the population. There were 23,427 households out of which 19.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.3% were married couples living together, 12.3% had a female head of household with no husband present, 48.5% were non-families. 38.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.3% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.12 and the average family size was 2.81. In the city, 18.4% of the population was under the age of 18, 9.2% ranged from 18 to 24, 27.9% from 25 to 44, 22.5% from 45 to 64, 22.0% were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 41 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males. The per capita income for residents of the city was $23,197. Females had a median income of $23,510 versus $26,604 for males; the median income for a household in the city was $34,077 and the median income for a family was $40,398.
About 12.4% of families and 16.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 28.5% of those under age 18 and 7.7% of those age 65 or over. Tourism contributes to the economy of Sarasota. Companies based in Sarasota include the Boar's Head Provision Company. Major employers include Sarasota Memorial Hospital, Doctors Hospital of Sarasota, APAC Customer Services, L-3 Aviation Recorders, The Zenith and Capgemini. Sarasota municipal government was last incorporated in 1913, changing from a town type to adopting the city type of local government found in the United States and the title of its government changed to "City of Sarasota". Sarasota was designated as the county seat when Sarasota County was carved out of Manatee County in 1921 during the creation of several new counties. In 1945 the commission-manager government form was adopted for the city and it is governed by a five-person commission elected by popular vote, two members of which serve in the ceremonial positions of "mayor" and "vice-mayor", as chosen by the commission every April.
Two at-large commissioners are elected by all voters and the city is divided into three districts for which the residents of each elect one district representative to the five member commission. Many aspects of the city are overseen by the county government ranging from the schools, the libraries, the bay, major waterways, county designated roads, the airport, fir
Basketball positions
The five basketball positions employed by organized basketball teams are the point guard, the shooting guard, the small forward, the power forward, the center. The point guard is the leader of the team on the court; this position requires substantial ball handling skills and the ability to facilitate the team during a play. The shooting guard, as the name implies, is the best shooter; as well as being capable of shooting from longer distances, this position tends to be the best defender on the team. The small forward has an aggressive approach to the basket when handling the ball; the small forward is known to make cuts to the basket in efforts to get open for shots. The power forward and the center are called the "frontcourt" acting as their team's primary rebounders or shot blockers, or receiving passes to take inside shots; the center is the larger of the two. Only three positions were recognized based on where they played on the court: Guards played outside and away from the hoop and forwards played outside and near the baseline, with the center positioned in the key.
During the 1980s, as team strategy evolved. More specialized roles developed. Team strategy and available personnel, still dictate the positions used by a particular team. For example, the dribble-drive motion offense and the Princeton offense use four interchangeable guards and one center; this set is known as a "four-in and one-out" play scheme. Other combinations are prevalent. Besides the five basic positions, some teams use non-standard or hybrid positions, such as the point forward, a hybrid small forward/point guard; the point guard known as the one, is the team's best ball handler and passer. Therefore, they lead their team in assists and are able to create shots for themselves and their teammates, they are quick and are able to hit shots either outside the three-point line or "in the paint" depending on the player's skill level. Point guards are looked upon as the "floor general" or the "coach on the floor", they should study the game and game film to be able to recognize the weaknesses of the defense, the strengths of their own offense.
They are responsible for directing plays, making the position equivalent to that of quarterback in American football, playmaker in association football, center in ice hockey, or setter in volleyball. Good point guards increase team efficiency and have a high number of assists, they are referred to as dribblers or play-makers. In the NBA, point guards are the shortest players on the team and are 6 feet 4 inches or shorter; the shooting guard is known as the two or the off guard. Along with the small forward, a shooting guard is referred to as a wing because of its use in common positioning tactics; as the name suggests, most shooting guards are prolific from the three-point range. Besides being able to shoot the ball, shooting guards tend to be the best defender on the team, as well as being able to move without the ball to create open looks for themselves; some shooting guards have good ball handling skills creating their own shots off the dribble. A versatile shooting guard will have good passing skills, allowing them to assume point guard responsibilities known as combo guards.
