1.
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
2.
Harlem Globetrotters
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The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater, and comedy. Over the years they have played more than 26,000 exhibition games in 122 countries and territories, the teams signature song is Brother Boness whistled version of Sweet Georgia Brown. Their mascot is an anthropomorphized globe named Globie, the team plays over 450 live events worldwide each year. The team is owned by Herschend Family Entertainment. The executive offices for the team are located in suburban Atlanta, the Globetrotters originated in the south side of Chicago, Illinois, in the 1920s, where all the original players were raised. In 1928, several players left the team in a dispute and that autumn, several of the players, led by Tommy Brookins, formed a team called the Globe Trotters and toured Southern Illinois that spring. Abe Saperstein became involved with the team as its manager and promoter, by 1929, Saperstein was touring Illinois and Iowa with his basketball team called the New York Harlem Globe Trotters. In fact, the Globetrotters did not play in Harlem until 1968, the Globetrotters were perennial participants in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, winning it in 1940. In 1952, the Globetrotters invited Louis Red Klotz to create a team to them on their tours. This team, the Washington Generals, were the Globetrotters primary opponents up until 2015, the Generals were effectively stooges for the Globetrotters, with the Globetrotters handily defeating them in thousands of games. In 1959, the Globetrotters played nine games in Moscow after Saperstein received an invitation from Vasily Gricorevich, the team, which included Wilt Chamberlain, was welcomed enthusiastically by spectators and authorities, they met Premier Nikita Khrushchev and collectively received the Athletic Order of Lenin medal. However, according to one report, spectators were initially confused, A Soviet audience of 14,000 sat almost silently, as if in awe and it warmed up slightly in the second half when it realized the Trotters are more show than competition. The Globetrotters brought their own opponent—not the Washington Generals, but the San Francisco Chinese Basketeers, a review in Pravda stated, This is not basketball, it is too full of tricks but praised the Globetrotters skills and suggested that they have some techniques to show us. The American press—particularly Drew Pearson—made note of the fact that the Globetrotters were paid the equivalent of $4,000, which could be spent only in Moscow. The games were used as evidence that U. S. –Soviet relations were improving, that Moscow was backing off its criticism of race relations inside America, many famous basketball players have played for the Globetrotters. Greats such as Wee Willie Gardner, Connie The Hawk Hawkins, Wilt The Stilt Chamberlain, the Globetrotters signed their first female player, Olympic gold medalist Lynette Woodard, in 1985. The Globetrotters have featured 13 female players in their illustrious history, baseball Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Bob Gibson, and Ferguson Jenkins also played for the team at one time or another. Because almost all of its players have been African American, and because of the involved in many of the Globetrotters skits
3.
Sand Springs, Oklahoma
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Sand Springs is a city in Osage and Tulsa counties in the U. S. state of Oklahoma. A suburb of Tulsa, it is located predominantly in Tulsa County, the population was 18,906 in the 2010 U. S. Census, an increase of 8.3 percent from 17,451 at the 2000 census. The city was founded in 1911, by Oklahoma philanthropist Charles Page and he helped found and develop Sand Springs as a model city that included all components of a total community. Wealthy businessman Charles Page bought 160 acres of land in Tulsa County, Oklahoma in 1908, the initial tent housing twenty seven children, abandoned by the Hook & Anchor Orphanage in Tulsa, was soon replaced by a frame building housing fifty children. In 1911, Page created the Sand Springs Railway, an interurban connecting Sand Springs to Tulsa, the townsite was laid out in 1911. Sand Springs was incorporated as a city in 1912, with a population of 400, Page built the Sand Springs Power Plant in 1911, on the southeast corner of Main Street and Morrow Road. It anchored an area that Page intended to use for industrial development, there were several significant additions to the facility, and it remained the sole source of electric power for Sand Springs until 1947. Some of the earliest manufacturing industries were, Kerr Glass Manufacturing, Commander Mills, Kerr, Hubbard and Kelley Lamp and Chimney, Southwest Box Company, Sand Springs became one center of glass production in Oklahoma. Kerr Glass Manufacturing moved to Sand Springs from Chicago in 1913, Kerr company, which made fruit jars, were the only glass companies remaining in business as recently as 1955. The Home that Charles Page started all those years ago is still there today, what used to be the Widows Colony now accepts single mothers with two or more children. An EF2 tornado hit Sand Springs on March 25,2015, killing one resident, Sand Springs is located at 36°8′23″N 96°6′32″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 21.0 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 17,451 people,6,564 households, the population density was 934.2 people per square mile. There were 6,979 housing units at a density of 373.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 85. 85% White,1. 85% African American,7. 13% Native American,0. 44% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,0. 47% from other races, and 4. 25% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2. 06% of the population,22. 7% of all households were made up of individuals and 10. 2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the family size was 3.05. In the city, the population was out with 28. 4% under the age of 18,8. 3% from 18 to 24,28. 9% from 25 to 44,22. 2% from 45 to 64
4.
Charles Page High School
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Charles Page High School is a high school in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, named after the philanthropist Charles Page. It is the public high school in Sand Springs. Charles Page High School was built in 1959, constructed to replace Sand Springs High School, during construction, there was an accident and the roof collapsed. One of the workers fell 60 feet through the ceiling and died that tragic day and they compete in basketball, football, cross country, soccer, academic bowl, debate, forensics, wrestling, and competitive cheerleading and dance. In 2004 Charles Page High School garnered national attention with a controversy surrounding the creation of a Gay-Straight Alliance at the school, an openly gay student, Michael Shackelford, was the focus of a series of articles in the Washington Post which brought national attention to the school. This national attention caught the eye of radical preacher Fred Phelps of Topeka, Kansas Westboro Baptist Church who came, however the alliance was dismantled after those students graduated. The school mascot is the Minuteman, the towns black school, Booker T Washington, also had a football program, but records on it are hard to find. Ed Dubie was head coach from 1937-1938 and later had the schools field house named after him. Lester Secrest was head coach from 1944-1946 and lead the Sandites to their first district title in 1944. Maurice Hail took over in 1947 and led the Sandites to district titles in 1948 and 1951, in 1951, the Sandites made it to the state semi-finals and tied Ada 20-20, but victory was awarded to Ada due to more penetrations. In 1952 Cecil Hankins took over and led the Sandites to another district title, in 1954, Jerry Adair played QB on Hankins team. He went on to earn a spot in the Oklahoma State University Basketball Hall of Fame and he went on to play Major League Baseball for the Orioles. Charles Prigmore coached from 1957-1960 and was the first head coach at the new Charles Page High School. Travis Rhodes took up the reigns from 1961-1962 and led Charles Page to a season in 1962. Frank Tillery coached from 1964-1966 and in 1966 led them to their first, Quarterback Jackie Hill took them 12-0 and also landed a district title. On October 21, they upset the #1 ranked Broken Arrow and they settled their 1951 score against Ada with a 37-26 win, then confronted El Reno in the final round. The game was played at Taft Stadium in Oklahoma City on an icy field in December and it was so cold that day that the cheerleaders and fans were burning fires in trashcans for warmth. At one point, football player Arlie Christmas accidentally set his leg on fire, briefly, david Treadwell, however, was not without injury and left the game with a broken arm
5.
Langston University
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Langston University, abbreviated as LU, is a public university in Langston, Oklahoma, United States. It is the historically black college in the state. Though located in a rural setting 10 miles east of Guthrie, Langston also serves an urban mission, the university is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. The school was founded in 1897 and was known as the Oklahoma Colored Agricultural and Normal University, from 1898 to 1916 its president was Inman E. Page. Langston University was created as a result of the second Morrill Act in 1890, the law required states with land-grant colleges to either admit African Americans, or provide an alternative school for them to attend as a condition of receiving federal funds. It was renamed Langston University in 1941, through the years Langston University has developed slowly but surely. Some of the most serious problems have been political influences, financial stress, during the 1960s the campus underwent a complete makeover. New buildings appeared, and additions were made to the library, tolson taught at Langston from 1947 until 1964. Tolson was portrayed by Denzel Washington in the film The Great Debaters, the university offers associates, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees in a variety of disciplines. It is known as a leader in the field of agricultural research, LU has nearly 3,000 students from several states, representing a diverse student body at an Oklahoma college. A total of 29 undergraduate and six graduate programs are offered at LU. The university offers the Edwin P. McCabe Honors Program for highly-motivated undergraduate students with exceptional academic records, the university was accredited with a Doctorate of Physical Therapy program in 2005. It is the only doctoral program and one of two in the state. Langston University is accredited by seven different college accreditation agencies, mens sports include basketball, cross country, football and track & field, while womens sports include basketball, cheerleading, cross country, softball, track & field and volleyball. The present athletic director is Donnita Rogers, the Lions won the 1939 and 1941 HBCU National Championships in football. Langston won two HBCU National Championships in basketball in 1944 and 1946, langstons marching band is known as the Marching Pride. As of 2016, the band has won three bids to the Honda Battle of the Bands in the Georgia Dome since the event in 2003. Public Radio Station 89.3 FM Official website Langston Athletics website
6.
