title: Big East Conference

text: Nine of the eleven members of the Big East are private, Catholic institutions. The exceptions are Butler, which is nonsectarian (although it was founded by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)) and UConn, which is the only public institution.


title: Big East Conference

text: Because the American Athletic Conference did not sponsor lacrosse or field hockey immediately after the Big East split, several schools from The American joined the reconfigured Big East as associate members in those sports. UConn, Louisville, Rutgers, and Temple joined in both women's lacrosse and field hockey, with Rutgers also joining in men's lacrosse, while Cincinnati joined only in women's lacrosse. Among these schools, Louisville and Rutgers were associates only for one season, as both became full members of conferences that sponsored their remaining Big East sports in 2014—respectively the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big Ten Conference. The other named schools stayed in Big East women's lacrosse until The American began a women's lacrosse league in 2018–19.


title: Big East Conference

text: The 2013–14 season marked the inaugural season of the reconfigured Big East. Kicking off with media day at Chelsea Piers, the season started with much fanfare and excitement around the country's elite basketball-centric conference. Aided by the lucrative TV agreement with FS1, almost all Big East games were televised, helping to maintain and grow Big East basketball as a national brand. For 2014–15, the Big East had four schools ranked in the top 20 and six schools in the top 30 recruiting classes nationally according to ESPN, Scout and Rivals rankings. Villanova won the conference's first national championship since realignment in 2016. The conference holds the record for the highest percentage of members ever sent to one tournament from a single conference at 70%.


title: Big East Conference

text: All full Big East member schools field men's soccer teams. Akron will become an associate member in 2023.


title: Big East Conference

text: Big East men's lacrosse is made up of charter members Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, and Villanova, as well as Denver. NCAA regulations state that there must be six teams for a league to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament, and since Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Seton Hall, and Xavier only field club teams, the Big East had to look elsewhere. Both Denver and Johns Hopkins were rumored as targets for potential invitation and Denver was ultimately invited to join the Big East as a lacrosse-only member. Denver joined the Big East as one of the hottest teams in the country; at the time of the relaunch of the Big East in July 2013, the Pioneers had made six NCAA Tournament appearances in the previous eight seasons and had appeared in two Final Fours in the previous three seasons. The University of Denver houses most of its other sports in The Summit League; most of that league's other teams are closer to that school's Denver campus than the bulk of the Big East. There is still uncertainty to whether or not Butler, Creighton, DePaul, Seton Hall, UConn, or Xavier will elevate their programs from the club level, or if any other programs will receive lacrosse-only invitations.


title: Big East Conference

text: Big East full member schools Butler, Creighton, Georgetown, Seton Hall, St. John's, UConn, Villanova and Xavier all field men's baseball teams. DePaul and Marquette have never fielded Big East baseball teams, while Providence fielded one until 1999 when it was dropped and later replaced with lacrosse.


title: Big East Conference

text: Big East men's swimming & diving is made up entirely of charter conference members, with UConn being a charter member of the 1979 incarnation, Xavier a charter member of the 2013 incarnation, and Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, and Villanova being charter members of both versions. However, UConn announced shortly before rejoining the Big East that it would cut men's swimming & diving along with men's cross country, men's tennis, and women's rowing effective in July 2021. Butler cut men's swimming & diving in 2007, when they also cut lacrosse. St. John's cut men's swimming & diving in 2003 due to Title IX, when they also cut women's swimming & diving, football, men's cross country, men's indoor track & field, and men's outdoor track & field and added men's lacrosse. The Big East Conference originally started sponsoring men's swimming & diving in 1979.


title: Big East Conference

text: The Big East Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships have been held at some of the most prestigious pools in the United States. These pools include: Indiana University Natatorium, which has hosted multiple NCAA Division I Men's Swimming & Diving Championships and multiple United States Olympic Swimming Trials and United States Olympic Diving Trials; Nassau County Aquatic Center, which has hosted NCAA Division I Men's Swimming & Diving Championships and the International Goodwill Games; and University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool, which hosted a total of 17 Big East Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships. Out of the current members, Xavier has won a total of six Big East Conference Men's Swimming & Diving Championships, Villanova and Seton Hall have each won two, and Georgetown has won one.


title: Big East Conference

text: Villanova men's cross country team won three straight NCAA National Championships in 1966, 1967 and 1968, as well as a fourth in 1970. They also finished 2nd in 1962 and 1969. Providence men's cross country team have also finished in second in 1981 and 1982.


title: Big East Conference

text: The Big East began sponsoring field hockey in 1989, but conference records only indicate that a postseason tournament was held; the first recorded season of full league play was 1993, with Boston College, UConn, Georgetown, Providence, Syracuse, and Villanova participating. Georgetown left Big East field hockey after the 1994 season, and was replaced by incoming Big East member Rutgers. The next change in field hockey membership came in 2005, when BC left for the ACC and was replaced by Louisville. Georgetown returned its field hockey program to the Big East the next year, after which the conference's field hockey membership remained unchanged until the 2013 conference split. Shortly before the split, Old Dominion was set to join the original Big East as a field hockey associate.


title: Big East Conference

text: The conference split left both successor leagues—the reconfigured Big East and The American—with too few field hockey members to qualify for an automatic NCAA tournament berth. As a result, both leagues agreed that only the "new" Big East would sponsor the sport, and that all American members with field hockey programs would become associates. Accordingly, the Big East field hockey conference would now be made up of Big East full members Georgetown, Providence, and Villanova; American members UConn, Louisville, Rutgers, and Temple; and Old Dominion, otherwise a member of Conference USA. Following the 2014 departure of Louisville and Rutgers for all-sports membership in conferences that sponsored field hockey (respectively the ACC and Big Ten), Big East field hockey operated with six members until Liberty and Quinnipiac joined as associate members in 2016.


title: Big East Conference

text: The only honors listed here are those earned by Big East field hockey members while playing the sport in the conference. In addition to these:


title: Big East Conference

text: Nine Big East members sponsor softball, with Marquette and Xavier as the exceptions. The original Big East first sponsored the sport in the 1990 season.


title: Big East Conference

text: Big East women's swimming & diving is made up of charter members Butler, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, UConn, Villanova and Xavier (UConn was a charter member of the original Big East, but not of its 2013 version). St. John's cut women's swimming & diving in 2003 due to Title IX, when they also cut men's swimming & diving, football, men's cross country, men's indoor track & field, and men's outdoor track & field and added men's lacrosse. The Big East Conference originally started sponsoring women's swimming & diving in 1981–82, the same season in which the NCAA began sponsoring women's sports.


title: Big East Conference

text: The Big East Conference Women's Swimming & Diving Championships have been held at some of the most prestigious pools in the United States. These pools include: Indiana University Natatorium, which has hosted multiple NCAA Division I Women's Swimming & Diving Championships and multiple United States Olympic Swimming Trials and United States Olympic Diving Trials; Nassau County Aquatic Center, which has hosted NCAA Division I Women's Swimming & Diving Championships and the International Goodwill Games; and University of Pittsburgh's Trees Pool, which hosted a total of 17 Big East Conference Women's Swimming & Diving Championships. Out of the current members, Villanova has won a total of 14 Big East Conference Women's Swimming & Diving Championships.


title: Big East Conference

text: All full members of the Big East sponsor women's volleyball. However, during the first season of the reconfigured Big East in 2013, Providence was an affiliate member of the America East Conference. The Friars joined Big East volleyball in 2014 after completing their contractual obligation to the America East.


title: Big East Conference

text: The Providence women's cross country team have been crowned NCAA National Champions in 1995 and 2013, as well as finishing 2nd in 1990 and 2012. The Villanova women's cross country team won two straight NCAA National Championships in 2009 and 2010 and six straight NCAA National Championships in 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994. Villanova runners also won an individual NCAA National Championship in 1998, as well as placing 3rd in 1995, 2nd in 1996 and 3rd in 2011. The Georgetown women's cross country team were NCAA National Champions in 2011.


title: Big East Conference

text: The Big East began sponsoring women's lacrosse in the 2001 season with Boston College, UConn, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Rutgers, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech. The original lineup stayed in place until Virginia Tech and BC left for the ACC, respectively in 2004 and 2005. The conference replaced BC with Loyola (Maryland) for the 2006 season, and the Greyhounds remained an associate member until the school joined the Patriot League, which already sponsored women's lacrosse, in 2013. Originally, the conference championship was decided solely by league play; a postseason tournament was added starting in the 2007 season with the top four teams qualifying, a format that exists to this day. The next changes in women's lacrosse membership came in the 2009 season, when Cincinnati and Louisville (both of which had only added varsity lacrosse for the 2008 season) brought their teams into the Big East. Villanova followed in the 2010 season.


title: Big East Conference

text: As in the case of field hockey, the 2013 conference split left the Big East and The American with too few lacrosse teams for an automatic NCAA bid. Also in a parallel with field hockey, the two conferences agreed that only the reconfigured Big East would sponsor the sport, with all women's lacrosse teams from The American becoming associate members. The first season of women's lacrosse in the reconfigured league in 2014 would thus include Cincinnati, UConn, Georgetown, Louisville, new varsity team Marquette, Rutgers, Temple, and Villanova. The Big East would lose Louisville and Rutgers after that season, respectively to the ACC and Big Ten, replacing them with Florida and Vanderbilt (the only two SEC schools sponsoring the sport) after the demise of the American Lacrosse Conference.


title: Big East Conference

text: For the 2017 season, Butler added varsity women's lacrosse and Denver brought its women's lacrosse team into the league, giving the Big East 10 members in the sport. However, after the 2018 season, the Big East lost all of its women's lacrosse associate members except Denver to the new women's lacrosse conference of The American. The Big East retained its automatic NCAA tournament bid for the 2019 season and beyond by adding Old Dominion, already an associate member in field hockey.


title: Big East Conference

text: On April 16, 2020, Old Dominion announced its women's lacrosse would join the American Athletic Conference in the 2021 season (2020–21 school year), essentially swapping places with incoming full member UConn. Both conferences thus maintained the six members required for an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.


title: Big East Conference

text: Xavier has announced it will add women's lacrosse in the 2023 season, playing as an independent for its first season before starting full Big East play in 2024.


title: Big East Conference

text: This list includes NCAA championships won by members of the Big East. Excluded from this list are all national championships earned outside the scope of NCAA competition, including ICSA sailing championships (14 by Georgetown), women's AIAW championships (2 by Old Dominion), equestrian titles (0), and retroactive Helms Athletic Foundation titles (1 by St. John's).


