Gene Vance
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Gene Vance
Ellis Eugene Vance (February 25, 1923 – February 16, 2012) was an American professional basketball player. He played in the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Stags and Tri-Cities Blackhawks / Milwaukee Hawks. Vance played college basketball for the Illinois Fighting Illini where he led the team as a member of the famed " Whiz Kids" of the 1940s. He and the other Whiz Kids, Andy Phillip, Art Mathisen, Ken Menke, and Jack Smiley, are regarded as some of Illinois' all-time greats, but only he and Phillip are on the team's all-century team. Vance and his Whiz Kids teammates left basketball to serve in World War II in 1943. Vance was selected by the Stags in the 1948 NBA draft, and played professionally for five seasons. He served as the athletic director of the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign from 1967 to 1972. Vance was married to Grace Hoberg from 1943 until her death from stomach cancer Stomach c ...
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Clinton, Illinois
Clinton is the largest city in DeWitt County, Illinois, United States. The population was 7,225 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of DeWitt County. The city and the county are named for DeWitt Clinton, governor of New York, 1817–1823. Clinton Nuclear Generating Station is located six miles away on Clinton Lake. Geography Clinton is centrally located in the heart of Illinois, at (40.152240, -88.959214), accessible from Routes 51, 54, and 10. According to the 2010 census, Clinton has a total area of , all land. History The city was founded in 1835 by Jesse W. Fell of Bloomington, Illinois, a land speculator and lawyer, and James Allen, a representative in the Illinois State Legislature. The two men were on their way from Decatur, Illinois back to Bloomington after a business trip and stopped to rest their horses on the open prairie halfway between the two cities. It occurred to them that this was an ideal location for a settlement, as there was nothing else nearb ...
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National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. It is the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It changed its name to the National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL). In 1976, the NBA and the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged, adding four franchises to the NBA. The NBA's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The league's playoff tournament extends into June. , NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player. The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by t ...
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Points Per Game
Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by number of games. The terminology is often used in basketball and ice hockey. For description of sports points see points for ice hockey or points for basketball. In games divided into fixed time periods, especially those in which a player may exit and re-enter the game multiple or an unlimited number of times, a player may receive the same credit (in this context, a liability) for participation in a game regardless of how long (''i.e.'', for what portion of the game clock's elapsing) they were actually on the field or court. For this reason, the points-per-game statistic may understate the contribution of players who are highly effective but used only in certain specific "pinch" or "clutch" scenarios, such that a points-per-unit-time figu ...
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State Farm Center
The State Farm Center is a large dome-shaped 15,544-seat indoor arena located in Champaign, Illinois, owned and operated by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. The arena hosts games for the Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball, women's basketball, and wrestling teams. It also doubles as a performance and event center, and is one of the largest venues between Chicago and St. Louis. It opened in 1963 and was known until 2013 as Assembly Hall until State Farm Insurance acquired naming rights as part of a major renovation project. Size The third largest Illinois arena after the United Center in Chicago and the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, State Farm Center has 15,544 permanent seats but, when portable chairs are placed on the floor for an in-the-round performance, there is a potential for an additional 1,000 depending on the stage configuration. Opening State Farm Center opened as Assembly Hall on March 2, 1963, and continues to attract attention for its design a ...
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Illinois Fighting Illini Men%27s Basketball
The Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball team is an NCAA Division I college basketball team competing in the Big Ten Conference. Home games are played at the State Farm Center, located on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's campus in Champaign. Illinois has one pre-tournament national championship and one non-NCAA tournament national championship in 1915 and 1943, awarded by the Premo-Porretta Power Poll. Illinois has appeared in the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament 32 times, and has competed in 5 Final Fours, 9 Elite Eights, and has won 18 Big Ten regular season championships. The team is currently coached by Brad Underwood, who was hired on March 18, 2017. Through the end of the 2017–18 season, Illinois ranks 12th all-time in winning percentage and 15th all-time in wins among all NCAA Division I men's college basketball programs. Eras of Illini Basketball Early years The Fighting Illini began play in 1906 with Elwood Brown as their first coac ...
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Stomach Cancer
Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymphomas and mesenchymal tumors may also develop in the stomach. Early symptoms may include heartburn, upper abdominal pain, nausea, and loss of appetite. Later signs and symptoms may include weight loss, yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes, vomiting, difficulty swallowing, and blood in the stool, among others. The cancer may spread from the stomach to other parts of the body, particularly the liver, lungs, bones, lining of the abdomen, and lymph nodes. The most common cause is infection by the bacterium ''Helicobacter pylori'', which accounts for more than 60% of cases. Certain types of ''H. pylori'' have greater risks than others. Smoking, dietary factors such as pickled vegetables and obesity are other risk factors. About 10% ...
