Full Text of SJR0072 100th General Assembly
SJ0072 100TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to | 3 | | congratulate the Loyola University Chicago Men's Basketball | 4 | | team for their magnificent season this year; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, The Ramblers compiled a record of 28 wins and 5 | 6 | | loses during the regular season and advanced to the NCAA | 7 | | Basketball Tournament for the first time since 1985; and
| 8 | | WHEREAS, Led by Head Coach Porter Moser, the Ramblers won | 9 | | the Missouri Valley
Conference by defeating Illinois State | 10 | | University in the championship game 65 to 49 on March 4; Loyola | 11 | | ended the regular season on a ten-game winning streak; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, As a result of Loyola's great regular season, | 13 | | Porter Moser was voted Missouri
Valley Conference Coach of the | 14 | | Year; and | 15 | | WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago has been a member of the | 16 | | Missouri Valley
Conference since July 1, 2013; prior to that, | 17 | | Loyola was in the Horizon League for 34 years as a
charter | 18 | | member; and | 19 | | WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago received an invitation | 20 | | to the NCAA Tournament and was the eleventh seed in the South |
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| 1 | | Region; in the first round, on March 15, their opponent, the | 2 | | University of Miami, Florida, was the sixth seed; it was a | 3 | | close game, with the
Rambler's Donte Ingram hitting a | 4 | | three-point shot with only three-tenths of a second left, to | 5 | | give
Loyola the win, 64 to 62; and | 6 | | WHEREAS, In the second round (the Round of 32) on March 17, | 7 | | Loyola faced the
University of Tennessee, which was the third | 8 | | seed in the South Region; in another close contest, Loyola's | 9 | | Clayton Custer hit a fifteen-foot jumper with 3.6 seconds left | 10 | | in the game to seal the victory for the Ramblers, 63 to 62; | 11 | | this would not be Custer's Last Stand; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, This has been another great season for Mr. Custer; | 13 | | his honors include being named the Larry Bird Player of the | 14 | | Year in the Missouri Valley Conference and a First Team | 15 | | Scholar-Athlete in the Missouri Valley Conference; other | 16 | | highlights this season for Clayton include: Associated Press | 17 | | Honorable Mention All-America, CoSIDA Academic All-District, | 18 | | and the Lou Henson Award; Clayton and Donte Ingram were named | 19 | | NABC All-District 16; Cameron Krutwig was named MVC Freshman of | 20 | | the Year; Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer were named MVC | 21 | | First Team Scholar-Athlete and Division I-AAA Scholar-Athlete; | 22 | | and | 23 | | WHEREAS, In the third round (the Sweet Sixteen) of the NCAA |
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| 1 | | Tournament on March 22,
Loyola's opponent was the University of | 2 | | Nevada, Las Vegas, ranked as the seventh seed in the
South | 3 | | Region; the Ramblers played with great enthusiasm and precision | 4 | | as time and time again they moved the ball to the basket; | 5 | | Marques Townes had an outstanding game, scoring 18 points | 6 | | including a 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left in the game when | 7 | | Loyola was ahead by one point; with a four-point lead, the | 8 | | Ramblers held on to win 69 to 68; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, In the fourth round (the Elite Eight) on March 24, | 10 | | the Ramblers played Kansas State University, ranked as the | 11 | | ninth seed in the South Region; teamwork once again was | 12 | | paramount in how Loyola played; like the three previous | 13 | | tournament games, "a star was born"; this time it was Ben | 14 | | Richardson who scored 23 points, including six of seven | 15 | | three-pointers; his superb offensive performance added to his | 16 | | already illustrious reputation; Mr.
Richardson had been named | 17 | | the Missouri Valley Conference's Defensive Player of the Year; | 18 | | he was named as a First Team Scholar-Athlete in the Missouri | 19 | | Valley Conference and he was also honored as the South Region's | 20 | | Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament; by virtue of | 21 | | its victory over Kansas State, 78 to 62, Loyola won the South | 22 | | Region and moved on to the Final
Four for the first time since | 23 | | 1963 and extended its winning streak to fourteen, the longest | 24 | | of any team in the tournament; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, In the fifth round (the Final Four), held on March | 2 | | 31, Loyola's opponent was the University of Michigan, ranked as | 3 | | the third seed in the West Region; the Ramblers played with a | 4 | | lot of heart and led at halftime 29 to 22; this was an | 5 | | incredible effort by Loyola given how powerful Michigan's | 6 | | offense had been all season; however, with about 6 minutes left | 7 | | in the game, Michigan took the lead and ended up with a | 8 | | victory; and | 9 | | WHEREAS, Throughout Loyola's NCAA Tournament run, Sister | 10 | | Jean Dolores Schmidt was a delight and an inspiration to the | 11 | | team; as Team Chaplain, "Sister Jean" (as she is affectionately | 12 | | known) inspired and motivated the Loyola Ramblers in | 13 | | immeasurable ways; she has been a Sister in the religious order | 14 | | of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin (BVM) since | 15 | | 1937 and has been Team Chaplain since 1996; now at the age of | 16 | | 98, she cemented the team ethos with her signature phrase: | 17 | | "Worship, Work and Win"; in addition to her other honors, | 18 | | Sister Jean had bestowed upon her one of the greatest of sports | 19 | | honors, a bobblehead doll from the National Bobblehead Hall of | 20 | | Fame and Museum; pre-orders have already surpassed the 15,000 | 21 | | mark, making her Bobblehead the biggest seller of all time by | 22 | | far; by the end of the tournament it was safe to say that | 23 | | Sister Jean was not just Loyola's treasure, but the nation's as | 24 | | well; and |
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| 1 | | WHEREAS, Other Loyola University highlights for the season | 2 | | include: a school record 32 wins, finishing the season ranked | 3 | | No. 7 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, first outright | 4 | | regular-season conference championship since 1985, first NCAA | 5 | | Tournament appearance since 1985, first NCAA Final Four | 6 | | appearance since 1963, and only the fourth No. 11 seed in NCAA | 7 | | Tournament history to reach the Final Four; during the season | 8 | | they defeated Florida, Miami, Tennessee, and Nevada, all | 9 | | nationally-ranked teams; Loyola Athletics ranked No. 1 in the | 10 | | NCAA for the second straight year with a 99% graduation success | 11 | | rate; and | 12 | | WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago has a long and storied | 13 | | history in basketball; in
1963, Loyola broke with college | 14 | | basketball's unwritten rule that no team should have more than | 15 | | two black players on the court at any given time; in so doing, | 16 | | they created a national conversation on race which led to the | 17 | | elimination of the limit on black players' court time; on March | 18 | | 15, 1963, in the NCAA Tournament, Loyola played Mississippi | 19 | | State University; the governor of Mississippi had instructed | 20 | | the all-white Mississippi State team not to play against an | 21 | | integrated team; their coach and players refused to follow the | 22 | | instruction, and the game became known as the Game of Change; | 23 | | Loyola would go on to defeat the two-time defending champion, | 24 | | the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (ranked number one in the | 25 | | nation), to win the national championship; Loyola remains the |
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| 1 | | only Illinois school to ever win the NCAA Basketball Title; and | 2 | | WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago is a Jesuit school | 3 | | founded in 1870; its main
campus, known as the Lake Shore | 4 | | Campus, is in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the northeast | 5 | | side, while its downtown campus, known as the Water Tower | 6 | | Campus, is next to Chicago's famed Magnificent Mile; Loyola has | 7 | | an enrollment of more than 16,000 students and boasts 150,000 | 8 | | alumni, 85,000 of whom are in the Chicago area; team members | 9 | | volunteer at Misericordia Heart of Mercy; and
| 10 | | WHEREAS, As a Jesuit school, Loyola takes seriously its | 11 | | role in shaping students' lives; this is especially true of | 12 | | student-athletes, many of whom will never play professional | 13 | | sports; the degree they earn at Loyola is meaningful because of | 14 | | the school's commitment to their education, which takes the | 15 | | form of mentoring and tutoring to help guide them through a | 16 | | rigorous academic and athletic schedule; student-athletes at | 17 | | Loyola have a graduation rate of 99%; only five other schools | 18 | | in Division I sports have a graduation rate that high, four of | 19 | | them in the Ivy League; and
| 20 | | WHEREAS, All of Illinois is grateful and honored for the | 21 | | positive national attention
brought to Loyola University and | 22 | | the City of Chicago; the Loyola University Men's Basketball | 23 | | team
had a thrilling season made noteworthy by its first |
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| 1 | | appearance in the NCAA Tournament since
1985 and by making it | 2 | | to the Final Four for the first time since 1963; Head Coach | 3 | | Porter Moser
and the entire group of players: Adarius Avery, | 4 | | Jake Baughman, Dylan Boehm, Clayton Custer,
Nick Dinardi, Donte | 5 | | Ingram, Aundre Jackson, Cameron Krutwig, Christian Negron, Ben
| 6 | | Richardson, Cameron Satterwhite, Carson Shanks, Bruno Skokna, | 7 | | Marques Townes, Aher Uguak,
and Lucas Williamson are rightly | 8 | | proud of their season and accomplishments; therefore, be it
| 9 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL | 10 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES | 11 | | CONCURRING HEREIN, that we congratulate the Loyola University | 12 | | Chicago Men's basketball team for its great season and its | 13 | | tremendous success in the NCAA Tournament; and be it further | 14 | | RESOLVED, That we declare May 9, 2018 as "Loyola University | 15 | | Chicago Day" in recognition of its accomplishments; and be it | 16 | | further
| 17 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 18 | | presented to
Coach Porter Moser as a token of our esteem and | 19 | | good wishes.
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