Bigger shooting guards tend to play as small forwards. In the NBA, shooting guards range from 6 feet 4 inches to 6 feet 8 inches; the small forward known as the three, is considered to be the most versatile of the main five basketball positions. Versatility is key for small forwards because of the nature of their role, which resembles that of a shooting guard more than that of a power forward; this is why the small forward and shooting guard positions are interchangeable and referred to as wings. Small forwards have a variety such as quickness and strength inside. One common thread among all kinds of small forwards is an ability to "get to the line" and draw fouls by aggressively attempting plays, lay-ups, or slam dunks; as such, accurate foul shooting is a common skill for small forwards, many of whom record a large portion of their points from the foul line. Besides being able to drive to the basket, they are good shooters from long range; some small forwards have good passing skills, allowing them to assume point guard responsibilities as point forwards.
Small forwards should be able to do a little bit of everything on the court playing roles such as swingmen and defensive specialists. In the NBA, small forwards range from 6 feet 6 inches to 6 feet 9 inches; the power forward known as the four plays a role similar to that of the center, down in the "post" or "low blocks". The power forward is the team's most versatile scorer, being able to score close to the basket while being able to shoot mid-range jump shots from 12 to 18 feet from the basket; some power forwards have become known as stretch fours, since extending their shooting range to three-pointers. On defense, they are required to have the strength to guard bigger players close to the basket and to have the athleticism to guard quick players away from the basket. Most power forwards tend to be more versatile than centers since they can be part of plays and are not always in the low block. In the
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is a men's professional basketball league in North America. It is considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world; the NBA is an active member of USA Basketball, recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player; the league was founded in New York City on June 1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League; the league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in New Jersey; the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada.
On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the NBA now refers to as the first game played in NBA history. The first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the NBL, the BAA was the first league to attempt to play in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title. Prior to the 1948–49 season, however, NBL teams from Fort Wayne, Indianapolis and Rochester jumped to the BAA, which established the BAA as the league of choice for collegians looking to turn professional.
On August 3, 1949, the remaining NBL teams–Syracuse, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan and Waterloo–merged into the BAA. In deference to the merger and to avoid possible legal complications, the league name was changed to the present National Basketball Association though the merged league retained the BAA's governing body, including Podoloff. To this day, the NBA claims the BAA's history as its own, it now reckons the arrival of the NBL teams as an expansion, not a merger, does not recognize NBL records and statistics. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven franchises, a process that continued until 1953–54, when the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, Syracuse Nationals, all of which remain in the league today.
The process of contraction saw. The Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, to St. Louis in 1955; the Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Pistons relocated from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit in 1957. Japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks, he remained the only non-white player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signing with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Hunter was cut from the team during training camp, but several African-American players did play in the league that year, including Chuck Cooper with the Celtics, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton with the Knicks, Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty. To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954.
If a team does not attempt to score a field goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped and the ball given to its opponent. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, which featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, setting new single game records in scoring and rebounding. Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports; the 1960s were dominated by the Celtics. Led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966; this championship streak is the longest in NBA history. They did not win the title in 1966–67, but regained it in the 1967–68 season and repeated in 1969; the domination totaled nine of the ten championship banners of the 1960s.
Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises; the Chicago Packers (now Wa
Martin County, Florida
Martin County is a county located in the Treasure Coast region of the state of Florida, in the United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 146,318, its county seat is Stuart. Martin County is in FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. Martin County was created in 1925 with the northern portion coming from St. Lucie County and southern portion coming from Palm Beach County, it was named for John W. Martin, Governor of Florida from 1925 to 1929; when the county was created, the western contour followed the shore of Lake Okeechobee, as did the borders of Glades and Hendry counties. Palm Beach County had claimed all of the surface of the lake as part of its area, to its benefit for the distribution of state and federal highway funds; the state representative of Martin County, William Ralph Scott of Stuart, initiated a bill to divide the lake among its adjacent counties, creating a more equitable distribution of state funds for road creation and maintenance. All bordering counties confirmed the justice of this change and supported its ratification, with the exception of Palm Beach County.
