(01-05-2024 04:04 PM)bryanw1995 Wrote: (01-05-2024 04:01 PM)bill dazzle Wrote: (01-05-2024 03:22 PM)Rube Dali Wrote: The NCAA has come out with an in-depth review of its membership history:
https://www.ncaa.org/news/2024/1/5/media...ences.aspx
Some interesting info. Thanks for posting, R-Dali.
Yeah, that’s good stuff, perfect for the Silly Season!
Some interesting discoveries:
(1) The NCAA membership map for 1938 does not have two of the current PAC-12 schools. It did have 3 WCC schools.
(2) If you select a conference (e.g. ASUN) it shows all current and former members. In the case of the ASUN this includes when it was the TRAA, You can then select a year to show the members.
(3) I clicked on The Texas Athletic Conference. It showed 5 schools in Texas and one in Massachusetts. Some weird affiliation? But Texas doesn't do field hockey and this was in the 1930s. Football? A school in Boston affiliating with a bunch of Texas football schools? That is as far fetched as schools in British Columbia or northern Washington playing football with Texas schools.
It turns out that Hardin-Simmons in Abilene was just Simmons University until 1934 when it changed its name in honor of benefactors John and Mary Hardin. Mary Hardin is the same "Mary Hardin" as in Mary Hardin-Baylor. John Hardin was a storekeeper who invested in land that happened to be on top of the Burkburnett oil field. At one time, there were 300 producing wells on his property. With their newfound wealth the Hardin's released the mortgages they held on about 1/4 the properties in Burkburnett, helped build churches, retired the local public school debt, and built a power plant which they donated to the community.
They helped fund Hardin Junior College in nearby Wichita Falls. This later became Hardin College with the addition of a senior division, and eventually Midwestern State University. In addition to Hardin-Simmons, Mary Hardin-Baylor, and Midwestern State, the Hardin's contributed to Howard Payne and Abilene Christian.
Just plain Simmons University is in Boston.
(4) The definite article "The" is definitely part of the name of The University of Tulsa (TUT).
One can imagine the blue-clad fans on one side of Skelly Stadium shouting "TTTEEEEEE" creating a stiff breeze across the field.
The gold-clad fans opposite respond with a bass-throated YOOOOUUUUUWWW that thunders back like a gale force wind.
Those in shout back
TTTTTTEEEEEEEEE bending the masts flying the hurricane warning flags on the other side.
What is next? The earth splitting as if the stadium were astride the San Andreas Fault like at Cal? (technically the Hayward Fault, but this is my story).
The fans in gold are sitting quietly, ankles crossed, hands folded in their lap, a slightly bemused smile (no teeth or laughter).
(5) Other schools with a definite "The".
The Citadel, of course.
That School Up North: The University of the South, (Sewanee). I'm in Houston. Tennesee is north.
Also That Other That School Up North in the state so extremely northern that it borders Michigan.
And, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte and The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The campuses at Asheville, Wilmington, Pembroke, and near Durham do not rate a definite article, though the one in Chapel Hill adds a comma, as in "UNC,CH"
or "CHUNC". If I were CHUNC I'd probably go by Carolina too.
/
It's time to waste time
