title: Jiang Ziya (film)

text: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the film's mainland Chinese release date was changed from 25 January 2020 to 1 October 2020.


title: Jiang Ziya (film)

text: The film was released on that date simultaneously in China, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore.


title: Jiang Ziya (film)

text: In China, pre-sale tickets totaled up to 90 million yuan (US$13.3 million). In just eight hours since its release, the film has grossed a total of 297 million yuan (US$43.7 million). The film surpassed its predecessor, "Ne Zha" (144 million yuan, or US$21.2 million) to become the highest grossing animated film opening day in China (308 million yuan, US$45.4 million). the film legged out fairly well, dropping to $303 million CNY on its second day, and $115 million CNY by its fifth, ending up with $1.037 billion CNY by the end of its first week. The film ended up with $1.6 billion CNY ($240 million USD), making it the second highest-grossing Chinese animated film ever, and the highest grossing animated film of 2020.


title: Jiang Ziya (film)

text: On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of .


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed the Saints, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the sport's premier league.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The club's name originates from its original home base in the bayside Melbourne suburb of St Kilda in which the club was established in 1873. The club also has strong links to the south-eastern suburb of Moorabbin, due to it being the long-standing location of their training ground.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda were one of five foundation teams of the Victorian Football Association (VFA), now known as the Victorian Football League (VFL), and later became one of eight foundation teams of the original Victorian Football League in 1897, now known as the AFL. Additionally, St Kilda are in an alignment with the Sandringham Football Club in the modern VFL.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda have won a single premiership to date, a one-point win in the 1966 VFL Grand Final against Collingwood. They have also qualified for the grand final on six additional occasions. The club has won the minor premiership three times, in 1965, 1997 and 2009.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda developed a reputation as perennial underachievers, much of this attributed to their record of finishing last more often than any other club in the league (27 times), having the longest-continuous premiership drought (56 years), as well as having the second-lowest all-time win percentage of any team still playing in the league (after the Gold Coast Suns).


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: On 14 March 1873, a meeting was held in Windsor to form the St Kilda Football Club. At this meeting, a provisional committee of men were elected. The formation was completed on 2 April 1873, and on 11 June 1873 another meeting was held to appoint the final committee. The club's original home ground was colloquially nicknamed the "Alpaca Paddock", which was a large fenced-off area at the St Kilda end of what is now known as Albert Park.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: During its formation years, the club underwent multiple mergers. In June 1873, it merged with the South Yarra Football Club and adopted the red from their colour scheme. In 1875, the club briefly merged with University to stay financially viable. In March 1888, a decision was made to amalgamate St Kilda with nearby Prahran Football Club. St Kilda retained their colours, name and ground as well as picking up a number of Prahran players. St Kilda competed as a senior club in the VFA from 1877 to 1879, 1881 to 1882 and 1886 to 1896 before accepting an invitation into the breakaway competition, the Victorian Football League, from 1897 onwards.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda were one of the eight clubs that took part in the inaugural VFL season in 1897. They made their debut in an away game against Collingwood on 8 May 1897 at Victoria Park. The club's home ground in the new league was the Junction Oval in the suburb of St Kilda, Victoria and the club's first home game was against Fitzroy.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda's early years in the VFL were not successful and, in 1899, they had the lowest score ever recorded in a VFL/AFL match, one point against Geelong. The club lost 48 consecutive games, recording their first win on 5 May 1900, against Melbourne. This match initially ended as a draw, but a protest launched by St Kilda saw the result overturned, resulting in a 1-point victory to St Kilda.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 1902, Charlie Baker became the first St Kilda player to be the league's leading goalkicker in a home and away season with 30 goals.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Six successive wins at the start of the 1907 season helped St Kilda to its first finals appearance, qualifying third with nine wins and eight losses. The club was beaten by eventual premiers Carlton. The following year, the club once again qualified in third position and were again eliminated by Carlton in the semi-finals.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The 1913 season saw major improvement with the team finishing fourth, eventually being defeated in the Grand Final by Fitzroy. Owing to the finals system at the time, Fitzroy, who had been defeated by St Kilda the previous week, were allowed to challenge St Kilda to a rematch the following week. St Kilda lost the rematch 7.14 (56) to 5.13 (43).


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Owing to World War I, St Kilda went into recess in 1916 and 1917. Just prior to their recession, the club temporarily changed their official colours to include yellow in place of white. This was done to avoid association with the German Empire, who had the same colours as St Kilda at the time. The club resumed normal operation in 1918 and fared well initially, qualifying for finals and being defeated in the semi-finals. However, the following years saw St Kilda consistently struggle with poor form. The club qualified for finals once between 1919 and 1938, although during this time period Colin Watson became the first St Kilda player to win the league's highest individual award, winning the 1925 Brownlow Medal. Additionally in 1936, forward Bill Mohr kicked 101 goals, winning the leading goalkicker award and becoming the first St Kilda player to kick 100 goals or more in a season.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The club qualified for finals in 1939, finishing the season in fourth after a record run of eight consecutive victories. The team had its first finals win since 1913, against Richmond, but were eliminated in the preliminary final by Collingwood.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda won three of the first four games early in the 1940 season and were on top of the ladder after Round 4, however, the club went on to finish second last. Despite prominent players emerging for the club such as Harold Bray, Keith Drinan, Peter Bennett and later Neil Roberts, St Kilda were rarely competitive for the duration of the 1940s.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The 1950s were initially as uncompetitive for St Kilda as the prior decade. The club failed to make the finals for the first half of the decade, and won three wooden spoons over the period. At the end of 1955, Alan Killigrew was appointed as the club's coach. As part of Killigrew's plan to reinvigorate the club, 17 players were removed from the club's list - one of the most substantial list turnovers in VFL history. Between 1957 and 1959, St Kilda won three consecutive Brownlow Medals. The 1959 winner, Verdun Howell, tied with Bob Skilton in the Brownlow Medal count. At the time, Skilton was awarded the medal on count-back. The league later decided to award a Brownlow Medal to any player who was eligible to win who tied on the same number of votes as a winner who won on count-back – with Howell receiving the Brownlow retrospectively.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 1958, St Kilda won the Consolation Night Series competition, a competition that was played between clubs that had failed to qualify for the premiership season finals series. St Kilda defeated Carlton 16.13 (109) to 15.11 (101).