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: Paul Richard Alexander (born January 10, 1946) is a lawyer, writer and paralytic polio survivor. He is popularly known as one of the last people living in an iron lung after he contracted polio in 1952 at the age of six.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: Alexander contracted polio at the age of six and was paralyzed for life, only able to move his head, neck, and mouth.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: During a major U.S. outbreak of polio in the early 1950s, hundreds of children around Dallas, Texas, including Alexander, were taken to Parkland Hospital. There, children were treated in a ward of iron lungs. He almost died in the hospital before a doctor noticed he was not breathing and rushed him into an iron lung.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: Beginning in 1954, with help from the March of Dimes and a Physical Therapist named Mrs. Sullivan, Alexander taught himself glossopharyngeal breathing which allowed him to leave the iron lung for gradually increasing periods of time.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: Alexander was one of Dallas Independent School District's first homeschooled students. He learned to memorize instead of taking notes. At 21, he graduated second in his class from W.W. Samuell High in 1967, becoming the first person to graduate from a Dallas high school without physically attending a class.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: He received a scholarship to Southern Methodist University. He transferred to University of Texas at Austin, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1978, then a Juris Doctor in 1984. He got a job teaching legal terminology to court stenographers at an Austin trade school before being admitted to the bar in 1986.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: He has been recognised by "Guinness World Records" as the person who has spent the longest amount of time living in an iron lung.


title: Paul Alexander (lawyer)

text: He self-published his memoir, "Three Minutes for a Dog: My Life in an Iron Lung", in April 2020 with the assistance of friend, Norman D. Brown RN (retired). According to "The Guardian," "It took him more than eight years to write it, using the plastic stick and a pen to tap out his story on the keyboard, or dictating the words to his friend."


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Robert James Marella (June 4, 1937 – October 6, 1999), better known by his ring name of Gorilla Monsoon, was an American professional wrestler, play-by-play commentator, and booker.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Monsoon is famous for his run as a villainous super-heavyweight main eventer, and later as the voice of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), as commentator and backstage manager during the 1980s and 1990s. He also portrayed the on-screen role of WWF President from 1995 to 1997.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In professional wrestling, the staging area just behind the entrance curtain at an event, a position which Marella established and where he could often be found during WWF shows late in his career, is named the "Gorilla Position" in his honor.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella attended Jefferson High School in Rochester, New York, becoming a standout athlete in football, amateur wrestling, and track and field. At the time, he weighed over 301 pounds (136.53 kg) and was affectionately called "Tiny" by his teammates.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella was also a standout athlete after high school at Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York. He continued to wrestle, now weighing over 325 pounds, and took second in the 1959 NCAA Wrestling Championships. He also held several school athletic records, including an 18-second wrestling pin, and several track-and-field distinctions. He was inducted into the Ithaca College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1973. During the summers he was at Ithaca College, he was a construction worker in Rochester. One of the buildings he helped construct was the Rochester War Memorial Arena. He was inducted into the Section V Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2010 along with longtime childhood friend Frank Marotta who gave a speech on his behalf.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella's size and athletic ability attracted the attention of New York promoter Pedro Martinez, and he went to wrestle for Martinez after graduating from Ithaca in 1959. Gorilla was 6'5" and weighed around 325 pounds when he first started wrestling professionally. By the end of his career, he was up around 350 pounds, although he had weighed as much as 440 pounds at points.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella debuted in 1955, originally billing himself as Gino Marella, a proud Italian American babyface who would sing in Italian prior to his matches. Even after changing his ring name, "Gino" stuck as Marella's nickname among friends and colleagues, including Jesse Ventura, who would call Marella "Gino" on the air. He would work in Toronto, Calgary, St. Louis and Japan. Marella garnered moderate popularity but soon realized that fans paid more attention to outlandish monster heel gimmicks, and they, therefore, made more money. Marella totally revamped his image, growing a long beard and billing himself as Gorilla Monsoon, a terrifying giant from Manchuria. Supposedly born on an isolated farm, "Monsoon" traveled across the countryside with a gypsy caravan wrestling bears, spoke no English, ate raw meat, and drank his victims' blood. The story given on WWWF television was a bit different: his first manager, Bobby Davis, claimed to have discovered Monsoon in Manchuria wading nude in a mountain stream. The Monsoon character was far more successful, and fans were genuinely afraid of him, sparking a huge financial windfall for Marella. In the ring, Monsoon dominated opponents with vicious chops, the dreaded Manchurian Splash, and his signature move, the Airplane Spin.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In 1963, Vincent J. McMahon reformed the Capitol Wrestling Corporation into the World Wide Wrestling Federation (WWWF) (currently known as World Wrestling Entertainment), breaking his territory away from the National Wrestling Alliance in an attempt to create a new national powerhouse. At the time, the WWWF was the dominant wrestling promotion in the Northeast U.S.. Marella formed a friendship with McMahon, and became a 1/6 shareholder in the WWWF, controlling bookings in several WWWF territories. He also became one of the promotion's top heels, feuding with popular babyface champion Bruno Sammartino in sellout arenas across the country. Despite his huge size, then in excess of 325 pounds, Monsoon had great agility and stamina, often wrestling Sammartino to one-hour time-limit draws.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Monsoon first wrestled Bruno Sammartino for the WWWF World Championship on October 4, 1963, at Roosevelt Stadium, in Jersey City, New Jersey Monsoon qualified by winning a partially televised Ring Wrestling Magazine tournament, where he pinned Killer Buddy Austin in about a minute.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Monsoon's disqualification win over Sammartino in NJ triggered a series of rematches at Madison Square Garden, and they would renew the feud again there in 1967. At the end of the Jersey City match, as Monsoon was sitting on the mat, a fan (not part of the show) jumped into the ring and broke the back of a wooden chair over Monsoon's head.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Monsoon teamed up with Killer Kowalski with success. In November 1963, they defeated Skull Murphy and Brute Bernard to win the U.S. Tag Team Championship. The following month, the duo lost the belts to the Tolos Brothers (Chris and John) in Teaneck, New Jersey. Monsoon and Kowalski reunited in the late 1960s to defeat champion Bruno Sammartino and Victor Rivera 2 falls to 1 in Madison Square Garden in a main event, marking the first, and possibly only, time that Sammartino & Rivera lost as a tag team.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Also in 1968 he won the IWA World Heavyweight Championship (Australia) defeating Mario Milano on February 4 and dropped the belt to Spiros Arion.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In 1969, Monsoon became a babyface, befriending his former arch-rival when Sammartino rescued him from an attack by "Crazy" Luke Graham, a former tag team partner of Monsoon. The stage was set for Monsoon to become a fan favorite of the 1970s and feud with top heels of the decade, including champion Superstar Billy Graham; he then began to speak English. He turned heel for a short time in 1977 and feuded with André the Giant, and the two engaged in a special boxing match in Puerto Rico (where Monsoon owned stock in the territory), with André winning the match. As a face, he had major wins in Madison Square Garden, including over Killer Kowalski as well as "Big Cat" Ernie Ladd.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: On June 1, 1976, a famous incident occurred in Philadelphia involving boxing great Muhammad Ali during a taping for the syndicated WWWF TV show. Ali, preparing for his upcoming crossover bout with Antonio Inoki in Japan later that month, jumped into the ring as Monsoon (who rarely appeared as a wrestler on their TV shows) was concluding a short match against Baron Mikel Scicluna. Ali removed his shirt and started dancing around Monsoon while gesturing and throwing jabs at him, to which Monsoon responded by grabbing Ali in his Airplane Spin and slamming him to the mat. Marella would never reveal whether the incident was preplanned. In an interview, he commented, "I never saw him before and haven't seen him since."


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: A kind of torch bearer of the Vincent J. McMahon-era WWWF, Gorilla Monsoon was rabidly supported by New York audiences. On June 16, 1979, a young and up-and-coming Hulk Hogan was booked to face him at Madison Square Garden. At the time, Hogan was a widely followed heel character, while Monsoon was still a babyface. However, in order to push the new talent, McMahon told Hulk Hogan to beat Monsoon in under a minute. Upon that outcome, the crowd became livid and chased Hogan when he was leaving the arena, turning over his car. Policemen on horses had to be summoned to quiet the mob.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: As the 1980s began, Marella's in-ring career wound down. On August 23, Monsoon put his career on the line in a match against Ken Patera. Monsoon lost and only wrestled a few more matches, retiring several weeks later. Following this he fought only four times: wrestling a six-man tag team match at Madison Square Garden in 1981, a match in 1982 as a substitute for André the Giant where he defeated Swede Hanson, taking part in Big John Studd's "Body Slam Challenge" in 1983, and wrestling at WWC's tenth anniversary show in a loss to Abdullah Tamba in San Juan, Puerto Rico (also in 1983). The next phase of his career began, as the voice and backstage manager of WWF.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In the early 1980s, Vincent J. McMahon's son, Vincent K. McMahon, began assuming the reins of the promotion from his father. The elder McMahon asked his son to take care of long-time employees who had been loyal to him. The younger McMahon agreed, and in 1982, Vince bought Marella's shares in the company in exchange for a guarantee of lifetime employment. As he had been to his father, Marella became a close confidant of the younger McMahon, and assumed a prominent backstage role within the then WWF. Marella would then become an announcer for the WWF starting in 1982. In addition, McMahon needed a new commentary team to head up his television programming, and installed Marella with the recently retired Jesse "The Body" Ventura in 1985.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella and Ventura had great chemistry, with Ventura as the pro-heel color commentator and Marella as the pro-face "voice of reason". Marella and Ventura called five of the first six WrestleManias together (the notable exception was WrestleMania 2, where Marella commentated on the Chicago portion of the event with Gene Okerlund, Cathy Lee Crosby and Ernie "The Cat" Ladd while Ventura commentated on the Los Angeles portion with Lord Alfred Hayes and Elvira, Mistress of the Dark).


