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Will Leitch
William F. Leitch (born October 10, 1975 in Mattoon, Illinois) is an American writer and the founding editor of the Gawker Media former sports blog ''Deadspin''. Leitch is a national correspondent for MLB.com, a contributing editor at ''New York'', critic at ''Grierson & Leitch'', contributor to ''The New York Times'', '' GQ'', ''The Washington Post'' and ''NBC News'' and has published six books, including ''Catch'', a novel, ''Life as a Loser'', a memoir, ''God Save the Fan'', a book of sports essays and ''Are We Winning?'', a book about fatherhood and baseball. His fifth book, the novel ''How Lucky,'' was published by Harper in May 2021 and received an endorsement from author Stephen King. His sixth book, the novel ''The Time Has Come'', will be published by Harper in May 2023. Background Leitch was born and raised in Mattoon, Illinois, which is also the setting of ''Catch''. He attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. While there, he was an editor at the u ...
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Mattoon, Illinois
Mattoon ( ) is a city in Coles County, Illinois, United States. The population was 16,870 as of the 2020 census. The city is home to Lake Land College and has close ties with its neighbor, Charleston. Both are principal cities of the Charleston–Mattoon Micropolitan Statistical Area. History Early history One of the main factors determining the settlement of Mattoon and Coles County in general was the topography. Coles County straddled a timberline in the southern half and prairie in the north. The forested areas were primarily fed by two major rivers: the Embarras River in the east and the Kaskaskia in the west. The prairie, known as the "Grand Prairie", was generally wet and swampy. An early historian described the geography: "Away from the timber to the north, the face of the country is generally quite level, broken only by long undulations. It is almost entirely prairie land in this part, and was allowed to remain uncultivated until after the opening of the railroads. It ...
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Jimmy Kimmel
James Christian Kimmel (born November 13, 1967) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is the host and executive producer of ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', a late-night talk show that premiered on ABC on January 26, 2003, at Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywood, California; and on April 1, 2019, at a secondary home, the Zappos Theater on the Las Vegas Strip. Kimmel hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards in 2012, 2016 and 2020, and the Academy Awards in 2017 and 2018. Before hosting ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', Kimmel was the co-host of Comedy Central's '' The Man Show'' and ''Win Ben Stein's Money''. Kimmel has also produced such shows as ''Crank Yankers'', ''Sports Show with Norm Macdonald'', and ''The Andy Milonakis Show''. In 2018, ''Time'' named him as one of " The World's 100 Most Influential People". Kimmel is the longest-working of all current late-night talk show hosts in the United States, following Conan O’Brien’s retirement from hosting a late-nigh ...
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Georgia Bulldogs
The Georgia Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The female athletic teams are sometimes referred to as Lady Bulldogs. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The official mascot is an English Bulldog named Uga, (derived from an abbreviation of the ''University of Georgia''), while the costumed character version of Uga is Hairy Dawg. The university sponsors nineteen sports – baseball, men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, women's equestrian, football, men's and women's golf, women's gymnastics, women's soccer, softball, men's and women's swimming and diving, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track, and women's volleyball. Those 19 teams have won a combined 47 national championships (including 31 NCAA championships) and 173 Southeastern Conference championships (plus 264 individual national championships through the end of the 2013–14 school year). Un ...
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Sean Astin
Sean Patrick Astin (né Duke; February 25, 1971) is an American actor. His acting roles include Samwise Gamgee in ''The Lord of the Rings'' trilogy (2001–2003), Mikey Walsh in ''The Goonies'' (1985), Daniel Ruettiger in ''Rudy'' (1993), Doug Whitmore in '' 50 First Dates'' (2004), Bill in '' Click'' (2006), Lynn McGill in the fifth season of '' 24'' (2006), Oso in ''Special Agent Oso'' (2009–2012), Raphael in ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (2012–2017), Bob Newby in the second and third seasons of Netflix's ''Stranger Things'' (2017; 2019), and Ed in ''No Good Nick'' (2019). He is the son of actress Patty Duke and actor John Astin. He has received various recognitions including a Screen Actors Guild Award and two Young Artist Awards. Additionally, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film in 1994 for the short film ''Kangaroo Court''. Early life Astin was born in Santa Monica, California, the son of actress Patty Duke (1946–2016) and Mic ...
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Heidi Gardner
Heidi Lynn Gardner (born July 27, 1983) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. She has been a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' since 2017, beginning in season 43. Early life Gardner was born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She grew up with an older brother, Justin. Growing up, Gardner worked part-time at the Tivoli Theater, where she did everything "from selling tickets to making popcorn." She later credited the theater as "setting the tone in her life." Gardner was not interested in acting as a child, only performing on stage as a flutist for the school band and doing comedy sketches in school talent shows. Gardner graduated from the all-girls Catholic high school Notre Dame de Sion in 2001. In her senior year, she was voted by her classmates as "Most likely to be a cast member of ''Saturday Night Live''." Upon graduation, Gardner followed in the footsteps of a friend and enrolled at the University of Kansas for two years, before transferring to the Univers ...