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 1961, after finishing sixth in 1960, Allan Jeans was appointed coach. In his first season as coach, St Kilda qualified for the final four for the first time since 1939. The club lost to Footscray in the first semi-final. The club qualified for finals again in 1963, but was eliminated in the semi-finals again. In 1965, St Kilda finished the home and away season as minor premiers for the first time in the club's history. St Kilda defeated Collingwood in the second semi-final to progress into the grand final. The club finished second in the 1965 premiership season, being defeated by Essendon in the 1965 VFL Grand Final.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Following their successful 1965 season, St Kilda qualified for finals in consecutive years for the first time since 1907–08. The club was defeated in the second semi-final by Collingwood - however, the club defeated Essendon in the preliminary final in to qualify for the 1966 VFL Grand Final. St Kilda defeated Collingwood by a single point to win their first premiership in 68 seasons.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Despite continued finals appearances in the early 1970s, St Kilda was unable to win a second premiership - being defeated by the eventual premiers in each finals series between 1970 and 1973. During this 4 year period, St Kilda qualified for the 1971 VFL Grand Final. Despite leading by 20 points at the beginning of the last quarter, they were defeated by Hawthorn by 7 points.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: 1974 saw St Kilda decline to the lower half of the ladder for the first time since the 1950s, finishing tenth. Allan Jeans retired from coaching two years later after 16 seasons coaching St Kilda, citing burnout as his reason for retirement.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Following the appointment of Lindsay Fox as club president in 1979, arrangements were made to address the club's withstanding debt of 1.45 million dollars. Many senior players and Allan Jeans accepted a deal to be paid 22.5 cents for each dollar they were owed. Additionally, non-football creditors received 7.5 cents for each dollar owed. The club was ultimately able to settle with its creditors for $195,000. Despite these efforts, continuing financial pressures and defeats saw the club remain in the bottom three for every season between 1979 and 1986.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 1987, Tony Lockett won the Coleman Medal for leading goalkicker in the home and away season, the fourth St Kilda player to win the league's leading goalkicker award. Lockett also became the seventh St Kilda player to win the Brownlow Medal. He remains the only person in league history to win both the league's best and fairest Brownlow Medal and the league's leading goalkicker Coleman Medal award in the same season.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The league was officially renamed the Australian Football League prior to the start of the 1990 premiership season.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: A competitive 1991 AFL season saw St Kilda qualify for a finals series for the first time since 1973, qualifying fourth at the end of the home and away rounds. However, the club failed to win a final, being defeated by Geelong. St Kilda finally broke through the following year, winning its first finals series match since 1973 against Collingwood.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda won the 1996 Ansett Australia Cup competition, also known as the pre-season cup. The team defeated Carlton in the final 20.10 (130) to 10.12 (72) in front of 66,888 people at Waverley Park. Nicky Winmar became the first St Kilda player to win the Michael Tuck Medal for best player on the ground in the 1996 Ansett Australia Cup Final. Despite this success, the club failed to make the finals.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In the 1997 season, St Kilda qualified for the finals series in first position at the end of the home and away rounds with 15 wins and 7 losses, winning the second minor premiership in the club's history. St Kilda defeated Brisbane in the qualifying finals and North Melbourne in the preliminary finals to move through to the grand final. St Kilda finished second after being beaten in the 1997 AFL Grand Final by Adelaide.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The 1998 season initially appeared to be equally strong for the club. After Round 14 of the season, St Kilda was on top of the ladder in Round 14 with eleven wins and three losses and were tipped as warm favourites for the premiership. However, the team's performance declined severely, losing six of their final eight matches to from first to sixth at the conclusion of the premiership season. After qualifying for the finals in consecutive seasons, St Kilda were defeated narrowly by Sydney in the qualifying finals and then eliminated comprehensively by Melbourne in the semi-finals.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: During the early part of the decade, St Kilda struggled, winning only two matches and drawing one to finish with the wooden spoon in 2000. The following two years were similar, finishing second-last in both seasons. During this period, St Kilda recruited players such as Justin Koschitzke, Nick Riewoldt, Nick Dal Santo and Brendon Goddard who were mainstays of the team over the following decade.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 2004, St Kilda won a club record of 10 consecutive matches from round 1 to round 10. The club returned to finals, eventually being defeated by eventual premiers Port Adelaide in a preliminary final. The following year saw a similar result, with the club being defeated in a preliminary final by Sydney.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The 2006 AFL season saw the club finish in sixth position at the end of the home and away rounds and qualify for a third successive finals series. St Kilda were eliminated by Melbourne in the elimination finals. During this season, Robert Harvey broke the all-time games record for St Kilda when he played in his 324th premiership season match in Round 7. On 11 October 2006, Ross Lyon was appointed as the new head coach for St Kilda, replacing Grant Thomas.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: After missing finals in 2007, St Kilda again qualified for the finals in 2008. A 108-point win over Essendon in the final home and away round saw the club take fourth position for the finals series. St Kilda were defeated by Geelong in the qualifying finals, defeated Collingwood in the semi-finals and were eliminated by the eventual premiers, Hawthorn, in the preliminary final.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda's 2009 season is considered one of the most dominant home and away seasons in AFL history. The club won 20 games - the best ever home and away record for the club - as well as winning 19 games in a row before being defeated by Essendon. In Round 14, St Kilda defeated Geelong by six points, with both teams being undefeated prior to the match. The game broke multiple records, including highest ever crowd for an AFL match at Docklands Stadium (54,444). The game was sold out two weeks in advance, causing a change in timeslot (moving from 2:10 pm to 3:10 pm) so that the Seven Network could broadcast the game live in Victoria.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda eventually progressed to that year's grand final, when they were defeated by Geelong by 12 points. Following the grand final, Ross Lyon signed a three-year extension to his coaching contract until the end of the 2012 season.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The following year, St Kilda experienced a similar level of success, qualifying for the finals in third position. The club recorded their first win against Geelong in a finals match in the 2nd qualifying final and eventually qualified for the Grand Final against Collingwood. The match ended in a draw – the third drawn grand final in VFL/AFL history. St Kilda midfielder Lenny Hayes won the Norm Smith Medal for the player judged best on ground in the match, making him the first St Kilda player to ever win the medal. Owing to the draw, a second grand final match was played the following week. In the grand final replay, Collingwood won by 56 points.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In December 2010, the club was granted ownership of the Linen House Centre, a new training and administration property in the City of Frankston at Seaford valued at approximate $11 million. Following the season, the club announced a record net profit of $7.467 million for season 2010. St Kilda also achieved a new record membership for a single season and were the 2nd most-watched team on television, rating 22,777,092 viewers across the season.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Following a loss in their 2011 elimination final, Ross Lyon left the club, despite one year remaining on his contract, to coach . Former Sydney, Fremantle and West Coast player and Collingwood assistant coach Scott Watters was announced as Lyon's replacement in October 2011.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The years after the departure of Ross Lyon did not prove fruitful for St Kilda. They failed to make the finals in 2012 for the first time since 2007 and continued poor performances ultimately culminated in the club finishing last in 2014. Despite this, the 2013 season marked a historic moment for St Kilda and the AFL, when St Kilda hosted the first premiership match outside of Australia. Following the 2013 season, senior coach Scott Watters was sacked. On 14 November, former Port Adelaide director of coaching Alan Richardson was announced as new senior coach for the next three years.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Following further poor performances in the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Richardson was advised that his contract would not be renewed for 2020. As a result, he resigned from his position as senior coach. Assistant coach Brett Ratten took over as caretaker coach. After winning three of the season's last six games, Ratten was appointed permanent senior coach in September 2019. During the 2019 trade period, four high-profile players requested a trade to St Kilda and many discussions were held with other players looking to move.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In the shortened 2020 season, the club managed 10 of a possible 17 wins to qualify for their first finals series since 2011.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 2017, following the inaugural AFL Women's (AFLW) season, St Kilda was among eight clubs that applied for licences to enter the competition from 2019 onwards. In September 2017, the club was announced as one of four clubs to receive a licence to join the competition in 2020.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The club's on-field nickname is the "Saints", usage of which dates back to as early as the 1870s. Many clubs' early nicknames were derived from an abbreviation or demonym of the club's suburb, but St Kilda is unique among the AFL clubs in now utilising this as its official nickname. Dating back to as early as the 1890s, and to as late as the 1950s, the "Seagulls" was also in use as a nickname, but this has fallen out of use.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda's home guernsey has three vertical panels of red, white and black on the front, with the club crest located on the left breast of the guernsey. The guernsey has a plain black back, white ribbing and white numbers. The away guernsey is identical to the home guernsey.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The clash guernsey is similar to the other two guernseys, but has two extra white panels on either side of the red and black panels. The guernsey has a white back, with the tri-colour panels continuing below the number, it retains the white ribbing of the other guernseys, and has black numbers.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda has used multiple different logos since it was formed in 1873. Prior to 1976, no clubs in the VFL used logos in an official capacity.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Many early club logos were printed in the same shield design frame and had each club's individual colours, name and design in them. St Kilda used a consistent design in the 1970s and 1980s, featuring a stick figure bearing a halo, holding the competition's logo. In 1989, just prior to the league officially becoming the AFL, the club used a logo with a red white and black vertically striped design with the goal and behind posts on it, with a stick figure attempting a mark on it with a halo above its head, with the league logo and the club crest on top of either behind post. The VFL league logo was replaced with the AFL logo when the competition changed names in 1990.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The St Kilda Football Club crest first appeared officially on the jumper in 1933, after existing at the club for quite some time beforehand in basic design form. The crest became an iconic feature of the club's jumper – a well-known and recognisable symbol of the club. The crest also includes the club's motto, "Fortius Quo Fidelius", which is usually translated as "Strength through Loyalty". As with the nickname "Saints", the club crest has no religious associations. A logo change before the start of the 1995 season saw the club make the decision to use the official club crest as the club's official logo in the league.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The club song is an adaption of "When The Saints Go Marching In". The song was recorded in 1972 by the Fable Singers and released as a single. The song was recorded with all copyright and royalty agreements in place and the AFL has permission to broadcast it publicly at each St Kilda match. Prior to 1965, when St Kilda played at the Junction Oval, the club's song was an adaptation of "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside".