Southern University
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Southern University and A&M College is a historically black university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The campus is on Scott’s Bluff overlooking the Mississippi River in the section of the city. The campus encompasses 512 acres, with an experimental station on an additional 372-acre site. The university is the largest HBCU in Louisiana, a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, at the 1879 Louisiana State Constitutional Convention, African-American political leaders P. B. S. Pinchback, Theophile T. Allain and Henry Demas proposed founding an education institution for the education of persons of color. Louisiana before the American Civil War had a class of free people of color. In April 1880, the Louisiana General Assembly chartered what was then called Southern College, Southern opened its doors on March 7,1881 with 12 students. The school was held for a time at the former Israel Sinai Temple on Calliope Street and it established an Agricultural and Mechanical department. Because of continued growth and a lack of land for expansion, in 1914 the university moved to Scotlandville, along Scotts Bluff facing the Mississippi River, now absorbed into the capital, this area is included as a historic destination of the Louisiana African American Heritage Trail. The first president of what is now known as Southern University at Baton Rouge was Dr. Joseph Samuel Clark, Clark, an African-American leader from Baton Rouge, presided over Baton Rouge College and the Louisiana Colored Teachers Association. Clark presided over Southern University during its resulting expansion, Student enrollment grew from 47 to 500, and many of the schools early buildings were built during this time. Clark presided until his retirement in 1938 and his son Dr. Felton Grandison Clark was appointed as president that year. He generated considerable expansion, with 33 of 114 current buildings erected during his 30 years of tenure, the student enrollment grew from 500 to nearly 10,000 students. In addition, the State School for the Negro Deaf and Blind was established here in 1938, in 1943, the university was visited by the First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt. The Southern University Laboratory School System began operating in September 1922, the Laboratory School was first accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools in 1936 and has conferred more than 5,000 high school diplomas since its inception. Under the segregated state education, LSU Law School had refused to admit African Americans, a special Louisiana Convention established a law program, now Southern University Law Center, in 1947 at Southern University. During Clarks tenure, Southern University at New Orleans and Southern University at Shreveport were founded and they were incorporated into the Southern University System in 1974. In 1969, the university saw a changing of the guard, on November 16,1972, Denver Smith and Leonard Brown, two students involved with Students United, a student activist group, were shot and killed outside the Old Auditorium
7.
Jackie Robinson
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Jack Roosevelt Jackie Robinson was an American professional baseball second baseman who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when the Brooklyn Dodgers started him at first base on April 15,1947. The Dodgers, by signing Robinson, heralded the end of segregation in professional baseball that had relegated black players to the Negro leagues since the 1880s. Robinson was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1962, Robinson had an exceptional 10-year baseball career. Robinson played in six World Series and contributed to the Dodgers 1955 World Series championship, in 1997, MLB universally retired his uniform number,42, across all major league teams, he was the first pro athlete in any sport to be so honored. MLB also adopted a new tradition, Jackie Robinson Day, for the first time on April 15,2004. Robinsons character, his use of nonviolence, and his unquestionable talent challenged the basis of segregation which then marked many other aspects of American life. He influenced the culture of and contributed significantly to the Civil Rights Movement, Robinson also was the first black television analyst in MLB, and the first black vice president of a major American corporation, Chock full oNuts. In the 1960s, he helped establish the Freedom National Bank, in recognition of his achievements on and off the field, Robinson was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and Presidential Medal of Freedom. Robinson was born on January 31,1919, into a family of sharecroppers in Cairo and he was the youngest of five children born to Mallie and Jerry Robinson, after siblings Edgar, Frank, Matthew, and Willa Mae. His middle name was in honor of former President Theodore Roosevelt, after Robinsons father left the family in 1920, they moved to Pasadena, California. The extended Robinson family established itself on a residential plot containing two small houses at 121 Pepper Street in Pasadena, Robinsons mother worked various odd jobs to support the family. Growing up in poverty in an otherwise affluent community, Robinson. As a result, Robinson joined a gang, but his friend Carl Anderson persuaded him to abandon it. In 1935, Robinson graduated from Washington Junior High School and enrolled at John Muir High School, recognizing his athletic talents, Robinsons older brothers Mack and Frank inspired Jackie to pursue his interest in sports. At Muir Tech, Robinson played several sports at the varsity level and lettered in four of them, football, basketball, track and he played shortstop and catcher on the baseball team, quarterback on the football team, and guard on the basketball team. With the track and field squad, he won awards in the broad jump and he was also a member of the tennis team. In late January 1937, the Pasadena Star-News newspaper reported that Robinson for two years has been the athlete at Muir, starring in football, basketball, track, baseball
8.
Caesar Felton Gayles
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Caesar Felton Zip Gayles was an American football and basketball coach. As the fourth coach of the football, he led the squad to a record of 1–2–3 in 1927. Some records list his name as Felton Gale at this time but other records confirm that Felton Gale, Gayles was the head football coach at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He held that position for the 1928 and 1929 seasons and his coaching record at Arkansas-Pine Bluff was 8 wins,9 losses and 2 ties. Gayles coached for 35 years at Langston University, as the basketball coach from 1930 to 1965, his teams compiled a record of 571 wins and 281 losses. He also was the coach for 28 seasons from 1930 to 1957. His teams were National Negro champions twice in basketball and football. Caesar Felton Gayles at the College Football Data Warehouse
9.
Oklahoma City
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Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U. S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, the city ranks 27th among United States cities in population, the population grew following the 2010 Census, with the population estimated to have increased to 631,346 as of July 2015. Oklahoma Citys city limits extend into Canadian, Cleveland, and Pottawatomie counties, the city ranks as the eighth-largest city in the United States by land area. Oklahoma City has the largest municipal population of any city in the Great Plains region of the central United States as well as all neighboring states to Oklahoma, excluding Texas, lying in the Great Plains region, Oklahoma City features one of the largest livestock markets in the world. Oil, natural gas, petroleum products and related industries are the largest sector of the local economy, the city is situated in the middle of an active oil field and oil derricks dot the capitol grounds. The federal government employs large numbers of workers at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma City is on the I-35 Corridor, which is one of the primary travel corridors south into neighboring Texas and Mexico and north towards Wichita and Kansas City. Located in the Frontier Country region of the state, the citys northeast section lies in a region known as the Cross Timbers. The city was founded during the Land Run of 1889, the city was the scene of the April 19,1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, in which 168 people died. It was the deadliest terror attack in the history of the United States until the attacks of September 11,2001, and remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U. S. history. Oklahoma City was settled on April 22,1889, when the known as the Unassigned Lands was opened for settlement in an event known as The Land Run. Some 10,000 homesteaders settled the area that would become the capital of Oklahoma, the town grew quickly, the population doubled between 1890 and 1900. Early leaders of the development of the city included Anton Classen, John Shartel, Henry Overholser, by the time Oklahoma was admitted to the Union in 1907, Oklahoma City had surpassed Guthrie, the territorial capital, as the population center and commercial hub of the new state. Soon after, the capital was moved from Guthrie to Oklahoma City, before World War II, Oklahoma City developed major stockyards, attracting jobs and revenue formerly in Chicago and Omaha, Nebraska. With the 1928 discovery of oil within the city limits, Oklahoma City became a center of oil production. Post-war growth accompanied the construction of the Interstate Highway System, which made Oklahoma City a major interchange as the convergence of I-35, I-40 and it was also aided by federal development of Tinker Air Force Base. In 1950, the Census Bureau reported citys population as 8. 6% black and 90. 7% white, patience Latting was elected Mayor of Oklahoma City in 1971, becoming the citys first female mayor. Latting was also the first woman to serve as mayor of a U. S. city with over 350,000 residents. As with many other American cities, center city population declined in the 1970s and 1980s as families followed newly constructed highways to move to housing in nearby suburbs
10.
Abe Saperstein
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Abraham Abe Michael Saperstein was the founder, owner and earliest coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. He was born in the East End of London, England, to a Jewish family originally from Lomza, Saperstein was a leading figure in black basketball and baseball in the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s, primarily before those sports were racially integrated. Saperstein also introduced the three-point shot, which went on to become a mainstay of modern basketball, Saperstein was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971 and, at 5 ft.3 in, is its shortest male member. In 1979, Saperstein was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame, in 2005, Saperstein was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame. Saperstein’s family moved from London to Chicago in 1907, when Abe was five years old and they settled just north of the city’s Jewish area, often called the “Poor Jews’ quarter” because of the many struggling immigrants living there. Saperstein’s father, Louis, who had been a tailor in Poland, saw an ad for a tailor on Chicago’s North Side in a predominantly German, Irish. The ad warned, “No Jews allowed, ” so Louis Saperstein changed his surname to the more German-sounding Schneider, after buying the business from the owner several years later, Louis Saperstein dropped the facade and changed the name of the store to Louis Saperstein’s Tailor Shop. At Lake View High School, he played nine different sports, including baseball, basketball, football, Saperstein attended the University of Illinois, but dropped out to help support his family. He decided not to follow his father into tailoring, instead, his dream was to pursue a career in sports, though he realized that his athletic abilities and height were not going to take him far. Saperstein eventually landed a position working for the Chicago District Park as a supervisor at Welles Park. There, after hours of watching kids play basketball, he decided to create his own team, the Chicago Reds were a semi-pro lightweight basketball team, and Saperstein played point guard. He hired Saperstein as his booking agent, Saperstein went on to become booking agent for several basketball teams as well, until branching out in the late 1920s to form his own team with some of the members of the Savoy Big Five. He called the team the New York Harlem Globetrotters, although Saperstein’s team had nothing to do with Harlem, he chose the name to indicate that the players were black, as Harlem was the epicenter of African-American culture. Many of the towns where the Globetrotters played in their first few years were all white, the Globetrotters played their first game in Hinkley, Illinois. The team netted a total of $8, which was split evenly between the six members of the team, including Saperstein. Over the next years, in the midst of the Great Depression, Saperstein served as the team’s manager, driver, booking agent, PR director. Styled the Harlem Globetrotters, beat the Arcadia Military police.29 to 18. ”His teenage brother Harry worked as a typist and secretary, sending out press releases and game schedules. During some seasons, the Globetrotters needed to play every night just to make ends meet, accommodations on the road were sparse and hotels often wouldn’t allow blacks
11.