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: The Ventura/Monsoon duo of heel and babyface were the original broadcast duo, setting the standard which all who followed would attempt to emulate, especially Ventura's charismatic pro-heel character which was a first of its kind as previous wrestling commentators had almost always been in favor of the fan favorites. The pair commentated on all the WWF pay-per-views together with the exception of the first two SummerSlams and the 1990 Royal Rumble (at SummerSlam 1988 Ventura was the guest referee for the main event so Monsoon commentated with "Superstar" Billy Graham, while Ventura was paired with Tony Schiavone at both SummerSlam 1989 and the Royal Rumble). When Ventura left the WWF in mid-1990, he was replaced in commentary by Monsoon's "Prime Time Wrestling" co-host, heel manager Bobby "The Brain" Heenan, another duo that subsequent wrestling commentary teams have often tried to emulate. The two also formed a close real-life friendship which Heenan often recalled fondly. In his WWE Hall of Fame induction speech at the 2004 ceremony, Heenan finished by saying that only one thing was missing – that he wished Monsoon was there. Other people who were often paired with Monsoon in the broadcast booth included Lord Alfred Hayes, Luscious Johnny Valiant, Johnny Polo, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Hillbilly Jim, Tony Schiavone, Jim Neidhart, Randy Savage and Jim Ross.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Monsoon called the first eight WrestleManias from 1985 to 1992. Monsoon was the lead commentator on the syndicated show, "WWF All Star Wrestling", its successor "WWF Wrestling Challenge", and the USA Network weekend show, "WWF All American Wrestling", as well as hosting the WWF weeknight show, "Prime Time Wrestling". Monsoon also served as co-host of "Georgia Championship Wrestling" on WTBS during McMahon's short-lived ownership of the promotion.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella stepped down as the WWF's lead commentator at WrestleMania IX (where he was Master of Ceremonies) to make way for WCW recruit Jim Ross. He was phased out of "Wrestling Challenge" with Bobby Heenan and was moved to "All-American Wrestling" with Lord Alfred Hayes on April 11, 1993. He commentated with Jim Ross on WWF Radio for the broadcasts of SummerSlam 1993, Survivor Series 1993 and Royal Rumble 1994. He returned to the television broadcast team to call the King of the Ring 1994 with Randy Savage as well as covering a few episodes of "Monday Night RAW" in 1993 and 1994 whenever Vince McMahon was unavailable. He was also called upon sporadically to return to "Challenge" from 1993 to 1995, calling action with Stan Lane, Ted DiBiase, and Ross again. Monsoon also did various work for Coliseum Video. Marella's last pay-per-view commentary was for the 1994 Survivor Series, with Vince McMahon on play-by-play. Marella remained in his backstage role and appeared on-air frequently, becoming the storyline WWF President in the summer of 1995 (replacing Jack Tunney). The WWF President's role was to arbitrate disputes between wrestlers and make matches, similar to later WWE "general managers".


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In January 1996, Monsoon was attacked and (kayfabe) severely injured by Vader: Roddy Piper became interim WWF President until WrestleMania XII, when Marella assumed the position again. Health concerns forced him to relinquish this role during the summer of 1997. Instead of naming a replacement, the WWF decided to retire the role of "President" and introduced Sgt. Slaughter as the new WWF Commissioner in August 1997. Marella's health deteriorated from there. In late 1998, Marella returned briefly to call the international version of "WWF Superstars". In 1999, Marella appeared in a WWF Attitude commercial featuring Freddie Blassie, Ernie Ladd, Pat Patterson and Killer Kowalski. He appeared as one of the three judges for a "Brawl for All" contest between Bart Gunn and Butterbean at WrestleMania XV. Because of his frail appearance and rapidly declining health, the camera only focused on Monsoon during his introduction as a judge, for which he received a standing ovation. His final occasion on television with WWF would be as a guest commentator on the August 29, 1999 international version of "Superstars".


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella was married to his wife, Maureen, for more than 40 years and had three children: Sharon (born 1960), Joey (1963–1994), and Valerie (born 1966). Víctor Quiñones (1959-2006) was listed in Gorilla's obituary as his son as well.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: On July 4, 1994, his son, Joey Marella, fell asleep at the wheel and died in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, while returning from refereeing a WWF event in Ocean City, Maryland. He was not wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In early 1994, Marella co-hosted the short-lived morning variety/game show "Bingo Break" on WBFF in Baltimore, Maryland, which also featured fellow WWF on-air personality Sean Mooney as the bingo caller. The program did not acknowledge Marella's wrestling career, and as such he was billed on-camera as Bob Marella rather than as Gorilla Monsoon.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Marella died on October 6, 1999, of heart failure brought on by complications of diabetes, at his home in Willingboro Township, New Jersey. He was 62 years old. His body was buried next to his son, Joey Marella, at Lakeview Memorial Park in Cinnaminson, New Jersey.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Nick Ravo of "The New York Times" described Monsoon as "legendary" and "one of the most famous athlete-entertainers ever to don tights". Longtime industry journalist Bill Apter remarked, "He was one of the best heels – what wrestlers call a bad guy – in the business... the Gorilla Monsoon image was genuinely frightening." Todd Martin of the "Pro Wrestling Torch" commended Monsoon's physical agility, and noted that he became "a significant star in a lot of different places and had a very nice career". Martin reported that fellow wrestlers "generally speak pretty highly" of Monsoon, with particular praise for his movement and portrayal of his character. Martin, however, said that Monsoon gained "bad weight" and lost mobility later in his career. WWE described him as "one of the most feared competitors" in professional wrestling, adding, "Whether in the ring, at the mic or behind the scenes, Robert 'Gorilla Monsoon' Marella will always be remembered as one of the greatest of all-time." He has been inducted into various wrestling halls of fame, including the WWF Hall of Fame in 1994.


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Monsoon's announcing has garnered both praise and derision. In the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter"s annual awards poll, readers voted Monsoon Worst Television Announcer a record six times between 1985 and 1995. Appraising his commentary in 1988, journalist Stately Wayne Manor remarked, "Monsoon is aptly named after a counterproductive wind storm that nobody welcomes." Writer Dave Meltzer referred to conversations with "irate wrestlers in the 80s who hated Monsoon killing their psychology".


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Todd Martin of the "Pro Wrestling Torch" noted that some regard Monsoon as "one of the all-time great announcers", while others feel he was "self-indulgent" and "dismissive of certain wrestlers", and had a tendency to "undermine the drama" by questioning the effectiveness of particular maneuvers. "Baltimore Sun" journalist Kevin Eck wrote that "a lot of people have fond memories of [Monsoon] from the 1980s boom period in WWF, especially his work with Bobby Heenan". Eck acknowledged the criticism of Monsoon among sections of the audience, but defended his use of absurdity and cliché as "entertaining", and argued that "he sold the angles well and got the characters over". "PWInsider"s Dave Scherer said of Monsoon, "I did love him as an announcer". "Rolling Stone"s Joseph Hudak reported that Heenan and Monsoon "are regarded as the greatest color-commentary team in pro-wrestling history", and "had a Martin-and-Lewis like chemistry behind the mic".


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: Heenan consistently named Monsoon as his favorite announcing partner. In contemplating his "Mount Rushmore of wrestling announcers", veteran commentator Jim Ross stated, "Gordon Solie, Bob Caudle, Lance Russell, Gorilla Monsoon would be four off the top of my head that I would put on there."


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: In a tribute that aired on October 7, 1999, on an episode of "WWF SmackDown!", McMahon described Marella as "one of the greatest men I have ever known." WCW commentator Tony Schiavone acknowledged Marella's death on the October 11, 1999, episode of "WCW Monday Nitro". Bobby Heenan insisted on doing a tribute to Marella, even though Marella never worked for WCW. Heenan said on-air: "Gorilla will be sadly missed. Now he was one big tough man. He was a decent honest man. And we're all gonna miss him very much. And you know the pearly gates in heaven? It's now gonna be called 'the Gorilla position.' Goodbye, my friend."