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda's first home ground in the Victorian Football League was Junction Oval. The club used this ground until 1964, when it moved to Moorabbin Oval. The oval was formerly known as the St Kilda Cricket Ground and was originally established as the home of the St Kilda Cricket Club in 1856.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: By the late 1950s, the St Kilda Football Club sought to move its playing base away from Junction Oval as it wanted to operate its own venue rather than continue being a tenant of another club. In 1959, the club made enquiries about a lease to play at and develop Elsternwick Park in the neighbouring suburb of Elsternwick, but no deal was signed.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: During 2014, St Kilda became involved in discussions with the Victorian government to return as a co-tenant at Junction Oval alongside Cricket Victoria. As part of the proposals, St Kilda would utilise the oval as a training and administrative base, with the site to receive a second oval to accommodate the club. This proposal was later rejected by the Victorian government, and Junction Oval was converted into a full-time cricket venue as of 2015.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Moorabbin Oval has been St Kilda's training and administrative base since 1965, excluding an 8 year period between 2010 and 2018.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In March 1964, the club arranged a deal to move its playing, training and administrative base to Moorabbin Oval on Linton St, Moorabbin, with all home games at the new venue starting the 1965 season. The club signed a lease agreement in August 1964, giving the club access to all Moorabbin Oval facilities for 75 years, provided it completed required works at the ground to establish a social club, training facilities and spectator seating on the site in time for the 1965 Premiership season. The club had to invest a set amount, combined with funds from the local council, and complete the required works by a deadline date to ensure the agreement was ratified and the purchase was complete. Loans provided to St Kilda by the Council were to be repaid over the subsequent lease period.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Following the club's move away from using Moorabbin Oval as a home venue for playing games, it was retained as an administrative and training facility for the club. In 2007, the relationship between the club and the City of Kingston, who governs the suburb of Moorabbin, deteriorated. As a result, St Kilda announced that it would move its primary administrative and training base away from Moorabbin. After the 2010 season, the club temporarily moved to a new facility was built at Belvedere Park, in Seaford. During this time period, the club continued to manage Moorabbin Oval, using it as a retail, museum, entertainment and occasional training venue.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 2018, St Kilda returned to using Moorabbin Oval as their primary administrative and training facility, as part of a two-stage redevelopment deal, costing approximately 30 million dollars. Moorabbin Oval also serves as the primary home ground for the Sandringham Dragons and the Southern Football League as well as being the administrative centre for football development in the south-east.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Waverley Park was opened by the Victorian Football League in 1970 under the name "VFL Park". The ground was constructed by the league for a variety of reasons, with the primary reason being the fact the ground would be owned by the VFL. As the majority of teams in the competition at the time did not have control over their home grounds, they were unable to exercise control over various aspects, such as ground drainage and ticket prices.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Since the 1960s, the AFL had been embarked on a strategy of ground rationalisation. During the 1990s, as part of this strategy, St Kilda opted to take a deal to move home games to Waverley Park from 1993 and renovate the ageing Moorabbin Oval for training, administration and social club purposes. The club voted in favour of the move in a weighted vote of members in July 1992. The club received $430,000 upfront and $120,000 per year for three years from the AFL's grounds rationalisation funds, which helped to clear some of the club's debt.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 1999, the AFL announced that it would not schedule any further matches at Waverley Park, and that the stadium would be sold off to pay for the under-construction Docklands Stadium.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 2000, St Kilda moved to a new playing home at Docklands Stadium following the discontinuation of Waverley Park as a scheduled ground.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Docklands Stadium was conceived as a multi-purpose venue to be used for Australian rules football, soccer, rugby and other general entertainment events. The AFL sought to replace Waverly Park, which would have been nearly 30 years old in 2000. The decision to build a new stadium was supported by the AFL due to issues regarding accessibility and Waverly Park, with the league stating there would be no improvement to the situation if upgrades were made to the stadium, and any upgrades would result in little financial return. The stadium was designated to be in the Docklands region of Melbourne, behind Southern Cross Station, and was designed to hold 52,000 people. The stadium cost approximately $460 million dollars to construct. Exclusive ownership of the ground was later purchased by the AFL in October 2016.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: Due to Waverly Park being disused following the construction of Docklands Stadium, St Kilda, alongside fellow tenants Hawthorn, were forced to find a new home ground. As part of the initial arrangement, both clubs were planned to play a significant number of games at the stadium, however, only St Kilda would move to the ground. St Kilda set the attendance record for the ground in 2009, when 54,444 people attended a match against Geelong. Other former club players also hold records at the venue, with Lenny Hayes holding the record for most games played at the venue, and Nick Riewoldt holding the record for most goals kicked.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda's primary administrative and training base from late 2010 until 2018 was the 'Linen House Centre' at Belvedere Park in Seaford.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The creation of the base came about due to disagreements between St Kilda and the City of Kingston's council regarding proposed upgrades to their Moorabbin facilities, which included the implementation of 80 poker machines. The club subsequently negotiated a deal with the neighbouring City of Frankston, to develop Frankston Park into its new training base. However, when proposed costs blew out by $5 million dollars, a new agreement was formed between the two entities. In this new deal, the club would develop Belvedere Park in conjunction with the Frankston City Council, the Victorian state government and the AFL. The cost of developing the facilities was valued at approximately $11 million dollars. The centre received its name as part of a naming rights sponsorship deal with Linen House.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The club signed a lease on the facility until 2059. The club, however, chose to relocate back to Moorabbin Oval as its primary administrative and training base by 2018. As a result, in December 2020, St Kilda made a proposal to the Frankston City Council to repurpose the facility as a centre to be used by the wider Frankston community.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda operated its own reserves team from 1919 to 2000. From 1919 to 1991 the VFL/AFL operated a reserves competition and, from 1992 to 1999, a "de facto" AFL reserves competition was run by the Victorian State Football League. St Kilda fielded a reserves team in both of these competitions, allowing players who were not selected for the senior team to play for St Kilda in the lower grade. During that time, the St Kilda reserves team won three premierships (1942, 1943 and 1961). Following the demise of the AFL reserves competition, the St Kilda reserves team competed in the new Victorian Football League in the 2000 season before the team was dissolved at the end of the year.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 2001, St Kilda entered a reserves affiliation with existing VFL club Springvale (which moved to Cranbourne and was renamed Casey in 2006). Under the affiliation, reserves players for St Kilda played VFL football with Springvale/Casey. The affiliation ended after the 2008 season and St Kilda then entered an equivalent affiliation with Sandringham which it still maintains as of 2022.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda had announced its intention to end its affiliation with Sandringham and re-establish its own reserves team in the VFL from the 2017 season after a redevelopment of Moorabbin Oval was completed; but the club ultimately extended and expanded its affiliation with Sandringham. From 2017, St Kilda has had a greater involvement in the operation of the VFL club and, from 2018, Sandringham plays three games per year at Moorabbin Oval in St Kilda colours.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda has historically had a large fanbase around the Bayside suburbs of Melbourne, such as St Kilda, with one in five AFL club members in the region being a St Kilda member. The club also has strong support in the south-east regions of Melbourne. Politically, a poll of the club's supporter base indicated a small first party voting preference (39.7%) for the Coalition over the Labor Party (36.9%). The suburb of St Kilda has a significant Jewish community and the club has a strong following from this community.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In September 2012, St Kilda announced that they had signed a three-year partnership with the Wellington City Council to play an annual match in New Zealand on Anzac Day (25 April) at Westpac Stadium as part of the day's commemorations. As a result of the partnership, St Kilda and the Sydney Swans became the first two AFL clubs to play for premiership points outside of Australia. Although the partnership was extended by three years in 2013, a review conducted in 2015 saw the conclusion of the partnership.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In 2018, AFL New Zealand and St Kilda both expressed interest in signing a new partnership in the future with matches hosted in Auckland rather than Wellington.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: In October 2018, St Kilda signed a three-year deal to replace as 's opponents in their annual match played in China. The three-year deal was expected to earn St Kilda more than $2 million in addition to any commercial earnings. In 2019, 4.01 million people watched the match between the two clubs. Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, the match was not played in the 2020 or 2021 seasons.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: At a special function in 2003, the St Kilda Football Club Team of the Century was announced. Darrel Baldock, who captained the 1966 grand final team, was named as captain and Allan Jeans, the only premiership-winning coach of the club, was named as coach. Ian Stewart was also named a member of the AFL Team of the Century.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: St Kilda Football Club's Hall of Fame was established in 2003. Club identities, past or present, are selected and inducted into the hall of fame by a committee. The club has inducted 48 members into its hall of fame since its inception.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: An All-Australian team is considered a "best-of" selection of players for each calendar year, with each player usually represented in their own team position. The All-Australian teams are selected by a panel.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: The concept of an All-Australian "team of the year" was first pioneered by "Sporting Life Magazine" in 1947, which created a team each year until 1955. No St Kilda players featured in these teams.


title: St Kilda Football Club

text: This concept was later adopted by the interstate carnivals and the Australian Football League. All teams from the interstate carnivals and the AFL have been endorsed as official by governing bodies of the sport, such as the Australian National Football Council and the AFL, whilst teams selected by "Sporting Life" are not recognised.


The Argentina national under-20 football team is the representative of Argentina in FIFA-sponsored tournaments that pertain to that age level.


title: Argentina national under-20 football team

text: Argentina is the most successful nation in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, winning the competition a record six times. The team has participated in 16 of the 22 World Championship events, since the 1979 edition, which they won. Argentina has also won five South American Youth Championships.


text: Many of Argentina's top players came through the ranks of the youth teams, including Sergio Agüero, Pablo Aimar, Nicolás Burdisso, Esteban Cambiasso, Ángel Di María, Ramón Díaz, Fernando Gago, Diego Maradona, Jorge Burruchaga, Javier Mascherano, Lionel Messi, Juan Román Riquelme, Oscar Ruggeri, Gabriel Calderón, Sergio Goycochea, Sergio Romero, Maxi Rodríguez, Luis Islas, Luciano Galletti, Juan Pablo Sorín, Franco Costanzo, Walter Samuel, Javier Saviola, Jorge Borelli, Leonardo Biagini, Diego Simeone, Carlos Tevez, Erik Lamela, Éver Banega, Manuel Lanzini and Pablo Piatti, among others.


text: Argentina did not participate of the first FIFA World Youth Championship in Tunisia, but appeared at the next edition in Japan. The team, coached by César Luis Menotti with the help of Ernesto Duchini (who had previously chosen the players and working with them), won the tournament, showing a fine style of play consisting of high possession of the ball, diverse kinds of passes, dribbling, a solid defense and a powerful offensive line that scored a total of 20 goals in the tournament. Diego Maradona and Ramón Díaz were the team's most notable players. The tournament was also the first official championship played by Maradona in a national team. After his frustration of 1978, Maradona made the most of his performances during the tournament, being the best player of the team due to his passing moves, dribblings to rivals, his accuracy to shot free kicks and the six goals he scored.


text: Argentina debuted in Group B, thrashing Indonesia 5–0 in their first match, beating Yugoslavia 1–0 in the second and defeating Poland in the third match, 4–1. The youth squad finished first in the group with ten goals scored and only one conceded. En route to the final, Argentina hammered Algeria 5–0, then defeated arch-rival Uruguay 2–0. In the final against the Soviet Union on 7 September, the team won 3–1, becoming the World Youth Champions for the first time. Ramón Díaz won the Golden Shoe as the topscorer, with eight goals, while Maradona was awarded the Golden Ball as best player of the tournament.


text: Apart from Maradona and Díaz, other notable players of the team were Juan Simón, Hugo Alves, Gabriel Calderón, Juan Barbas and Osvaldo Escudero. That team is still regarded as one of the best Argentine national squads ever.


text: Argentina attended the next tournament, hosted by Australia in 1981. They was defeated by hosts Australia (2–1), then achieving a draw with England (1–1) and beating Cameroon 2–1. Argentina did not qualify to the next stage, however, earning only three points after three matches played.


text: The team made a much better performance at the 1983 championship in Mexico, reaching the final with Brazil. On the first round, Argentina thrashed China 5–0, then widely defeated Austria (3–0) and beat Czechoslovakia in the last game, 2–0. The team finished first in the group with zero goals conceded. In the quarter-finals, Argentina defeated Netherlands 2–1 (after Marco van Basten had opened the scored for the "Oranje") and Poland 1–0 in the semi-finals. On 19 June 1983, Argentina played the final against Brazil, falling 1–0 at the Estadio Azteca. The team was coached by Carlos Pachamé, designated by the Senior team coach, Carlos Bilardo, to work with youth players.


text: Some of the players of that team were goalkeeper Luis Islas, defenders Fabián Basualdo, Jorge Theiler, Carlos Enrique; midfielders Mario Vanemerak, Oscar Acosta and Roberto Zárate; and forwards Claudio García, Jorge Luis Gabrich and Oscar Dertycia.


text: Argentina did not qualify for the 1985 and 1987 championships (played in the Soviet Union and Chile respectively), but the team participated in the tournament held in Saudi Arabia as one of the three qualified in the South American championship. Argentina was defeated by Spain in the first match. The team recovered winning the second game to Norway 2–0, but although it lost the last match to Iraq, Argentina qualified for the second round. In the knockout stage, the team was beaten 1–0 by Brazil.


text: For the 1991 championship held in Portugal, Argentina was coached by Reinaldo Merlo, who was designated by then-senior coach Alfio Basile as it had been in the precedent era.