West Berlin
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West Berlin was an enclave which comprised the western part of the city of Berlin during the Cold War. It was formally controlled by the Western Allies and formed a de facto part of West Germany, and was entirely surrounded by the Soviet-controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners as an island of freedom. A wealthy city, West Berlin was noted for its liberal and cosmopolitan character. With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the biggest population of any city in Cold War Germany and it was 100 miles east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and was de facto part of West Germany and it had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, de jure occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the de facto capital of East Germany, the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically divided West Berlin from its East German surroundings until it fell in 1989. The Potsdam Agreement established the framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries, according to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road, at first, this arrangement was intended to be only a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany. Soon, Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations, in 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors—the Berlin Blockade. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food, in May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. Following the Berlin Blockade, normal contacts between East and West Berlin resumed, however, in cases this proved only temporary. In 1952, the East German government began sealing its borders, as a direct result the electrical grids were separated and phone lines were cut. However, the culmination of the schism did not occur until 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall. From the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic
12.
Jesse Owens
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James Cleveland Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete and four-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1936 games. Owens specialized in the sprints and the jump and was recognized in his lifetime as perhaps the greatest and most famous athlete in track. At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, Owens won international fame with four medals,100 meters,200 meters, long jump. The Jesse Owens Award is USA Track and Fields highest accolade for the years best track, Owens was ranked by ESPN as the sixth greatest North American athlete of the twentieth century and the highest-ranked in his sport. In 1999 he was on the six man short list for the BBCs Sports Personality of the Century. Owens was the youngest of ten children, three girls and seven boys, born to Henry Cleveland Owens and Mary Emma Fitzgerald in Oakville, Alabama, on September 12,1913. When his new teacher asked his name, he said J. C. but because of his strong Southern accent, the name stuck, and he was known as Jesse Owens for the rest of his life. As a boy, Owens took different jobs in his time, he delivered groceries, loaded freight cars. During this period, Owens realized that he had a passion for running, throughout his life, Owens attributed the success of his athletic career to the encouragement of Charles Riley, his junior high track coach at Fairmount Junior High School. Since Owens worked in a repair shop after school, Riley allowed him to practice before school instead. Owens and Minnie Ruth Solomon met at Fairmont Junior High School in Cleveland when he was 15 and they dated steadily through high school. Ruth gave birth to their first daughter, Gloria, in 1932 and they married on July 5,1935 and had two more daughters together, Marlene, born in 1937, and Beverly, born in 1940. They remained married until his death in 1980, Owens attended The Ohio State University after employment was found for his father, ensuring the family could be supported. Affectionately known as the Buckeye Bullet, and under the coaching of Larry Snyder, Owens won a record eight individual NCAA championships, though Owens enjoyed athletic success, he had to live off campus with other African-American athletes. When he traveled with the team, Owens was restricted to ordering carry-out or eating at blacks-only restaurants, similarly, he had to stay at blacks-only hotels. Owens did not receive a scholarship for his efforts, so he continued to work part-time jobs to pay for school. Owenss greatest achievement came in a span of 45 minutes on May 25,1935, during the Big Ten meet at Ferry Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he set three world records and tied a fourth. He equaled the record for the 100 yard dash, and set world records in the long jump, 220-yard sprint
13.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area
14.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
15.
Golden State Warriors
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The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the leagues Western Conference Pacific Division. The team was established in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1962, the franchise relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area and was renamed the San Francisco Warriors. In 1971, the changed its geographic moniker to Golden State. Since 1972, the home court has been the Oracle Arena in Oakland. The team is nicknamed the Dubs, the Warriors have reached eight NBA Finals, winning four NBA championships in 1947,1956,1975 and most recently in 2015 when they defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers. Golden States four NBA championships are the fifth most in history only the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Chicago Bulls. Wilt Chamberlain and Stephen Curry have both named the NBAs Most Valuable Player while playing for the Warriors, for a total of three MVP awards. Golden State holds the NBA record for best regular season with 73–9, the Warriors were founded in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors, a charter member of the Basketball Association of America. They were owned by Peter A. Tyrrell, who owned the Philadelphia Rockets of the American Hockey League. Tyrrell hired Eddie Gottlieb, a longtime basketball promoter in the Philadelphia area, as coach, the owners named the team after the Philadelphia Warriors, an old basketball team who played in the American Basketball League in 1925. Led by early scoring sensation Joe Fulks, the won the championship in the leagues inaugural 1946–47 season by defeating the Chicago Stags. The NBA, which was created by a 1949 merger, officially recognizes that as its own first championship, Gottlieb bought the team in 1951. The Warriors won its championship in Philadelphia in the 1955–56 season. The Warrior stars of this era were future Hall of Famers Paul Arizin, Tom Gola, in 1959, the team signed draft pick Wilt Chamberlain. Known as Wilt the Stilt, he led the team in scoring six times, quickly began shattering NBA scoring records, in 1962, Franklin Mieuli purchased the majority shares of the team and relocated the franchise to the San Francisco Bay Area, renaming them the San Francisco Warriors. Prior to the 1963–64 NBA season, the Warriors drafted big man Nate Thurmond to go along with Chamberlain, the Warriors won the Western Division crown that season, but lost the 1964 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, four games to one. In the 1964–65 season, the Warriors traded Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers for Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer, Paul Neumann and $150,000 and won only 17 games
16.
National Basketball Association
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The National Basketball Association is the major mens professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier mens professional basketball league in the world. It has 30 teams, and is a member of USA Basketball. The NBA is one of the four professional sports leagues in the United States. NBA players are the worlds best paid athletes by average annual salary per player, the league was founded in New York City on June 6,1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3,1949, the leagues 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 New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, 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, the first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly 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 leagues 1948 title, Following the 1948–49 season, the BAA took in the remainder of the NBL, Syracuse, Anderson, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan, Denver, and Waterloo. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as arenas and smaller gymnasiums. The process of contraction saw the leagues smaller-city franchises move to larger cities, the Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, and then to St. Louis in 1955. The Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati 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 player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships, 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 goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, who already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and 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, russells 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
17.
Harlem Magicians
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The full name of the barnstorming basketball team was The Fabulous Harlem Magicians with the main star attraction of the team being Marques Haynes. Haynes had been a member of the Globetrotters, but had left the team due to a dispute to join the Magicians. Other famous players in the team were Goose Tatum, Bob Ergie Erickson, dempsey Hovland, founder of 20th Century Booking Agency and himself owner of several barnstorming teams was recruited to book the Harlem Magicians games. In 1964, the parties settled the litigation by entering a consent decree approved by the District Court for the Southern District of New York
18.
Los Angeles Lakers
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The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association, as a club of the leagues Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, as of 2015, the Lakers are the second most valuable franchise in the NBA according to Forbes, having an estimated value of $2.7 billion. The franchise began with the 1947 purchase of a disbanded team, the new team began playing in Minneapolis, calling themselves the Minneapolis Lakers in honor of the states nickname, Land of 10,000 Lakes. The team was propelled by center George Mikan, who is described by the NBAs official website as the leagues first superstar, after struggling financially in the late 1950s following Mikans retirement, they relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960–61 season. Led by Hall of Famers Elgin Baylor and Jerry West, Los Angeles made the NBA Finals six times in the 1960s, but lost each series to the Boston Celtics, beginning their long and storied rivalry. After the retirement of West and Chamberlain, the team acquired another center, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who had won multiple MVP awards and this team featured Hall of Famers in Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy, and a Hall of Fame coach, Pat Riley. After Abdul-Jabbar and Johnsons retirement, the team struggled in the early 1990s before acquiring Shaquille ONeal, led by ONeal, Bryant, and another Hall of Fame coach, Phil Jackson, Los Angeles won three consecutive titles between 2000 to 2002, securing the franchise its second three-peat. After losing both the 2004 and 2008 NBA Finals, the Lakers won two championships by defeating the Orlando Magic in 2009 and Boston in 2010. The Lakers hold the record for NBAs longest winning streak,33 straight games,21 Hall of Famers have played for Los Angeles, while four have coached the team. Four Lakers—Abdul-Jabbar, Johnson, ONeal, and Bryant—have won the NBA MVP Award for a total of eight awards, Minneapolis sportswriter Sid Hartman played a key behind the scenes role in helping put together the deal and later the team. Inspired by Minnesotas nickname, Land of 10,000 Lakes, Hartman helped them hire John Kundla from College of St. Thomas, to be their first head coach, by meeting with him and selling him on the team. The Lakers had a roster which featured forward Jim Pollard, playmaker Herm Schaefer, and center George Mikan. In their first season, they led the league with a 43–17 record, in 1948, the Lakers moved from the NBL to the Basketball Association of America, and Mikans 28.3 point per game scoring average set a BAA record. In the 1949 BAA Finals they won the championship, beating the Washington Capitols four games to two, the following season, the team improved to 51–17, repeating as champions. In the 1950–51 season, Mikan won his third straight scoring title at 28.4 ppg, one of those games, a 19–18 loss against the Fort Wayne Pistons, became infamous as the lowest scoring game in NBA history. In the playoffs, they defeated the Indianapolis Olympians in three games but lost to the Rochester Royals in the next round, during the 1951–52 season, the Lakers won 40 games, finishing second in their division. They faced the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, which won in seven games
19.
