User:Uris/Fordham

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Fordham University is a private, co-educational university located near the Bronx Zoo in New York City (but with campuses also in Manhattan — at Lincoln Center — and Westchester). Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1841, it was the first Catholic university in the U.S. Northeast. Fordham University is the largest educational landholder in New York City with nearly 100 acres of this expensive real estate, and is of particular significance in American culture. Fordham is where Vince Lombardi became a Block of Granite on the football field, where Denzel Washington discovered acting, and where Donald Trump took his first business course.

[edit] Campus

[edit] Rose Hill (The Bronx)

Fordham's main campus in The Bronx is an expansive 85 acres and surprisingly, given the borough's rough reputation, it is situated in one of the greenest areas of New York City. Adjacent to it are the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden, and the campus is easily accessible to all of New York City via the Fordham Road stops of the 4, B and D New York Subway services, as well as a van service (the "Ram Van") that runs every half hour to the Lincoln Center campus. Likewise, the sights, sounds, and internships of Manhattan are easily found by Fordham students riding the same lines.

[edit] Lincoln Center (Manhattan)

Several of Fordham's programs (primarily graduate) are located at Manhattan's famous Lincoln Center, which it shares with the Julliard School.

[edit] Tarrytown (Westchester Co.)

[edit] History

Fordham University was founded by the Most Reverend John Joseph Hughes, Archbishop of New York, as Saint John’s College in 1841, and was the first Catholic institution of higher learning in the northeastern United States. The school was granted a charter by the New York state legislature in 1846. In 1907 the name was changed to Fordham University. (The name Fordham ("village by the ford") refers to the area of the Bronx, named as a reference to the original settlement that was located near a shallow crossing of the Harlem River; this crossing was the only entry to Manhattan from the north until 1693.) The school's motto - sapientia et doctrina - translates to "wisdom and learning."

[edit] Sports

The Fordham varsity sports teams all use the nickname "Rams." Their colors are maroon and white. The Fordham Rams play football in the Patriot League and were champions of that league in 2003. All other sports compete in the Atlantic Ten Conference.

[edit] Football

On September 30, 1939, Fordham participated in the world's first televised American football game. In front of the sport's first live TV audience, the Rams defeated Waynesburg College, 34-7. The following week they lost the second ever televised game to the University of Alabama, 7-6. It wasn't for another month that a professional National Football League game was televised.

During this time, Fordham competed at the highest levels of the sport, regularly posting 1-loss sesons and even going undefeated in 1929 and 1937. At least one source lists Fordham as the 1929 National Champions, although more sources cite Notre Dame or Southern California. At the time, there were no bowl games or AP voting to determine a unanimous winner.

Vince Lombardi was a starting lineman on the 1936 team, and was one of the Seven Blocks of Granite at Fordham. He later coached Fordham's freshman team and served as an assistant coach for varsity but when he was turned down for the head job, he left to coach at Army. After success at West Point, Lombardi would go on to coach with the New York Giants and to become the NFL's greatest coaching legend as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s.

Fordham was a football power in the early heydey of college football, and this did not sit well with certain administrators at the school. After an article in Thought magazine questioned why America's Catholic universities were as well known for their blocking and tackling as their athletics, the school came to a decision. On December 15, 1954, Fordham shocked football fans across the country by announcing that it had shut down the football program. Players and recruits — including a future NFL Hall of Famer — transferred to other universities.

A club football team was established in 1964 (on shaky authority), and football was re-established as a varsity sport in 1970 but in Division III. Fordham joined the NCAA's Division I-AA in 1989.

[edit] Notable alumni

• Alan Alda, actor, most notably as Hawkeye in M*A*S*H
• William J. Casey, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Mary Higgins Clark, author
• Patricia Clarkson, actress
• John Keane, U.S. General
• Bob Keeshan, children's television host (Captain Kangaroo)
• John LaFarge, muralist, Stained glass maker
• G. Gordon Liddy, radio broadcaster, and Watergate conspirator
• Vince Lombardi, football coaching legend
• Wellington Mara, owner of New York Giants football team
• Dylan McDermott, actor
• Lara Jill Miller, actress (from Fordham Law School)
• John N. Mitchell, United States Attorney General under President Nixon
• Charles Osgood, journalist for CBS
• Vin Scully, sports broadcaster
• Donald Trump, businessman (attended, no degree)
• Denzel Washington, actor

[edit] External links

• Fordham University web site
• Fordhamensis, Fordham-centered online community.