text: Argentina made its worst campaign in youth tournaments, finishing last in their group with only one point earned from three matches. The team lost to South Korea 1–0 in the first match, then were defeated by hosts Portugal 3–0 in a match where three Argentine players (Claudio París, Mauricio Pellegrino and Juan Esnáider) were sent off for their rough play which culminated in a brawl on the pitch between both teams. As a result, FIFA punished the Argentina Football Association (AFA) with a two-year suspension, as well as a one-year suspension for Esnáider and a two-year suspension for Norberto Recassens (one of the representatives of the AFA), both of whom insulted the referees in their dressing room at the end of the match.


text: Some of the players that took part of that team were goalkeeper Leonardo Díaz, defenders Diego Cocca, Mauricio Pochettino and Pellegrino; midfielders París, Walter Paz Hugo Morales and Christian Bassedas; and forwards Marcelo Delgado and Esnáider.


text: Because it was banned, Argentina did not participate in the 1993 World Cup in Australia. The Argentina Football Association (AFA) had opted to name a new coach entirely independent from the senior team coach as had been until then. Selected was José Pékerman, who, despite not having much previous experience, convinced the AFA to hire him.


text: The good results were immediate: Argentina won the first World Cup contested with Pékerman as coach, held in 1995 in Qatar. In the first stage, Argentina defeated the Netherlands 1–0, then lost to Portugal 1–0 followed by a 4–2 win over Honduras, securing a second-place finish and progression to the quarter-finals, where they thrashed Cameroon by 4–0. In semi-finals, Argentina beat Spain 3–0 then defeated Brazil 2–0 in the final, exacting revenge from the 1983 tournament where the Brazilians won.


text: Some of its most notable players were Juan Pablo Sorín, Joaquín Irigoytía, Federico Domínguez, Mariano Juan, Ariel Ibagaza, Leonardo Biagini and Walter Coyette.


text: Argentina won its third title at the 1997 championship, hosted by Malaysia. The team defeated Hungary 3–0 and Canada 2–1, but lost to Australia 4–3. Argentina passed to the round of 16 where they defeated England 2–1. In quarter-finals, Argentina eliminated Brazil after winning 2–0, then beat the Republic of Ireland 1–0 in the semi-finals. In the final match, played on 5 July 1997, the squad defeated Uruguay 2–1 to win its third championship. The team also received the FIFA Fair Play Award in recognition to the good behaviour showed on the field.


text: Argentina showed the talent of notable players such as Leonardo Franco, Fabián Cubero, Leandro Cufré, Walter Samuel, Diego Placente, Esteban Cambiasso, Pablo Aimar, Juan Román Riquelme and Bernardo Romeo, many of them with already many matched played in the Primera División when the tournament began.


text: The performance during the 1999 World Championship in Nigeria was not so good. Argentina finished 3rd of 4 in the group, winning over Kazakhstan 1–0 at the debut but with a game lost to Ghana (1-0) and a 0–0 draw with Croatia. On the round of 16, Argentina was largely defeated at the hands Mexico by 4-1 and eliminated from the tournament.


text: In 2001 Argentina hosted its first Youth Championship. The team won its fourth title, the third championship in seven years. Argentina debuted in the José Amalfitani Stadium (the venue where the team played all its games in Buenos Aires) defeating Finland 1–0. The next game Argentina thrashed Egypt 7–1 (with three goals by Javier Saviola), and closed its participation in Group A by smashing Jamaica by 5–1. In the knockout round, Argentina successively eliminated China (2–1), France (3–1) and Paraguay (5–0), winning the tournament with a convincing 3–0 over Ghana at the final, played on 8 July at Vélez Sársfield. Argentina won its fourth youth title unbeaten, scoring 27 goals in 7 matches, conceding 4. River Plate's forward Javier Saviola was awarded with the Golden Shoe (as the topscorer with 11) and Golden Ball as the best player of the tournament. Likewise, Argentina was awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award for the second-straight time. Apart from the multi-awarded Saviola, the national squad had a powerful team with most of its players being experienced playing at the domestic first division, notably Nicolás Burdisso, Leonardo Ponzio, Julio Arca, Leandro Romagnoli, Mauro Rosales, Andrés D'Alessandro and Maxi Rodríguez.


text: The 2001 championship was the last title won with Pékerman as coach, closing a brilliant era that brought back the prestige to Argentine football.


text: After the departure of Pékerman, former goalkeeper Hugo Tocalli was designed to replace him. With Tocalli as coach, Argentina made its debut at 2003 championship defeating Spain 2–1. The team also beat Uzbekistan (by the same score) and Mali (3–1). Argentina finished first and unbeaten the first stage. In the round of 16, the national squad beat Egypt 2–1, then defeated United States 2-1 but Argentina lost to Brazil 1–0 at the semifinals. The team was also defeated by Colombia in the 3rd place match so Argentina finished in the 4th position of the general table. Forward Fernando Cavenaghi was the topscorer of the tournament with 4 goals.


text: In 2004, Pékerman was appointed to coach the Argentina senior team ahead of 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifying. One year later, Tocalli left the youth team to join Pékerman's coaching staff on the senior squad, so Francisco Ferraro was designated coach, won its fifth title at the World championship hosted by the Netherlands. Argentina lost to the United States in the first match, won against Egypt (2–1) and Germany (1–0) to qualify for the next stage. From the round of 16 to the semi-finals, Argentina successively eliminated Colombia (2–1), Spain (3–1) and Brazil (2–1) reaching the finals for the sixth time. On 2 July 2005, Argentina defeated Nigeria 2–1 in the final to win its fifth youth championship. Both goals were scored by Lionel Messi from the penalty spot. Messi was the leader of the team and his magical performances resulted in him winning both the top scorer and best player's awards.


text: In the 2005 team's squad, Lionel Messi was the star player and had already been a La Liga champion with FC Barcelona in the 2004–05 season. Other notable players for Argentina in that year were goalkeeper Oscar Ustari; defenders Ezequiel Garay and Julio Barroso, midfielders Pablo Zabaleta, Fernando Gago and Lucas Biglia; and forwards Sergio Agüero and Neri Cardozo.


text: Two years later, the team won its second-straight title at the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, hosted by Canada. After a 0–0 draw in the debut with Czech Republic, Argentina smashed Panama 6–0 and defeated North Korea 1–0 to secure qualification to the second round. In the knockout stage, Argentina eliminated Poland (3–1), followed by Mexico (1–0) and Chile (3–0) en route to the final. In the final, played on 22 July, Argentina won its sixth title after defeating the Czech Republic 3–1. Sergio Agüero, the top scorer of the championship with six goals, was also awarded the Gold Ball as best player. Other notable players on the squad were goalkeeper Sergio Romero; midfielders Éver Banega, Maxi Moralez and Ángel Di María; and forwards Mauro Zárate and Pablo Piatti.