Meadowlark Lemon
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Meadow Lemon was an American basketball player, actor, and Christian minister. From 1994, he served Meadowlark Lemon Ministries in Scottsdale, Arizona, for 22 years, he was known as the Clown Prince of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters and was a 2003 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. When basketball legend Wilt Chamberlain was asked his opinion on the best player of all time, he responded, fellow Wilmington great Michael Jordan called Lemon a true national treasure and a personal inspiration in Jordans youth. Lemon was born in Wilmington, North Carolina, and attended Williston Industrial School and he then matriculated into Florida A&M University, but was soon drafted into the United States Army, serving for two years stationed in Austria and West Germany. Lemon made his first basketball hoop out of a sack and coat hanger. Lemon first applied to the Globetrotters in 1954 at age 22, in 1980, he left to form one of his Globetrotters imitators, the Bucketeers. He played with that team until 1983, then moved on to play with the Shooting Stars from 1984 to 1987, in 1988, he moved on to Meadowlark Lemons Harlem All Stars team. Despite being with his own touring team, Lemon returned to the Globetrotters, in 2000, Lemon received the John Bunn Award, the highest honor given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame outside of induction. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, the animated Globetrotters also made three appearances in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. In 1978, Lemon appeared in a memorable Burger King commercial by making a tower of burgers until he found a double-beef pickles, in 1983, Lemon appeared in a Charmin toilet paper commercial alongside Mr. Whipple. In 2009, on FOXs TV show The Cleveland Show, the name of Meadowlark Lemon was used for a name for the character of Rallo Tubbs. The dog died in the first season, in 1979, Lemon starred in the educational geography film Meadowlark Lemon Presents the World. It was several years before he became an ordained minister himself. Lemon has 10 children, Richard, George, Beverly, Donna, Robin, Jonathan, Jamison, Angela, Crystal, Lemons estranged first wife, Willye, pleaded guilty to simple assault after admitting to stabbing Lemon with a steak knife in 1978. After his first marriage ended in divorce, Lemon married Dr. Cynthia Lemon in 1994, a born-again Christian, Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Vision International University in Ramona, California, in 1988. He was also featured as a singer within several Gaither Homecoming videos. In his last years, he took up residence in Scottsdale, Arizona, Lemon died in Scottsdale, Arizona on December 27,2015, at the age of 83
20.
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
21.
Chicago
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Chicago, officially the City of Chicago, is the third-most populous city in the United States. With over 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the state of Illinois, and it is the county seat of Cook County. In 2012, Chicago was listed as a global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network. Chicago has the third-largest gross metropolitan product in the United States—about $640 billion according to 2015 estimates, the city has one of the worlds largest and most diversified economies with no single industry employing more than 14% of the workforce. In 2016, Chicago hosted over 54 million domestic and international visitors, landmarks in the city include Millennium Park, Navy Pier, the Magnificent Mile, Art Institute of Chicago, Museum Campus, the Willis Tower, Museum of Science and Industry, and Lincoln Park Zoo. Chicagos culture includes the arts, novels, film, theater, especially improvisational comedy. Chicago also has sports teams in each of the major professional leagues. The city has many nicknames, the best-known being the Windy City, the name Chicago is derived from a French rendering of the Native American word shikaakwa, known to botanists as Allium tricoccum, from the Miami-Illinois language. The first known reference to the site of the current city of Chicago as Checagou was by Robert de LaSalle around 1679 in a memoir, henri Joutel, in his journal of 1688, noted that the wild garlic, called chicagoua, grew abundantly in the area. In the mid-18th century, the area was inhabited by a Native American tribe known as the Potawatomi, the first known non-indigenous permanent settler in Chicago was Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Du Sable was of African and French descent and arrived in the 1780s and he is commonly known as the Founder of Chicago. In 1803, the United States Army built Fort Dearborn, which was destroyed in 1812 in the Battle of Fort Dearborn, the Ottawa, Ojibwe, and Potawatomi tribes had ceded additional land to the United States in the 1816 Treaty of St. Louis. The Potawatomi were forcibly removed from their land after the Treaty of Chicago in 1833, on August 12,1833, the Town of Chicago was organized with a population of about 200. Within seven years it grew to more than 4,000 people, on June 15,1835, the first public land sales began with Edmund Dick Taylor as U. S. The City of Chicago was incorporated on Saturday, March 4,1837, as the site of the Chicago Portage, the city became an important transportation hub between the eastern and western United States. Chicagos first railway, Galena and Chicago Union Railroad, and the Illinois, the canal allowed steamboats and sailing ships on the Great Lakes to connect to the Mississippi River. A flourishing economy brought residents from rural communities and immigrants from abroad, manufacturing and retail and finance sectors became dominant, influencing the American economy. The Chicago Board of Trade listed the first ever standardized exchange traded forward contracts and these issues also helped propel another Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, to the national stage
22.
Plano, Texas
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Plano is a city in the U. S. state of Texas, located mostly within Collin County, but with a small portion that extends into Denton County, twenty miles northeast of downtown Dallas. The city of Plano is a part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area, the citys population was 269,776 at the 2010 census, making it the ninth most populous city in the state of Texas and the 70th most populous in the United States. Penney, Pizza Hut, Rent-A-Center, Traxxas, Siemens PLM Software, european settlers came to the area near present-day Plano in the early 1840s. Facilities such as a sawmill, a gristmill, and a store soon brought more people to the area, a mail service was established, and after rejecting several names for the nascent town, residents suggested the name Plano, as a reference to the local terrain. The name was accepted by the post office, in 1872, the completion of the Houston and Central Texas Railway helped the city to grow, and it was incorporated in 1873. By 1874, the population had grown to more than 500, in 1881, a fire raged through the business district, destroying most of the buildings. The town was rebuilt and business again flourished through the 1880s, also in 1881, the city assumed responsibility for what would eventually become Plano Independent School District, ending the days of it being served only by private schools. At first, the population of Plano grew slowly, reaching 1,304 in 1900, by 1970, Plano began to feel some of the boom its neighbors had experienced after World War II. A series of public projects and a change in taxes that removed the farming community from the town helped increase the overall population. In 1970, the population reached 17,872, and by 1980, sewers, schools and street development kept pace with this massive increase, largely because of Planos flat topography, grid layout and planning initiatives. During the 1980s, many large corporations moved their headquarters to the city, including J. C. Penney and Frito-Lay, by 1990, the population reached 128,713, dwarfing the county seat of McKinney. In 1994, the city was recognized as an All-America City, by 2000, the population grew to 222,030, making it one of the largest suburbs of Dallas. Plano is surrounded by other municipalities and therefore cannot expand in area, however, as of July 2012, one large tract of land was being developed. Turnpike Commons at the intersection of Renner Rd and the George Bush Turnpike, the development is expected to feature apartments, medical facilities, restaurants, a Race Trac gas station, and a hotel. There was an epidemic of heroin abuse among young people in the 1990s, the Plano authorities created an anti-drug campaign with the name Operation Rockfest. In 2013, Plano received top-scoring nationally in a livability index according to a created by AreaVibes. com. The chart can be found here Best Places to Live in America, AreaVibes ranked Plano at the top of the list of U. S. cities with populations between 100,000 and 10,000,000. Another chart, Best Places to Live in 2013, also has Plano ranked number 1, follow this link to see the chart Top 10 Best Places to Live
23.
2010 NBA All-Star Game
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This game was the 59th edition of the NBA All-Star Game and was played during the 2009–10 NBA season. This was the time that the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolitan area had hosted the All-Star Game. Dallas was awarded the All-Star Game in an announcement by commissioner David Stern on October 30,2008, the All-Star Weekend began on Friday, February 12,2010 with the Celebrity Game and the Rookie Challenge, a game between the leagues best rookies and second-year players. On Saturday, the event continued with the All-Star Saturday Night, the D-League All-Star Game and the second D-League Dream Factory Friday Night, the latter of which was modeled after the NBA All-Star Saturday Night, also took place during the All-Star Weekend. The D-League Dream Factory Friday Night was held on Friday and the D-League All-Star Game was held on Saturday, the Eastern Conference All-Star team defeated the Western Conference All-Star team 141–139. The Easts Dwyane Wade, who recorded 28 points on 75% shooting,11 assists,6 rebounds and 5 steals was named as the games MVP. In the Rookie Challenge, the Rookies defeated the Sophomores for the first time since 2002, in the All-Star Saturday Night events, Nate Robinson won his third Slam Dunk Contest while Paul Pierce and Steve Nash won the Three-Point Shootout and Skills Challenge respectively. Team Texas, the team, won the Shootings Stars Competition. Kevin Durant repeated as champion in the H–O–R–S–E Competition, the announced attendance for the game was 108,713, the all-time attendance record for the sport. The previous verified record for attendance at a game was 78,129. The previous record attendance for an NBA All-Star Game was 44,735 and this event also broke the record for the single largest attendance for an indoor event, previously held by WrestleMania III in 1987. This marked the first All-Star game where neither team wore a white uniform, the East wore blue uniforms with silver trim, while the West wore red uniforms with gold trim. This marked the first time the All-Star events were split between two venues since 1989, the Mavericks were awarded the All-Star Game in an announcement by NBA commissioner David Stern, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones on October 30,2008. This was the first All-Star Game to be played in a stadium since 1996 when San Antonios Alamodome hosted the event. The coaches for the All-Star Game are the coaches of the teams with the best winning percentage in each conference through the games of January 31. However, an NBA rule also prohibits a coach from being selected for consecutive All-Star Games, the coach for the Western Conference team was Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl. This is the fourth time Karl was selected to be an All-Star coach, at January 31, the Nuggets had 32–15 record, the second best winning percentage in the Western Conference, behind Phil Jacksons Lakers. The coach for the Eastern Conference team was Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy and this is the second time Van Gundy was selected to be an All-Star coach, after previously being selected in 2005
24.