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University Of Illinois At Urbana–Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University of Illinois system and was founded in 1867. Enrolling over 56,000 undergraduate and graduate students, the University of Illinois is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the country. The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". In fiscal year 2019, research expenditures at Illinois totaled $652 million. The campus library system possesses the second-largest university library in the United States by holdings after Harvard University. The university also hosts the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and is home to the fastest supercomputer on a university campus. The ...
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Athletic Director
An athletic director (commonly "athletics director" or "AD") is an administrator at many American clubs or institutions, such as colleges and universities, as well as in larger high schools and middle schools, who oversees the work of coaches and related staff involved in athletic programs. Position at institution Modern athletic directors are often in a precarious position, especially at the larger institutions. Although technically in charge of all of the coaches, they are often far less well-compensated and also less famous, with few having their own television and radio programs as many coaches now do. In attempting to deal with misconduct by coaches, they often find their efforts trumped by a coach's powerful connections, particularly if the coach is an established figure with a long-term winning record. However, in the case of severe coaching misconduct being proven, often the athletic director will be terminated along with the offending coach. Over the last several years ...
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1948 NBA Draft
The 1948 BAA draft was the second annual draft of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which later became the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on May 10, 1948, before the 1948–49 season. In this draft, eight BAA teams along with four teams who moved from the National Basketball League, took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players. Draft selections and draftee career notes Andy Tonkovich from Marshall University was selected first overall by the Providence Steamrollers. Four of the first round picks, George Kok, George Hauptfuhrer, Bob Gale and Chuck Hanger, never played in the BAA. Four players from this draft, Harry Gallatin, Dolph Schayes, Bobby Wanzer and Alex Hannum have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. Draft Other picks The following list includes other draft picks who have appeared in at least one BAA/NBA game. Notable undrafted players These players were not selected in the 1948 draft but playe ...
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Jack Smiley
Arthur John Smiley (December 22, 1922 – July 30, 2000) was an American professional basketball player. Smiley played basketball for Waterman High School, in Waterman, Illinois. With Gene Vance, Andy Phillip, Ken Menke, and Art Mathisen, Smiley was a member of the University of Illinois' " Whiz Kids" team that went 35-6 from 1941 to 1943, earning two Big Ten Conference championships. The team voted to turn down an invitation to the NCAA tournament in 1943, after Smiley, Vance and Phillip were inducted into the military mid-season. As an artillery corporal with the Army's 106th division, Smiley was engaged in one of the bloodiest skirmishes of the Battle of the Bulge- once firing his 105 mm Howitzer for 96 continuous hours. The 106th division suffered a 90% casualty rate in the skirmish. Smiley returned to Illinois for the 1946-47 season and won team MVP honors.Jim Rossow. "Whiz Kid passes away". ''News Gazette''. July 31, 2000. C1. After college, Smiley played two seasons ...
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Ken Menke
Kenneth Howard Menke (October 2, 1922 – September 2, 2002) was an American professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball League for the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in 1947–48 and the Waterloo Hawks in the National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ... during the latter half of the 1949–50 season. References 1922 births 2002 deaths American men's basketball players Basketball players from Illinois Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons players Guards (basketball) Illinois Fighting Illini men's basketball players People from West Dundee, Illinois Waterloo Hawks players {{1920s-US-basketball-bio-stub ...
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Art Mathisen
Arthur Fremont Mathisen (February 27, 1920 – January 5, 2004) was an American college basketball standout for Illinois in the 1940s. A center, Mathison led the Fighting Illini in rebounding while scoring over 500 points in his three years of varsity play earning a varsity letter each year. Graduating from Dwight High School, Mathisen was the son of James Mathisen and Mary (Jensen) Mathisen, marrying Virginia Mae DeLong in 1946. While in high school, Mathisen led his basketball team to the ''" Sweet Sixteen"'' of the IHSA state tournament in 1939. Mathisen enrolled at the University of Illinois in the fall of 1939, playing on the freshman basketball team. In his sophomore year he was the starting center of the 1940–41 Fighting Illini team that finished third in the Big Ten with a 13–7 record. As a junior, Mathisen maintained his starting center role on a team that finished as conference champions and an overall record of 18–5. The pinnacle of his career was be the 1942â ...
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