text: In addition to team victories, Argentine players have won many individual awards at FIFA World Youth Cups.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The Mississippi State Bulldogs football program represents Mississippi State University in the sport of American football. The Bulldogs compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). They also have won one SEC championship in 1941 and a division championship in 1998. The Bulldogs have 25 postseason bowl appearances. The program has produced 38 All-Americans (2 consensus), 171 All-SEC selections, and 124 NFL players (11 first-round draft picks). The Bulldogs’ home stadium, Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field, is the second oldest in the NCAA Division I FBS.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State (then known as the Mississippi A&M Aggies) first fielded a football team in 1895. The team was coached by W. M. Matthews. During his one-season tenure, Matthews posted an overall record of zero wins and two losses (0–2). He is also credited with the selection of what became the official school colors, maroon and white, prior to the Aggies first game ever played at Union University.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Daniel S. Martin left rival Ole Miss and served as the Aggies' head football coach from 1903–1906. His final record in Starkville was 10–11–3. W. D. Chadwick led the Aggies from 1909–1913. His final record was 29–12–2. During his five-season tenure, Mississippi A&M appeared in and won its first bowl game, the 1911 Bacardi Bowl in Havana, Cuba. Fullback Dutch Reule was selected All-Southern. The 1911 team was also referred to as 'The Bull Dogs'. Earl C. Hayes replaced Chadwick and led Mississippi A&M to 15–8–2 record from 1914–1916. Hunter Kimball received the most votes of any All-Southern halfback in 1914. The Mississippi Legislature renamed Mississippi A&M as "Mississippi State College" in 1925 and the mascot was changed from Aggies to Maroons in 1932. Ralph Sasse enjoyed success as Mississippi State's head football coach. After leading Mississippi State to a 20–10–2 record in three years and an appearance in the 1937 Orange Bowl, a loss, Sasse stunned the students and players by resigning from his head coach's duties, following a doctor's orders after a sudden nervous breakdown. Allyn McKeen left Memphis to become head football coach at Mississippi State, where he compiled a 65–19–3 record in ten seasons. In 1940, he was named Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year after leading Mississippi State to its only undefeated season in school history and its second Orange Bowl appearance, a victory. The following year, 1941, his Maroons squad captured the first and only Southeastern Conference championship in program history. McKeen retired from coaching in 1948 after being fired by Athletic Director Dudy Noble because of a 4–4–1 season. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach in 1991. Mississippi State did not field a football team in 1943. Arthur Morton left VMI to become MSU's head football coach after McKeen's retirement. Morton's Maroons posted struggling records of 0–8–1, 4–5 and 4–5 for a cumulative record of 8–18–1 before Morton's firing. Murray Warmath came to Mississippi State from his post as line coach at Army and posted records of 5–4 and 5–2–3 for a cumulative two-season record of 10–6–3. Having coached only two seasons in Starkville, Warmath resigned after the 1953 season to take the job of University of Minnesota head coach. Darrell Royal came to Mississippi State from the CFL's Edmonton Eskimos and put up back-to-back 6–4 records in his two seasons as the Maroons head football coach. Royal resigned after the 1955 season to accept the head football coach position at Washington.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Wade Walker was promoted from line coach to head coach following Royal's departure. Walker compiled a 22–32–2 record over his 6-season tenure. In 1958 the Legislature renamed the university as Mississippi State University. The Mississippi State Maroons posted a lackluster 2–7–1 record in 1959. The following year, Walker's Maroons improved to 5–5, but students, fans and alumni demanded his ouster. University president Dean W. Colvard relented and fired Walker as football coach, but kept him on as athletic director, a post he kept until 1966. Mississippi State changed its mascot from Maroons to Bulldogs in 1960. However, "Bulldogs" had been used unofficially since at least 1905, and the nickname had long been interchangeable with "Maroons." Paul Davis was promoted from assistant coach to head coach following Walker's firing. His teams went 20–38–2 overall and 9–22–2 in the Southeastern Conference in Davis' five seasons. The Bulldogs had a 7–2–2 record in 1963, earning its first postseason bowl game since 1939. The team finished the season with a 16–12 victory over North Carolina State in front of 8,309 fans at the 1963 Liberty Bowl played in a bitter cold Philadelphia. Mississippi State was able to convert two botched North Carolina State punts into touchdowns, and a 13–0 lead at the first quarter. United Press International named Davis the SEC Coach of the Year for the 1963 season. After a lackluster 2–8 record in 1966, MSU terminated Davis, as well as athletic director Wade Walker.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Charles Shira, who had been defensive coordinator for the University of Texas under former Bulldogs head coach Darrell Royal, was named to fill the head coaching position as well as the vacant post of athletic director. In his first season, his team won two games, followed by none the following year. Mississippi State improved to 3–7 in 1969. That year, Shira served as the coach for the Gray squad in the Blue-Gray Classic. Mississippi State posted a surprising six-win season in 1970, including a victory over rival No. 10 Ole Miss. For the accomplishment, the SEC named Shira its Coach of the Year. In 1969, Shira became the first MSU football coach to coach a black player, Frank Dowsing. In 1972, having compiled a record of 16–45–2, Shira resigned as head coach to focus on his duties as athletic director.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Bob Tyler was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach of the Bulldogs football team after Shira's resignation. Tyler led Mississippi State to a 9–3 season and a victory in the 1974 Sun Bowl over North Carolina. During that season, his team beat perennial powerhouses, Georgia and LSU. The Bulldogs' record was 6–4–1 in 1975, and it was an impressive 9–2 in 1976, ending the season ranked No. 20 in the AP Poll. His team compiled a 5–6 record in 1977, and he went 6–5 in his final season with the Bulldogs. Mississippi State was placed on probation by the NCAA prior to the 1975 season due to alleged improper benefits to student athletes. The school sought and won court approval to play in an adverse legal opinion to the NCAA. Although the alleged infraction was trivial, the NCAA forced the school to forfeit most games it won in 1975, 1976, and 1977.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Emory Bellard, who had resigned as head coach of Texas A&M during the 1978 season after only six games, was hired to serve as head football coach at Mississippi State beginning with the next (1979) season. He was head coach from 1979 until 1985. He was considered to have had one of the most innovative offensive minds in football and is credited for inventing the wishbone formation. Bellard spent seven seasons as head coach at MSU. His best years as the Bulldogs head coach were in 1980 and 1981, when his team finished 9–3 and 8–4, respectively. Also, Bellard was the coach when Mississippi State defeated number 1, undefeated Alabama 6–3 in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1980. However, the Bulldogs significantly regressed after 1981. In the next five seasons, he only won a total of five games in SEC play. Before the 1985 season, Bellard boldly predicted that the Bulldogs would rebound and win their first SEC title since 1941. They not only failed to do so, but went winless in SEC play. Bellard was fired after the season. He would, however, return in 1988 to coach at the high school level in Texas.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Rockey Felker returned to his alma mater, which was coming off four consecutive losing seasons, from his post as wide receivers coach at Alabama. At 33, Felker was the youngest coach in the country and the first Mississippi State coach in 30 years to start his career as MSU head football coach with a winning record (6–5). However, the Bulldogs never recovered from four consecutive blowout losses at the end of the 1986 season, during which they scored a total of nine points, including a 24–3 loss to Ole Miss. Felker suffered through four losing seasons (4–7, 1–10, 5–6, 5–6) between 1987 and 1990, and only won a total of five games in SEC play. He was only 1–4 vs. Ole Miss. He resigned under pressure at the end of the 1990 season, but would be brought back by his successor, Jackie Sherrill, as running backs coach for two seasons and in a non-coaching position in the football program, where he serves to this day.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: After three years away from the game, former Washington State, Pittsburgh and Texas A&M head coach Jackie Sherrill was hired as head football coach at Mississippi State in 1991. He took over a program that hadn't had a winning season since 1986 (and had won a total of 14 games in that stretch) and hadn't had a winning record in Southeastern Conference play since 1981. Sherrill began his Mississippi State career with an upset victory over a familiar foe from his A&M days, the Texas Longhorns (who were the defending Southwest Conference champions). In thirteen seasons in Starkville, Sherrill coached the Bulldogs to a record of 75–75–2. His 75 wins are the most in school history. He led the team to an SEC West title in 1998, and a berth in the Cotton Bowl Classic. A year later, he notched a 10–2 record and No. 12 final ranking. That No. 12 ranking was the highest final ranking achieved by any NCAA Division I-A school in Mississippi in over 30 years. Sherrill, along with Bill Snyder of Kansas State, were among the first to use the rich JUCO systems of their respective states to help their programs progress. Although Sherrill won only eight games in his last three seasons, he built Mississippi State into a consistent winner despite playing in the same division as powerhouses like Alabama, Auburn and LSU. He also finished with a winning record against in-state rival Ole Miss (7–6). Under Sherrill, the Bulldogs went to six bowl games; before his arrival they'd only been to seven bowls in 96 years of play. Sherrill also achieved notoriety by having his team observe the castration of a bull as a motivational technique prior to a game versus Texas. Unranked Mississippi State subsequently beat the No. 13 ranked Longhorns. Sherrill retired after the 2003 season, which was followed by the NCAA levying probation for four years on the program. Despite a prolonged 3-year investigation by the NCAA, Mississippi State was not found guilty of any major violations, and Sherrill was never personally found guilty of any NCAA rules violations at either Mississippi State or Texas A&M.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Sylvester Croom, a longtime assistant in the NFL and a former player for Bear Bryant at Alabama, was hired to replace Sherrill. Croom is a significant figure, because he is not only the first African American head football coach in Mississippi State history, but also in SEC football history. When Croom was hired at Mississippi State, he inherited a program that was riddled with NCAA sanctions and had not won consistently since the 1990s. Croom led the Bulldogs to a 3–8 (2–6 SEC) record in 2004. State began the season with a victory over Tulane, then lost five straight, to No. 18 Auburn, Maine, No. 13 LSU, Vanderbilt and UAB. The next week, State upset No. 20 Florida in what turned out to be the game that got Florida head coach Ron Zook fired. The next game saw State beat Kentucky. State then lost their final three games of the season to Alabama, Arkansas and Ole Miss. In 2005, State again finished 3–8. After defeating Murray State in the season opener, State lost to Auburn then beat Tulane in Shreveport, Louisiana. State then lost seven consecutive games, starting with No. 7 Georgia, then No. 4 LSU, No. 13 Florida, Houston, Kentucky, No. 4 Alabama and Arkansas. State defeated Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl to finish the season.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State struggled to a 3–9 record in 2006. State lost its first three games of the season to South Carolina, No. 4 Auburn, Tulane, State beat UAB to get its first win of the year in the fourth game. Losses to No 9 LSU and No. 4 West Virginia followed, then State defeated Jacksonville State to snap the two-game skid. State then lost to Georgia and Kentucky. MSST then upset Alabama in Alabama before losing to No. 5 Arkansas and Ole Miss. During the 2007 season, during which his team won eight games, including the Liberty Bowl, Croom garnered Coach of the Year awards from three organizations. On December 4, 2007, Croom was named coach of the year by the American Football Coaches Association for region two. The AFCA has five regional coaches of the year and announces a national coach of the year each January. That same year, on December 5, Croom was named SEC Coach of the Year twice, once as voted by the other SEC coaches and once as voted by The Associated Press. It was the first time a Mississippi State coach received the AP honor since Charley Shira in 1970 and the first time a Mississippi State coach received the coaches award since Wade Walker in 1957. After a 4–8 record in 2008, culminating with a 45–0 loss to rival No. 25 Ole Miss, Croom was asked by school officials to resign as head coach of the Bulldogs.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen was hired as Mississippi State's head coach in late 2008. Mullen arrived in Starkville with an explosive offensive background and a reputation as a quarterback guru, having tutored Alex Smith, Chris Leak and Tim Tebow during his career as an assistant coach. Serving under head coach Urban Meyer, Mullen oversaw an offense at Florida that was one of the most explosive in the country, helped the Gators capture the 2006 and 2008 national championships and sent many players into the National Football League. In Mullen's first season, the Bulldogs finished 5–7, ending upbeat with a 41–27 victory over No. 20 Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. In 2010, they started 1–2, and then they had a 6-game winning streak to make their record 7–2 before losing to Alabama and Arkansas, but defeated Ole Miss. The team participated in a bowl game for the first time since 2007, soundly defeating Michigan in the Gator Bowl 52–14. In 2011, the Bulldogs entered the season ranked No. 19 in the country, and they started 1–0, before losing to the defending national champion Auburn 41–34. Mississippi State entered the Ole Miss game in Starkville needing a win to qualify for a bowl bid for a second straight season. The Bulldogs won 31–3, earning Mullen the distinction as the first coach to beat Ole Miss in his first three tries since Allyn McKeen in 1941. The Bulldogs capped off the season with a Music City Bowl win over Wake Forest in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2012, Mississippi State defeated Tennessee 41–31 in their sixth game of the season to become bowl eligible. After a 7–0 start the team won only one of its remaining five games to finish 8–5, including a 41–24 loss at Ole Miss and a 34–20 loss to the No. 21 Northwestern in the Gator Bowl. This was the first time Mississippi State appeared in a bowl three straight years since 2000. In 2013, MSST under Mullen became bowl eligible for the fourth consecutive year following a 17–10 overtime win over Ole Miss. MSST defeated Rice in the Liberty Bowl December 31, 2013 in Memphis, Tennessee, by a score of 44–7. It was MSST's third bowl win in the last four years.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: 2014 turned out to be the most historic run for the team. Led by quarterback Dak Prescott, the Bulldogs reached a No. 1 national ranking for the first time ever, doing so in both the Amway Coaches Poll and the AP Poll, after beating 3 consecutive top-10 teams (No. 8 LSU Tigers, No. 6 Texas A&M Aggies, and No. 2 Auburn Tigers). As a result, the Bulldogs became the fastest team in AP Poll's history to reach the No. 1 ranking, from being unranked, in only 5 weeks. They also became the first team to be ranked No. 1 in the new FBS Playoff Football Poll and held the top ranking for the first three weeks of the poll before losing to Alabama. However, at the end of the season, only one of the three teams remained ranked. Auburn finished 8–5 (4–4 SEC) and ranked No. 22, and lost to Wisconsin in the Outback Bowl, Texas A&M finished 7–5 (3–5 SEC) and beat West Virginia in the Liberty Bowl, and LSU, finished 8–4 (4–4 SEC) and lost to Notre Dame in the Music City Bowl. The Bulldogs couldn't sustain that momentum, and lost two of their last three regular season games, first to No. 5 Alabama 25–20 and then two weeks later to No. 18 Ole Miss 31–17. That loss knocked the Bulldogs out of playoff contention, leaving them 10–2 and ranked No. 7 by the College Football Playoff Committee in their final rankings. As a result, they were awarded a trip to the Orange Bowl against No. 10 Georgia Tech on December 31, 2014. Thanks to the Bulldogs’ inability to stop Georgia Tech's heavy use of the triple option, State lost that contest 49–34. Mississippi State finished the season 10–3 and were ranked No. 11 in the final AP Poll. In 2015, the Bulldogs went 4–4 in the SEC and finished the regular season with an 8–4 record and went on to play in the 2015 Belk Bowl against the NC State Wolfpack, winning 51–28. Dak Prescott was named the game MVP after throwing 4 touchdowns. 2016 saw the Bulldogs stumble to a 5–7 regular season record. The season included 3 losses on the final play of games against South Alabama, BYU, and Kentucky. The Bulldogs were able to finish the season on a high note defeating in-state rival Ole Miss 55–20 in the 2016 Egg Bowl. Due to a shortage of 6-win teams and MSU's Academic Progress Rate, they made their seventh consecutive bowl appearance in the St. Petersburg Bowl against Miami (OH) on December 26. The Bulldogs won the game thanks to a blocked extra point and a blocked field goal, edging Miami (Ohio) 17–16. On February 27, 2017, Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen announced a four-year contract extension for Coach Mullen through February 2021. On November 26, 2017, after an 8–4 regular season, Dan Mullen left Mississippi State University to become the head coach at the University of Florida.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: After Dan Mullen’s departure, Mississippi State hired Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead as the program's 33rd head coach. Moorhead arrived in Starkville with a reputation as an outstanding offensive mind, turning around a struggling FCS program in Fordham as the head coach before moving to Penn State as offensive coordinator where his offenses set school records. The Mississippi State University administration signed Moorhead to a four-year contract worth a total of $11 million in base salary. On January 3, 2020, after failing to energize the offense, and several off field issues, Mississippi State announced Moorhead's firing.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: On January 9, 2020, Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen announced the hiring of Washington State and former Texas Tech head coach Mike Leach to the vacant head coaching position. Leach arrived with a reputation as a great offensive mind and installed a pass-heavy, up-tempo offensive attack known as the Air raid that he has utilized throughout his coaching career. Leach signed a four-year contract with Mississippi State worth $20 million excluding incentives.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Leach died after a heart attack on December 12, 2022. Prior to his death, defensive coordinator Zach Arnett had been appointed interim head coach after Leach had been hospitalized.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The 1941 Mississippi State Bulldogs finished the year with an 8–1–1 record, and won the Southeastern Conference championship. The season included wins over Florida, Alabama, Auburn, and Ole Miss. The Bulldogs tied with LSU and were defeated by Duquesne.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The SEC has been split into two divisions since the 1992 season with Mississippi State competing in the SEC West since that time. In 1998, MSU finished the regular season with a 26–14 win over Alabama, a 22–21 win over Arkansas, and a 28–6 win over Ole Miss in Oxford, Mississippi. At the end of the regular season, both MSU and Arkansas finished with 6–2 conference records, but by virtue of MSU's head-to-head win over Arkansas, MSU earned the right to represent the SEC West in the SEC Championship Game. In that game, MSU led eventual national champion Tennessee in the fourth quarter before falling 14–24 in the Georgia Dome. They continued on to play in the Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas, Texas, against the 20th-ranked Texas Longhorns. The Bulldogs lost the game 11–38 on 24 unanswered Longhorn points in the 3rd quarter.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State has played in 24 bowl games, compiling a record of 14–11 through the 2021 season. Memorable highlights include wins in the 1941 Orange Bowl, the 1963 Liberty Bowl, the 1999 Peach Bowl, and the 2011 Gator Bowl.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State's first bowl game was against the Havana Athletic Club in the Bacardi Bowl on January 1, 1912 in Havana, Cuba. Known as the Mississippi A&M Aggies at that time, the Bulldogs won by a final score of 12–0. Mississippi State does not count the victory against the athletic club among its bowl games and bowl wins.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: From 1999 to 2011 Mississippi State had a 5-game winning streak in bowls. The streak ended against the Northwestern Wildcats in the 2013 Gator Bowl. The Bulldogs have been to 12 straight bowl games for the first time in school history dating back to the 2010 season.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The Battle for the Golden Egg, also known as the Egg Bowl, is the Mississippi State-Ole Miss rivalry. It was first played in 1901 and has been played every year since 1915 (with the exception of the 1943 season when neither school fielded teams due to World War II) making it the tenth longest uninterrupted series in the United States. The game became "The Battle for the Golden Egg" in 1927 when a traveling trophy was added. Although through the years the game has been played primarily in 3 locations Starkville (38 times), Oxford (36 times), and Jackson (29 times); there have been a few meetings in other locations including Tupelo 3 times, Greenwood twice, Clarksdale once, and Columbus once. Through 2021, in total the two squads have met on the gridiron 118 times with Ole Miss holding a 64–45–6 lead in the series.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The LSU-Mississippi State rivalry is an annual football game between the Louisiana State Tigers and Mississippi State University Bulldogs. Both universities are founding members of the Southeastern Conference, as well as the Western Division. This rivalry is LSU's longest rivalry with 115 meetings.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State's 34–29 victory on September 20, 2014, was the Bulldogs' first over LSU since 1999, their first in Baton Rouge since 1991, and just their fourth overall since 1985.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The 1976 game was won on the field by Mississippi State but later deemed by the NCAA to have been forfeited, therefore lost, by the Bulldogs.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The Alabama–Mississippi State rivalry, sometimes referred to as the 90 Mile Drive or the Battle for Highway 82, is an annual football game between the University of Alabama Crimson Tide and Mississippi State University Bulldogs. Both universities are founding members of the Southeastern Conference, as well as the Western Division. The two campuses are located approximately 90 miles apart, and are the closest SEC schools in terms of distance.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Entering its 106th meeting as of the 2021 football season, Alabama-Mississippi State is one of the SEC's longest-running series, dating back to 1896.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The most unusual and certainly the most resounding symbol of Mississippi State University tradition is the cowbell. Despite decades of attempts by opponents and authorities to banish it from scenes of competition, diehard State fans still celebrate Bulldog victories loudly and proudly with the distinctive sound of ringing cowbells.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The precise origin of the cowbell as a fixture of Mississippi State sports tradition remains unclear to this day. The best records have cowbells gradually introduced to the MSU sports scene in the late 1930s and early 1940s, coinciding with the 'golden age' of Mississippi State football success