Arlington, Texas
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Arlington is a principal city in the U. S. state of Texas, located in Tarrant County. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan area, according to the U. S. Census Bureaus estimate, the city had a population of almost 379,577 at the end of 2013, making it the third-largest municipality in the metropolitan area. Arlington is the fiftieth-most populous city in the United States, the seventh-most populous city in the state of Texas, Arlington borders Kennedale, Grand Prairie, Mansfield and Fort Worth, and surrounds the smaller communities of Dalworthington Gardens and Pantego. European settlement in the Arlington area dates back at least to the 1840s, the rich soil of the area attracted farmers, and several agriculture-related businesses were well established by the late nineteenth century. Arlington was founded in 1876 along the Texas and Pacific Railway, the city was named after General Robert E. Lees Arlington House in Arlington County, Virginia. Arlington grew as a cotton-ginning and farming center, and incorporated in 1884, the city could boast of water, electricity, natural gas, and telephone services by 1910, along with a public school system. By 1925 the population was estimated at 3,031, large-scale industrialization began in 1954 with the arrival of a General Motors assembly plant. Automotive and aerospace development gave the city one of the nations greatest population growth rates between 1950 and 1990, Arlington became one of the boomburbs, the extremely fast-growing suburbs of the post-World War II era. U. S. Census Bureau population figures for the city tell the story,7,692,90,229,261,721,365,438, Tom Vandergriff served as mayor from 1951 to 1977 during this period of explosive development. Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington in 1961, according to the United States Census Bureau, Arlington has a total area of 99.0 square miles,95.8 square miles of it was land, and 3.2 square miles of it is water. Johnson Creek, a tributary of the Trinity River, and the Trinity River itself, Arlington falls in the Cfa region of the Köppen climate classification system which is a climate zone characterized by hot, humid summers and mild to cool winters. The highest recorded temperature was 113 °F in 1980, the lowest recorded temperature was −8 °F in 1899. The maximum average precipitation occurs in May, severe weather generally occurs April and May months. The population density was 3,811 people per square mile, there were 144,805 housing units at an average density of 1,510 per square mile. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 27. 4% of the population, 25% of all households were made up of individuals and 5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.7 and the family size was 3.3. In the city, the 2010 population was out with 31% under the age of 20, 8% from 20 to 24, 30% from 25 to 44, 23% from 45 to 64. The median age was 32 years, for every 100 females there were 104 males
25.
Texas Legends
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The Texas Legends are an NBA Development League team based in Frisco, Texas and the minor league affiliate of the Dallas Mavericks. The franchise began as the Colorado 14ers in 2006, before relocating to Frisco in 2009, the Legends play their home games at the Dr Pepper Arena. In February that year, the pair launched two sports teams, the Rocky Mountain Rage, a hockey franchise, and the Colorado 14ers. However, two later, the 14ers entered the NBA Development League and began play in the 2006–07 season. The franchise was named after Colorados famed 14, 000-foot mountain peaks, onetime Denver Nugget Joe Wolf was hired to be the 14ers inaugural coach, as he and management put together one of the D-Leagues most formidable rosters. Finding quick success in their season, the 14ers shattered Colorado minor league basketball records of many kinds from scoring to fan attendance. Team leaders included Von Wafer and Louis Amundson, who were each called up to the NBA by the end of the season. Nevertheless, the talented and resilient team overcame losing stretches and roster reorganizations, the 14ers made an impressive run through the playoffs, winning the Western Division title before losing the championship game in overtime to the Dakota Wizards. The 14ers second season began with an almost entirely new roster, with only Elton Brown, kevin Hill, also picked in the draft, was the only Canadian selected in the 2007 draft. The 14ers six-game winning streak at the end of the season vaulted them into the playoffs as a wild card, despite this and a slippage in fan attendance, it was overall a successful season under at times challenging circumstances. Colorados third season, the most of any minor league franchise in the state, was a triumph over adversity. Newcomers Dominique Coleman and Josh Davis were both major contributors, as was Sonny Weems, assigned from the Denver Nuggets three times to contribute during the season and playoffs. On June 18,2009, Dallas Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson purchased the 14ers franchise and moved the team to Frisco and they were slated to begin play in 2010–11 with a new nickname, colors and logo. On November 5,2009, womens basketball pioneer Nancy Lieberman was introduced as the Legends head coach, earning the name of Texas Legends, the team began play in the 2010–11 D-League season out of the Dr Pepper Arena. The Legends were one of the attractions in the 16-team league. Texas played their first game in history in front of a nationally televised crowd on VERSUS against the Rio Grande Valley Vipers. After dropping the opener, the Legends picked up their first victory in history on November 26 against the Idaho Stampede. Texas returned to Frisco for the much-anticipated inaugural home-opener on November 30 and they dazzled the sold-out crowd by scoring a league record 84 points in the first half of basketball on their new home floor on the way to a 135–112 win over their cross-state rival Austin Toros
26.
NBA G League
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The NBA Development League, or NBA D-League, is the National Basketball Associations official minor league basketball organization. Known until the summer of 2005 as the National Basketball Development League, at the conclusion of the 2013–14 NBA season, 33% of NBA players had spent time in the NBA D-League, up from 23% in 2011. Beginning in the 2016–17 season, the league consists of 22 teams, in the 2017–18 season, the league will rebrand to become the NBA Gatorade League as part of multiyear partnership with Gatorade and its parent company, PepsiCo. The league began its play as the NBDL in the 2001–02 season, in 2005, some of these teams were purchased by private owners and relocated—at the same time the leagues name was changed—in a bid to appeal to more fans nationwide. As a result, franchises were established in or moved to Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, Florida, in February 2006, the D-League expanded to California for the first time with the addition of the Bakersfield Jam. Shortly after, the league announced expansion teams in the Anaheim Arsenal, the D-Fenders became the first D-League team to be directly owned by an NBA parent team, the Los Angeles Lakers. However, the westward expansion contributed to the contraction of the NBA-owned Roanoke Dazzle and Fayetteville Patriots for that season, the Florida Flame suspended operations due to arena scheduling difficulties. After the 2006–07 season, there would be no more teams in the southeastern United States until the 2016 expansion team, after the 2006 to 2009 expansions, the league membership was fairly consistent with only a few relocations and suspensions. In 2009, the Houston Rockets entered into the first single-affiliation partnership, called the hybrid model and this began a wave of NBA and D-League teams entering into single-affiliation agreements of both the hybrid and parent-team owned varieties. With more NBA involvement, the once again began to expand. By 2015, the last multiple-affiliate team, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, was purchased by the Indiana Pacers leading to the first season where all D-League teams were affiliated with only one NBA team. As there were no longer any unaffiliated D-League teams left, the remaining NBA teams began purchasing expansion franchises or hybrid partnership teams, in 2015, the Toronto Raptors placed their own team, Raptors 905, in the Greater Toronto Area in Mississauga, Ontario. In 2016, the D-League expanded by three more NBA parent club owned teams for the largest D-League expansion since 2007, the Charlotte Hornets created the Greensboro Swarm, the Brooklyn Nets created the Long Island Nets, and the Chicago Bulls created the Windy City Bulls. In the 2017–18 season, the D-League is set to enter into a partnership with Gatorade. Currently the league is split into two Conferences, Eastern and Western, in the Eastern Conference there are there are two divisions, Atlantic and Central. The Atlantic Division includes, the Delaware 87ers, the Erie BayHawks, the Greensboro Swarm, the Long Island Nets, the Maine Red Claws, and the Westchester Knicks. The Central Division includes, the Canton Charge, the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, the Grand Rapids Drive, Raptors 905, in the Western Conference there are two divisions, Southwest and Pacific. The Southwest Division includes, the Austin Spurs, the Iowa Energy, the Oklahoma City Blue, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, and the Texas Legends
27.
Dallas Mavericks
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The Dallas Mavericks are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association as a club of the leagues Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its games at the American Airlines Center. According to a 2016 Forbes magazine report, they are the ninth most valuable franchise in the NBA. As of the 2013 season, the Mavericks have sold out 477 consecutive games since December 15,2001, since their inaugural 1980–81 season, the Mavericks have won three division titles, two conference championships, and one NBA Championship. In 1978, Californian businessman Garn Eckardt met Dallas lawyer Doug Adkins, asking for a possible partner, Adkins recommended him one of his clients, Home Interiors and Gifts owner Don Carter. Negotiations with Eckardt fell through, but Carter remained interested in the enterprise as a gift to his wife Linda, who played basketball while at Duncanville High School. At the same time, Buffalo Braves president and general manager Norm Sonju grew an interest in bringing the NBA to Dallas as he studied possible new locations for the ailing franchise. Sonju and Carter tried purchasing both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Kansas City Kings, but disagreement on relocation stalled the negotiations, leading them to instead aim for an expansion team. The league was initially reluctant to expand to Dallas, given Texas had both the Spurs and Houston Rockets, and the 1978–79 NBA season was proving unprofitable and unpopular. Still, during the 1979 NBA All-Star Game weekend, NBA commissioner Larry OBrien announced the league would add two new teams in the 1980–81 season, with teams in Dallas and Minneapolis. Once the Minnesota team backed out, only Dallas remained, and through negotiations with general counselor and future commissioner David Stern, Carter would provide half the amount. James Garner, who played the character, was a member of the ownership group. The University of Texas at Arlington, who uses the Mavericks nickname, had objections about a shared name. They joined the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, where they would stay until the league went to six divisions for the 2004–05 season, Dick Motta, who had guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1977–78, was hired as the teams first head coach. He had a reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but was also a great teacher of the game. In the Mavericks debut game, taking place in the brand-new Reunion Arena, but the Mavs started the season with a 6–40 record on their way to finishing 15–67. However, the Mavericks did make an acquisition that, while it seemed minor at the time
28.
