1.
Stockton, California
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Stockton is the county seat of San Joaquin County located in the central valley portion of the U. S. State of California and the. Stockton was founded by Captain Charles Maria Weber in 1849 after he acquired Rancho Campo de los Franceses, the city is named after Robert F. Stockton, and it was the first community in California to not have a name of Spanish or Native American origin. The city is located on the San Joaquin River in the northern San Joaquin Valley and had an population of 315,592 as of 2016. Stockton is the 13th largest city in California and the 63rd largest city in the United States and it was named an All-America City in 1999,2004 and again in 2015. Built during the California Gold Rush, Stocktons seaport serves as a gateway to the Central Valley and it provided easy access for trade and transportation to the southern gold mines. Stockton has been the location of the oldest university in California, as a result of the 2008 financial crisis, Stockton was the second largest city in the United States to file for bankruptcy protection. Stockton successfully exited bankruptcy in February 2015, Stockton is situated amidst the farmland of Californias San Joaquin Valley, a subregion of the Central Valley. In and around Stockton are thousands of miles of waterways, which make up the California Delta, Interstate 5 and State Route 99, inland Californias major north-south highways, pass through the city. State Route 4 and the dredged San Joaquin River connect the city with the San Francisco Bay Area to its west, Stockton and Sacramento are Californias only inland sea ports. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city occupies an area of 64.8 square miles. When Europeans first visited the Stockton area, the Yatchicumne, a branch of the Northern Valley Yokuts Indians and they built their villages on low mounds to keep their homes above regular floods. A Yokuts village named Pasasimas was located on a mound between Edison and Harrison Streets on what is now the Stockton Channel in downtown Stockton, the Siskiyou Trail began in the northern San Joaquin Valley. It was a centuries-old Native American footpath that lead through the Sacramento Valley over the Cascades, Gold rush era Europeans and Americans started to arrive in the area after gold was found in northern California, starting with the California Gold Rush in 1848. When Captain Charles Maria Weber, a German immigrant, decided to try his hand at mining in late 1848. As an alien, Weber could not secure a land grant directly, born in New York, Gulnae had married a Mexican woman and sworn allegiance to Mexico, which then ruled California. He applied in Webers place for a grant of eleven square leagues on the east side of the San Joaquin River. Weber acquired the Rancho Campo de los Franceses Mexican land grant, Weber built the first permanent residence in the San Joaquin Valley on a piece of land now known as Weber Point. During the California Gold Rush, Stockton developed as a river port, during its early years, Stockton was known by several names, including Tuleburg, Fat City, Mudville, and Californias Sunrise Seaport
2.
University of the Pacific (United States)
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The University of the Pacific is a private university in the western United States, located in Stockton, California. It is the oldest chartered university in California, the first independent co-educational campus in California and it was first chartered on July 10,1851, in Santa Clara, California, under the name California Wesleyan College. The school moved to San Jose in 1871 and then to Stockton 94 years ago in 1923, Pacific is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. It has extensive collections pertaining to jazz musician and alumnus Dave Brubeck and it is also home to the papers of environmental pioneer John Muir. Pacific was founded on July 10,1851, in Santa Clara and it was originally named California Wesleyan College, but one month later, it petitioned to have its name changed to the University of the Pacific. In 1858, the college opened the first medical school on the West Coast, in 1871, the campus was moved to San Jose and the college opened its doors to women, becoming the first independent co-educational campus in California. In 1878, the Conservatory of Music was established at Pacific, in 1896, Napa College merged with the college. In 1911, the name was changed to College of the Pacific, in 1923, the campus relocated from the Bay Area to the city of Stockton becoming the first institution of higher education in the Central Valley, it became the University of the Pacific in 1961. In 1962, Pacific