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The most popular legend is that during a home football game between State and arch-rival Ole Miss, a jersey cow wandered onto the playing field. Mississippi State soundly whipped the Rebels that Saturday, and State College students immediately adopted the cow as a good luck charm. Students are said to have continued bringing a cow to football games for a while, until the practice was eventually discontinued in favor of bringing just the cow's bell.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Whatever the origin, it is certain that by the 1950s cowbells were common at Mississippi State games, and by the 1960s were established as the special symbol of Mississippi State. Ironically, the cowbell's popularity grew most rapidly during the long years when State football teams were rarely successful. Flaunting this anachronism from the 'aggie' days was a proud response by students and alumni to outsider scorn of the university's 'cow college' history.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: In the 1960s two MSU professors, Earl W. Terrell and Ralph L. Reeves obliged some students by welding handles on the bells to they could be rung with much more convenience and authority. By 1963 the demand for these long-handled cowbells could not be filled by home workshops alone, so at the suggestion of Reeves the Student Association bought bells in bulk and the Industrial Education Club agreed to weld on handles. In 1964 the MSU Bookstore began marketing these cowbells with a portion of the profits returning to these student organizations.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Today many styles of cowbells are available on campus and around Starkville, with the top-of-the-line a heavy chrome-plated model with a full Bulldog figurine handle. But some insist the best and loudest results are produced by a classic long-handled, bicycle-grip bell made of thinner and tightly welded shells.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Cowbells decorate offices and homes of Mississippi State alumni, and are passed down through generations of Bulldog fans.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: In early 1975, the SEC adopted a rule against artificial noisemakers that made it illegal to ring a cowbell during games; an official complaint by Auburn coach Shug Jordan, whose disapproval of the tradition went back several years, after the Tigers narrow 1974 win over the Bulldogs was largely responsible for the decision. At one point during the game, Jordan instructed his quarterback not to run a play in protest of officials refusing to quiet the crowd. Jordan's dislike for the cowbells inspired Alabama to attempt to purchase 1,000 cowbells from Mississippi State for Alabama fans to take to the Iron Bowl; MSU declined the offer. University of Texas fans also attempted to annoy Jordan with cowbells during the 1974 Gator Bowl. Shortly after the ban was enacted, Mississippi State officials considered other items and devices to replace the cowbells. In 1981, a Mississippi State faculty member filed a suit against Auburn University and the Southeastern Conference that sought to have the rule declared unconstitutional after his cowbell was confiscated at the 1981 AU-MSU game at Jordan–Hare Stadium. Despite creative efforts by MSU fans to circumvent the ruling and continue the tradition, the ban was in effect until 2010.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: That spring, the 12 schools of the SEC agreed to a compromise on artificial noisemakers, acknowledging the role cowbells play in the history of Mississippi State University by amending the conference by-law. In the fall of 2010, on a one-year trial with specified restrictions, cowbells were permitted in Davis Wade Stadium for the first time in 36 years. And due to MSU fans' adherence to the rules outlined by the league, cowbells will continue to be allowed with similar restrictions in place. In 2012, the rule was made permanent by the SEC.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Maroon and White are the distinctive colors of Mississippi State University athletic teams, dating back over a century to the very first football game ever played by the school's student-athletes.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: On November 15, 1895, the first Mississippi A&M football team was preparing for a road trip to Jackson, Tennessee., to play Southern Baptist University (now called Union University) the following day. Since every college was supposed to have its own uniform colors, the A&M student body requested that the school's team select a suitable combination.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Considering making this choice an honor, the inaugural State team gave the privilege to team captain W.M. Matthews. Accounts report that without hesitation Matthews chose Maroon and White.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: The program has had 35 head coaches since it began play during the 1895 season, and has played more than 1,050 games over 111 seasons. From December 2008 though November 2017, Dan Mullen served as Mississippi State's head coach. Mike Leach was the head coach at Mississippi State from January 9, 2020 until his sudden death from heart complications on December 12, 2022. The current head coach at Mississippi State is Zach Arnett since his hiring on December 14, 2022.