Wilt Chamberlain
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Wilton Norman Wilt Chamberlain was an American basketball player. The 7 foot 1 inch Chamberlain weighed 250 pounds as a rookie before bulking up to 275 and he played the center position and is widely considered one of the greatest and most dominant players in NBA history. Chamberlain holds numerous NBA records in scoring, rebounding, and durability categories and he is the only player to score 100 points in a single NBA game or average more than 40 and 50 points in a season. He also won seven scoring, eleven rebounding, nine field goal percentage titles, Chamberlain is the only player in NBA history to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game in a season, a feat he accomplished seven times. He is also the player to average at least 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the entire course of his NBA career. Chamberlain was known by various nicknames during his playing career. He hated the ones that called attention to his height such as Goliath and Wilt the Stilt and he preferred The Big Dipper, which was inspired by his friends who saw him dip his head as he walked through doorways. Chamberlain was also a businessman, authored several books. He was a bachelor, and became notorious for his claim to have had sexual intercourse with as many as 20,000 women. He was a child, nearly dying of pneumonia in his early years. In his early years Chamberlain was not interested in basketball, because he thought it was a game for sissies, but according to Chamberlain, basketball was king in Philadelphia, so he eventually turned to the sport. According to ESPN journalist Hal Bock, Chamberlain was scary, flat-out frightening, before he came along, most basketball players were mortal-sized men. It was also in this period of his life when his three lifelong nicknames Wilt the Stilt, Goliath, and his favorite, The Big Dipper, were allegedly born. He scored 34 points, won Overbrook the Public League title, in that game, West Catholic quadruple-teamed Chamberlain the entire game, and despite the centers 29 points, the Panthers lost 54-42. In his second Overbrook season, Chamberlain continued his scoring, among them scoring a high school record 71 points against Roxborough. The Panthers comfortably won the Public League title after again beating Northeast in which Chamberlain scored 40 points, Chamberlain scored 32 points and led Overbrook to a flawless 19–0 season. During summer vacations Chamberlain worked as a bellhop in Kutshers Hotel, subsequently, owners Milton and Helen Kutsher kept up a lifelong friendship with Wilt, and according to their son Mark, They were his second set of parents. In Chamberlains third and final Overbrook season, he continued his high scoring, the Panthers won the Public League a third time, beating West Philadelphia 78-60, and in the city championship game, they met West Catholic once again
29.
Bob Cousy
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Robert Joseph Bob Cousy is an American retired professional basketball player and member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Cousy played point guard with the Boston Celtics from 1950 to 1963, Cousy was initially drafted as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1950 NBA draft by the Tri-Cities Blackhawks, but after he refused to report, he was picked up by Boston. He was also named to 12 All-NBA First and Second Teams, also known as Cooz, he was regularly introduced at Boston Garden as Mr. Basketball. After his playing career, he coached the Royals for several years, Cousy then became a broadcaster for Celtics games. Upon his election to the Hall of Fame in 1971 the Celtics retired his #14 jersey and he was also the first president of National Basketball Players Association. Cousy was the son of poor French immigrants living in New York City. He grew up in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattans East Side and his father Joseph was a cab driver, who earned extra income by moonlighting. The elder Cousy had served in the German Army during World War I, shortly after the war, his first wife died of pneumonia, leaving behind a young daughter. He married Julie Corlet, a secretary and French teacher from Dijon, at the time of the 1930 census, the family was renting an apartment in Astoria, Queens, for $50 per month. The younger Cousy spoke French for the first 5 years of his life and he spent his early days playing stickball in a multicultural environment, regularly playing with African Americans, Jews and other ethnic minority children. These experiences ingrained him with a strong anti-racist sentiment, an attitude he prominently promoted during his professional career, when he was 12, his family moved to a rented house in St. Albans, Queens. That summer, the elder Cousy put a $500 down payment for a $4,500 house four blocks away and he rented out the bottom two floors of the three-story building to tenants to help make his mortgage payments on time. Cousy took up basketball at the age of 13, as a student at St. Pascals elementary school, the following year, he entered Andrew Jackson High School in St Albans. His basketball success was not immediate, and in fact he was cut from the team in his first year. The next year, however, he was cut during the tryouts for the school basketball team. That same year, he out of a tree and broke his right hand. The injury forced him to play left-handed until his hand healed, in retrospect, he described this accident as a fortunate event and cited it as a factor in making him more versatile on the court. During a Press League game, the school basketball coach saw him play
30.
Pete Maravich
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Peter Press Pistol Pete Maravich was an American professional basketball player. He was born in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University and played for three NBA teams until injuries forced his retirement in 1980. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored, all of his accomplishments were achieved before the three-point line and shot clock were introduced to NCAA basketball and despite being unable to play varsity as a freshman under then-NCAA rules. One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, in an April 2010 interview, Hall of Fame player John Havlicek said that the best ball-handler of all time was Pete Maravich. Pete Maravich was born to Petar Press Maravich and Helen Gravor Maravich in Aliquippa, Maravich amazed his family and friends with his basketball abilities from an early age. He enjoyed a close but demanding father–son relationship that motivated him toward achievement, Maravichs father, Petar Press Maravich, the son of Serbian immigrants and a former professional player-turned-coach, showed him the fundamentals starting when he was seven years old. Obsessively, Maravich spent hours practicing ball control tricks, passes, head fakes, Maravich played high school varsity ball at Daniel High School in Central, South Carolina, a year before being old enough to attend the school. While at Daniel from 1961 to 1963, Maravich participated in the schools first-ever game against a team from an all-black school, in 1963 his father departed from his position as head basketball coach at Clemson University and joined the coaching staff at North Carolina State University. The Maravich familys subsequent move to Raleigh, North Carolina, allowed Pete to attend Needham B and his high school years also saw the birth of his famous moniker. From his habit of shooting the ball from his side, as if he were holding a revolver, from there Pistol Maravich graduated from Needham B. Broughton High School in 1965 and then attended Edwards Military Institute, at that time NCAA rules prohibited first-year students from playing at the varsity level, which forced Maravich to play on the freshman team. In his first game, Maravich put up 50 points,14 rebounds and 11 assists against Southeastern Louisiana College. In only three years playing on the varsity team at LSU, Maravich scored 3,667 points—1,138 of those in 1968,1,148 in 1969, and 1,381 in 1970—while averaging 43.8,44.2, and 44.5 points per game. For his collegiate career, the 65 guard averaged 44.2 points per game in 83 contests, during this first year, Maravich scored 741 points in freshman competition. Second, Maravich played before the advent of the three-point line and this significant difference has raised speculation regarding just how much higher his records would be, given his long-range shooting ability and how such a component might have altered his play. Writing for ESPN. com, Bob Carter stated, Though Maravich played before freshmen were eligible for the varsity and before the 3-point shot was established, third, The shot clock was not instituted until fifteen years after Maravich left LSU. The shot clock speeds up play, mandates an additional number of field goal attempts, eliminates stall tactics, had the shot clock been in effect during Maravichs career at LSU, he would have scored many more points per game. More than 40 years later, however, many of his NCAA, Though he never appeared in the NCAA tournament, Maravich played a key role in turning around a lackluster program that had posted a 3–20 record in the season prior to his arrival
31.
Curly Neal
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Fred Curly Neal is an American former basketball player best known for his career with the Harlem Globetrotters, instantly recognizable with his shaved head. Following in the footsteps of Marques Haynes, Neal became the Trotters featured ballhandler, born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Neal attended Greensboro-Dudley High School. He went to Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, at Smith, he averaged 23.1 points a game and was named All-CIAA guard. Neal played for 22 seasons with the Globetrotters, appearing in more than 6,000 games in 97 countries and his shaved head earned him his nickname, a reference to the Three Stooges Curly Howard, and made him one of the most recognizable Globetrotters. In the 1970s, a version of Neal starred with various other Globetrotters in the Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon Harlem Globetrotters as well as its spinoff. The animated Globetrotters also made three appearances in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, on January 11,2008, the Globetrotters announced that Neals number 22 would be retired on February 15 in a special ceremony at Madison Square Garden as part of Curly Neal Weekend. Neal was just the fifth Globetrotter in the teams 82-year history to have his number retired, joining Wilt Chamberlain, Meadowlark Lemon, Marques Haynes, on January 31,2008, it was announced that Neal would be inducted into the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame. He currently resides in Greensboro, North Carolina and he has been married to Rose Neal since 1976. He has 3 daughters, Rocurl, Laverne, and Pamela, Curly Neal at the Internet Movie Database Fred Curly Neal at the Harlem Globetrotters site
32.