title: Gorilla Monsoon

text: When Heenan was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2004, he ended his acceptance speech with, "Only one thing's missing: I wish Monsoon was here." In 2007, when Anthony Carelli made his debut with WWE, he was given the ring name "Santino Marella", as a tribute.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The Gonzaga Bulldogs are an intercollegiate men's basketball program representing Gonzaga University. The school competes in the West Coast Conference in Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). The Gonzaga Bulldogs play home basketball games at the McCarthey Athletic Center in Spokane, Washington, on the university campus.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Gonzaga has had 15 of its players receive the WCC Player of the Year award, and two players, Frank Burgess in 1961 with 32.4 points per game, and Adam Morrison in 2006 with 28.1 points per game, have led the nation in scoring. Morrison was named the Co-National Player of the year for the 2005–06 season.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Since the mid-1990s, Gonzaga has established itself as a major basketball power in a mid-major conference. They have been to every NCAA tournament held since 1999, a year in which they made a Cinderella run to the Elite Eight, and have appeared in every final AP poll since the 2008–09 season. They have also appeared in every weekly poll since the start of the 2016–17 season, a streak of 115 consecutive weeks, good for the 13th longest streak in Men's Basketball history, as well as the longest active streak in the nation and the second longest by a Catholic institution behind Marquette, who was ranked for 166 consecutive polls from 1970-1980. They have also appeared in all but one WCC conference title game since 1995, and in every conference title game since 1998, winning 16 of them. This culminated in 2016–17, when the Bulldogs went to their first Final Four in school history, advancing to the national championship game, where they lost to North Carolina. They returned to the Final Four in 2021, losing in the final round to Baylor.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Gonzaga introduced a basketball program during the 1907–08 basketball season. During that season, they had no coach, but managed to achieve a record of . In the 1908/09 season, George Varnell became the first official coach for Gonzaga, earning a record during his only season with Gonzaga. Varnell was replaced by William Mulligan the following season, who acquired an record. Frank McKevitt took over for Mulligan during the 1910–11 basketball season, acquiring an record. From 1944 to 1994, the Bulldogs compiled a record of , earning regular season titles in 1965–66 and 1966–67 (Big Sky) under Hank Anderson, and in 1993–94 (WCC) under Dan Fitzgerald. That season also saw the team qualify for its first postseason tournament, the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), while being led by point guard Geoff Goss, who averaged 12.6 points per game that season. In the following season, the fourth-seeded Bulldogs won the WCC tournament to secure their first appearance in the NCAA tournament.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In 1997, Gonzaga assistant coach Dan Monson, the son of veteran Oregon and Idaho head coach Don Monson, became the head coach of Gonzaga as Fitzgerald wanted to focus on his athletic director's duties. During his first season, Monson led the Zags to a 24–10 record and a WCC regular season title, which was not enough to land an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament. They earned a bid into the NIT and beat Wyoming 69–55 in the first round in Laramie, but fell at Hawai'i 78–70 in the second round.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: During the 1998–99 season, the Bulldogs had a 28–7 record after winning the conference tournament, and were seeded tenth in the West regional of the NCAA tournament. In the tournament's "Cinderella" run and Gonzaga's "coming out party" (Gonzaga has made the NCAA tournament each year since) the Zags beat seventh-seeded Minnesota 75–63 in the first round in Seattle and followed it with an 82–74 win over second-seeded Stanford to advance to the regional semifinals in Phoenix. Gonzaga beat Florida 73–72 to advance to the regional finals after Casey Calvary tipped in the winning basket with four seconds remaining. They trailed eventual national champion UConn by one point with a minute remaining before losing 67–62 in the regional finals.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: After Monson departed for Minnesota that summer, assistant coach Mark Few was promoted to head coach on July 26, 1999.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In his inaugural season, Few led the Zags to a 26–9 record, which was highlighted by winning the WCC tournament and advancing to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament with wins over Louisville and St. John's in Tucson, Arizona.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In the 2000–01 season, the Bulldogs faced a tough schedule highlighted by games against Arizona, Washington, Florida, and New Mexico. Despite starting the season 5–1, the Zags dropped four of their next five games. Gonzaga rebounded and finished the regular season 15–6 before winning their third consecutive WCC tournament title. The win gave the Bulldogs an automatic bid into the NCAA tournament, where they were seeded twelfth in the South regional. In the first round in Memphis against fifth-seeded Virginia, Casey Calvary put back a blocked shot with nine seconds left to give the Zags an 86–85 victory. Gonzaga then beat 13th-seeded Indiana State 85–68 in the second round to advance to their third consecutive Sweet 16. In Atlanta, the Zags lost to defending national champion Michigan State 77–62 and finished the season with a 26–7 record.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Prior to the 2001–02 season, the Bulldogs were unanimously favored to win the WCC title in the WCC preseason coaches poll. Few led the Zags to a share of the WCC regular season title, as Pepperdine also had a 13–1 conference record. The Bulldogs would avenge their only conference loss of the season by defeating Pepperdine 96–90 for their fourth straight WCC tournament title. The win gave the Zags an automatic bid as a six-seed in the NCAA tournament, opening against 11th-seeded Wyoming. Despite beating the Cowboys four years earlier in the NIT, they lost 73–66, marking the first time the Zags lost in the first round of the tournament under Mark Few.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In the 2002–03 season, Few led the Bulldogs to their fifth regular season title in six years with a 12–2 conference record. Despite this, Gonzaga lost to San Diego in the WCC tournament championship game 72–63, marking the first time the Zags had lost in the championship game in four years. Gonzaga garnered a nine-seed in the 2003 NCAA tournament, where they beat Cincinnati 74–69 to advance to the second round of the tournament for the fourth time in five years. The Bulldogs would go on to lose to Arizona 96–95 in double overtime to finish 24–9.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2003–04 season marked the first time that the team participated in the annual Battle in Seattle game. Gonzaga faced third-ranked Missouri, who was the highest-ranked regular season opponent that the Zags had played against up to that point; they would go on to win the game in an 87–80 overtime victory. This season marked the last time Gonzaga would play home games in the Charlotte Y. Martin Centre; their last game in the building took place February 28, 2004, where they beat Santa Clara 80–64. The win gave the Bulldogs their first undefeated run through the WCC in school history with a 14–0 conference record. Gonzaga would go on to receive an automatic bid into the 2004 NCAA tournament with a two-seed, which was the highest seed they had received in school history in seven tournament appearances. The Bulldogs would go on to beat 15th-seeded Valparaiso 76–49 before being upset in the second round by tenth-seeded Nevada 91–72, where they finished the season 28–3.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Gonzaga opened up the 2004–05 season with a home game against Portland State in the new 6,000-seat McCarthey Athletic Center on November 19, 2004. Despite losing five seniors, including second-round NBA draft pick Blake Stepp, Few was still able to lead the Zags to their ninth regular season title since 1994 with a 12–2 conference record. The Bulldogs would go on to win their second straight WCC Tournament title, giving them an automatic bid into the 2005 NCAA tournament as a three-seed. The Zags beat 14th-seeded Winthrop 74–64 before falling to Texas Tech 71–69 in the second round, where they ended the season with a 26–5 record.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Before the 2005–06 season got underway, Gonzaga junior Adam Morrison became the first player in team history to be named to the preseason Associated Press All-America team. The Zags also received their highest preseason ranking in program history at number seven in the "USA Today"/ESPN preseason poll. The Bulldogs captured their third straight WCC Tournament title when they beat Loyola Marymount 68–67 in the championship game. They received an automatic bid into the 2006 NCAA tournament as a three-seed, where they beat Xavier 79–75 in the first round. The Zags would go on to beat Indiana Hoosiers 90–80, where they would advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001. Despite being ahead by as many as 17 points, the Bulldogs ended their season in the Sweet 16 by losing to UCLA 73–71, finishing 29–4.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2006–07 season marked the first time that the Zags suffered at least ten losses in a season since the 1997–98 season. Despite this, Few still led the Bulldogs to their seventh straight regular season title with a conference record of 11–3. Gonzaga would go on to win the WCC Tournament for the fourth year in a row, being the only Division I school to do so that year. They received an automatic bid into the 2007 NCAA tournament, where they were given a 10-seed. The Zags would end their season by losing in the opening round for the first time since 2001, as Indiana beat Gonzaga 70–57.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In 2007–08 the Bulldogs went 25–8, but lost in the Round of 64 as a #7 seed to a Davidson team that went to the Elite Eight as a #10 seed.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2008–09 team won both the WCC Regular Season Championship and the WCC Tournament Championship. Entering the NCAA tournament as a #4 seed, the team reached the Sweet Sixteen, before losing to eventual NCAA Champions North Carolina.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: For the next five seasons, the team advanced to the NCAA tournament, but fell in the Round of 32 each time. The 2012–13 team became the first Gonzaga squad to be ranked as the #1 team in the country and was awarded as a #1 seed in the NCAA tournament for the first time. The Zags also won over 30 games for the first time in program history with a 32–3 overall record.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2014–15 team advanced all the way to the Elite Eight before losing to eventual national champion Duke. This was the first time since 1999 that Gonzaga had advanced to the Elite Eight. Gonzaga also won the WCC regular-season and tournament championships for the third consecutive season. The 2014–15 also set the school record for wins in a single season with 35.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2015–16 team suffered 4 losses at home and nearly missed the NCAA tournament entirely, but shared the WCC regular-season crown with Saint Mary's and then won the WCC Tournament. The Zags were awarded a #11 seed and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, dismantling #6 seed Seton Hall and #3 seed Utah, before falling to Syracuse by three points.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2016–17 team won its first 29 games, setting a new school record for consecutive games won, before falling to WCC rival BYU. The Zags made the NCAA tournament as a #1 seed and advanced to the school's first-ever championship game, with wins over South Dakota State, Northwestern, West Virginia, Xavier, and South Carolina. The Zags set a new school record for wins in a single season with 37 and also had the most wins of any team that season.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2017–18 team also enjoyed success. Despite what was considered a "rebuilding year" after the Loss of Karnowski, Williams-Goss, Mathews and Collins among others (causing the Bulldogs to not be picked to win the West Coast Conference), the team won the WCC regular season title outright before winning the WCC tournament. In the NCAA tournament, the Bulldogs advanced to the Sweet Sixteen for the fourth consecutive year. They were ultimately bounced by Florida State, and finished the season at 32–5.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Near the end of that season, Gonzaga considered a potential move to the Mountain West Conference (MW) after nearly 40 years as a WCC member. When asked by a reporter from the "San Diego Union-Tribune" about rumored MW expansion plans, MW commissioner Craig Thompson confirmed that six schools had been considered, with Gonzaga being the only school he specifically named. A later "Union-Tribune" report indicated that talks were advanced enough that the conference's presidents planned a vote on an invitation to Gonzaga during the MW men's and women's basketball tournaments in Las Vegas, but decided to delay the vote until after the Final Four. The vote ultimately never took place, as Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth notified both conferences during the Final Four that the school would remain in the WCC for the immediate future.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In the 2018 Maui Invitational Final on November 21, 2018 #3 Gonzaga defeated #1 Duke 89–87 for their first win over Duke and first win over a number 1 ranked team in team history.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2020–21 season would be a historic year for the team, going 26–0 in the regular season and being the final undefeated team in the country. They would earn the #1 overall seed in the tournament and cruise to the national championship game over Norfolk State, Oklahoma, Creighton, USC, and UCLA. In the national championship, their undefeated season came to an end, losing to Baylor 86–70.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Basketball started at Gonzaga in February 1905 after a gymnasium was put in as an addition to the east end of the new college building that was being built. In 1955, the basketball team moved from the gymnasium, nicknamed "the cave", and began to play at the newly constructed Spokane Coliseum. On June 3, 1964, construction began for a new 3,800-seat athletic facility called the John F. Kennedy Memorial Pavilion. To raise money for the $1.1 million project, Gonzaga's student body had each student pay $10 per semester until $500,000 was raised. The university matched that amount, while the remaining $100,000 came from contributions. Gonzaga's first game in the pavilion took place on December 3, 1965 against Washington State, who beat the Bulldogs 106–78. In 1986, the facility was renamed the Charlotte Y. Martin Centre after an eponymous donor donated $4.5 million to finance a remodel of the arena that could hold up to 4,000 people.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: After competing for over 39 years in the Charlotte Y. Martin Centre, Gonzaga trustees approved construction for a new 6,000-seat arena on April 11, 2003. The McCarthey Athletic Center was named after Gonzaga trustee Philip G. McCarthey and Gonzaga regent Thomas K. McCarthey, who contributed a significant portion of the funds needed to build the arena. The first official game took place on November 19, 2004 against Portland State, whom the Zags would beat 98–80 in front of a sold-out crowd. The Bulldogs opened the arena with a 38-game winning streak, which was the nation's longest active winning streak at the time. When combined with 12 wins at the Charlotte Y. Martin Centre, the overall home-game winning streak ended at 50 games with a loss to the Santa Clara on February 12, 2007. In February 2015, BYU snapped Gonzaga's 41-game home winning streak in the McCarthey Athletic Center, which was also the longest active home winning streak in the NCAA at the time.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Through February 6, 2020, the Zags are in the McCarthey Athletic Center, which includes a record in non-conference games, a record in conference games, and a record in the WCC Tournament.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: On December 13, 2003, Gonzaga participated in a neutral court game at KeyArena that would later become an annual event known as the Battle in Seattle. The event marked the first time that a regular season Gonzaga basketball game was broadcast nationally on CBS Sports, as Craig Bolerjack called the action while Clark Kellogg provided commentary. Ranked third in the country, Missouri was the highest ranked regular season opponent that Gonzaga had faced up to that point; the Bulldogs would go on to beat the Tigers 87–80 in overtime.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The 2005 Battle in Seattle is remembered for Adam Morrison's game-winning shot against Oklahoma State that sealed a 64–62 victory for the Bulldogs. Gus Johnson's call at the end of the game with Bill Raftery was ranked fourth on a list of 25 of his most "over-the-top calls" by "Complex". Johnson's call at the end of the game:


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In 2008, the game broke the state attendance record for a regular season college basketball game, as a sold-out crowd of 16,763 watched the Bulldogs play Connecticut.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: In the 2016–17 season, Gonzaga failed to schedule the Battle in Seattle, ending an annual tradition of participating in the event every December for 13 consecutive years. Representatives from the Zags cited an inability to find a quality opponent to schedule and wanting to maintain strong résumé. The Zags have compiled an record in the event since they first appeared in it back in 2003.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Gonzaga's biggest rivalry is with fellow West Coast Conference foe Saint Mary's. Many analysts and members of the media have touted the Gaels vs. Zags as one of the best, if not the best, college basketball rivalry on the West Coast, as both teams have been consistently the two top teams in the conference over the last 2 decades. Gonzaga and Saint Mary's have combined to win 19 out of the last 23 conference championship games (Gonzaga 17, San Diego 2, Saint Mary's 2). Currently Gonzaga leads the series 72–31.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Gonzaga's most heated in-state rivalry is with Washington. They played a 10-year home-and-home series from 1997 to 2006, but then it went dormant until 2015. In 2016, they began a new home-and-home series in Spokane and have agreed to continue the rivalry annually until at least the 2023–24 season. The Huskies lead the series 29–20, but the Zags have won 14 of the last 15 matchups, including the most recent game at Gonzaga on December 9, 2022, which the Zags won 77–60 over the Huskies.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: A notable rivalry with Brigham Young University (BYU) has developed throughout the past decade. BYU and Gonzaga first played on December 16, 1949 with Gonzaga winning 46–41. The two teams would not meet again until March 19, 2011 in the third round of the NCAA tournament, as a BYU team led by Jimmer Fredette advanced to the Sweet Sixteen by defeating the Zags 89–67. The following season, BYU left the Mountain West Conference and joined the West Coast Conference for the 2011–2012 season. Since then, Gonzaga has a 18–6 record against BYU. However, BYU is one of few teams to win multiple times at the McCarthy Athletic Center in Spokane over the last decade, with wins at the Kennel in 2015, 2016 and 2017 (the first two were later vacated by the NCAA due to a scandal involving BYU guard Nick Emery). BYU was the only team to beat #1 ranked Gonzaga during the 2016-17 regular season in which Gonzaga earned its first trip to the Final Four and National Championship game. BYU has played Gonzaga in the West Coast Conference tournament Final in 2014, 2015, 2018, and 2021 with Gonzaga winning all four of these matchups. Gonzaga leads the overall series 20–7, with the most recent meeting on March 9, 2021 in which Gonzaga won 88–78 in Las Vegas.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Freshman enrollment at Gonzaga in the mid-nineties hovered around 500 students annually, including a total of 569 as late as 1998. In 1999, enrollment jumped to 701 five months after the Zags went to the Elite Eight. This trend continued after Gonzaga won five games in the 1999 and 2000 NCAA tournaments, as freshman enrollment increased to 796 in 2000 and to a then-record 979 in 2001. A 65 percent increase in the size of the freshman class between 1997 and 2003 is part of a phenomenon called the Flutie effect, the increase in attention and applications for admission that results after a particularly notable and unexpected sporting victory by a school's athletic team. Gonzaga University president Rev. Robert Spitzer said that the team's success was responsible for the school receiving the $23 million required to build the McCarthey Athletic Center, most of which was received through major gifts.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Gonzaga has been viewed as reaping benefits from its basketball-related exposure to this day. The university's financial position and fundraising success dramatically improved. This led to a campus building boom; the McCarthey Athletic Center proved to be just the first of a series of major campus buildings that opened between 2004 and 2017. Booming freshman enrollment led Gonzaga to introduce a more selective admissions process in 2003, which led to a significant increase in the academic credentials of incoming freshmen. Even with greater selectivity, freshman enrollment has continued to grow, reaching 1,200 for 2016–17.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Since the season of Gonzaga's 1999 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament run to the Elite 8, Gonzaga has played a total of 115 games against teams ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll. Gonzaga has a record of against such teams. They have beaten top-3 teams seven times in all, taking down #3 teams four times (Missouri in 2003–04, Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State in 2004–05, and Iowa in 2020–21), #2 twice (North Carolina in 2006–07 and UCLA in 2021–22), and #1 once (Duke in 2018–19).


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The Bulldogs have appeared in 23 NCAA tournaments. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the cancellation of the 2020 NCAA tournament, interrupting but not ending the Bulldogs' ongoing streak of 22 consecutive tournament appearances. Gonzaga's combined record is .


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: The Bulldogs have appeared in three National Invitation Tournaments (NIT). All five games were played on the road, and Gonzaga's combined record is .


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Note: Players' year is based on remaining eligibility. The NCAA did not count the 2020–21 season towards eligibility.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Eight McDonald's All-Americans have played for Gonzaga. Of these, five have started their college basketball careers with the Bulldogs—Zach Collins, Jalen Suggs, Hunter Sallis, Chet Holmgren, and Nolan Hickman. Suggs was selected for the 2020 McDonald's All-American game, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 McDonald's All-American game, to which Hickman and Holmgren were selected, was also canceled due to COVID-19.


title: Gonzaga Bulldogs men's basketball

text: Twelve 5-star rated players have committed to Gonzaga, as rated in the final ranking projections by at least one major college basketball recruiting service (247Sports.com, ESPN.com, Rivals.com, and Scout.com). Among these players, eight began their college careers with the Bulldogs: Austin Daye, Domantas Sabonis, Zach Collins, Oumar Ballo, Jalen Suggs, Nolan Hickman, Chet Holmgren, and Hunter Sallis. Only Ballo did not make his debut immediately after his arrival at Gonzaga; he was to have debuted in the 2019–20 season, but was not academically cleared to play by the NCAA and was redshirted that season.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft Foods Inc. was a multinational confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It marketed many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earned more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oreo, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, and Tang. Forty of its brands were at least a century old.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft was listed on the New York Stock Exchange and became a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average on September 22, 2008, replacing the American International Group. In August 2011, the company announced plans to split into a North American grocery products business and a faster-growing global snacks company. The snack company, Mondelez International Inc. is recognized as Kraft Foods' legal successor, while the grocery company was named Kraft Foods, now a part of Kraft Heinz.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft Foods traced its roots to the National Dairy Products Corporation, formed on December 10, 1923, by Thomas H. McInerney and Edward E. Rieck. The firm was initially set up to execute on a rollup strategy in the fragmented United States ice cream industry. Through acquisitions it expanded into a full range of dairy products. By 1930 it was the largest dairy company in the United States and the world, exceeding Borden.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: McInnerney operated the Hydrox Corporation, an ice cream company located in Chicago, Illinois. In 1923 he went to Wall Street to convince investment bankers there to finance his scheme for consolidating the United States ice cream industry. He initially found "hard sledding" with one banker saying the dairy industry "lacked dignity". He persevered and convinced a consortium including Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers to finance a roll-up strategy.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: As a result of his efforts, National Dairy Products Corporation was formed in 1923 in a merger of McInnerney's Hydrox with Rieck McJunkin Dairy Co of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The resulting firm was then listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the offer of 125,000 shares having been oversubscribed.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: The firm grew quickly through a large number of acquisitions. As is typical in a roll-up strategy, acquisitions were primarily for stock in National rather than cash. National Dairy Products Corporation acquired more than 55 firms between 1923 and 1931, with a few notable entities among those:


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Born in Stevensville, Ontario, Canada in 1874, James L. Kraft immigrated to the United States in 1903 and started a wholesale door-to-door cheese business in Chicago; its first year of operations was "dismal", losing US$3,000 and a horse. However, the business took hold and Kraft was joined by his four brothers to form J.L. Kraft and Bros. Company in 1909. As early as 1911, circulars and advertisements were in use by the company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1912, the company established its New York City, headquarters to prepare for its international expansion. By 1914, thirty-one varieties of cheeses were being sold around the U.S. because of heavy product development, expansion by marketing, and opening a wholly owned cheese factory in Stockton, Illinois.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1915, the company had invented pasteurized processed cheese that did not need refrigeration, thus giving a longer shelf life than conventional cheese. The process was patented in 1916 and about six million pounds of the product were sold to the U.S. Army for military rations during World War I.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1916, the company began national advertising and had made its first acquisition—a Canadian cheese company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1924, the company changed its name to Kraft Cheese Company and listed on the Chicago Stock Exchange. In 1926, it was listed on the NYSE. The firm then began to consolidate the United States dairy industry through acquisition, in competition with National and Borden. Firms acquired included:


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: in May 1926 the Kraft Walker Cheese Co. was registered in Australia. It was a separate company from Fred Walker & Co. but managed by the same staff. Fred Walker was chairman by 1930, and after his death in July 1935, Kraft acquired the company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Later, in 1927, it established its London, United Kingdom, and Hamburg, Germany, sales offices—its first forays outside North America. Sales for 1927 were $60.4m.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1928, it acquired Phenix Cheese Company, the maker of a cream cheese branded as Philadelphia cream cheese, founded by Jason F. Whitney, Sr. and the company changed its name to Kraft-Phenix Cheese Company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1929, "The New York Times" reported that Kraft Phenix, The Hershey Company and Colgate were looking at merging. In the same year, it was reported that National, Borden and Standard Brands (a firm that is now part of Kraft Foods) were all looking at acquiring the firm.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: By 1930, it had captured forty percent of the cheese market in the U.S. and was the third largest dairy company in the United States after National Dairy and Borden.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: At the time of the acquisition in 1930, National Dairy had sales of $315m compared with $85m for Kraft Phenix. National Dairy management ran the combined business. Following the Kraft-Phenix acquisition, the firm continued to be called National Dairy until 1969 when it changed its name to Kraftco.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Historically, all of the firm's sales came from dairy products. However, the firm's product lines began to diversify away from dairy products to caramel candies, macaroni and cheese dinners and margarines. From the 1950s onward, the firm began to move away from low value added commodity dairy products, such as fluid milk. This trend would continue for the firm, through neglect and divestiture, until the primary remaining dairy product produced by the firm would be cheese. As a result, the modern history of the firm emphasizes the cheese history.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1933, the company began marketing by radio sponsorship. In 1935, the Sealtest brand of ice cream was launched as a unified national brand to replace the firm's numerous regional brands.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Product development and advertising helped the company to grow during the postwar years, launching sliced process cheese and Cheez Whiz, a brand of process cheese sauce, in the 1950s.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: During these years, Thomas McInnerney, National Dairy's founder, and James L. Kraft, Kraft's founder, died, and at the end of the decade, the divisions became less autonomous and even diversified to the glass-packaging business with the acquisition of Metro Glass in 1956.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1947, the company tested the marketing power of the emerging medium of television by producing an hour-long drama/anthology series, the Kraft Television Theatre. The product advertised on the program, "MacLaren's Imperial Cheese", was selected because "... [it had] not only had no advertising appropriation whatsoever, but had not even been distributed for several years." As described by internal documents of J. Walter Thompson—the advertising firm which conceived of the marketing test—the result was "although there was no other advertising support for it whatsoever, still grocery stores could not keep up with the demand."


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In the 1960s, product development became intense, launching fruit jellies, fruit preserves, marshmallows, barbecue sauces and "Kraft Singles", a brand of individually wrapped cheese slices. During this decade, the company also expanded in many markets worldwide.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1961, the firm acquired Dominion Dairies of Canada, marking the first effort by the firm to expand into fluid milk and ice cream outside the United States. In the same year it also acquired The Southern Oil Company in Manchester, England.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1969, the firm changed its name from National Dairy to Kraftco Corporation. The reason for the name change was given at the time: "Expansion and innovation have taken us far afield from the regional milk and ice cream business we started with in 1923. Dollar sales of these original products have remained relatively static over the past ten years and, in 1969 accounted for approximately 25% of our sales."


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: At the same time, the firm transferred to Glenview, Illinois, in 1972. In 1976, its name changed to Kraft, Inc. to emphasize the trademark the company had been known for and as a result of the fact that dairy, other than cheese, was now only a minor part of the company's sales. Reorganization also occurred after the name change.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1980, Kraft merged with Dart Industries—makers of the Duracell brand of batteries, Tupperware brand of plastic containers, West Bend brand of home appliances, Wilsonart brand of plastics and Thatcher glass—to form Dart & Kraft.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: During the 1980s, Dart & Kraft offered mixed results to its shareholders, as new acquisitions in the food business—such as Churny premium cheeses, Lender's Bagels, Frusen Gladje ice cream and Celestial Seasonings tea—slightly offset the lagging nonfood business—Tupperware's decrease in sales and KitchenAid's (acquired soon after the merger) slide in market share—leading Dart & Kraft to spin off its nonfood business (except Duracell batteries) into a new entity (Premark International, Inc.) while changing its name back to Kraft, Inc. Premark was bought by Illinois Tool Works in 1999. In 1988, Kraft sold Duracell to private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, who then put it into an initial public offering in 1989. Gillette bought Duracell in 1996, and itself was acquired by Procter and Gamble in 2005.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: At the end of 1988, Philip Morris Companies purchased Kraft for $12.9 billion. In 1989, Kraft merged with Philip Morris's General Foods unit—makers of Oscar Mayer meats, Maxwell House coffee, Jell-O gelatin, Budget Gourmet frozen dinners, Entenmann's baked goods, Kool-Aid, Crystal Light and Tang powdered beverage mixes, Post Cereals, Shake 'n Bake flavored coatings and numerous other packaged foods—as Kraft General Foods. Its aggressive product development was reversed after the merger, as it became slow in addressing issues on its product lines due to its size, and also company politics.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1990, the company acquired Jacobs Suchard (a European coffee and confectionery giant) and Freia Marabou (a Scandinavian confectionery maker) to expand overseas as its business was heavily dependent on the U.S. In 1993, it acquired RJR Nabisco's cold cereal business (mainly Shredded Wheat and Shreddies cereals) while selling its Breyers ice-cream division to Unilever and its Birds Eye unit to Dean Foods. In 1994, it sold its frozen dinners unit to H.J. Heinz and in 1995, it sold its foodservice unit.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 1995, it changed its name to the present name, Kraft Foods. The same year, it sold its bakery division (except Lender's Bagels, which was sold in 1996 to Kellogg Company), its candy division and its tablespreads division. Log Cabin syrup was sold in 1997.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On August 2, 1996, Kraft announced a deal with PepsiCo to market the Taco Bell brand of grocery products.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: As of 2007, Philip Morris (now Altria Inc.) had sold its stake in Kraft foods and the two companies are no longer affiliated.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 2000, Philip Morris (renamed Altria in 2003) acquired Nabisco Holdings for $18.9 billion and merged the company with Kraft Foods the same year. In 2001, Philip Morris sold 280 million Kraft shares via the third-largest IPO of all time, retaining an 88.1% stake in the company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 2004, it sold its sugar confectionery division to Wrigley, while doing minor divestitures—including its hot cereals division (Cream of Wheat) to B&G Foods in 2007, its pet snacks division (Milk-Bone) to Del Monte Foods in 2006, juice drinks and Fruit2o to Sunny Delight Beverages in 2007 and some grocery brands in 2006.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 2006, the company bought Southern European business of United Biscuits, gaining several local brands such as Galletas Fontanenda.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Investor Nelson Peltz bought a three-percent stake at Kraft Foods and was talking with the executives on revitalizing the business, with options such as buying Wendy's fast-food chain or selling off Post cereals and Maxwell House coffee.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On January 31, 2007, after months of speculation, the company announced that its 88.1% stake would be spun off to Altria shareholders at the end of March 2007, giving each approximately 0.7 shares of Kraft for each share of Altria they owned. Kraft became an independent publicly held company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In July 2007, the company bought Groupe Danone's biscuit (cookie) and cereal division for $7.2 billion, including iconic French biscuit brand Lefèvre-Utile. While two years earlier firestorms of protest had arisen over plans for American PepsiCo's hostile takeover of the French company, Kraft's announcement was not met with the same protests, in part because Kraft agreed not to close French factories and keep the new merged divisions headquarters near Paris for at least three years.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In November 2007, Kraft agreed to sell its cereal unit to Ralcorp Holdings, a major private-label food maker, for $2.6 billion in a form of a spin-off merger. This would add 50% to Ralcorp's sales, to $3.3 billion, and will be used for Kraft's debt payment, which was at $13.4 billion, in danger of a downgrade by Standard and Poor's.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In February 2008, Berkshire Hathaway run by billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett announced that it had acquired an 8% stake in Kraft then worth over $4 billion. Buffett's business partner Charles Munger had also invested over $300 million in Kraft. Berkshire Hathaway owned 5.6% of the outstanding stock of Kraft Foods, as reported in the holding company's 2010 annual report.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On September 22, 2008, the company replaced the troubled insurance company, American International Group in the Dow Jones Industrial Average.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On September 7, 2009, Kraft made a £10.2 billion takeover offer for the long-established British confectionery group Cadbury, makers of Dairy Milk and Bournville chocolate. On November 9, 2009, Kraft's £9.8bn takeover bid was rejected by Cadbury. Cadbury stated that the takeover bid was a "derisory" offer. Kraft renewed the offer under the same terms on December 4, 2009. The offer generated significant political and public opposition in the United Kingdom and abroad, even leading to calls for the government to implement a policy of economic protectionism in cases of takeovers of large companies.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On January 19, 2010, Cadbury finally approved a revised offer from Kraft, valuing the confectionery business at $19.5 billion (£11.5 billion). The funding for the takeover was partially provided by the Royal Bank of Scotland, the British part-state-owned bank.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: The Cadbury purchase was part of the long-term strategy of Irene Rosenfeld, CEO and Kraft Chairman since March 2007, who developed a three-year turnaround plan designed to drive the profitable growth of Kraft Foods. Rosenfeld wanted to develop new markets and expand product range when she assumed the role of chairman. It was assumed that the purchase of Cadbury would help Kraft products develop in new markets such as Brazil and India because of Cadbury's current strong presence in those markets. India is one of its most resilient markets with sales growth of 20% and profits growing at 30% in a competitive market. Kraft believed the Cadbury purchase was also necessary because of the likelihood of Nestlé and Hershey joining together. Kraft also believed it could squeeze savings of at least $675m annually by the end of the third year. Irene Rosenfeld saw the Kraft Cadbury merger as the "logical next step in our transformation toward a high-growth, higher-margin company". She also justified the merger in order to build a "global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals".