Representatives from Palm Beach County presented Representative William Scott with a jug of water, signifying "all the water Bill Scott left Palm Beach County." The jug is in the possession of Stuart Heritage. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 753 square miles, of which 543 square miles is land and is water, it is the fifth-largest county in Florida by land area, fifty-third largest by total area. St. Lucie County – north Palm Beach County – south Hendry County – southwest Glades County – southwest Okeechobee County – northwest Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge According to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Martin County Shore Protection Project includes nourishment of 3.75 miles of beach extending from the St. Lucie County line south to the Stuart Public Beach Park in Martin County. Included in the project is restoration of the primary dune and a 35-foot-wide protective berm; the renourishment interval for this project is every 7 years. The last renourishment of the Martin County Shore Protection Project was completed in May 2013 and included a Flood Control and Coastal Emergency component due impacts incurred with the passage of Hurricane Sandy in 2012.
The next renourishment event is scheduled for 2019. The estimated total cost of this project is $69.9 million, $32.5 million of, to be paid for by the U. S. Federal Government. In Fiscal Year 2015, no funding was appropriated to the project by the U. S. Congress. In the Fiscal Year 2016 U. S. President's Budget Request to the U. S. Congress, no funding dollars was requested for the project; as of the census of 2000, there were 126,731 people, 55,288 households, 36,213 families residing in the county. The population density was 228 per square mile. There were 65,471 housing units at an average density of 118 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 89.88% White, 5.27% Black or African American, 0.30% Native American, 0.60% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 2.72% from other races, 1.14% from two or more races. 7.50% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. In 2000 there were 55,288 households out of which 21.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 55.00% were married couples living together, 7.40% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.50% were non-families.
29.00% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.00% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.71. In the county, the population was spread out with 18.60% under the age of 18, 5.30% from 18 to 24, 22.90% from 25 to 44, 24.90% from 45 to 64, 28.20% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.40 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94.20 males. The median income for a household in the county was $43,083, the median income for a family was $53,244. Males had a median income of $36,133 versus $27,000 for females; the per capita income for the county was $29,584. About 5.60% of families and 8.80% of the population were below the poverty line, including 13.80% of those under age 18 and 5.20% of those age 65 or over. Indiantown Airport Naked Lady Ranch Airport Witham Field The Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, a segment of the Florida National Scenic Trail, passes through Martin County.
Martin County is a non-chartered county and its form of government is prescribed by the Florida Constitution and Florida Statutes, as follows: The Board of County Commissioners is the legislative body of the county and has charge of all county executive and administrative functions, except those assigned by the Constitution to independent county officers or to the independent school district. The board has some quasi-judicial functions; some of functions exercised by the board are county-wide, while others are applicable only in the unincorporated areas of the county, where the board has many of the functions of a municipality. The county commissioners are elected by county-wide vote, but each one represents a specific district; the board appoints the county administrator, responsible to it for the day-to-day operations of the county government. The current county commissioners by district number are: 1. Doug Smith, Chair 2. Ed Fielding 3. Herold Jenkins 4. Sarah Heard 5. Edward Ciampi, Vice Chair The elected Constitutional Officers are: Clerk: Carolyn Timmann Property Appraiser: Laurel Kelly Sheriff: William Snyder Supervisor of Elections: Vicki Davis Tax Collector: Ruth Pietruszewski The independent Martin County School District has an elected Sup
Villanova Wildcats men's basketball
Villanova University's men's basketball team represents Villanova University and competes in the Big East Conference of NCAA Division I College basketball. Their first season was the 1920–21 season. Named the "Wildcats", Villanova is a member of the Philadelphia Big Five, five Philadelphia college basketball teams who share a passionate rivalry; the Wildcats have won the National Championship three times: 1985, 2016, 2018. Their 1985 NCAA championship as an 8 seed still stands as the lowest seed to win the title; the game is referred to as "The Perfect Game". Their 2016 NCAA Championship, is referred to as "The Perfect Ending" and is the only NCAA Men's Championship game to be won on a buzzer beater, as Kris Jenkins drained a shot as time expired, they made the Final Four in 1939, 1971, 1985, 2009, 2016, 2018. As of 2019, they have an NCAA Tournament record of 65–37. Villanova has defeated six No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, sixth most all-time. The Villanova Wildcats have appeared in the NCAA Tournament 39 times, the eighth highest total in NCAA history.