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Stephanie Beatriz
Stephanie Beatriz Bischoff Alvizuri (born February 10, 1981) is an American actress, model and singer. She is known for playing Detective Rosa Diaz in the Fox/NBC comedy series ''Brooklyn Nine-Nine'' (2013–2021), and voicing protagonist Mirabel Madrigal in the Disney film ''Encanto''. Early life Beatriz was born in Neuquén, Argentina, to a Colombian father and a Bolivian mother. She is also of part German descent. She arrived in the United States at the age of two with her parents and a younger sister. Beatriz grew up in Webster, Texas, outside Houston, and attended Clear Brook High School. As a child, her mother took Beatriz and her sister to arts exhibits and events, something she credits for raising her awareness of potential careers in the arts. She became interested in acting after taking speech and debate as an elective, which allowed her to appear in plays. She became a United States citizen at 18. Beatriz attended the all-women's Stephens College in Columbia, Miss ...
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Dale Earnhardt Jr
Ralph Dale Earnhardt Jr. (born October 10, 1974) is an American semi-retired professional stock car racing driver, team owner, author, and an analyst for ''NASCAR on NBC''. He currently competes part-time in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, driving the No. 88 Chevrolet Camaro for his team JR Motorsports and part-time in the CARS Late Model Stock Tour, driving the No. 3 Chevrolet Camaro for his team JR Motorsports. He is the son of Dale Earnhardt Sr., who was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame. He is also the grandson of NASCAR driver Ralph Earnhardt, the brother of Kelley Earnhardt-Miller, the half-brother of former driver Kerry Earnhardt and the uncle of driver Jeffrey Earnhardt. Earnhardt's success at Daytona International Speedway throughout his career earned him the nickname "Pied Piper" of Daytona. He is a two-time Daytona 500 winner ( 2004 and 2014), and has won the Most Popular Driver Award fifteen consecutive times from 2003 to 2017. After driving the No. 8 Chevrole ...
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Lea Thompson
Lea Katherine Thompson (born May 31, 1961) is an American actress and director. She is best known for her role as Lorraine Baines-McFly in the Back to the Future (franchise), ''Back to the Future'' film trilogy (1985–1990) and Beverly Switzler in ''Howard the Duck (film), Howard the Duck'' (1986). Other films for which she is known include ''All the Right Moves (film), All the Right Moves'' (1983), ''Red Dawn'' (1984), ''Some Kind of Wonderful (film), Some Kind of Wonderful'' (1987), ''Dennis the Menace (1993 film), Dennis the Menace'' (1993) and ''The Beverly Hillbillies (film), The Beverly Hillbillies'' (1993). In the 1990s, she played the title character in the NBC sitcom ''Caroline in the City''. From 2011 to 2017, she co-starred as Kathryn Kennish in the ABC Family-turned-Freeform (TV channel), Freeform series ''Switched at Birth (TV series), Switched at Birth''. Early life Thompson was born on May 31, 1961, in Rochester, Minnesota, one of five children of Clifford an ...
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Guy Pearce
Guy Edward Pearce (born 5 October 1967) is an Australian actor. Born in Ely, Cambridgeshire in England, and raised in Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria in Australia, he started his career portraying Mike Young (Neighbours), Mike Young in the Australian television series ''Neighbours''. He received international attention for his breakout role in ''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' (1994) and subsequently took starring roles in Curtis Hanson's ''L.A. Confidential (film), L.A. Confidential'' (1997), Christopher Nolan's ''Memento (film), Memento'' (2000) and Simon Wells's ''The Time Machine (2002 film), The Time Machine'' (2002). Pearce is known for his performances in the film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's ''The Road (2009 film), The Road'' (2009), Kathryn Bigelow's war drama ''The Hurt Locker'' (2009) and Tom Hooper's historical drama ''The King's Speech'' (2010). He has appeared in Ridley Scott's ''Prometheus (2012 film), Prometheus'' (2012), the Marvel C ...
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2007 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
The 2007 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 65 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball as a culmination of the 2006–07 basketball season. Team selections were announced on March 11, 2007, and the tournament began on March 13, 2007, with the Opening round game and concluded with the championship game on April 2 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, Georgia. Both of the finalists from the year before returned to the Final Four as Florida, who returned its entire starting lineup from the year before, and UCLA advanced. They were joined in the Final Four by Ohio State, who was making its first appearance since their 1999 appearance (later vacated), and Georgetown, appearing for the first time since their national runner-up finish in 1985. Florida defeated Ohio State in the championship 84–75 to repeat as national champions. This marked the second time in 2007 that a Florid ...
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