merged with the San Francisco College of Physicians and Surgeons, and then in 1966, with the McGeorge School of Law. In the late 1960s, when “. federal law about public funding of church-related institutions became an issue. ”The university stopped receiving funding from the United Methodist Church, on October 17,2013, the university announced an estate gift from Robert and Jeanette Powell of US$125 million. It is the largest gift in the universitys 162-year history, in the previous year, Pacific awarded its highest honor, The Order of Pacific, posthumously to both Mr. and Mrs. Powell. ” This gift increased Pacifics endowment to $334 million, part of Disneys 1973 film The Worlds Greatest Athlete was also shot at Pacific. The Stockton Campus is home to three residential halls, Grace Covell Hall, Southwest Hall, and the Quad Buildings. The Quads are composed of several separate smaller residence halls in proximity to each other, Grace Covell is the largest residence hall on campus holding more than 350 students while Southwest and the Quads hold a lower number of students. There are also fraternity and sorority houses located on campus, in 2008, the university opened a new University Center, at a cost of $38 million, to centralize all campus student-centered activities. The Don & Karen DeRosa University Center houses a new dining hall, student cafe, pub, bookstore and conference centers. It also built a new $20 million Biological Sciences Center in 2008 that provides advanced classroom and laboratory facilities for studying the natural sciences. The campus is home to Morris Chapel, a church with simple architecture, excellent acoustics
3.
College football
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It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. No minor league farm organizations exist in American football and it is in college football where a players performance directly impacts his chances of playing professional football. The best collegiate players will declare for the professional draft after 3 to 4 years of collegiate competition. Those not selected can still attempt to land an NFL roster spot as a free agent. Even after the emergence of the professional National Football League, college football remained extremely popular throughout the U. S, in many cases, college stadiums employ bench-style seating, as opposed to individual seats with backs and arm rests. This allows them to more fans in a given amount of space than the typical professional stadium. College athletes, unlike players in the NFL, are not permitted by the NCAA to be paid salaries, colleges are only allowed to provide non-monetary compensation such as athletic scholarships that provide for tuition, housing, and books. Modern North American football has its origins in various games, all known as football, by the 1840s, students at Rugby School were playing a game in which players were able to pick up the ball and run with it, a sport later known as Rugby football. The game was taken to Canada by British soldiers stationed there and was soon being played at Canadian colleges, the first documented gridiron football match was a game played at University College, a college of the University of Toronto, November 9,1861. One of the participants in the game involving University of Toronto students was William Mulock, a football club was formed at the university soon afterward, although its rules of play at this stage are unclear. In 1864, at Trinity College, also a college of the University of Toronto, F. Barlow Cumberland, modern Canadian football is widely regarded as having originated with a game played in Montreal, in 1865, when British Army officers played local civilians. The game gradually gained a following, and the Montreal Football Club was formed in 1868, early games appear to have had much in common with the traditional mob football played in England. The games remained largely unorganized until the 19th century, when games of football began to be played on college campuses. Each school played its own variety of football, Princeton University students played a game called ballown as early as 1820. A Harvard tradition known as Bloody Monday began in 1827, which consisted of a mass ballgame between the freshman and sophomore classes, in 1860, both the town police and the college authorities agreed the Bloody Monday had to go. The Harvard students responded by going into mourning for a figure called Football Fightum. The authorities held firm and it was a dozen years before football was again played at Harvard. Dartmouth played its own version called Old division football, the rules of which were first published in 1871, all of these games, and others, shared certain commonalities
4.