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State made history on December 1, 2003, when it hired Sylvester Croom as its head football coach. Croom was the first African-American named to such a position in the history of the Southeastern Conference (SEC).


title: Mississippi State Bulldogs football

text: Mississippi State plays Kentucky as a permanent non-division opponent annually and rotates around the East division among the other six schools.


title: MV Agusta

text: MV Agusta (, full name: MV AGUSTA Motor S.p.A., original name: Meccanica Verghera Agusta or MV) is a motorcycle manufacturer founded by Count Domenico Agusta on 19 January 1945 as one of the branches of the Agusta aircraft company near Milan in Cascina Costa, Italy. The abbreviation MV stands for "Meccanica" (mechanics) "Verghera", the hamlet where the first MVs were made. The modern headquarters and main production facilities are located in Varese, Italy on the shore of Lake Varese.


title: MV Agusta

text: It all began in the early years of the 20th century, when Count Giovanni Agusta left Sicily for northern Italy, where he built his first aircraft, the AG.1, four years after the Wright brothers had made history in the US. The First World War, which demonstrated the prospects of aviation, prompted the count to act decisively – and in 1923, in the town of Samarate, he founded the Costruzioni Aeronautiche Giovanni Agusta S.A. (usually shortened to Agusta) aircraft factory. However, in 1927, at the age of 48, he died and left his life's work to his wife Giuseppina and sons, Domenico, Vincenzo, Mario and Corrado.


title: MV Agusta

text: Aircraft orders were plentiful, and business generally went well until World War II intervened. In 1945, following the provisions of the peace treaty after the war, which were later reiterated in the Paris Peace Treaties, 1947, the production of aircraft was forbidden to Italy, and the Agusta family had to think quick to save their high-tech business and keep their employees in work.


title: MV Agusta

text: In the midst of World War II Count Domenico Agusta came to the idea that the best way to diversify the business and turn it into a peaceful channel would be to create a motorcycle production. Moreover, he understood that a country gutted by war would need a simple, cheap and efficient machine. Therefore, by August 1943, the engine was ready: a 98 cc single-cylinder two-stroke with two-stage gear box. And even if the total shortage of spare parts had to resort to the services of the black market, the process was already launched – and on January 19, 1945, in the town of Cascina Costa (near the Malpensa airport near Milan), a private company Meccanica Verghera S.r.l. was registered, and in the fall of the same year the first motorcycle was presented.


title: MV Agusta

text: At a dealership on Via Piatti in Milan in late October 1945, the press saw a pre-production model of a light motorcycle with a steel tube rigid frame, a girder fork and 19-inch wheels. The gas tank was marked with large letters M and V. It was called "Vespa 98". However Domenico had had to refuse from the spectacular name Vespa (English: wasp): by that time it was occupied by Piaggio for its Vespa motorscooter. Therefore, in 1946, the motorcycle was put to mass production as MV 98 and in two versions: Economica (the version presented a year earlier) and Turismo (it was distinguished by the presence of a three-speed gearbox and a rear suspension). The Turismo (English: tourist) version proved to be so overwhelmingly popular that before long the Economica (English: economic) version was discontinued. In 1946, about 50 units were produced.


title: MV Agusta

text: Count Domenico Agusta had a passion for mechanical workings and for motorcycle racing. Much like Enzo Ferrari, the Agusta family produced and sold motorcycles almost exclusively to fund their racing efforts. So soon after the start of production of its first model MV 98, the company launched its own factory racing program.


title: MV Agusta

text: The date of the first MV Agusta race is unknown, but the first victory was delivered by Vicenzo Nincioni in the road race held in La Spezia on October 6, 1946. Just a week later, he took the third place in Valenza, where the first place was also taken by the MV racer Mario Cornalea. On November 3, in Monza, MV racers Vicenzo Ninconi, Mario Cornalea and Mario Paleari occupied the entire podium for the first time in MV racing history.


title: MV Agusta

text: In the end of 1946, a special racing motorcycle was assembled at the factory in Caschina Costa. Its main advantages over the serial model 98 were a telescopic fork and a plunger type rear suspension. The frame remained a simple tubular (closed type) and was shortened by 50 mm to improve the handling. The handle bar was narrowed and the rearsets were moved back to make a sportier riding position. The two-stroke engine was improved by enlarging the cylinders ports, raising the compression ratio and installing a new 20 mm horizontal carburetor. The number of gears was increased from two to three. As a result, the power increased to 5 hp at 5,400 rpm, and the maximum speed increased to 95 km/h.


title: MV Agusta

text: Soon almost all of these improvements were also applied on the production model MV 98. By that time, the capacity of 98 cc was no longer relevant in racing world, which had become more organized and moved on to the classic 125, 250 and 500 cc categories.


title: MV Agusta

text: In 1947, MV Agusta went to the Milan Trade Fair with a number of new features. In addition to a "Luxury" version of the 98, the two-cylinder, two-stroke 125 cc bikes and the 250 cc single-cylinder 4T bikes appeared.


title: MV Agusta

text: Technical characteristics of the MV Agusta 250 Turismo were regular for those times. Its single-cylinder engine with compression ratio 6.0:1 produced 11 hp at 4,700 rpm allowing the motorcycle to speed up to 110 km/h. Only 100 units of the MV 250 Turismo were produced within three years.


title: MV Agusta

text: The model with a 125 cc two-stroke twin engine had a very similar design to the MV 98. The only differences were a four-speed gearbox and two cylinders instead of one. This model was well received by the press as well as by the audience of many motorcycles shows. However this model didn't go to serial production mainly because its high price. Instead of this model MV Agusta launched a more affordable 125 Turismo, which was the result of the development of the original MV 98. It was powered by a 123.5 cc (53 × 56 mm) single-cylinder engine shoving out 4.8 hp and equipped by a girder fork.


title: MV Agusta

text: Together with the 125 Turismo, MV introduced 125 Corsa designed for national and world championships. The power increased up to 9 hp. Its steel trellis frame, fabricated from thinner tubing, helped to reduce the weight from 75 to 55 kg. Two friction dampers had been added. And both wheels were replaced with 21-inch ones in accordance with the technical regulations of the races.


title: MV Agusta

text: The bike was good enough to help Franco Bertoni to win the 1948 Grand Prix of Nations at Monza. In the 1949 season, the 125 cc, or ultra-light weight class, gained new prestige. More motorcycle manufacturers were competing in the inaugural world championships that were held in Switzerland, Netherlands and Italy. The Mondial 125 cc DOHC design dominated the 1949 season.


title: MV Agusta

text: In the end of 1949, Count Domenico Agusta invited two key professionals from Gilera – Piero Remor, who designed Gilera's four-cylinder 500cc racing motorcycle, and Arturo Magni, who was the chief mechanic of the Gilera's racing team. So they repeated a 500 cc four-cylinder engine and designed a racing model with 125 cc DOHC single-cylinder engine. The MV's first 500 – a Gilera clone – made its race debut at Spa-Francorchamps in July 1950, just six months after Remor had put pen to paper in MV's Cascina Costa race shop. After a short twenty-minute run on the factory test bench, ex-Gilera rider Arcisco Artesiani managed a creditable fifth on the untested and ungainly MV 500. His race average speed of 160.66 km/h was impressive, but the remainder of the season proved difficult and the MV failed to live up to expectations. Artesiani's third place at Monza in the Nations Grand Prix was the highlight of the 1950 season, and Artesiani finished eighth overall in the World Championship.


title: MV Agusta

text: The MV's first racing success came later with the 125cc DOHC four-stroke engine. The 1950 season and 1951 season were development years. Racing efforts only produced a fifth-place finish at the Dutch TT in 1950. The 1951 results were only slightly better. The 1952 season saw the introduction of telescopic forks, full width alloy brake hubs and a sleek fuel tank on the 125 cc race bike. Britain's Cecil Sandford piloted the new MV 125 to a 1952 Isle of Man TT victory and went on to win MV Agusta's first world championship. And in September that year Leslie Graham made Count Agusta the happiest man alive by winning MV's first 500 cc Grand Prix, on the hallowed asphalt of Monza, beating Gilera's Umberto Masetti by 58 seconds. Giuseppe Commendatore Gilera was so incensed that he lodged a protest, claiming MV's engine was oversize. It wasn't.