They have won the Big East regular season championship eight times, most winning four straight from 2014 to 2017. They won the Big East Tournament in 1995, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019. Villanova entered the 2016–2017 season with an all-time winning percentage of, placing the Wildcats tied for 13th among all NCAA Division I basketball programs. Through 2018, Villanova has 1,779 wins, 23rd among Division I men's basketball teams. Villanova has won the Philadelphia Big Five 26 times, the second most of any team, including five straight from 2014 to 2018; the Wildcats have appeared in the National Invitation Tournament 17 times, winning in 1994. NCAA National Championships – 3 NCAA Championship Game appearances - 4 NCAA Final Four – 6 NCAA Elite Eight – 14 NCAA Sweet Sixteen – 18 NCAA Tournament Appearances – 39 National Coach of the Year – 2 Conference Regular Season Championships – 12 All-Americans – 20 Weeks Ranked as AP #1 Team – 19 30-Win Seasons – 5 Philadelphia Big 5 Championships – 25 Philadelphia Big 5 Player of the Year – 20 Winning Seasons – 78 Villanova began its varsity basketball program in 1920.
Michael Saxe coached from 1920 to 1926, compiling a 64 -- 30 record. John Cashman coached three seasons, from 1926 to 1929. George "Doc" Jacobs coached seven seasons, from 1929 to 1936, had a 62–56 record; the team played its first game in 1920 in Alumni Hall on Villanova's campus, beating Catholic University 43–40. In the early years, Villanova's home courts were West Catholic High School. In 1932, The Wildcats moved into the Villanova Field House—now known as the Jake Nevin Field House, named after Villanova's long-time trainer. Villanova played many home games at the Palestra on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania beginning in 1929; the Wildcats played home games in both the Villanova Field House and the Palestra until 1986. Al Severance coached Villanova for 25 seasons, from 1936 to 1961, it was under Severance's leadership. Severance compiled a 413–201 record; the 1938–39 team won the first-ever NCAA Tournament game, which put them in the inaugural Final Four. Severance led the Wildcats to the NCAA Tournament again in 1949, 1951, 1955.
Villanova earned NIT bids in 1959 and 1960. The most storied player in Villanova history, Paul Arizin, played during this era. Severance discovered Arizin a Villanova student, playing basketball in the Villanova Fieldhouse. Arizin holds the Villanova record for most points in a game, is credited with inventing the jump shot and was the 1949 College Player of the Year. Other notable players from the Severance era include Joe Lord, Larry Hennessy, Bob Schafer and George Raveling. Coincidentally, Severance died on April 1, 1985, the same day that Villanova upset Georgetown University and Patrick Ewing to take the NCAA basketball championship; the inaugural NCAA Tournament featured eight teams from throughout the country. Villanova, representing the Middle Atlantic States, beat Brown, representative of the New England States, 43–40 before a crowd of 3,500 at the Palestra; the following night, the Wildcats lost to Ohio State 53–36 in the Eastern Division Championship. Jack Kraft coached Villanova for 12 years, from 1961 through 1973.
He compiled a 238–95 record. Kraft led Villanova to the NCAA Tournament six times, five times to the NIT. Only once did. Notable players during the Jack Kraft era include: Chris Ford, Tom Ingelsby, Wali Jones, Bill Melchionni, Howard Porter, Jim Washington, Hubie White. On March 27, 1971, Villanova made its first appearance in an NCAA basketball tournament championship game; the unheralded Wildcats took on his mighty UCLA Bruins. The 28–1 UCLA squad featured Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Henry Bibby, Steve Patterson. Going into the title game, the Bruins had won six of the previous seven NCAA championships, including the previous four. Jack Kraft's Villanova squad, nicknamed the "Iron Men", was made up of just nine players. Led by Howard Porter, Clarence Smith, Hank Siemiontkowski, Chris Ford, Tom Ingelsby, Bob Gohl, Mike Daley, John Fox and Joe McDowell. Villanova amassed a 27–6 record, including a shocking 90–47 victory over a undefeated powerhouse Penn squad. Villanova fought from behind for most of the game