Dallas Cowboys
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The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League as a club of the leagues National Football Conference East division. The team is headquartered in Frisco, Texas, and plays its games at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The stadium took its current name prior to the 2013 season, the Cowboys joined the NFL as an expansion team in 1960. The teams national following might best be represented by its NFL record of consecutive sell-outs, the Cowboys streak of 190 consecutive sold-out regular and post-season games began in 2002. This has also corresponded to eight NFC championships, most in the NFC, the Cowboys are the only NFL team to record 20 straight winning seasons, in which they only missed the playoffs twice, an NFL record that remains unchallenged. In 2015, the Dallas Cowboys became the first sports team to be valued at $4 billion, making it the most valuable team in the world. The Cowboys also generated $620 million in revenue in 2014, a record for a U. S. sports team. Prior to the formation of the Dallas Cowboys, there had not been an NFL team south of Washington, D. C. since the Dallas Texans folded in 1952. Oilman Clint Murchison Jr. had been trying to get an NFL expansion team in Dallas, Murchison had tried to purchase the Washington Redskins from Marshall in 1958. An agreement was struck, but as the deal was about to be finalized and this infuriated Murchison and he called off the deal. Marshall then opposed any franchise for Murchison in Dallas, since NFL expansion needed unanimous approval from team owners at that time, Marshalls position would prevent Murchison from joining the league. Marshall had an out with the Redskins band leader Barnee Breeskin. Breeskin had written the music to the Redskins fight song Hail to the Redskins, Breeskin owned the rights to the song and was aware of Murchisons plight to get an NFL franchise. Angry with Marshall, Breeskin approached Murchisons attorney to him the rights to the song before the expansion vote in 1959. Murchison purchased Hail to the Redskins for $2,500, before the vote to award franchises in 1959, Murchison revealed to Marshall that he owned the song and Marshall could not play it during games. After a few Marshall expletives, Murchison gave the rights to Hail to the Redskins to Marshall for his vote, the one against Murchison getting a franchise at that time. From 1970 through 1979, the Cowboys won 105 regular season games, in addition, they appeared in 5 and won two Super Bowls, at the end of the 1971 and 1977 regular seasons
33.
Drew Pearson (American football)
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Drew Pearson is a sportscaster and former American football wide receiver in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at the University of Tulsa, Pearson was born and raised in South River, New Jersey, and began his football career at South River High School as one of the wide receivers of Joe Theismann. As a junior, he succeeded Theismann as the starting quarterback and he also lettered in baseball and basketball, graduating in 1969. He accepted a scholarship from the University of Tulsa. He started four games at quarterback as a sophomore, the next year was converted into a wide receiver, registering 22 receptions for 429 yards and 3 touchdowns. As a senior, he led an offense with 33 receptions for 690 yards and 5 touchdowns. He finished his career with 55 receptions for 1,119 yards,8 touchdowns. Pearson received the Universitys Presidents Award as the teams best spirited, in 1985, he was inducted into the Tulsa Athletics Hall of Fame. In 1973, he was signed as a free agent by the Dallas Cowboys. He appeared in 16 games with 6 starts, making 22 receptions for 388 yards and 2 touchdowns, in 1974, Stowe asked to be traded and Pearson became the full-time starter opposite Golden Richards. He led the team with 62 receptions and 1,087 yards and he would keep leading the team in receiving until 1978, when Tony Hill took over the number one role at wide receiver. Pearson and Hill also became the first wide receiver tandem in Cowboys history, to record 1, in 1980, he surpassed Bob Hayes club mark in receptions and was selected by the Cowboys as their nominee for NFL Man of the Year. In 1983, he passed Hayes as the leader in receiving yards. In March 1984 he fell asleep while driving his Dodge Daytona, the accident ended his younger brother’s life and forced him to retire from the liver injury he suffered. Pearson helped the Cowboys to three Super Bowl appearances and a victory in Super Bowl XII in 1978 and he also scored a touchdown in Super Bowl X. Pearson was known as Mr. All three of those plays were named among the Top 75 plays in NFL history by NFL Films in 1994, in addition in the 1980 playoff game at Atlanta, Pearsons clutch receptions helped win that game in a comeback by the Cowboys. Pearson was named one of the Top 20 Pro Football All-Time wide receivers, Pearson was named All-Pro three times All-NFC in 1975 and second Team All-NFC in 1978. In addition, Pearson was a Pro Bowler in 1974,1976 and 1977 and he led the National Football Conference in pass receptions in 1976 with 58
34.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
35.
Austin American-Statesman
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The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is owned by Cox Enterprises, the newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region. The Austin American-Statesman competes with the Austin Chronicle, an alternative weekly, the Statesman benefits from the culture and writing heritage of Austin. It extensively covers the scene, especially the annual South by Southwest Music Festival. The newspaper co-sponsors various events around Austin such as the Capital 10K foot race, the Statesmans news website is Statesman. com and its entertainment site is Austin360. com. It also publishes a weekly Spanish-language newspaper, ¡ahora sí, additionally, the Statesman partners with the St. Petersburg Times with PolitiFact Texas, a site that covers issues that are relevant to Texas and the Austin area. In 2009, the Austin American-Statesman ranked 60th in circulation among daily newspapers, figures from Scarborough Research show the Statesman — in print and online – reaches 68% of Central Texans in an average week. Following a national trend among daily newspapers, the Statesman has seen declines in recent years. As compared to a U. S. national decline of 2. 1% and its Sunday circulation fell 5. 5% to 215,984. Austin is the 11th largest city in the U. S, the Statesman endorsed George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, and Republican governor Rick Perry along with every other Republican incumbent in 2006. In the 2008 presidential election, however, the paper endorsed Barack Obama, the Statesman also provides coverage of the Libertarian Party and Green Party matters. Founded as the tri-weekly Democratic Statesman in 1871, the newspaper was originally allied with the state Democratic party during Reconstruction and it began daily publication as a morning paper in 1873. After absorbing the Austin Tribune in 1914, it published as the afternoon Austin Statesman and Tribune, then became an evening paper, a rival paper, the morning Austin American, began in 1914. Waco-based newspapermen Charles E. Marsh and E. S, fentress bought the American in 1919 and the Evening Statesman in 1924. Merged under one company, the morning and evening papers published separately during the week, the company continued separate titles until 1973, when all products became the American-Statesman, with four editions daily. Cox Enterprises acquired the Statesman when it bought the Waco newspaper company in 1976, in 1987, the Statesman moved to morning-only publication. In 2008, Cox put the Statesman up for sale with most of its newspaper holdings in order to pay down debt. A year later, the company pulled the paper off the market, the newspaper is part of subsidiary Cox Media Group, which joined the corporations television, radio and newspaper assets under one umbrella in 2008
36.
Larry Bird
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Larry Joe Bird is an American professional basketball executive, former coach and former player, currently serving as president of the Indiana Pacers in the National Basketball Association. Since retiring as a player for the Boston Celtics, he has been a mainstay in the Indiana Pacers organization, Bird was a 12-time NBA All-Star and was named the leagues Most Valuable Player three consecutive times. He played his professional career for Boston, winning three NBA championships and two NBA Finals MVP awards. He was a member of the 1992 United States mens Olympic basketball team won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Bird was voted to the NBAs 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and he served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of operations for the Pacers. After a year away from the position, he announced he would return to the Pacers as president of operations in 2013. In addition to being part of the 50–40–90 club, he is the person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year. Bird was born in West Baden Springs, Indiana to Georgia and Claude Joseph Joe Bird and he was raised in nearby French Lick, where his mother worked two jobs to support Larry and his five siblings. Bird has said that being poor as a child still motivates him to this day, Georgia and Joe divorced when Larry was in high school, and Joe committed suicide about a year later. Bird received a scholarship to college basketball for the Indiana University Hoosiers in 1974. After less than a month on campus he dropped out of school and he returned to French Lick, enrolling at Northwood Institute in nearby West Baden, and working municipal jobs for a year before enrolling at Indiana State University in Terre Haute in 1975. Indiana State would lose the game 75–64, with Bird scoring 19 points, despite failing to win the championship, Bird earned numerous year-end awards and honors for his outstanding play, including the Naismith College Player of the Year Award. For his college career, he averaged 30.3 points,13.3 rebounds, Bird also appeared in one game for the baseball team, going 1-for-2 with 2 RBI. Bird was selected by the Boston Celtics with the sixth pick in the 1978 NBA draft. He did not sign with the Celtics immediately, instead, he played out his season at Indiana State. After protracted negotiations, Bird inked a five-year, $3.25 million contract with the team, shortly afterwards, NBA draft eligibility rules were changed to prevent teams from drafting players before they were ready to sign, a rule known as the Bird Collegiate Rule. Bird immediately transformed the Celtics into a contender, helping them improve their win total by 32 games from the year before he was drafted
37.