title: MV Agusta

text: In 1952, the Agusta factory started building helicopters under licence to American manufacturer Bell. And aviation once again became fundamental to the Count's business. Although MV Agusta continued to sell small numbers of exotic road bikes, from this moment on racing was a hobby for Count Domenico. Helicopters made him a fortune, which he spent on racing. Aviation technology also served him well on the racetrack. His Grand Prix bikes were constructed using the same high-tech casting, forging and machining techniques used in the manufacture of his helicopters.


title: MV Agusta

text: At that time MV product line-up consisted of motorcycles and scooters with two-stroke engines, with a capacity from 98 to 150 cc. But people who lived in mountainous areas always preferred four-stroke engines because of their torque. So Remor was tasked to design a four-stroke road model.


title: MV Agusta

text: At the end of 1952, the MV Agusta 175 was released in two versions: CST and CSTL. It was their first production machine with a four-stroke engine. The unit construction single-cylinder engine was designed with an overhead camshaft for high performance. The chain-driven camshaft operated the valves via rocker arms, which were closed by hairpin valve springs. The engine was inclined forward at 10° and manufactured in alloy and a bore and stroke of 59.5 × 62 mm. This model had a frame of a double loop design using tubes for the front sections and pressed steel members at the real. The engine was used as a stressed member. Suspension was telescopic forks at the front and a swinging arm at the rear. The 175 CST was equipped with separate saddles and 17" wheels, the CSTL ("Turismo Lusso") had 19" wheels and a "long seat" (dualseat) fitted. The 175 CST weighed 103 kg and figured top speed of 100 km/h.


title: MV Agusta

text: In less than a year MV Agusta introduced a sportier version 175 CS with a larger carburetor (22 mm instead of 18 mm), a higher compression ratio, a larger cylinder head with bigger fins, aluminum wheel rims and plenty of glossy red paint. Its 175 cc one-cylinder engine produced 11 hp at 6700 rpm, giving a 115 km/h top speed. This model featured lower handlebars, a more sporty riding position and a beautifully sculpted fuel tank that quickly earned it the unofficial nickname "Disco Volante" (English: flying saucer) as, viewed from the front, the tank shape was reminiscent of a flying saucer.


title: MV Agusta

text: In July 1954, MV began offering a very limited-availability racing model 175 CSS ("Super Sport"). The engine was further turned from the CS model, including higher compression ratio and a larger carburetor, to produce 15 hp at 8,800 rpm. Cycle parts were the same as the CS model, except it was fitted with Earles forks.


title: MV Agusta

text: In 1955, MV Agusta designed the 175 CSS-5V for the 175 cc "Formula Sport Derivata" race series. The "Squalo" (English: shark), as it was generally known, had a lighter frame based on that used on the works racers, larger brakes, a magneto, Earles forks and a five-speed gearbox. The bike became the part of motorcycle racing history thanks to the first victory of young Mike Hailwood, the future nine-time world champion. Mike won his first ever race on one of these machines bored out to 196 cc in a 200-cc class race at Oulton Park in 1957. Around 200 of the model were manufactured between 1954 and 1957.


title: MV Agusta

text: The 175 cc engine became famous not only in road racing. From 1955 to 1958, MV also produced off-road racing motorcycles. But, perhaps, the most unexpected option manufactured in the same years was the trike Motocarro with a load capacity of 300 kg.


title: MV Agusta

text: Unfortunately the 175 cc family had a considerable drawback. In fact, the flip side of its advantages. After all, the motorcycle was designed by the racing engineer, who spent the best part of his life following the rule brilliantly formulated by Ferdinand Porsche: "The perfect racing car crosses the finish line first and subsequently falls into its component parts". Four-stroke 175-cc MV Agusta engines were distinguished by excellent dynamics at that time, but not durability. They were even given the nickname "Fragile Diamonds". In addition, the upper camshaft complicated the procedure for cleaning carbon deposits, which was required several times a season due to the quality of oil and fuel. Therefore, for the new 125cc motorcycle, which was supposed to replace two-stroke models, a simplified version of the four-stroke engine was developed, with pushrods operating the valves.


title: MV Agusta

text: The model debuted in 1954 in two versions: Turismo Rapido (6.5 hp) and Rapido Sport (7.5 hp). The chassis was similar to the 175-cc models (although the first units used a fully tubular frame, it was soon replaced by the same mixed design as the 175 CST), but a radical improvement appeared on the Rapido Sport was a hydraulically damped telescopic fork.


title: MV Agusta

text: Now Italian engineers were ready to take the next step: to increase capacity up to 250 cc. In the fall of 1956, the company introduced the 250 Raid. Its name seemed to hint: the toys were over, it was time to go on a long journey – at least across Europe (the name was chosen by voting among dealers of the brand). Technically, the motorcycle became the development of a 125-cc model: a single-cylinder four-stroke overhead valve (OHV) engine, a four-speed gearbox, a duplex frame closed through the crankcase of the power unit. Of course, everything was done much more solidly, so the dry weight of the motorcycle increased from 102 to 160 kg. As a result, 14 hp engine could hardly power this bike to 115 km/h. In addition, the motorcycle looked like a clone of the junior models, with no hints of its high status. All of that generated low demand. In 1959, in an attempt to recover the poor sales of the 250, the company introduced a 16-hp 300-cc version. Army and police purchased a small number of these motorcycles in respective versions, but the overall sales were far from brilliant. As a result, the success hoped for was not realized with only 544 250-cc machines and about 500 300-cc machines being produced.


title: MV Agusta

text: Trying to completely rid the brand of the dubious fame of "fragile diamonds", the company's engineers completely redesigned the lubrication system by the 1959 season: they installed a high-performance oil pump, a centrifugal oil filter, and increased the volume of the pan. The main new MV Agusta 125 TRE advertising message was focused on its reliability and assured 100,000 km mileage without any problems, for which the model was nicknamed "Centomila" (English: one hundred thousand).


title: MV Agusta

text: In 1958, responding to the new Italian Road Law (Italian: ), which closed highways for motorcycles of 125 cc or less, the company released a 150-cc version of the MV Agusta 150 RS (Rapido Sport). Its 10 hp engine accelerating the motorcycle up to 110 km/h, allowed it to stay in the stream (the most popular car of those times – the Fiat 500 – had a lower maximum speed). The same engine, detuned to 7 hp, was also installed on the small three-wheeled scooter Centauro. This machine with a load capacity of 350 kg already had a cab.


title: MV Agusta

text: In 1957, MV produced a cheaper version of the 175-cc engine with a camshaft located in the engine block. Later in 1959, this engine bored up to 232 cc became a heart of a new motorcycle – Tevere (English: Tiber). In fact, the 11 hp Tevere was a more dynamic and less affordable version of MV Agusta 150 RS, so the model was discontinued soon. But the 232-cc engine itself, equipped with forced cooling, was produced until 1968, to complete the Trasporto Tevere cargo scooter.


title: MV Agusta

text: A new family of ultralight (only 83 kg for basic version) Checca motorcycles debuted in 1960 to replace the Ottantatrè model. Technically Checca was similar to the 125-cc Centomila, but with a scaled parts. The basic version GT was equipped with an 83-cc 4 hp engine, an upper level GTE version had a 99-cc 5.15-hp engine and the Sport version had a 99-cc 6.5-hp engine. In 1962, the family was supplemented the GTL version with a 125-cc 5.5-hp engine. The family was in production for totally 9 years, however it had no big commercial success.


title: MV Agusta

text: The 1958 Italian Road Law (Italian: ) defined a new category "ciclomotore": a two- or three-wheeled vehicle with engine capacity 50 cc or less and speed 40 km/h or less. Italian motorcycle industry saw in the new law an opportunity to attract younger riders’ audience. MV Agusta from its side presented Liberty family in 1962. In fact, it was the same Checca, but even more lightweight and simplified, with a 47.7-cc 1.5-hp engine at 4,500 rpm. An interesting fact that sales of the Liberty Sport version significantly exceeded the sales of the basic Liberty Turismo.


title: MV Agusta

text: After the 1957 season, the Italian motorcycle manufacturers Gilera, Moto Guzzi and Mondial jointly agreed to withdraw from Grand Prix competition due to escalating costs and diminishing sales. Count Agusta originally agreed to withdraw, but then had second thoughts. MV Agusta went on to dominate Grand Prix racing, winning 17 consecutive 500-cc world championships. Count Agusta's competitive nature drove him to hire some of the best riders of the time, including Carlo Ubbiali, John Surtees, Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini, Phil Read, and the best engineers, in particular Arturo Magni. The three- and four-cylinder race bikes were known for their excellent road handling. The fire-engine red racing machines became a hallmark of Grand Prix racing in the 1960s and early 1970s.


title: MV Agusta

text: In the early 1960s, MV Agusta decided to return to offroad sport (at the end of the 1950s, MV racers were successful in enduro races, including in the famous Six Days race). A new 125 Regolarita was created by order of Fiamme Oro team. The model was equipped with a 125-cc engine boosted up to 12.5 hp and a five-speed gearbox. Traditionally light MV frame was reinforced with a lower subframe, becoming closed. 19-inch wheels got offroad tyres. This motorcycle became successful, so tens such motorcycles were also sold amateur racers. Moreover, a five-speed gearbox has become standard for 125-cc and 150-cc road motorcycles since 1966, the factory line-up was supplemented by the Scrambler version.


title: MV Agusta

text: The main MV premiere at the 1965 EICMA Milan Motorcycle Show was the flagship model 600 with an inline-four 590-cc engine. Such significant novelty put the all new two-cylinder line-up on the background. Most probably it happened also because of the new two-cylinder motorcycles had a regular look, very similar to the previous motorcycles.


title: MV Agusta

text: The MV Agusta 250 B ("Bicilindrica") had a 247 cc (53 × 56 mm) four-stroke parallel twin engine, a battery ignition system, two carburetors and a five-speed gearbox. Its 19 hp were enough to achieve 135 km/h. But the price was too high, and the characteristics were not the most impressive, which is why by the end of 1970 the total number of released three versions barely reached 1,452 units, and the model gave way to another generation, a much more successful MV Agusta 350 B with engine bored out to 349 cc.