1.
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
2.
West Coast Conference
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The West Coast Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated in NCAA Division I consisting of ten member schools across the states of California, Oregon, Utah and Washington. All of the current members are private, faith-based institutions, seven members are Catholic Church affiliates, with four of these schools being Jesuit institutions. Pepperdine is an affiliate of the Churches of Christ, Brigham Young University is an affiliate of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The conferences newest member, the University of the Pacific, is affiliated with the United Methodist Church, during the massive upheaval of conference affiliations in the 1990s, the WCC remained very stable. Before the 2010 realignment that eventually led to Brigham Young joining the conference, the last change of membership was in 1980, at the time, only the Ivy League and Pac-10 had remained unchanged for a longer period. The league was chartered by five northern California institutions, four from the Bay Area and one, Pacific and it began as the California Basketball Association, playing its first game on January 2,1953. After two seasons under that name, the conference expanded to include Los Angeles-area schools Loyola and Pepperdine in 1955, after more than three decades as the WCAC, the name was shortened in the summer of 1989, dropping the word Athletic. The WCC participates at the NCAA Division I level and is considered to be one of the better mid-major conferences in the country, the conference sponsors 13 sports but does not include football as one of them. San Diego and Brigham Young are the only schools fielding a football team, the rest have all dropped the sport, some as early as the 1940s, before the conference existed, and one as late as 2003. Historically, the WCCs strongest sports have been soccer and tennis, the conference has also made its presence felt nationally in mens basketball. San Francisco won two national titles in the 1950s with all-time great Bill Russell. Although the WCACs stature declined in the 1960s, San Francisco was reckoned as a basketball power until the early 1980s. Also of note was Loyola Marymounts inspired run to the Elite Eight in 1990 following the death of Hank Gathers during that seasons WCC championship tournament. As San Francisco was from the 1940s to the early 1980s, Gonzaga has gained recognition as a basketball power. In 2016-17, the Bulldogs advanced all the way to the national championship game--the deepest run by a WCC team since San Francisco went to three consecutive Final Fours from 1955 to 1957. Saint Marys has also made marks for the conference as the Gaels appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2005,2008,2010,2012, and 2013. On May 28,2009, NBA referee Violet Palmer was hired as coordinator of basketball officials for the West Coast Conference and will remain with the NBA. Eventually, with the 2010 realignment opening up new avenues for expansion, the conference decided that it would only seek out private schools, but would not limit its search to faith-based institutions
3.
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
4.
Alex G. Spanos Center
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Alex G. Spanos Center is a 6, 150-seat, indoor multi-purpose stadium on the campus of the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. The Alex G. Spanos Center opened on September 9,1981 and was constructed for over $7 million and it is named after Pacific alumnus and San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos. The arena consists of 3,000 chair-back seats with the rest of the capacity coming from bleacher style seating, if needed, the arena can expand its capacity to 8,000 for certain events. This arena was the sports and entertainment venue in the Stockton area until the completion of Stockton Arena in 2005. On October 15,2008, Pacific hosted a pre-season NBA exhibition between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Sacramento Kings
5.
Pacific Tigers
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The Pacific Tigers represent the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California in intercollegiate athletics. The Tigers compete in NCAA Division I, and are currently in their stint as members of the West Coast Conference. † = The field hockey team competes as a member of the America East Conference. * = Beach volleyball is a fully sanctioned NCAA sport which had its first national championship in the spring of 2016, ‡ = The womens outdoor track and field team competes as an independent. + = The womens water polo team competes in the Golden Coast Conference, the Tigers remained in the Big West until returning to the WCC on July 1,2013. The Pacific Tigers mens basketball program made three appearances in the NCAA Tournament. Pacific has also achieved a 16-game winning streak three times under Thomason, at the end of the 1995 season, Pacific ended its football program after 77 years of competition. Pacifics softball team has appeared in one Womens College World Series in 1983. On November 12,2012, it was announced that Pacific would add three new teams to its roster - a mens soccer team, a womens track and field team. The two womens sports began play in 2013, and the soccer team began play in 2014. The most recent change in sports sponsorship was the dropping of mens volleyball at the end of the 2014 season
6.
NCAA Division I
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Division I is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the United States. This level was called the University Division of the NCAA, in contrast to the lower level College Division. For football only, Division I was further subdivided in 1978 into Division I-A, Division I-AA, in 2006, Division I-A and I-AA were renamed Football Bowl Subdivision and Football Championship Subdivision, respectively. FCS teams are allowed to award scholarships, a practice technically allowed. FBS teams also have to meet attendance requirements, while FCS teams do not need to meet minimum attendance requirements. Another difference is post season play, starting with the 2014 postseason, a four-team playoff called the College Football Playoff, replaced the previous one game championship format. Even so, Division I FBS football is still the only NCAA sport in which a champion is not determined by an NCAA-sanctioned championship event. All D-I schools must field teams in at least seven sports for men and seven for women or six for men and eight for women, with at least two team sports for each gender. Division I schools must meet minimum financial aid awards for their athletics program, Several other NCAA sanctioned minimums and differences that distinguish Division I from Divisions II and III. Each playing season has to be represented by each gender as well, there are contest and participant minimums for each sport, as well as scheduling criteria. Mens and womens teams have to play all but two games against Division I teams, for men, they must play one-third of all their contests in the home arena. The NCAA has limits on the financial aid each Division I member may award in each sport that the school sponsors. Equivalency sports, in which the NCAA limits the total financial aid that a school can offer in a sport to the equivalent of a set number of full scholarships. Roster limitations may or may not apply, depending on the sport, the term counter is also key to this concept. The NCAA defines a counter as an individual who is receiving financial aid that is countable against the aid limitations in a sport. The number of scholarships that Division I members may award in sport is listed below. In this table, scholarship numbers for head-count sports are indicated without a point, for equivalency sports, they are listed with a decimal point. An exception exists for players at non-scholarship FCS programs who receive aid in another sport, participants in basketball are counted in that sport, unless they also play football
7.
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