Amos Alonzo Stagg
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Amos Alonzo Stagg was an American athlete and pioneering college coach in multiple sports, primarily American football. His Chicago Maroons teams of 1905 and 1913 have been recognized as national champions and he was also the head basketball coach for one season at the University of Chicago, and the head baseball coach there for 19 seasons. At the University of Chicago, Stagg also instituted an annual basketball tournament. Both drew the top school teams and athletes from around the United States. Stagg played football as an end at Yale University and was selected to the first College Football All-America Team in 1889. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach in the class of 1951 and was the only individual honored in both roles until the 1990s. Influential in other sports, Stagg developed basketball as a five-player sport and this 5 man concept allowed his 10 man football team the ability to compete with each other and to stay in shape over the winter. Stagg was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in its first group of inductees in 1959, Stagg also forged a bond between sports and religious faith early on in his career that remained important to him for the rest of his life. Stagg was born in a poor Irish neighborhood of West Orange, New Jersey, Stagg attended Yale College, where he was a divinity student, and a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and Skull and Bones society. He played as a pitcher on his baseball team, he declined an opportunity to play for six different professional baseball teams. He nonetheless influenced the game through his invention of the batting cage, Stagg played on the 1888 team. He was an end on the first All-America team, selected in 1889 and he went on to earn an MPE from the Young Mens Christian Training School, now known as Springfield College. On March 11,1892, Stagg, still an instructor at the YMCA School, a crowd of 200 watched as the student team beat the faculty, 5–1. Stagg scored the basket for the losing side. He popularized basketball teams having five players and he later abandoned the theology career and received a MPE from Young Mens Christian Training School in 1891. Stagg became the first paid coach at Williston Seminary, a secondary school. This was also Staggs first time receiving pay to coach football and he would coach there one day a week while also coaching full-time at Springfield College. Stagg then coached at the University of Chicago from 1892 to 1932, University president Robert Maynard Hutchins forced out the septuagenarian Stagg, who he felt was too old to continue coaching
5.
National Collegiate Athletic Association
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The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a non-profit association which regulates athletes of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations, and individuals. It also organizes the programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada. The organization is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2014, the NCAA generated almost a billion dollars in revenue. 80 to 90% of this revenue was due to the Division I Mens Basketball Tournament and this revenue is then distributed back into various organizations and institutions across the United States. In August 1973, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships, generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978. Subsequently, the term Division I-AAA was briefly added to delineate Division I schools which do not field a football program at all, in 2006, Divisions I-A and I-AA were respectively renamed the Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision. Inter-collegiate sports began in the US in 1852 when crews from Harvard University, as other sports emerged, notably football and basketball, many of these same concepts and standards were adopted. Football, in particular, began to emerge as a marquee sport, the IAAUS was officially established on March 31,1906, and took its present name, the NCAA, in 1910. For several years, the NCAA was a group and rules-making body, but in 1921, the first NCAA national championship was conducted. Gradually, more rules committees were formed and more championships were created, a series of crises brought the NCAA to a crossroads after World War II. The Sanity Code – adopted to establish guidelines for recruiting and financial aid – failed to curb abuses, postseason football games were multiplying with little control, and member schools were increasingly concerned about how the new medium of television would affect football attendance. The complexity of problems and the growth in membership and championships demonstrated the need for full-time professional leadership. Walter Byers, previously an executive assistant, was named executive director in 1951. Byers wasted no time placing his stamp on the Association, as college athletics grew, the scope of the nations athletics programs diverged, forcing the NCAA to create a structure that recognized varying levels of emphasis. In 1973, the Associations membership was divided into three legislative and competitive divisions – I, II, and III, five years later in 1978, Division I members voted to create subdivisions I-A and I-AA in football. Until the 1980s, the association did not offer womens athletics, instead, the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, with nearly 1000 member schools, governed womens collegiate sports in the United States
6.