Jody Conradt
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Addie Jo Jody Conradt is a retired womens basketball coach. She was the coach for the womens team at University of Texas at Austin. Her coaching career spanned 38 years, with the last 31 years at UT from 1976 to 2007 and she also served concurrently as the UT womens athletic director from 1992 to 2001. During her tenure at UT, she achieved several notable personal, at retirement, she had tallied 900 career victories, second place in all time victories for an NCAA Division I basketball coach. Addie Jo Conradt was born in Goldthwaite, Texas, United States to Ann, both her parents were athletic, with her mother playing competitively on a local softball team, and her father playing semi-pro baseball. She was a basketball player at Goldthwaite High School, where she averaged 40 points per game. After high school, Conradt played collegiate basketball at Baylor University and she finished her collegiate basketball career averaging 20 points per game. After graduation, she taught and coached at Waco Midway High School, prior to her career at UT she served as womens basketball head coach at Sam Houston State University from 1969 to 1973, where her teams had a record of 74–23. Then she coached at the University of Texas at Arlington from 1973 to 1976, in 1975, in response to Title IX, the University of Texas created a separate womens athletic department. In 1976, they hired Donna Lopiano to become the first womens athletic director, the following year, Lopiano hired Conradt as coach of the womens basketball team. Conradt had attracted attention while at the University of Texas at Arlington. After two losing seasons, they went 23–11 in the 1975–76 seasons, upsetting powerful opponents, Texas planned to bring the womens program to national prominence, and they felt Conradt was the right coach for the job. Teams coached by Condradt were using tactics not seen in other places, such as full court pressure, double low posts. In Conradts first season, the team went 36–10. The team was ranked in the AP top ten in the all but one year in the 1980s, including a string of four years, from 1984 to 1988. In the 1985 NCAA tournament, the Lady Longhorns lost a game to Western Kentucky 92–90. Watching the game was highly recruited Clarissa Davis, who had not yet decided where to go to school and she resolved to go to Texas, and help them. The following year, Texas would win the championship with the first undefeated womens season
38.
Lenny Wilkens
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Leonard Randolph Lenny Wilkens is an American retired basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association. He is also a 2006 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame. S, during the 1994–95 season, Wilkens set the record for most coaching wins in NBA history, a record he held when he retired with 1,332 victories. Wilkens is now second on the list behind Don Nelson, who broke it in 2010 and he won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2010–11 NBA season. Wilkens grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and his father was African American and his mother was Irish American. Wilkens was raised in the Roman Catholic faith, at Boys High School, Wilkens was a basketball teammate of longtime Major League Baseball star Tommy Davis. Wilkens was a two-time All-American at Providence College and he led the team to their first NIT appearance in 1959, and to the NIT finals in 1960. When he graduated, Wilkens was, with 1,193 points, in 1996, Wilkens No.14 jersey was retired by the college, the first alumnus to receive such an honor. In honor of his accomplishments, Wilkens was one of the inaugural inductees into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006. Wilkens was drafted sixth overall by the St. Louis Hawks in the 1960 NBA draft and he began his career with eight seasons with the St. Louis Hawks, who lost the finals to the Boston Celtics in his rookie season. The Hawks made the playoffs consistently with Wilkens but never reached the finals. Wilkens placed second to Wilt Chamberlain in the 1967–1968 MVP balloting, Wilkens was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics for Walt Hazzard and spent four seasons there. He averaged 22.4 points,6.2 rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game in his first season for the SuperSonics and he was named head coach in his second season with the team. Wilkens was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers before the start of the season in a highly unpopular trade. Wilkens ended his career spending two seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers and one with the Portland Trail Blazers, Wilkens scored 17,772 points during the regular season, was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and was named the 1971 NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1971. With Seattle, he led the league in assists in the 1969–70 season, from 1969 to 1972 with Seattle, and in his one season as a player with Portland, he was a player-coach. He retired from playing in 1975 and was the coach of the Trail Blazers for one more season. After a season off from coaching, he became coach of the SuperSonics when he replaced Bob Hopkins who was fired 22 games into the 1977–78 season after a dismal 5-17 start. He coached in Seattle for eight seasons, winning his only NBA championship in 1979 and he would go on to coach Cleveland, Atlanta, Toronto and New York
39.
Ray Allen
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Walter Ray Allen Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who played 18 seasons in the National Basketball Association. After playing three seasons of basketball for Connecticut, Allen entered the NBA in 1996 and went on to play for the Milwaukee Bucks, Seattle SuperSonics, Boston Celtics. One of the most accurate three-point and free throw shooters in NBA history, he was a ten-time NBA All-Star and he also won an Olympic gold medal as a member of the 2000 United States mens basketball team. Allen is the NBAs all-time leader in career three-point field goals made in both the regular and postseason and he has acted in two films, one of which was a lead role in the 1998 Spike Lee film, He Got Game. The third of five children, Allen was born at Castle Air Force Base near Merced, California, a military child, he spent time growing up in Saxmundham in England, Altus in Oklahoma, Edwards Air Force Base in California, and Germany. He attended high school in Dalzell, South Carolina, where he led Hillcrest High School to a state championship. Allen attended the University of Connecticut from 1993 to 1996 after being recruited by assistant coach Karl Hobbs, while at UConn, he was named USA Basketballs Male Athlete of the Year in 1995. In 1995–96, his college season, Allen was a first-team All-American. Allen finished his UConn career third on the Huskies career scoring list with 1,922 points, in 2001, Allen was named honorary captain of the 25-member UConn All-Century Basketball Team. On February 5,2007, his name and number were honored at Connecticuts Gampel Pavilion during the Huskies of Honor ceremony at halftime of the basketball game against the Syracuse Orange. Allen was drafted by the Minnesota Timberwolves with the pick of the 1996 NBA draft. Immediately after his selection, Allen and Andrew Lang were traded to the Milwaukee Bucks for the rights to fourth pick Stephon Marbury. Allen made his NBA debut on November 1,1996 where he started and played 28 minutes and scored 13 points in a win against fellow rookie Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers. On January 12,1997 Allen put in one of his strongest efforts of the season in a win against the Golden State Warriors contributing 22 points,6 assists,3 steals and a new career high of 9 rebounds. Continuing his strong season, on March 25,1997 Allen scored a new career high of 32 points in a loss to the Phoenix Suns. Allen was named to the NBA All-Rookie Second Team in 1996, after an injury-riddled 2003–04 season, he was named to the All-NBA Second Team and, alongside teammate Rashard Lewis, led the Sonics to the Conference Semifinals in 2005. Allen told the press if the Lakers remained a mediocre squad, in about a year or two he will be calling out to Jerry Buss that we need some help in here. When asked about Allens comments, Bryant responded, Dont even put me, after the 2004–05 season, Allen signed a 5-year, $80 million contract extension
40.
Nate Archibald
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Nathaniel Tiny Archibald is an American retired professional basketball player. He spent 14 years playing in the NBA, most notably with the Cincinnati Royals, Kansas City–Omaha Kings, in 1991, he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Archibald was a willing passer and a shooter from midrange. However, it was his quickness and speed and shiftiness that made him difficult to guard in the open court and he returned to the team as a junior. During his time without basketball, Archibald briefly flirted with dropping out of school after having been largely truant in past years, but with the help of two mentors, Floyd Layne and Pablo Robertson, Archibald turned it around. Despite only playing in blowouts as a junior, the shy, quiet teen managed to blossom into a star, being named team captain. Off the court, Archibald began to school regularly and worked to improve his poor academic standing. To improve his chances of playing college basketball, Archibald enrolled at Arizona Western College. He had three seasons at El Paso, from 1967 to 1970 under Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins. Archibald was selected in the round of the 1970 NBA draft by the Cincinnati Royals. He was also drafted by the Texas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, in 1972–73 season, Archibald led the NBA in scoring and assists, becoming the only player to win the titles in both categories in the same season. His scoring average of 34.0 points per game broke the NBA record for a guard and his 910 assists that season was also an NBA record at the time, breaking Guy Rodgers mark of 908. He was named the Sporting News NBA MVP that season, Archibald played for the Kansas City Kings from 1970 to 1976. Although he was the Kings most popular player, he was traded to the New York Nets for two draft picks and two players in 1976, injured for much of the 1976–77 season, he was traded by the Nets to the Buffalo Braves before the 1977–78 season. Archibald tore his achilles tendon and never played a game for the Braves. Buffalo traded him to the Boston Celtics as part of a 7-player deal before the start of the next season and his career at the Celtics started poorly. He showed up 20 pounds overweight, however, he adjusted and helped guide the Celtics to the best record in the NBA for three consecutive years. Archibald won his first and only NBA championship with the Boston Celtics in the 1980–81 season alongside young NBA star Larry Bird, Archibald was an All-NBA First Team selection three times and an All-NBA Second Team selection two times
41.
Sergei Belov
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Sergei Alexandrovich Belov was a professional basketball player, most noted for playing for CSKA Moscow and the Soviet Union national basketball team. In 1991, Belov was named by FIBA as the Best FIBA Player ever and he became the first international player to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on May 11,1992. He was also inducted into the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2007 and was named one of the 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors in 2008, Belov was born in the village of Nashchyokovo, Shegarsky District, Tomsk Oblast, Soviet Union. He trained at Trud Voluntary Sports Society, and later at Armed Forces sports society, in 1968, he became an Honored Master of Sports of the USSR. He became an Honored Coach of Russia in 1995, and served as President of the Russian Basketball Federation, Belov died on October 3,2013 in Perm, Russia. At the age of twenty, Belov made his debut in the USSR League, with the team of Uralmash Sverdlovsk and he then played with CSKA Moscow for twelve years. With CSKA, he won the USSR League championship eleven times, the USSR Cup twice, as a member of the Soviet Union national basketball team for fourteen years, Belov helped them win a gold medal, and three bronze medals at the Olympic Games. He also helped them to become the FIBA World champions in 1967 and 1974, and the FIBA European champions in 1967,1969,1971, Belov was the head coach of CSKA Moscow, with whom he won the USSR League championship in 1982 and 1990. He was also the coach of Ural Great Perm