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Following the purchase of Cadbury, Kraft commanded 14.8% of the global candy and gum market. Kraft argued that it could take advantage of the Cadbury distribution in developing markets of India, Brazil and Mexico. As incomes rise in these developing nations, Kraft hopes that products such as Oreo will become impulse buys for children. Mars, Inc. is second in the confectionery market with 14.6% share, followed by Nestlé with 7.8%.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: At the time of the purchase, the chocolate and sugar industry had been growing rapidly at 15% over the previous three years and was valued at $113 billion. The purchase of Cadbury was considered strange because they did not have a strong foothold on the confectionery market, but at the time Kraft noted their production of confectionery foods like Toblerone and candy foods like Oreo. Cadbury also owned popular gum brands such as Stride, Trident, Dentyne, and Chiclets. Roger Carr, chairman of Cadbury, discussed his approval of the takeover by Kraft by saying, "We believe the offer represents good value for Cadbury shareholders and are pleased with the commitment that Kraft Foods has made to our heritage, values and people throughout the world."


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Cadbury sales were flat after Kraft's acquisition. Despite the Cadbury takeover helping boost sales by 30%, Kraft's net profit for the fourth quarter fell 24% to $540m due to costs associated with integrating the UK business after the acquisition. Kraft spent a one-time $1.3 billion in integration costs to achieve $675 million in recurring annual synergy savings by the end of 2012 (estimated).


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft was forced to increase prices to offset rising commodity costs in North America and Europe. Kraft has had to contend with the higher cost of ingredients such as corn, sugar and cocoa. Kraft chief executive Irene Rosenfeld said, “We expect it will remain weak for the foreseeable future.” Taking into account integration costs, the acquisition knocked about 33% off Kraft's earnings per share immediately after the purchase of Cadbury. In March 2011, Kraft caused national outrage when they sold the site of a historic Cadbury factory it vowed not to close for £50million after initially publicly promising the continuity of production within the UK in order to win over support for the deal from shareholders. Instead, production was immediately outsourced to Poland. The Somerdale Factory was closed just days after the takeover by Kraft Foods. Former Cadbury workers demanded an apology for the abrupt selling of the plant, but Kraft's CEO Irene Rosenfeld refused to explain her actions. Kraft continues to use Cadbury brands in emerging markets to expand all of its products. In April 2011, Kraft set to invest $150 million in South Africa's manufacturing plants over three years. President Sanjay Khosla said, "South Africa is a priority market for us, where we focus on power brands like Cadbury chocolate."


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On March 1, 2010, Nestlé concluded the purchase of Kraft's North American frozen pizza business for $3.7 billion. Kraft left the door open to repurchase with a buyback option not before one year and not after three years for the original sale price of $3.7 billion. Although not likely if Kraft were to want to repurchase they would have to come up with cash only and no stocks. The sale included DiGiorno, Tombstone and Jack's brands in the United States, the Delissio brand in Canada and the California Pizza Kitchen trademark license. It also includes two Wisconsin manufacturing facilities in Medford and Little Chute. The business generated 2009 net revenues of $1.6 billion, with 3,400 employees.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: After a period of poor share performance and investor criticism, Rosenfeld was forced to announce in 2011 the proposed split of the company into two new entities. Both were to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange, but the company has recently decided to move to NASDAQ, and the split companies will also trade on NASDAQ. The first entity would retain the Kraft foods names and brands, and focus on the North American foods business. The second, later proposed to be named Mondelēz International, would focus on the global snacks business, and would include the former Cadbury businesses, plus global brands including Dairylea. On April 2, 2012, Kraft Foods Inc. announced that it had filed a Form 10 Registration Statement to the SEC to split the company into two companies to serve the "North American grocery business". The split was structured so that Kraft Foods changed its name to Mondelez International and spun off Kraft Foods Group as a new publicly traded company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft Foods Inc was an official partner and sponsor of Major League Soccer and sponsored the Kraft Nabisco Championship, one of the four "majors" on the LPGA tour. The company also sponsored the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, a post-season college football bowl game.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: "Kraft Hockeyville" originally was Canadian reality television series developed by CBC Sports in 2006 and was sponsored by Kraft Foods in which communities across Canada compete to demonstrate their commitment to the sport of ice hockey. The contest revolves around a central theme of community spirit in Canada. In 2007, the contest was relegated to segments aired on "Hockey Night in Canada"


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft released an iPad app called "Big Fork Little Fork" in 2011 which, in addition to games and other distractions, has information regarding how to use Kraft foods in nutritious ways. This app costs $1.99; a version for home computers is available on the iTunes app store.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Before the company was split, its core businesses were in beverage, cheese, dairy foods, snack foods, confectionery, and convenience foods.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Seventy additional brands have revenues greater than $100 million. In total, 40 brands are at least 100 years old.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 2003, a California lawyer made national headlines by suing Kraft for using trans fat in Oreo cookies. Kraft foods announced a trans-fat free reformulation of Oreos shortly after the 2003 lawsuit was filed, and the lawsuit was dropped. Kraft denied that the change was made in response to the lawsuit, noting that the reformulation had been in planning long before the lawsuit.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 2010, two California residents filed a class action lawsuit against Kraft Foods for claiming certain products are healthy when in fact they contain unhealthy trans fat. Kraft denied any wrongdoing, saying all packaging claims are true and legal. As of June 2012, the case is still ongoing.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Teddy Grahams, varieties of Ritz Crackers, Honey Maid Grahams, Premium Saltines, Ginger Snaps, and Vegetable Thins all contain artificial trans fat, and Kraft presents these products as healthy with phrases like "wholesome choice", "sensible snacking", and "made with real vegetables". The complaint in the case argues that these claims are a violation of California's Unfair Competition Law, Consumer Legal Remedies Act, and False Advertising Law.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: The lawsuit cites current scientific consensus on the dangerous health effects of trans fat, which causes coronary heart disease and has been linked to type 2 diabetes and some forms of cancer. The American Heart Association concludes that there is "no safe level" of trans fat in the diet.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Based on the trans fat content and other unhealthy ingredients in Kraft products, the lawsuit makes several arguments:


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft denies any wrongdoing. Kraft's response briefs emphasize that the challenged claims are technically true. For example, Vegetable Thins are "made with real vegetables", and Kraft argues that this true statement cannot be called misleading. Kraft uses a similar line of argument for claims like "good source of calcium, iron & zinc to support kids' growth and development", "whole wheat", and others.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Regarding several packaging claims, Kraft argues that they are not factual statements that can be proven true or false. For example, Kraft argues that the word "wholesome" is subjective and vague. Promotional statements that are too vague to prove or disprove are called puffery and are not actionable under the law. Kraft argues that "wholesome", "sensible", and "smart" are all puffery and therefore cannot be found misleading or deceitful.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In 2012, Kraft contributed $1,950,500 to a $46 million political campaign known as "The Coalition Against The Costly Food Labeling Proposition, sponsored by Farmers and Food Producers" The organization was founded to oppose Proposition 37, a California citizen's initiative mandating the labeling of foods containing genetically modified ingredients. As a result, there were calls for a boycott of Kraft products.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: For years Kraft purchased paper for its packaging from Asia Pulp & Paper, the third-largest paper producer in the world which was called a "forest criminal" for destroying "precious habitat" in Indonesia's rain forest. In 2011, when Kraft cancelled its contract with Asia Pulp & Paper, Greenpeace executive director Phil Radford commended the company for "taking rainforest conservation seriously".


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: Kraft began a major restructuring process in January 2004, following a year of declining sales (blamed largely on the rising health consciousness of Americans) and the sacking of co-CEO Betsy Holden. The company announced closures of 19 production facilities worldwide and the reduction of 5,500 jobs, as well as the sale of 10% of its branded products.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On January 19, 2010, Kraft sealed the deal to buy 100% of the share capital of Cadbury for over $19 billion.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On March 17, 2010, Kraft Foods said it was "truly sorry" over its closure of a Cadbury factory in Somerdale. Senior Kraft executive Marc Firestone made the public apology to MPs at a parliamentary select committee hearing.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In March 2011, in the US, Kraft Foods introduced MiO, a liquid flavoring product with zero calories and sugar-free geared to 18 to 39-year-old consumers. MiO has no artificial flavors but it does have artificial colors, artificial sweeteners and artificial preservatives, unlike some competing flavoring products, according to "USA Today".