Southern Miss Golden Eagles football
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The Southern Miss Golden Eagles football program represents the University of Southern Mississippi in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The Eagles are members of Conference USA and play their games at M. M. Roberts Stadium in Hattiesburg. Southern Miss first fielded a team in 1912, coached by Ronald Slay. That team posted a 2-1 record, dille coached the Golden Eagles from 1914–1916, posting a record of 6-10-1. USM did not field a team from 1917–1919 because of World War I. Allison Hubert was the Golden Eagles head football coach for six seasons. His Golden Eagles teams were known to be fast and fierce, Hubert departed after the 1936 season to accept the head football coach position at VMI. After Hubert came Reed Green, who coached USM for a total of nine years, the Golden Eagles did not compete in football from 1943 to 1945 because of World War II. During the coaching tenure of Thad Vann, the Golden Eagles became one of the nations most elite football programs, Vann compiled a 139-59-2 record, had only one losing season in his 20 seasons in Hattiesburg, his last. His 1953 and 1954 Golden Eagles teams upset Alabama and posted records of 9-2 and 6-4, the Golden Eagles made it to the Sun Bowl in 1954. Vanns 1958 and 1962 teams claim a national championship, Vann retired after the 1968 season and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1987. P. W. Underwood returned to his alma mater from his post as an assistant coach at Tennessee, Underwood compiled a 31-32-2 record in his six seasons and engineered one of the biggest wins in school history in 1970, a 30-14 upset of fourth-ranked Mississippi. Bobby Collins was the Golden Eagles head football coach for seven seasons, Collins led the Golden Eagles to two bowl appearances, the Independence Bowl and the Tangerine Bowl after the 1980 and 1981 regular seasons. His 1981 team finished ranked #19 in the final Coaches Poll, under Carmodys tutelage, Carmodys Golden Eagles compiled a record of 37-29. Only one of six seasons did the Golden Eagles finish with a losing record. The Golden Eagles would only have one losing season until 2012. During Carmodys tenure, the Golden Eagles defeated Alabama, 38-29, in Tuscaloosa in 1982 and it was the first time since 1962 that UA had lost there and also proved to be the final loss of legendary coach Paul Bear Bryants career. Carmody recruited a young Kiln, Mississippi high school quarterback named Brett Favre to Southern Miss in 1987. Curley Hallman came to Southern Miss from his post as defensive coach at Texas A&M. Hallmans.676 winning percentage at USM is the highest of any coach in Southern Miss football history
7.
Wayne Hardin
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Irving Wayne Hardin is a former American football player and coach. He served as the football coach at the United States Naval Academy from 1959 to 1964 and at Temple University from 1970 to 1982. Hardin led Navy to appearances in the 1961 Orange Bowl and the 1964 Cotton Bowl Classic, after leaving Navy, Hardin coached the Philadelphia Bulldogs of the Continental Football League, leading the team to a championship in 1966. Hardin was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 2013, Hardin was born in Smackover, Arkansas and attended high school in Stockton, California. He played college football at the College of the Pacific under Hall of Fame coach Amos Alonzo Stagg and his successor, Hardin won 11 varsity letters at Pacific before he graduated in 1950. He was inducted into the College of the Pacifics Athletics Hall of Fame in 1998, after serving as a student assistant coach in 1949 at Pacific, Hardin began his professional coaching career in 1950 at Ceres High School in Ceres, California. There he coached football and basketball, Hardin returned to his alma mater, Pacific, in 1952 as the backfield coach under Ernie Jorge. He then moved on to Porterville College, a community college in Porterville, California, in 1955, Hardin was hired as an assistant football coach at the United States Naval Academy under Eddie Erdelatz. From 1959 to 1964, Hardin was the coach at Navy. His Navy teams posted five wins against archrival Army, a feat not surpassed until 2007 when Paul Johnsons Navy squad won their sixth consecutive contest in the Army–Navy Game. Hardin coached Navys two winners of the Heisman Trophy, Joe Bellino, who received the award in 1960, and Roger Staubach, Hardin was the head coach at Temple from 1970 to 1982, where he compiled an 80–50–3 record. His 80 wins are the most in school history, under Hardin, Temples school-record 14-game winning streak over two seasons from 1973 into 1974 was the longest Division I winning streak at the time. Hardins 1979 squad was the most successful in Temple footballs history, the team went 10–2 and finished the season ranked #17 in both major polls, the only Temple team to finish a campaign ranked. The 1979 team concluded their season with a victory in the 1979 Garden State Bowl over heavily favored Cal, Temple did not return to a bowl game until the 2009 season. Hardins career college record was 118–74–5, Hardin also spent time as a color commentator for CBS Sports for the Baltimore Colts. Wayne Hardin at the College Football Hall of Fame Wayne Hardin at the College Football Data Warehouse
8.
Utah State Aggies football
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The Utah State Aggies are a college football team that competes in the Mountain West Conference of the Football Bowl Subdivision of NCAA Division I, representing Utah State University. The Utah State college football program began in 1892 and has played games at Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium since 1968. They have won conference championships in four different conferences during their history. Overall, the Aggies have a record of 525–517–31, in December 2012, Matt Wells, previously the offensive coordinator, became the Aggies new head coach, replacing Gary Andersen. Andersen left the Aggies shortly after the game of the 2012 season to become the new head coach for the University of Wisconsin. Andersen had replaced Brent Guy following the unsuccessful 2008 season, Andersen was previously the defensive coordinator at the University of Utah, and he was also a part of the 2008 Ute team that went undefeated and won the 2009 Sugar Bowl. Their most recent appearance was in the 2015 Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, the first intercollegiate athletic event in Utah State Universitys history took place on November 25,1892, when the Agriculturalists defeated the football team from the University of Utah, 12–0. The game was played on what is now the quad, the Aggies enjoyed early regional dominance, notching their first perfect season in 1907. In 1911, under head coach Clayton Teetzel, the team finished undefeated. The makeshift field on the continued to serve the team until 1913. The new field represented an improvement, but the facilities remained meager, which became more apparent with the success of Coach E. L. Dick Romney. Romney, for whom the current football stadium is named, earned the teams first-ever conference championship in 1921 and it was during this time that Utah State finished two seasons with year-end Top 25 rankings, No.10 in 1961 and No.19 in 1972. Following the great heights of the 1960s and 70s, Aggie football fell upon hard times, many longtime Aggie supporters attribute the decline to administrators at both Utah and BYU freezing then-superior USU out of the newly forming WAC. USUs other teams remained in that conference until the school was invited to join the WAC in 2005. Later on, Utah State joined the Mountain West Conference in July 2013, again following departures by Utah, former head coach Gary Andersen led the team to new heights. In 2011, he led the team to the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl, Andersen left the program following the 2012 season. He was replaced by his offensive coordinator, Matt Wells who coached the Aggies in their inaugural year as members of the Mountain West Conference. Coach Wells was awarded the Mountain West Coach of the Year award, Utah States home games are played on Merlin Olsen Field at Maverik Stadium
9.
Eddie LeBaron
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Edward Wayne LeBaron, Jr. was an American football quarterback in the 1950s and early 1960s in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys. He played college football for the College of the Pacific and he also was an executive vice president of the NFLs Atlanta Falcons. Born in San Rafael, California, LeBaron graduated from Oakdale High School in Oakdale, LeBaron enrolled at the College of the Pacific in Stockton as a 16-year-old. He played college football for the Tigers under Amos Alonzo Stagg and Larry Siemering from 1946 to 1949, lettering all four years, the Tigers registered an undefeated season in 1949, led the nation in total offense, and set an NCAA single-season record of 575 points. LeBaron was a two-way, 60-minute player, as a quarterback on offense, safety on defense and he also played one year of baseball for the Tigers as a catcher. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1980, LeBaron was commissioned in the U. S. Marine Corps reserves while in college and served as a lieutenant in the Korean War after graduation. He was wounded twice and was decorated with the Purple Heart, for his heroic actions on the front lines, he was awarded the Bronze Star. Due to his size,5 feet,7 inches. In 2008, he was inducted into the U. S. Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame, LeBaron was selected in the tenth round of the 1950 NFL draft by the Washington Redskins, but had to leave training camp to perform military service during the Korean War. At 5 ft 7 in, he was one of the shortest quarterbacks in the history of the NFL and he returned to the NFL in 1952 after a two-year commitment to the United States Marine Corps as a lieutenant, when he was discharged after being wounded in combat. He replaced future hall of famer Sammy Baugh in the lineup after the fourth game. The next year he was limited with an injury and also shared the starting position with Jack Scarbath. In 1954, the Western Interprovincial Football Union raided the NFL talent to improve its level of play, LeBaron signed with the Calgary Stampeders along with his Redskins teammate Gene Brito, because his college coach Larry Siemering was named the teams head coach. He registered 1,815 passing yards,8 touchdowns and 24 interceptions during the season and he also played defensive back and punter. He decided to return to the NFL at the end of the year, on December 9,1954, he re-signed with the Washington Redskins. In his seven seasons with the Redskins he started 55 of a possible 72 games at quarterback and he was also the primary punter for his first three seasons with Washington. He was the leagues top-rated quarterback in 1958 and he announced his retirement to focus on his law practice at the end of the 1959 season. He started 10 of 12 games in 1960, with rookie Don Meredith and he also scored the Cowboys first-ever touchdown in their first exhibition game against the San Francisco 49ers, on August 6 in Seattle
10.
Big West Conference
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The Big West Conference is an American collegiate athletic conference whose member institutions participate in the National Collegiate Athletic Associations Division I. The conference was formed in 1969 as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association. The conference stopped sponsoring football after the 2000 season. The Big West Conference was formed in June 1968 as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, the 5 original charter members were Fresno State, San Jose State, UC Santa Barbara, San Diego State, and Long Beach State. Two other schools, Cal State Los Angeles and the University of the Pacific, were also considered, the newly formed conference had a number of meetings to set up its governance, which was confirmed in October 1968 on the campus of UC Santa Barbara. Before the league started play, Cal State Los Angeles joined as a full member, the conference itself lists July 1,1969 as the recognized creation date with the 7 institutions. Since its inception as the Pacific Coast Athletic Association, the conference has seen many changes, Utah State was the first institution outside of California to join the conference in 1978. This opened the floodgates for other schools to affiliate with the PCAA, notable schools include UNLV, Nevada, Louisiana Tech. In 1983, the PCAA became the first western conference to introduce womens athletic programs and this proved vital for Hawaiʻi as their only participation in the conference was for their womens sports. From the departures of Idaho and Utah State in 2005 until the arrival of Hawaiʻi in 2012, all members were based in California, reducing the cost, when Hawaiʻi joined, it agreed to help defray a portion of travel costs to that state for the leagues California members. There have been no fewer than 25 full and associate members in the conferences history, effective July 1,1988, the Pacific Coast Athletic Association changed its name to the Big West Conference. With such schools as Utah State, UNLV, Nevada, New Mexico State, and Hawaii now in the fold, Notes A – Cal Poly San Luis Obispo competed in womens volleyball as an affiliate member from 1984-85 to 1989-90. B – UC Santa Barbara joined the conference when it was founded in 1969, left to become an independent after the 1973–74 season, Notes C – Sacramento State mens soccer joined the Big West Conference in 2012–13 season and beach volleyball followed for the 2015–2016 season. D – CSU Bakersfield beach volleyball joined the Big West Conference in the 2015–16 season, E – UC San Diego mens volleyball has announced it will join the Big West Conference in the 2017–18 season. Many of the members of the Big West are now members of the Western Athletic Conference or the Mountain West Conference. Of the former members, Cal State Los Angeles is the team that reverted to Division II level. School names and nicknames reflect those used by the institutions when they were Big West members, one school has changed its name and one its nickname. Notes Full members Full members Assoc. members Assoc. member Notes San Diego State played football as an independent for the 1976 and 1977 seasons prior to leaving the Big West Conference in 1978, UC Santa Barbara was an independent from 1974–75 to 1975–76
