Hi there Robert, excited about your Colonials playing in the NCAA tournament? And you John. What do you think about your Cowboys cleaning up in their conference? Hey Saint Aloysius, how ‘bout them Zags?
There are a lot of legacies floating around the NCAA tournament bracket. Not every school’s name is as simple as Kentucky or Texas Tech. Before all their namesakes take the March Madness stage, maybe we should know a little more about some of them.
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How many people out there on their brackets have Alabama been getting upset by the Pittsburgh School of Accountancy? That was the original name, but the school grew and moved and eventually was named Robert Morris, to honor the Founding Father who was known as the financier of the American Revolution. Which is why the Tide’s opponents are the Robert Morris Colonials. Morris ended up in debtors’ prison, by the way. Not sure where Robert Morris ends up after facing the Alabama offense.
Next, can Iowa State’s defense pressure the Nashville Bible School? That was the name given to the institution by the founder, theologian and farmer David Lipscomb. When he died, they changed the name to David Lipscomb University. Now it’s just Lipscomb.
Before he was governor of Iowa, Francis Marion Drake was a Civil War general for the Union, and won his share of battles, just like the 30-3 Drake Bulldogs have done. He was also captured.
A Methodist minister named Benjamin Wofford left a chunk of money in his will to start a school and now the Wofford Terriers will be going against one of the big dogs, Tennessee. Supposedly, his father was a supporter of the Patriot cause before the Revolution and was captured by Loyalist militia the night Benjamin was born.
Look who’ll be tangling in the first round. Lake Charles Junior College and Calhoun. John McNeese was nine when he lost both parents to TB and eventually became a renowned educator. In 1940, 26 years after he died, Lake Charles Junior College became John McNeese Junior College and later McNeese State University. Now his enterprise is the scourge of the Southland Conference, going 40-2 against league opponents the past two seasons. Their opponent comes from a school that stands on land originally named after former U.S. vice-president John C. Calhoun, whose daughter married an engineer named Thomas Green Clemson. The land went to them and when Clemson died, he left his money and his property to the state of South Carolina to build a school. So here come the Clemson Tigers.
And now, No. 1 seed in the East, Trinity College. Washington Duke was an industrialist and philanthropist, whose family wanted something lasting in his memory. A huge endowment was established for Trinity College, but for all the contributions, the family wanted the name changed to Duke. A good thing, too. No. 1 seed Trinity Blue Devils?
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Brigham Young is said to have had 56 wives and 57 children. When he wasn’t busy with that, he founded Salt Lake City and deeded land for a school in Provo that would one day be BYU, where the basketball team is making its 32nd NCAA Tournament appearance, the most by any school never to get to the Final Four.
John Creighton made his money by introducing the telegraph to the West. He and his brother Edward married sisters and the entire family dreamed of establishing a college in Omaha. They might have been visionaries but they probably never imagined that a school in Omaha would one day play in the Big East.
About Texas A&M’s first-round opponent, the Collegiate School of Connecticut. Trying to get things going in the 1700s, the school asked for donations. Isaac Newton sent a copy of his book on the laws of gravity. Elihu Yale, a man made wealthy by selling diamonds, donated books, art and bales of goods. The school was grateful enough to change its name to Yale. It has been suggested a Harvard man named Jeremiah Dummer did a lot more to advance the college, but the Dummer Bulldogs don’t seem very Ivy League.
There seems to be some question as to the exact identity of St. John the Evangelist but he is considered one of the authors of the Gospels in the New Testament. But everyone knows the guy writing a pretty good story right now at St. John’s. It’s St. Rick Pitino.
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Cornelius Vanderbilt was a railroad and shipping magnate who set a record at the time for the largest donation in American history when his wife – a woman named Frank — convinced him to put out $1 million to found Vanderbilt University, wonder how he and Frank would feel about being a member of the SEC.
Politician, jurist, Baptist preacher. Robert Emmett Bledsoe Baylor wore a lot of hats. He never married and produced no children, but he helped set up a school that certainly has produced a lot of basketball players.
While still a student, Aloysius Gonzaga died after caring for victims of an epidemic. He was only 23. That’s three years shorter than Gonzaga’s current streak of NCAA tournament bids.
Finally, Tom Izzo’s latest NCAA tournament adventure begins against Bryant, named after the brothers who founded the school. But it could be even better. The college is currently located on a former estate that was donated for a new campus in the 1960s by an alum and inventor named Earl S. Tupper, who made a lot of money with one of his ideas. Often, land donors get the school named after them.
Just think, Friday night in Cleveland, Michigan State could be going against the University of Tupperware.