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In August 2011, Kraft Foods announced plans to split into two publicly traded companies—a snack food company and a grocery company.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: On September 10, 2010, a disgruntled employee angered over a recent suspension, Yvonne Hiller, opened fire inside the Philadelphia Factory where she had worked for 15 years. Armed with a .357, Yvonne shot 3 co-workers, killing 2 of them. Philadelphia Police responded within minutes of the 911 call. SWAT took Yvonne into custody at 8:30pm.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In September 2000, up to $50 million worth of taco shells were recalled by Kraft from supermarkets and Taco Bell restaurants. The shells contained genetically modified corn, which was not approved for human consumption by the Food and Drug Administration; the recall was the first of a genetically modified food. The corn was supplied to a plant from which Kraft bought the shells.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In April 2009, Kraft Foods recalled products containing pistachios after the discovery of salmonella at one of its Illinois manufacturers. Kraft pinpointed as the source a California pistachio grower, which initially recalled over of nuts before broadening the recall to much of its 2008 crop. A "Washington Post" editorial credited the "aggressive food safety system at Kraft Foods" with effectively addressing the danger.


title: Kraft Foods Inc.

text: In September 2011, Kraft recalled over 130,000 cases of Velveeta Shells and Cheese microwaveable cups because of possible wire bristles in the cups.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah, United States. SkyWest is paid to staff, operate and maintain aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by a partner mainline airline. The airline is contracted by Alaska Airlines (as Alaska SkyWest), American Airlines (as American Eagle), Delta Air Lines (as Delta Connection), and United Airlines (as United Express). In all, it is the largest regional airline in North America when measured by fleet size, number of passengers carried, and number of destinations served.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: SkyWest operates an average of more than 2,400 flights per day to 250 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico with an extensive network of routes largely set up to connect passengers between smaller airports and the large hubs of its partner airlines. In total, SkyWest carried 35.9 million passengers in 2017.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: The company operates an average of 1,050 flights per day as Delta Connection on behalf of Delta Air Lines, 900 flights per day as United Express on behalf of United Airlines, 370 flights per day as American Eagle on behalf of American Airlines, and 160 flights per day as Alaska SkyWest on behalf of Alaska Airlines.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: Frustrated by the limited extent of existing air service, Ralph Atkin, a St. George, Utah, lawyer, purchased Dixie Airlines on April 26, 1972, to shuttle businessmen to Salt Lake City. After early struggles, SkyWest began a steady expansion across the western U.S. It became the eleventh largest regional carrier in 1984 when it acquired Sun Aire Lines of Palm Springs, California, and had its initial public offering in 1986.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: In early 1986, SkyWest began codesharing as Western Express, a feeder service for Western Airlines at its Salt Lake City hub and other mainline Western destinations utilizing Embraer EMB 120 and Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner turboprop aircraft. Following the acquisition and merger of Western by Delta Air Lines in 1987, SkyWest then became a Delta Connection air carrier with code share service being flown on behalf of Delta to destinations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: From 1995 through 1997, SkyWest operated codeshare service for Continental Airlines as Continental Connection on flights out of Los Angeles that were also operated as Delta Connection.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: In 1997 SkyWest began operating as United Express in addition to Delta Connection on flights out of United Airlines hubs at SFO, LAX and DEN. SkyWest became United's largest United Express operation by the late 1990s. Flights were initially operated with Embraer EMB 120s and Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets. CRJ700s were added in the early 2000s and the Embraer 175 were added in 2014.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: A partnership with Continental was revived in 2003 as Continental Connection out of George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, but was discontinued in June 2005. This operation used Embraer EMB 120s.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: On August 15, 2005, Delta sold Atlantic Southeast Airlines to the newly incorporated SkyWest, Inc., for $425 million in cash. The acquisition was completed on September 8, 2005.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: In 2007 SkyWest began code sharing with Midwest Airlines at the carriers hubs in Milwaukee and Kansas City using Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets. In 2010 the code share with Midwest had ended and a new code share agreement began with AirTran Airways at Milwaukee. On September 6, 2011, AirTran Airways ended its codesharing and partnership with SkyWest. Shortly after, SkyWest began a codesharing agreement with US Airways to operate CRJ200 aircraft from US Airways' hub in Phoenix, Arizona.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: On August 4, 2010, SkyWest, Inc., announced that it planned to acquire ExpressJet and merge it with SkyWest subsidiary Atlantic Southeast Airlines in a deal reported to have a value of $133 million. The purchase aligned the largest commuter operations of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, who were in a merger process, and was approved on September 13, 2010, by the Federal Trade Commission.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: In May 2011, SkyWest replaced Horizon Air on six routes on the West Coast being operated for Alaska Airlines. The flights were based out of Seattle and Portland, and fly to several California cities including Fresno, Burbank, Santa Barbara and Ontario. Horizon Air had been operating these routes with Bombardier CRJ700 aircraft however Horizon retired this aircraft from its fleet. Alaska Airlines had a similar agreement with PenAir for Alaskan flights and Horizon Air for flights in the lower 48.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: On November 15, 2012, SkyWest began a capacity purchase agreement with American Airlines for 12 Bombardier CRJ200 aircraft operating as American Eagle from American's hub in Los Angeles, California. This code share agreement with American was greatly expanded over the next several years to include destinations from American's hubs at Chicago, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Phoenix. Larger CRJ700/900 aircraft were introduced to the American Eagle system in 2016 and the smaller CRJ200s were discontinued in 2020. Embraer 175 aircraft joined the American Eagle system in late 2021.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: On September 6, 2017, SkyWest Airlines reported that it has entered into aircraft purchase agreements and capacity purchase agreements to acquire and fly 15 new aircraft with Delta Air Lines and 10 new aircraft with Alaska Airlines. Of the 25 aircraft, 15 Embraer 175SC aircraft will fly under an agreement with Delta in a 70-seat configuration. The E175SC aircraft is built on the same airframe as other E175 aircraft and can be retrofitted to 76 seats in the future. The agreement with Alaska includes 10 Embraer 175 aircraft which will be configured with 76 seats, similar to aircraft SkyWest has previously placed into service with Alaska. Expected delivery dates of the 25 aircraft run from March 2018 through the end of 2018.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: On December 18, 2018, SkyWest, Inc., announced that it would sell ExpressJet Airlines to another airline holding company with ties to United Airlines, ExpressJet's sole client. The $70 million sale closed on January 23, 2019.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: SkyWest is owned by SkyWest, Inc., an airline holding company. SkyWest also provides contract ground handling services at airports across the United States.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: The vast majority of SkyWest's contracts are fixed-fee, with partner airlines paying a set amount for each flight operated, regardless of the number of passengers carried. The remaining 7% of flights are operated under a pro-rate contract, with SkyWest assuming all costs, setting fares, retaining all revenue from non-connecting passengers, and splitting the fares of connecting passengers on a pro-rated basis with the partner airline. SkyWest currently operates on a pro-rate basis on 68 routes across 10 hubs through agreements with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: As of early 2021, SkyWest operates to 50 smaller cities that are subsidized under the federal governments' Essential Air Service program. 36 are served under the United Express brand and 14 under the Delta Connection brand. Service to four other airports in Wyoming are subsidized by the state of Wyoming and operate under the United Express brand. All subsidized routes are flown with Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: Performance figures for SkyWest Airlines are fully incorporated into the accounts of its parent company, SkyWest, Inc.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: Figures that are available for SkyWest Airlines alone (referred to as 'SkyWest Airlines segment' data in the Group accounts), are shown below (as at year ending December 31):


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: , SkyWest flies to 250 destinations throughout North America across 47 states, 5 Canadian provinces and 10 Mexican cities.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: SkyWest has the largest fleet of any regional airline in the United States. Since 2015, the airline has exclusively operated jet aircraft. Most Skywest aircraft are painted in the livery of partner carriers, but SkyWest does have a small number of aircraft in its own livery that can be operated for any partner airline as needed.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: SkyWest is a major operator of the CRJ family of regional jets, and is the largest operator of the Bombardier CRJ200 and took delivery of the last CRJ ever built, a CRJ 900.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: Like most regional airlines in the United States, SkyWest is subject to scope clause requirements of its mainline carrier partners and their pilot unions; those requirements limit the size of the aircraft flown by a regional airline, measured in seat capacity. This has created three subgroups of aircraft flown by SkyWest: aircraft with no more than 50 seats, no more than 70 seats, and no more than 76 seats.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: As of April 2022, the SkyWest Airlines fleet consists of the following aircraft, categorized by seating capacity:


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: Note: the above chart only shows aircraft in scheduled service. It does not include aircraft that are: owned by SkyWest but leased to other operators, removed from service, transitioning between agreements with partners, used as spares, parked, or in the process of being parted out.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: SkyWest previously operated Embraer EMB 120 turboprop aircraft until 2015. The airline also operated Fairchild Swearingen Metroliner turboprops (Metro II and Metro III models). In 1984, SkyWest was operating the largest Metro propjet fleet in the world with 26 aircraft, and by 1991 the Metro fleet had grown to 35 aircraft with 15 Brasilia propjets also being operated. By 1994, the first jet, a Bombardier CRJ-100, was added to the fleet and by 1996 all of the Metro propjets had been retired as they were progressively replaced with Brasilia aircraft.


title: SkyWest Airlines

text: According to the airline's website, at its inception SkyWest was operating all flights in the early 1970s with small propeller-driven, piston-engine aircraft, including: