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Richard Tucker

Richard Tucker (August 28, 1913 – January 8, 1975) was an American operatic tenor and cantor. Long associated with the Metropolitan Opera, Tucker's career was primarily centered in the United States.

Early life
Tucker was born Rivn (Rubin) Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, the youngest of five surviving children of Bessarabian Jewish parents who immigrated to the US in 1911. His father, Ysruel (Sam) Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa (Fanny) Ticker resisted using the anglicized "Tucker" their children adopted, but by the time their youngest son entered first grade, he was registered under the surname Tucker. His musical aptitude was discovered early, and was nurtured under the tutelage of Samuel Weisser at the Tifereth Israel synagogue in Lower Manhattan. As a teenager, Tucker's interests alternated between athletics, at which he excelled during his school years, and singing for weddings and bar mitzvahs as a cantorial student. Eventually, he progressed from a part-time cantor at Temple Emanuel in Passaic, New Jersey, to full-time cantorships at Temple Adath Israel in the Bronx and, in June 1943, at the large and prestigious Brooklyn Jewish Center. Until then, Tucker's income derived mainly from his weekly commissions as a salesman for the Reliable Silk Company in Manhattan's garment district.

On February 11, 1936, Tucker married Sara Perelmuth, the youngest child (and only daughter) of Levi and Anna Perelmuth, proprietors of the Grand Mansion, a kosher banquet hall in Manhattan's Lower East Side. At the time of Tucker's wedding to their daughter, the Perelmuths' musically gifted eldest son, Yakob, had progressed from a part-time jazz violinist and lyric tenor vocalist to a national radio star who had already set his sights on an operatic career. Under the management of Sol Hurok, the eldest of the Perelmuth offspring, now renamed Jan Peerce, reached his goal when the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company, Edward Johnson, offered him a contract after an impressive audition. When Peerce made his much-acclaimed debut at the Met on November 29, 1941, his sister and her new husband were living with Peerce's parents.

Operatic career
Although Peerce remained skeptical of Tucker's singing talent and did not overtly encourage his operatic ambitions (causing an unfortunate rift between the two brothers-in-law and their families, which apparently never completely healed), Peerce did play a role in introducing Tucker to conductor and arranger Zavel Zilberts, who coached Tucker until he came to the attention of Paul Althouse, a notable tenor whose operatic career had begun during Enrico Caruso's reigning years at the Met. Althouse became Tucker's only teacher. Contrary to his teacher's advice, Tucker entered the Metropolitan Opera "Auditions of the Air" in 1943, but did not win. When Met general manager Edward Johnson came unannounced to the Brooklyn Jewish Center to hear Tucker sing, however, Johnson offered the tenor another audition and soon awarded him a contract. On January 25, 1945, under the baton of Emil Cooper, Tucker made his debut as Enzo Grimaldo in La Gioconda. This debut, one of the most successful in the annals of the Met, heralded Tucker's 30-year career as the leading American tenor of the Met's postwar era.

Two years after his Metropolitan debut, Tucker was invited to reprise his success in La Gioconda at the amphitheater in Verona, Italy, for which the retired tenor and Verona native, Giovanni Zenatello, had also engaged the young Maria Callas. Two years later, in 1949, Tucker's rapidly ascending career was confirmed when Arturo Toscanini engaged Tucker to sing the role of Radames for the NBC broadcasts of a complete concert performance of Aida opposite Herva Nelli in the title role, an event heard and seen on radio and television, and eventually released on LP, CD, VHS, and DVD. This was one of the first complete opera performances ever broadcast on national television.

In the ensuing years, Tucker's ample lyric voice evolved into a lirico-spinto voice of near-dramatic proportions. If his signature stylistic devices, especially his affection for Italianate sobs, were not always lauded by the critics, the distinctive timbre of his ringing voice, his unfailingly secure technique, impeccable diction, and native-sounding pronunciation were universally acclaimed in every role he undertook. “For me, Richard Tucker was, and always will be, an ‘Italian’ tenor,” Luciano Pavarotti wrote in the foreword to the authorized biography by James A. Drake. “Like Jussi Bjoerling, he proved that one does not have to be Italian-born in order to win the critics and public.” A profusion of legendary tenors including Jussi Björling, Giuseppe Di Stefano, Mario Del Monaco and, eventually, Jan Peerce) came and went during the years in which (Sir) Rudolf Bing led the Metropolitan. Tucker remained a dominant tenor and steadily took on new challenges. Although an unremarkable actor throughout most of his career, Tucker made a strong dramatic impression with veteran critics when he reconceived the role of Canio in Pagliacci under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in January 1970. The tenor was nearly 60 years old at the time.

Before and after each Metropolitan Opera season, Tucker appeared on concert stages through the U.S. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, Tucker frequently appeared in a series of well attended open-air concerts at Lewisohn Stadium in New York City, under the direction of Alfredo Antonini.

Throughout his opera career, Tucker maintained a Jewish identity. He kept a kosher home, and regularly officiated as a cantor on Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur and other sacred events in the Jewish liturgical calendar, especially in Chicago. He oversaw the religious development of his three sons, Berel (Barry, born 1938); David N. Tucker, M.D. (born 1941); and Henry (born 1946). Their father arranged for them to sing with him on a popular television program hosted by Sam Levenson, 9 March 1952.

Tucker had a long-running contract with Columbia Records, and eventually recorded for RCA Victor as well. But, measured against the sheer length of his career, Tucker's commercial recordings are proportionately sparse and inadequately convey the power and roundness of his voice, according to most of his artistic colleagues. However, his recordings with soprano Leontyne Price (especially in Madama Butterfly and La forza del destino) invariably show him in fine ringing voice and with a convincing dramatic presence. He also made a famous recording of Aida with a colleague from his Verona debut, Maria Callas. He recorded the Verdi Requiem with George London. Many other commercial recordings, as well as private recordings of his concerts and broadcast performances, have been digitally remastered and are available in CD and online downloadable formats. A number of his national television appearances on "The Voice of Firestone" and "The Bell Telephone Hour" were preserved in kinescope and videotape form, and have been reissued in VHS and DVD format. A complete video performance of the tenor's portrayal of Canio in the Zeffirelli production of Pagliacci, which was to be paired with Cavalleria rusticana featuring Tucker's friend and tenor colleague Franco Corelli as Turiddu, was never telecast and has not been issued commercially, for legal reasons.

Although Tucker's well-crafted public image was that of a competitive, overwhelmingly self-confident performer, his offstage demeanor was that of an inherently private but unfailingly considerate man, especially where fans and colleagues were concerned. Never prone to looking back upon his career, Tucker always lived in the moment and maintained a boyish outlook on life He also displayed a propensity for playing pranks on some of his fellow singers, often provoking a smile at some inappropriate moment in a performance. Once, during a broadcast of La forza del destino with baritone Robert Merrill, Tucker sneaked a nude photograph into a small trunk that Merrill opened onstage. In later years, Merrill described his tenor friend as "an original, right out of the pages of a Damon Runyon story".

Death
On January 8, 1975, Tucker died of a sudden heart attack in his hotel room in Kalamazoo, Michigan while on tour with Robert Merrill in a national series of joint concerts. His funeral was held on January 10 on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera House, the only singer ever to be so honored.

Legacy
Shortly after his death, the Richard Tucker Music Foundation was established by his widow, sons, colleagues, and friends, "to perpetuate the memory of America's greatest tenor through projects in aid of gifted young singers." In the intervening decades, the Richard Tucker Foundation, whose annual televised concerts have been hosted by Luciano Pavarotti and others, has consistently awarded the largest vocal-music grants and scholarships. Recipients, the first of whom was Rockwell Blake, include sopranos Renée Fleming, Deborah Voigt, Isabel Leonard, tenors Richard Leech, Stephen Costello, James Valenti, Michael Fabbiano and other opera singers of international renown.

In tribute to his legacy at the Met, the city of New York designated the park adjacent to Lincoln Center as Richard Tucker Square.

Audio examples

 * Richard Tucker in La fanciulla del West
 * Renata Tebaldi and Richard Tucker in a scene from Puccini's Manon Lescaut
 * Richard Tucker in operetta
 * , "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci, The Ed Sullivan Show December 1969
 * , "Un'auro amorosa" from Così fan tutte (Mozart), in English ("My love is a flower")

title: Richard Tucker


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He Long

He Long (March 22, 1896 – June 9, 1969) was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and a Marshal of the People's Republic of China. He was from a poor rural family in Hunan, and his family was not able to provide him with any formal education. He began his revolutionary career after avenging the death of his uncle, when he fled to become an outlaw and attracted a small personal army around him. Later his forces joined the Kuomintang, and he participated in the Northern Expedition.

He rebelled against the Kuomintang after Chiang Kai-shek began violently suppressing Communists, when he planned and led the unsuccessful Nanchang Uprising. After escaping, he organized a soviet in rural Hunan (and later Guizhou), but was forced to abandon his bases when pressured by Chiang's Encirclement Campaigns. He joined the Long March in 1935, over a year after forces associated with Mao Zedong and Zhu De were forced to do so. He met with forces led by Zhang Guotao, but he disagreed with Zhang about the strategy of the Red Army and led his forces to join and support Mao.

After settling and establishing a headquarters in Shaanxi, He led guerrilla forces in Northwest China in both the Chinese Civil War and the Second Sino-Japanese War, and was generally successful in expanding areas of Communist control. He commanded a force of 170,000 troops forces by the end of 1945, when his force was placed under the command of Peng Dehuai and He became Peng's second-in-command. He was placed in control of Southwest China in the late 1940s, and spent most of the 1950s in the Southwest administering the region in both civilian and military roles.

He held a number of civilian and military positions after the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In 1955, his contributions to the victory of the Chinese Communist Party were recognized when he was named one of the Ten Marshals, and he served as China's vice premier. He did not support Mao Zedong's attempts to purge Peng Dehuai in 1959 and attempted to rehabilitate Peng. After the Cultural Revolution was declared in 1966, he was one of the first leaders of the PLA to be purged. He died in 1969 when a glucose injection provided by his jailers complicated his untreated diabetes.

Early life

He Long was a member of the Tujia ethnic group. Born in the Sangzhi, Hunan, he and his siblings, including He Ying, grew up in a poor peasant household, despite his father being a minor Qing military officer. His father was a member of the Gelaohui (Elder Brother Society), a secret society dating back to the early Qing dynasty. A cowherd during his youth, he received no formal education. When He was 20 he killed a local government tax assessor who had killed his uncle for defaulting on his taxes. He then fled and became an outlaw, giving rise to the legend that he began his revolutionary career with just two kitchen knives. After beginning his life as an outlaw he gained a reputation as a "Robin Hood-like figure". His signature weapon was a butcher knife.

Around 1918 He raised a volunteer revolutionary army that was aligned with a local Hunan warlord, and in 1920, his personal army joined the National Revolutionary Army. In 1923 He was promoted to command the Nationalist Twentieth Army. In 1925 He ran a school for training Kuomintang soldiers. While running this school, He became close with some of his students who were also Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members. During the 1926 Northern Expedition, He commanded the 1st Division, 9th Corps of the National Revolutionary Army. He served under Zhang Fakui during the Northern Expedition.

In late 1926 He joined the CCP. In 1927, after the collapse of Wang Jingwei's leftist Kuomintang government in Wuhan and Chiang Kai-shek's suppression of communists, He left the Kuomintang and joined the Communists, commanding the 20th Corps, 1st Column of the Red Army. He and Zhu De planned and led the main force of the Nanchang Uprising in 1927. In the Nanchang Uprising He and Zhu led a combined force of 24,000 men and attempted to seize the city of Nanchang, but they were not able to secure it against the inevitable Kuomintang attempt to retake the city. The campaign suffered from logistical difficulties, and the communists suffered 50% casualties in the two months of fighting. Most of He's soldiers who survived surrendered, deserted, and/or rejoined the KMT. Only 2,000 survivors eventually returned to fight for the Communists in 1928, when Zhu reformed his forces in Hunan.

After his forces were defeated, He fled to Lufeng, Guangdong. He spent some time in Hong Kong, but was later sent by the CCP to Shanghai, then to Wuhan. Chiang Kai-shek continuously tried to persuade him rejoin the Kuomintang, but failed.

Communist guerrilla
After the failure of the Nanchang Uprising, He turned down an offer by the CCP Central Committee to study in Russia and returned to Hunan, where he raised a new force in 1930. His force controlled a broad area of the countryside in the Hunan-Hubei border region, around the area of Lake Hong, and organized this area into a rural soviet. In mid-1932 Kuomintang forces targeted He's soviet as part of the Fourth Encirclement Campaign. He's forces abandoned their bases, moved southwest, and established a new base in northeast Guizhou in mid-1933.

In 1934 Ren Bishi joined He in Guizhou with his own surviving forces after also being forced to abandon his soviet in another Encirclement Campaign. Ren and He merged forces, with He becoming the military commander and Ren becoming the commissar. He joined the Long March in November 1935, over a year after forces led by Zhu De and Mao Zedong were forced to evacuate their own soviet in Jiangxi. He's ability to resist the Kuomintang was partially due to his position on the periphery of Communist-controlled territory. While on the Long March He's forces met Communist forces led by Zhang Guotao in June 1936, but both He and Ren disagreed with Zhang about the direction of the Long March, and He eventually led his forces into Shaanxi to join Mao Zedong by the end of 1936. In 1937 He settled his troops in northwestern Shaanxi and established a new headquarters there. Because the Second Army of the Chinese Red Army under He Long's command was one of the few Communist forces to arrive in Yan'an mostly intact, his force was able to assume the responsibility of protecting the new capital after their arrival.

When the Red Army was reorganized into the Eighth Route Army in 1937, He was placed in command of the 120th Division. From late 1938 to 1940 He fought both the Japanese army and Kuomintang-affiliated guerrillas in Hubei. He's responsibilities increased during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and in 1943 he was promoted to be the overall commander of Communist forces in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, and Inner Mongolia. By the end of World War II He commanded a force of approximately 175,000 troops across northwestern China. He's most notable subordinates included Zhang Zongxun, Xu Guangda, and Peng Shaohui.

He was successful in expanding Communist base areas throughout the period of World War II. Part of He's success was due to the social confusion caused by Japan's Ichi-Go offensive in the areas of China that Japanese operations effected. He was frequently able to expand Communist areas of operation by allying with local, independent guerrilla forces who were also fighting the Japanese. He's experience fighting the Kuomintang and the Japanese led him to question Mao's unconditional emphasis on the importance of ideological guerrilla warfare at the expense of conventional tactics and military organization.

In October 1945, one month after the Japanese surrender, the command of He's forces was transferred to Peng Dehuai, which operated as the "Northwest Field Army". He became Peng's second-in-command, but spent most of the rest of the Chinese Civil War in central CCP headquarters, in and around Yan'an. After the Japanese surrender, in 1945, He was elected to the CCP Central Committee, and his influence rose within both the military and the communist political system. Near the end of the Chinese Civil War He was promoted to command the First Field Army, which was active in Southwest China. After the Communists won the civil war in 1949, He spent most of the 1950s in both civilian and military roles in the southwest.

In the People's Republic
He's military accomplishments were recognized when he was promoted to being one of the Ten Marshals in 1955, and he served in a number of civilian positions. He was made Vice Premier. He headed the National Sports Commission, and in that role facilitated sports exchanges with the Soviet Union and the eastern European countries. He was one of the most well-traveled members of the CCP elite, and led numerous delegations abroad, meeting with leaders of other Asian countries, the Soviet Union, and East Germany.

After Mao Zedong purged Peng Dehuai in 1959, Mao appointed He to the head of an office to investigate Peng's past and find reasons to criticize Peng. He accepted the position but was sympathetic to Peng, and stalled for over a year before submitting his report. Mao's prestige weakened when it became widely known that Mao's Great Leap Forward had been a disaster, and He eventually presented a report that was positive, and which attempted to vindicate Peng. Peng was partially rehabilitated in 1965, but then purged again at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution 1966.

Jiang Qing denounced He in December 1966 of being a "rightist" and of intra-CCP factionalism. Following Jiang's accusations He and his supporters were branded an anti-CCP element and quickly purged. He's persecutors singled him out by labeling him the "biggest bandit". He was the second highest-ranking member of the Military Affairs Commission at the time that he was purged, and the method in which he and those close to him were purged set the pattern for multiple later purges of the PLA leadership throughout the Cultural Revolution.

After being purged, He was placed under indefinite house arrest for the last two and a half years of his life. He described the conditions of his imprisonment as a period of slow torture, in which his captors "intended to destroy my health so that they can murder me without spilling my blood". During the years that he was imprisoned, his captors restricted his access to water, cut off his house's heat during the winter, and refused him access to medicine to treat his diabetes. He died in 1969 after being hospitalized for the severe malnutrition that he developed while under house arrest. He died soon after being admitted to hospital, after a glucose injection complicated his chronic diabetes.

He was posthumously partially rehabilitated by Mao in 1974, then fully rehabilitated after Deng Xiaoping came to power in the late 1970s. A stadium in Changsha was named after him in 1987.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: He Long


text: User talk:65.49.189.224

title: User talk:65.49.189.224


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Alice Mary Smith

Alice Mary Smith (married name Alice Mary Meadows White; 19 May 1839 – 4 December 1884) was an English composer. Her compositions included two symphonies and a large collection of choral works, both sacred and secular.

Biography
Smith was born in London, the third child of a relatively well-to-do family. She showed aptitude for music from her early years and took lessons privately from William Sterndale Bennett and George Alexander Macfarren, publishing her first song in 1857. In November 1867, the year of her marriage to a lawyer, Frederick Meadows White, she was elected Female Professional Associate of the Royal Philharmonic Society. In 1884 she was elected an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music. The same year, after a period of illness in which she went abroad to try to recover, she died of typhoid fever in London and was buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Works
Smith was a prolific composer, writing for a diverse range of ensembles.

Among her chamber compositions are four piano quartets, three string quartets and a clarinet sonata (1870), perhaps the first British example, anticipating sonatas by Swinnerton Heap, Prout, Tovey and Stanford. Her orchestral compositions include six concert overtures and two symphonies. Her first symphony, in C minor, was written at the age of 24 and performed by the Musical Society of London in 1863; the second, in A minor, was written for the Alexandra Palace competition of 1876, but was never submitted.

Smith composed two large pieces for the stage: an operetta, Gisela of Rüdesheim for chorus, orchestra, and soloists which was performed in 1865 at the Fitzwilliam Music Society, Cambridge, and The Masque of Pandora (1875), for which the orchestration was never completed.

Smith's oeuvre includes one of the largest collections of sacred choral music by a woman composer, and comprises six anthems, three canticles (and the beginning to a fourth), as well as a short Sacred Cantata Exile, based on episodes from Jean Racine's Esther. Her anthems Whoso hath this world's goods and By the waters of Babylon were performed in a liturgical context at St Andrew's, Wells Street by Sir Joseph Barnby in February 1864, making them the first recorded instance of music by a woman composer to be used for the liturgies of the Church of England.

In 1880 she turned her attention towards writing large-scale cantatas, all published by Novello & Co. These included Ode to the North-East Wind for chorus and orchestra, Ode to The Passions (1882), her longest work, performed at the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in that year, and two cantatas for male voices in the last two years of her life. In her obituary, her husband claimed that she was working on a setting of the poem The Valley of Remorse by Louisa Sarah Bevington for chorus, soloists and orchestra; however, there is no manuscript to support this claim. Of her forty songs, her most popular work was the vocal duet O that we two were maying. Another, Lessons of the Gorses (setting Elizabeth Barrett Browning), was published in The Girl's Own Paper in 1883.

Since 2010, Smith's manuscripts are housed in the Royal Academy of Music Library. Two symphonies and two overtures are published by A-R Editions in editions by Ian Graham-Jones. The Symphony in A minor, Symphony in C minor and the Andante for clarinet and orchestra (taken from the Clarinet Sonata) have been recorded by Howard Shelley and the London Mozart Players for Chandos. Leonard Sanderman edited the complete sacred choral music of Alice Mary Smith, and recorded this repertoire with The Eoferwic Consort, supported by an AHRC Knowledge Exchange Grant.

According to an obituary in The Athenaeum of 13 December 1884: "Her music is marked by elegance and grace ... power and energy. Her forms were always clear and her ideas free from eccentricity; her sympathies were evidently with the Classic rather than with the Romantic school."

title: Alice Mary Smith


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Talk:Oké bananas

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title: Talk:Oké bananas


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Bluefield State University

Bluefield State University is a public historically black university (HBCU) in Bluefield, West Virginia. Despite being an HBCU, Bluefield's undergraduate student body is now over 80% white. The university is part of West Virginia's public university education system.

History
The Bluefield Colored Institute was founded in 1895 as a "high-graded school" for African Americans. At that time, the West Virginia Constitution prohibited racially integrated public education. Bluefield was within 100 miles of 70% of the state’s African American residents. The school was located on a steep 4 acre site to the north side of the Norfolk & Western railroad tracks.

Principal Hamilton Hatter supervised the first class of 40 pupils. Nathan Cook Brackett, an abolitionist and first president of Storer College, served as president of the board of regents. Hatter oversaw the construction of Mahood Hall, the administrative building, as well as dormitories Lewis Hall and West Hall. Mahood Hall was named for State Senator William Mahood (R-Mercer County), who wrote the institute's sponsoring legislation.

In 1906, Hatter was succeeded by Robert P. Sims, who would lead the institute, then college, for three decades. In 1909, the institute became a normal school, adding the training of teachers to its curriculum. By 1920, enrollment climbed to 235, with summer sessions for teacher certification adding hundreds more. Campus growth followed enrollment gains, expanding to 23 acres and the addition of Payne and Conley Halls. Enrollment grew to more than six hundred on its "terraced hills."

The President's House, later renamed Hatter Hall, was built in 1930 and added to the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1932, the State of West Virginia recognized the Institute's success, accredited its education curriculum, and changed its name to Bluefield State Teachers College.

Sims' successor, Henry Dickason, was an institute alumnus and president from 1936 to 1952. In 1943, the state again accredited an expanded curriculum and renamed the school Bluefield State College.

Neither the city nor the college were isolated from the demonstrations and demands for civil rights that dominated much of the 1960s. African American students protested that the school administration was working actively to transform Bluefield State from a historic black residential college to a commuter college with predominantly white students. Tension persisted, and on November 21, 1968, a bomb exploded in the gymnasium. No one was injured, but the damage was extensive. A $5,000 reward was offered by Governor Hulett C. Smith, and college president Wendell Hardway responded by closing all dormitories immediately and permanently. Students returning from Thanksgiving break found themselves locked out. The actions accelerated the college’s transition to a majority white student body.

Despite these changes, overall enrollment remained strong through the succeeding decades. In 2003, the West Virginia Legislature created a community college system offering two-year degrees at new institutions across the state. Among them was New River Community and Technical College. Bluefield State was required to transfer all its two-year programs, except engineering and nursing, to New River. This resulted in losing approximately half of the college's enrollment. The succeeding years were of slow decline, with occasional calls from state legislators to merge the college with nearby Concord University.

In 2019, the board of trustees hired former West Liberty University president Robin Capehart as interim president. Later that year, Capehart and Governor Jim Justice announced the return to a residential campus with the groundbreaking for the first residence hall since the 1960s.

In 2020, Bluefield State acquired the former Bluefield Regional Medical Center property, adding 68 acres to the campus and naming the student facility the Medical Education Center Residence Hall. Former patient rooms were converted to residences; a cafeteria and lounge areas were built in time for the 2021–22 school year. Enrollment continued to grow during that time. Bluefield State leased back emergency department facilities to the Princeton Community Hospital, owners of the Bluefield Regional Medical Center.

In 2022, the state's Higher Education Planning Commission approved the college's first master's degree program, a Master of Business Administration, and renamed the institution Bluefield State University.

The university garnered national attention in 2022 after the university suspended the faculty senate and created a new review system for tenured faculty members; this was quickly followed by a vote of no confidence by the university's faculty. This prompted an investigation by the university's accreditor, the Higher Learning Commission (HLC), in September 2023. The commission's peer review team reported that the president and board of governors "do not operate with integrity in several academic and human resources functions," including accusations that the university president hired several faculty members without input from university faculty, that the president fired a staff member following their meeting with the peer review team, and that the university's governing board were "not making decisions in the best interest of the university". President Capehart resigned shortly after the report was delivered to the university. The HLC peer review team also recommended that the commission require the university to provide additional information to justify their accreditation.

Academics
The university is organized into six colleges/schools:

 * College of Arts and Sciences
 * W. Paul Cole, Jr. School of Business
 * College of Engineering Technology
 * College of Health Sciences
 * School of Criminal Justice
 * School of Education

* Note: This racial-ethnic group includes Asian, Native American or Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, and other racial or ethnic categories not explicitly listed in the table.

As of the 2022–2023 school year, the student body is 59.3% female and 40.6% male.

Student life
Bluefield State became a residential university in 2021 for the first time since 1968.

Athletics
Bluefield State athletic teams are the Big Blue. There are 21 intercollegiate varsity sports and many intramural sports.

Bluefield State belongs to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the NCAA Division II level, primarily competing in the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) since the 2023–24 academic year; its men's wrestling team is an affiliate of Conference Carolinas. Prior to this, Bluefield State competed as a D-II independent as well as an Independent in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association (USCAA) from 2013–14 to 2022–23, and as a member of the now defunct West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) from 1955–56 to 2012–13.

In 2020, President Capehart announced the return of football to the athletics program for the first time since 1980. Eleven new sports were added as well.

History
Sports have a prominent place in Bluefield State's past and recent history. Teams competed in the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association—now the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA)—from 1932 to 1955. In 1955, the college joined the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) and remained there until its dissolution in 2013. It competed as an Independent until 2023 when it was re-admitted into the CIAA.

The archives of the WVIAC are housed at Bluefield State’s Jefferson Library.

In 1927 and 1928, football teams (then the "Blue Devils") won Negro College Athletic Association national championships as announced by the Pittsburgh Courier. In 2020, football began its return to campus with the hiring of head coach Tony Coaxum. In 2021, the team played its first games in 41 years and finished the season with a 4–3 record. In 2022, the team played its second season as an independent and finished 4–4. In 2023, the Big Blue competed in the CIAA for the first time in 70 years against other historically black colleges and universities.

Men and women's basketball teams competed in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WVIAC) from 1955 until its dissolution in 2013. The men’s teams were tournament finalists in 1987 and 1988. The women's teams won conference titles in 1985, 1987, 1990 and 1993. Additionally, they won tournament titles in 1985 and 1993 and were finalists in 1986, 1989, 1992 and 1994.

The men's golf team won a WVIAC championship in 2011. In 2021, it won the USCAA national championship.

The men's tennis team won a WVIAC championship in 2012. It won a NCAA Regional championship in 2021 and competed in the Division II Finals for the first time.

The women's volleyball team won the USCAA championship in 2022.

The men's and women's track & field teams both won the USCAA championship in 2023.

title: Bluefield State University


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Southport F.C.

Southport Football Club is an association football club based in Southport, Merseyside. The club compete in the National League North, the sixth level of the English football league system. They play their home matches at Haig Avenue, which has a capacity of 6,008. They are known by their nickname "the Sandgrounders".

Founded in 1888 as Southport Central, the club were members of regional leagues such as the Lancashire League, the Lancashire Combination and The Central League for many years until 1921 when they were invited to become a founding member of the newly formed Football League Third Division North. Southport held membership of The Football League from 1921 to 1978. The club's main honour whilst in the Football League was winning the 1972–73 Football League Fourth Division championship. They failed to gain re-election in 1978 and since then have been members of the Northern Premier League (1978 to 1993), the Football Conference (1993 to 2003) and then the Northern Premier League Premier Division (2003–04). Southport were transferred to the new National League North in 2004 and, since then, have played in either that division (tier 6) or the tier 5 National League. In 2017, Southport were relegated to their current division, the National League North.

Southport's best performance in the FA Cup came in the 1930–31 tournament when they reached the quarter-finals (last eight) but were then beaten 9–1 by Everton at Goodison Park. Southport had another good FA Cup run in 1965–66 when they reached the fifth round (last sixteen) and were beaten 2–0 by Hull City at Boothferry Park. Southport took part in the Football League Cup from 1960 to 1978 but never progressed beyond the first two rounds. The team reached the final of the FA Trophy in 1997–98, played at the old Wembley Stadium, but lost 1–0 to Cheltenham Town.

The Original Amateur Club: 1881–1886
Although association football was played in the town's private schools in the late 1870s the first association club was not formed in the town until November 1881. Bearing the name of Southport Football club, the club had originally begun as a rugby club, the 'handling code' having been played competitively since 1872.

The man responsible for the decision to switch was a former Welsh international, Thomas Blundell Burnett. In the story of Southport Football Club, Burnett's role is very significant. He was the instigator of the switch, he was the Secretary of the new club, and he was also the Captain. He was the pioneer of association football in Southport, of that there is absolutely no doubt.

The club played its games on a field on a large plot of land opposite to the entrance of Chambers Road on the corner Scarisbrick New Road and Ash Street backing onto Trap Lane (today's Southbank Road), roughly where Westmoreland Road lies today. There was space enough for multiple pitches, one of which was used by Southport Olympic rugby club.

Encouraged by their first year, Southport joined both the Lancashire and English Football Associations and entered the English, Lancashire and Liverpool and District Challenge Cups. The competitive element of the cup-ties aroused most interest. On 7 October, Southport entertained Liverpool Ramblers in their first ever F.A., or English Challenge Cup tie as the competition was called for years. This game was watched by 300 spectators including many women supporters and resulted in a 1–1 draw, Ambler scoring for Southport following a neat pass from Arthur Dalby.

In the 1884–85 season the club merged with the Southport Athletic Society. The team moved to the Sports Ground, on Sussex Road. It was unanimously decided to change their red jerseys for red and white striped flannel shirts. The Reds were thereby now known as “The Stripes”.

As football grew in popularity other clubs sprang up in the town. Southport Wanderers, High Park, Churchtown and Southport Old Boys were amongst the most prominent. However Southport Football Club was considered to be the town's premier side.

Off the field the club was not in a healthy state and in the 1885/86 season they were facing stiff competition from twenty six other clubs in the town. Southport reduced their annual subscriptions to five shillings to try and compete but were later forced to sever their connections with the Athletic Society and in the Athletic Society's Annual report the Committee regretted ‘their unfortunate connection with the Football Club which resulted in the Society incurring an expenditure on their account of £88-3 shillings.

After five years existence Southport's first football club folded.

Southport Wanderers: 1884–1888
Southport Wanderers formed as an amateur outfit in 1884 by members of the Southport Olympic rugby club. By the summer of 1886 Wanderers had grown into one of the most popular clubs in the town. In fact, by the time of the demise of the original Southport Football Club they were able to field a first and second eleven on a regular basis, something the original club struggled to do for much of the 1885/1886 season.

At the Wanderers AGM in June 1886, at which a representative of the original Southport association club was present, they invited Southport Football Club to amalgamate

At least six former Southport players and many of their supporters transferred their affiliations to Southport Wanderers. Southport Wanderers moved to a new ground in Scarisbrick New Road for the 1886-87 season. It was a large field, enclosed to a height of 7 foot 6 inches and big enough to accommodate three matches at once. A covered grandstand, to seat 140 spectators, and a dressing tent were provided. Three cows which grazed on the field withdrew behind the grandstand during matches.

At a General Meeting held in the Mather's Saleroom on Chapel Street, it was unanimously resolved that in future the club be called ‘Southport Football Club’ Thus imparting to it a representative character which it had not hitherto enjoyed.

A new professional club - Southport Central: 1888-1921
On 2 June 1888 the Southport Guardian newspaper revealed that there was a scheme in the town to provide a football club of ‘Mighty proportions’..by raising an importation team’ Professional football was about to be launched in Southport.

In the summer of 1888, the year the Football League was founded, with the game increasing in popularity, It was felt that a team of stronger calibre should be formed to represent the district The idea met with favour and the initial meeting called to form such a club took place on 12 June at Victoria Galleries, Chapel Street.

At a second meeting, held at the Railway Hotel a week later, Mr. Robert McGown (erroneously reported in the Guardian as “McGowan”), once secretary of the High Park club, successfully proposed that the name of the club should be “Southport Central Association Football Club”.

When the proposition to form a committee was put eleven voted in favour, none against and nineteen abstained. Mr James of Hoghton Street was appointed Honorary Treasurer, Edwin Ramsbottom Secretary and an executive committee was formed.

At a meeting held on 29 August, Mr. J. B. Watson explaining the objects of the club said it was likely to place Southport in the front rank of football with the certain result of bringing increased crowds of visitors to the town and it was confirmed that “Foreign talent” would be introduced by paying players.

The club's record for their initial season was Played 40 Won 21 Drawn 6 Lost 13.

The event which caused the most excitement in the town was the visit of Preston North end who had just carried off the League and Cup double. They came to Southport on 13 May and were given a rapturous welcome on arrival at the railway station. They were driven to the ground behind a marching band. There was a record gate of 3,500 and North End won 4-2 even though Central were re-inforced for the occasion by Forbes, Townley and Southworth of Blackburn Rovers.

The club joined the newly formed Lancashire League. Following the success of the Football League it was hardly surprising that there would be a demand for a County Competition in Lancashire At a meeting organized by the Secretary of the Earlestown club the Lancashire League became a reality. Isaac Smith, Central's Chairman, became the league's first treasurer.

At the start of the 1905–06 season Central moved to its present home, Haig Avenue, which was then known as Ash Lane. In 1911, the club became founder members of the Central League. In 1918, the club was renamed as Southport Vulcan – having been bought by the Vulcan Motor Company – becoming the first club to take a sponsor's name.

Football League: 1921–1978
In 1921 the club, now named simply Southport, joined the Football League and became a founder member of the Third Division North. In 1931, Southport became the first club from the Third Division North to reach the sixth round (quarter-finals) of the FA Cup, where they lost 9–1 to Everton. A year later the club recorded its record attendance, when 20,010 watched them play Newcastle United in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Having finished in the bottom half of the table at the end of the 1957–58 season, the club dropped into the Fourth Division following the reorganisation of the Third Division North and Third Division South into Third and Fourth Divisions. The club's first promotion came at the end of the 1966–67 season, when they finished as runners-up in the Fourth Division behind Stockport County under the guidance of Billy Bingham, who later went on to manage the Northern Irish national team. They were relegated back to the Fourth Division in 1970, but won promotion again in 1973 when they finished as Fourth Division Champions. Relegation back to the Fourth Division followed the very next season. This heralded a period of decline as crowds dropped – on some occasions into just three figures – and the ground fell into disrepair.

Disaster struck in 1978, when the club was voted out of the Football League following three consecutive 23rd (out of 24) placed finishes, and was replaced by Wigan Athletic. The voting couldn't have been tighter, as the clubs drew on the first ballot (when many had expected Rochdale to be voted out), but Wigan's superior canvassing ensured that they won the second ballot. Southport was the last club to leave the Football League through the re-election process. Automatic relegation from the Fourth Division was introduced in 1986–87.

Non-League football: from 1978
After several seasons with South Liverpool, Brian Kettle was appointed manager and was instrumental in one of the most successful periods. Kettle had a difficult task from the off, his first season in charge saw him start with only three players Andy Johnston, Stuart Bimson and club captain Rob Sturgeon. After a poor start to the season which saw the club in the relegation places until mid-October after bringing in several new players such as Ossie Smith, Bob Howard, Steve Whitehall, Steve Holden, Peter Wright, Alan McDonald, the returning Ian Baines and for the third time Tony Quinn they finished the season in a very respectable seventh place in the Northern Premier League, albeit 38 points off the champions Colne Dynamoes who were not accepted for promotion and ultimately folded.

For the 1990–91 season, very little changed and was a very exciting season for the club. The free-scoring prowess of Holden and Whitehall saw the club reach 100 league goals in March and four semi-final appearances, losing only one. Ultimately due to the cup runs, the league performance suffered and they only managed to finish 5th in the league. However, there was now renewed optimism in the town.

The 1991–92 season started dreadfully for the club due to the loss of key personnel in the summer. Holden and Whitehall both left within weeks, the latter going for a club record £25,000 to Rochdale. Kettle had to rebuild once again, but it didn't go to plan straightaway. The club were bottom of the table till September, only managing to win their first game at the start of October. After a series of good runs, they managed to claw their way up the table to once again finish seventh.

The 1992–93 season was one of the most important seasons in the clubs recent history. Southport impressively won the league with 96 points and once again scoring 100 goals and tasted success in two more cup competitions and an excellent FA Cup run took them through to the second round proper for the first time since 1968.

In 1998 the club had its first (and only) trip to Wembley, when they lost 1–0 to Cheltenham Town in the final of the FA Trophy. 10,000 Southport fans made the trip to London to see the match.

The club were relegated back to the Northern Premier League at the end of the 2002–03 season. They became founder members of the new Conference North in 2004–05, and were the league's first Champions, earning promotion back to the newly renamed Conference National. In the 2005–06 season, Southport spent much of their time at the bottom of the table, but managed to secure survival with a five-game unbeaten run culminating in a 1–1 away draw with third-placed Grays Athletic on 25 April. The manager at the time, Liam Watson, stated that this feat was more impressive than their title winning accomplishments the season before.

Full-time: 2006–2008
In 2006 the club changed to full-time, with Liam Watson moving to Burscough at the end of the season a new manager in Paul Cook was appointed. This led to a massive overhaul of the squad, with many players unwilling or unable to go full-time. This proved to be a disastrous turn of events. Cook had to assemble a complete squad with just six of the original squad remaining. After a run of poor results, his contract was terminated on 3 January 2007.

The first match after Cook's departure saw Dino Maamria and Steve Whitehall take over as caretaker manager team and they succeeded in leading the team to a 3–1 home win over free-falling Grays, a match which also saw Carl Baker make his 100th appearance in a Southport shirt.

The only other match which saw the Maamria-Whitehall manager team was a 2–1 defeat in the FA Trophy at the hands of Salisbury before Peter Davenport, who had previously had an unbeaten spell as caretaker-manager of the club in 2001, was named as Cook's successor two weeks later.

Davenport's new team, aided with decent signings in the transfer window, started to churn out decent results. This did not last long however, and, due to Southport's ability to concede late goals in most games, the club looked certain to drop down a league, however again doubts were cast as the club won 4 matches on the run, and with two matches left were only two points off safety. However these matches were against play off hopefuls York City and Exeter City. After losing to a Clayton Donaldson penalty against York, the Sandgrounders were relegated the following Tuesday, not even playing a game, after relegation rivals Grays and Halifax both won their games.

The club stayed full-time, looking to bounce straight back up from the Conference North to the top of non-League football.

Southport signed Neil Prince and Karl Noon from Stalybridge Celtic and Marine respectively. Peter Davenport also brought in goalkeeper Richard Whiteside, midfielder Dave Prout and right back Chris Lever after trials from Oldham. The biggest news in the transfer period for Southport fans however, was the departure of star right winger Carl Baker to Morecambe, for a fee believed to be £50,000.

Southport Football Club announced on Monday 7 April 2008 that manager Peter Davenport and assistant Huw Griffiths left the club with immediate effect. The club placed on record their appreciation for everything they both contributed to Southport Football Club.

Former player Gary Brabin was initially given the job until the end of the season and guided the team into the play-offs only to go out on penalties away at Stalybridge Celtic, however only three days later the club announced their ambitions early by appointing him full-time and thus keeping their full-time playing status for another season at least. However, this appointment turned out to be only an agreement to sign a future contract, and after an approach from Cambridge United, Brabin left Southport to sign as Cambridge manager on 23 June 2008.

Return to part-time: from 2008

On 30 June 2008 the club's official website confirmed that Liam Watson had rejoined Southport as first team manager following his resignation from Burscough.

This change saw the arrival of numerous part-time players, following Watson from Burscough including Conference North top scorer Ciaran Kilheeney, Watson's co-Players of the Year – Adam Flynn and Anthony McMillan, as well former Southport players, Matty McGinn, Earl Davis, Robbie Booth and Steve Daly. Retained players, Michael Powell and Neil Robinson, chose to return to part-time football, whilst Matt Hocking, Neil Prince and club captain, Chris Holland left the club. Kevin Lee and Tony Gray signed new part-time contracts at the start of the season, and thus Southport practically returned fully to a part-time club. During that season Tony Gray and John Doolan departed the club, as well as Craig Noone, who moved to Championship side Plymouth Argyle.

The 2008–09 season saw Southport reach the Conference North play-offs, having finished in fifth place. However, a home defeat, followed by an away draw against Gateshead left Southport to battle for a further season in the Conference North. Only four defeats during 2009–10 saw Southport finally secure the League title following a 3–0 away victory at Eastwood Town on the final Saturday of the season, spurred on by over 700 travelling Sandgrounders. They finished just one point ahead of near neighbours Fleetwood Town. The success of the first team, who also lifted the Lancashire FA Challenge Trophy following victory against Clitheroe at the Reebok Stadium, was mirrored by the club's youth team who won both the Lancashire League and Conference North Youth League.

Non-League top flight (2010 to 2017)
In 2010–11, the first season back in the Conference, Southport finished in the relegation zone of the Conference National, but were reprieved after Rushden & Diamonds were expelled from the league.

The 2011–12 season saw a change of fortune for the club, with the implementation of a new, extended training schedule seeing an upturn in performances and results. On 26 November 2011, a club record of consecutive away victories was broken with the Sandgrounder's 1–0 win at Stockport County, their 8th in succession. Although narrowly missing out on a play off spot, having occupied one of the top five positions for long periods of the season, the 2011–12 season saw the 'Port finish in a very impressive 7th place, the club's highest league finish in 10 years.

During the 2012–13 season Southport failed to repeat its successful performance in the prior season and finished 5th from bottom, just one place above the relegation zone. On 17 April 2013 it was announced that Watson would be leaving Southport once again, but on more amiable terms resigning, ostensibly, in order to 'take a break from the game'. Soon after, he was appointed manager of AFC Telford who he led to promotion in his first season.

On 15 May 2013, Alan Wright was appointed Southport manager, along with John Hills as his assistant manager. Southport kicked off the 2013–14 season with a 1–0 home win over Luton Town, just the beginning of a good start to the season, Wright managed the team to four straight home wins. However the good form didn't last long, a run of 8 straight defeats away from home saw Wright's side drop to the lower half of the table. A 2–2 draw to Macclesfield ended the losing away run, followed by a 6–2 victory over Marske United in the FA Cup 4th Qualifying Round and a 1–0 win against previously unbeaten table toppers Cambridge United. This looked like a catalyst for a turnaround in fortunes, however Southport lost their next six games, eliminated from both the FA Cup and FA Trophy, and sat in 18th place in the table, Alan Wright left the club on Friday 7 December 2013.

His replacement was named just a day later on Saturday 8 December 2013, as John Coleman, former Accrington Stanley manager, who had previously played for Southport over 25 years earlier. Under Coleman the club escaped relegation, finishing the season in fine form. This spell also led to a change in the club's training schedule, with sessions during the day, rather than evening, unlike a majority of part-time clubs.

To the consternation of the fans, Coleman was not retained as manager; instead the Board appointed Martin Foyle formerly the manager of Hereford United. A number of first team players left the club at the end of the season (including several who had been on loan) leaving Foyle with a major rebuilding task for the 2014–15 season. Foyle was dismissed in October 2014 and replaced by Gary Brabin who returned to the club for his second spell as manager. Despite a run in the FA Cup culminating in a spirited third round defeat to Championship side Derby County, Brabin's spell was short lived, accepting an academy role with Everton. Paul Carden, previously assistant to Brabin, became manager and was joined by Alex Russell as assistant manager, son of the club legend of the same name. The club secured Conference survival yet again in 2015, finishing 19th in the league.

Carden's team started the 2015–16 season in poor form, leading to his departure from the club in November 2015, Dino Maamria became Southport's seventh manager since April 2013 shortly after. On 19 March 2016 Andy Bishop was appointed caretaker player/manager of the club after Dino Maamria left the club for family reasons.

On 6 September 2016, Liam Watson was announced as returning to Southport for the third time but in a new capacity. Watson joined the board of directors along with local businessmen Nigel Allen and David Barron. He will take up the newly created role as Operations Director. Steve Burr was announced as the manager of Southport on 8 September 2016 following the departure of Andy Bishop 5 days earlier.

On 30 January 2017 Steve Burr was sacked after a poor run of form and being one point above the drop zone. Andy Preece was appointed Manager on 8 February, their eleventh since April 2013 but another poor run of form saw them slip to the foot of the table in March. On Friday 14 April 2017, Southport relegation to the National League North was confirmed after a 3–0 loss to Dover Athletic. Following confirmation of relegation, long term chairman Charlie Clapham announced he would be stepping from the board of directors on 21 April 2017, along with vice-chairman Sam Shrouder. Southport then parted ways with Manager Andy Preece on 5 May 2017.

National League North and new board
On 15 May 2017 it was announced that local accountant and supporter James Treadwell would become the club's new chairman, his first appointment was to welcome back former manager Mark Wright as Head of Development. Southport appointed Alan Lewer as manager on 30 May 2017. The 2017–18 season started well for the new management team, winning the five of their first eight league games. Following supporter's campaigning since May, law firm director Phil Hodgkinson joined the board of directors on 5 September 2017. Having lost their next six games after this date, Wright and Lewer were dismissed on 26 September 2017.

Kevin Davies was appointed manager on 18 October 2017 on a two-and-a-half-year contract. Southport secured survival on 21 April 2018 despite losing 1–0 to Brackley Town. Despite this, Davies was dismissed as manager on 30 April 2018. After a spell scouting for Scunthorpe United, Liam Watson was reappointed manager of Southport on 7 May 2018.

It was confirmed during the summer of 2019 that Phil Hodgkinson would step down as Southport's owner and director so that he could replace Dean Hoyle as majority shareholder and chairman of Championship club Huddersfield Town. On his departure from Southport, Hodgkinson sold his shares to Ian Kyle, Steve Porter and manager, Liam Watson, to create a new-look boardroom.

Long serving manager Liam Watson stepped back from this role after a poor start to the 2023/34 season, to focus on his position as Club Director. Jim Bentley was appointed the club's new manager on 29 August 2023.

New Ownership (2023)
On 27 October 2023, it was announced that Big Help Group had acquired Southport FC and become the majority shareholder following the purchase of Ian Kyle's shares. The former chairman has subsequently been succeeded by Big Help Group's CEO, Peter Mitchell.

On November 10, 2023, Southport FC, under the new ownership of the Big Help Group, held its first Fan Forum since the takeover. This significant event featured Assistant Manager Andy Burgess announcing the introduction of GPS vests in player training, signifying a step towards modernizing training methods and enhancing player performance analytics.

At the forum, Peter Mitchell shared his vision for the club, stating, "We aspire to be a full-time football club, I don't know when we're going to be able to reach that aspiration, but absolutely we aspire to be in full-time football." He further emphasized the club's financial commitment towards this goal, revealing, "We've committed to a quarter of a million pound of equity investment now, and we've also committed to a further quarter of a million pounds for the start of next season."

The event also highlighted plans for infrastructure development at the club's football ground. Mitchell discussed the board's deliberations on enhancing the ground, saying, "We've just been talking about it at the board meeting, about putting a plan together for the ground. I'm going to look at getting plans drawn up for a two-story changing facility to the left of the main stand, where we can have dressing rooms and changing rooms for the two teams and officials, and some offices above it." He added that he intends to submit planning permissions with Sefton Council for this project, in a bid to get the "off the field facilities right", so they have better chances of being accepted into the Football League.

Trust in Yellow
Trust in Yellow is the Supporters' Trust of the club. It was formed on 26 April 2006 by a set of supporters who were unhappy with the lack of communication between the club and its fans in an effort to get more involved and have a bigger say in the running of the club. T.I.Y. is a member of Supporters' Direct, a body funded by Sport England. In 2021, the Trust funded the building of a new Fanzone building inside the club's stadium, however since the completion of this project the Trust has been effectively defunct.

Club officials
Source:

Board of directors
 * Chairman: 🏴 Peter Mitchell
 * Director: 🏴 Steve Porter
 * Director: 🏴 Tammy Burgess
 * Director: 🏴 Joe Goulding
 * Director: 🏴 Liam Watson
 * Director: 🏴 Mike Black
 * Director: 🏴 Collette Goulding
 * Director: Ollie Gottmann
 * Sporting director: 🏴 Tammy Burgess
 * Secretary: 🏴 Mark Lockyear
 * Chief operations officer: 🏴 Steve Dewsnip
 * Head of finance: 🏴 Lydia Davies
 * Head of commercial: 🏴 Mike Black
 * Head of media: 🏴 Rob Urwin

Coaching and medical staff
 * Manager: 🏴 Jim Bentley
 * Assistant manager: 🏴 Andy Burgess
 * First-team coach: 🏴 Alan Morgan
 * Player and first-team coach: David Morgan
 * First-team coach: 🏴 Simon Beswick
 * Player and goalkeeping coach: 🏴 Tony McMillan
 * Physiotherapist: 🏴 Daniel Gabrielson
 * Performance Analyst: 🏴 Shaun Slater
 * Analyst: 🏴 Sam Lambert
 * Kit manager: 🏴 Hamish Morton

Honours
League
 * Fourth Division (level 4)
 * Champions: 1972–73
 * Runners-up: 1966–67
 * Conference North
 * Champions: 2004–05, 2009–10
 * Northern Premier League
 * Champions: 1992–93

Cup
 * Third Division North Cup
 * Winners: 1937–38
 * FA Trophy
 * Runners-up: 1997–98
 * Lancashire Senior Cup
 * Winners: 1904–05
 * Lancashire Junior Cup
 * Winners (11): 1919–20, 1992–93, 1996–97, 1997–98, 2000–01, 2005–06, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2018–19 2021–22 2022–23
 * Liverpool Senior Cup
 * Winners (12): 1930–31, 1931–32, 1943–44, 1962–63, 1974–75, 1990–91, 1992–93, 1998–99, 2011–12, 2018–19
 * Northern Premier League Challenge Cup
 * Winners: 1990–91

title: Southport F.C.


text:
Dionysius, Metropolitan of Kiev

Saint Dionysius I (Дионисий, Dionisii); secular name: David (1300? – 15 October 1385), was a Russian Orthodox metropolitan in 1384–1385.

A native of the Duchy of Kiev as a young man David entered the Kyiv Caves Lavra, where he was tonsured a hieromonk and given the religious name Dionysius. He is known to have spent a number of years living in a cave that he dug out himself on the banks of the Volga River not far from Nizhny Novgorod. Later, Dionysius founded the Pechersky Monastery on that same spot, which was dedicated in honour of the Ascension of the Lord. In 1374, he was consecrated the Bishop of Suzdal and won love and respect on the part of the locals.

In 1378, Dionysius was recommended as Metropolitan of Kyiv by St. Sergius of Radonezh after the death of Metropolitan Alexius. However, Grand Prince Dmitri Donskoi had his own candidate – a priest by the name of Mikhail (Mityaya). Dionysius was one of a number of bishops at the council who opposed Mikhail, who was suspected of heresy (Strigolniki). If elected, Mikhail wanted to introduce a new way of enthroning the Metropolitan at home, in Russia, rather than traveling to Constantinople to be installed by the Ecumenical Patriarch (at the time, Russia was not yet an autocephalous church). In 1379 Dionysius went to Constantinople carrying a protest against the choice of Mikhail addressed to the Patriarch. Mikhail was afraid that Dionysius would get the patriarch's blessing and followed him to Constantinople. However, Mikhail died on his way there and one of his accompanying clergymen, Archmandrite Pimen, reached Constantinople before Dionysius and was named Metropolitan of Moscow and All Rus' in place of Mikhail.

In 1382, Dionysius received the title of archbishop from the Patriarch, who was impressed with his piety and humility. In 1383, Dionysius returned from this long journey to his congregation at Suzdal and continued his struggle against the Strigolniki. He also implored Dmitri Donskoi against Pimen, whom he viewed as a usurper, since no one in the Russian Church, not even the Great Prince himself, had been consulted before Pimen was appointed Metropolitan. In 1384, Dionysius was sent back to Constantinople to ask for Pimen's deposition and his own appointment as Metropolitan. Patriarch Neilus Kerameus was not sure whether he could trust Dionysius and sent two metropolitans to Moscow, who were supposed to depose Pimen and install the archbishop of Suzdal. On his way back to Moscow, Dionysius stopped in Kiev, where he was detained by the Kievan prince Vladimir Olgerdovich at the insistence of Cyprian, Archbishop of Kiev, who was to have succeeded as Metropolitan of Moscow in 1378 upon the death of Alexius, but who was not finally welcomed into Moscow until 1390. Dionysius died in detention on 15 October 1385. He was buried in the Caves of St. Anthony at Kiev, in the monastery in which he began his spiritual life.

The Russian Orthodox Church used to celebrate his feast day on 19 July, but subsequently this tradition died down. He is now commemorated on 15 October of the traditional Julian Calendar (28 October on the modern Gregorian Calendar), where he is listed as "Metropolitan of Suzdal", since he was never able to take possession of his Metropolitan See.

title: Dionysius, Metropolitan of Kiev


text:
Tommy Lawrence

Thomas Johnstone Lawrence (14 May 1940 – 10 January 2018) was a Scottish professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper for Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers from the 1950s to the 1970s. Lawrence was with Liverpool for 14 years, making more than 300 league appearances, and he played in three full internationals for Scotland during the 1960s.

Early years
Lawrence was born Thomas Johnstone in Dailly, Ayrshire, one of three children of Frank and Ruby Lawrence. The Lawrence family moved to North West England when Tommy was a child along with elder brother William (Billy) and younger sister Mary. On leaving school he worked at Rylands wire factory and played for Croft Village Football Team, and then Warrington Town as an amateur.

Liverpool, 1957–1971
Aged 17, Lawrence was signed by Liverpool under the management of Phil Taylor in 1957. He made his first team debut under manager Bill Shankly, playing in a 1–0 defeat against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns on 27 October 1962. His first clean-sheet came on 17 November, when Liverpool beat fellow promotion hopefuls Leyton Orient at Anfield 5–0, with Roger Hunt scoring a hat-trick.

Lawrence went on to retain the No.1 jersey that season making 35 appearances, including 6 ties in Liverpool's run to the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough. Leicester City were their opponents and prevented the Reds from reaching the 1963 FA Cup final by winning the game 1–0. Liverpool had finished in 8th place in their first season back in the First Division, as their Merseyside rivals Everton won the 1962–63 league championship. The following season Lawrence played in 40 league games out of a possible 42, and he also played in 5 cup ties. Liverpool won the 1963–64 league championship, four points clear of Manchester United.

In the 1964–65 season Lawrence and Liverpool were unable to repeat the previous season's achievements, finishing in 7th place and a full 17 points behind winners Manchester United. However, a cup run took Liverpool to the 1965 FA Cup final, where they faced Leeds United at Wembley. It was Liverpool's first cup final appearance since 1950, and they had never won the trophy before. Both sides had only conceded two goals during their runs to the final. Lawrence kept a clean sheet during the 90 minutes of normal time, but Liverpool also could not score so the game went into extra-time. After 3 minutes of the extra period Roger Hunt opened the scoring for Liverpool, but the lead lasted just 2 minutes as Billy Bremner scored the equaliser. In the 113th minute Ian St John headed the ball home for the winner to seal Liverpool's first F.A. Cup victory.

Lawrence enjoyed more success the following season as the Reds found their league form once more, winning the 1965–66 title by 6 clear points over Leeds. Such was Lawrence's form, consistency and durability he missed only a handful of games during eight years as the regular Liverpool goalkeeper. He earned the affectionate nickname The Flying Pig because of his ability to dive around the penalty area despite weighing more than 14 st. He is credited with being one of the first sweeper-keepers.

Lawrence held off the challenge of teenage keeper Ray Clemence when the youngster arrived from Scunthorpe United in 1967, but Liverpool had begun to decline as the team aged. Though Lawrence was not the eldest, he was suddenly removed from the team in favour of Clemence after a 1–0 6th round FA Cup defeat at Watford in 1970; along with outfield players Ron Yeats and Ian St John. Lawrence played for Liverpool only once more, against Manchester City in a 2–2 draw at Maine Road on 26 April 1971.

Tranmere Rovers, 1971–1974
After 390 appearances in the Liverpool goal, Lawrence joined Tranmere Rovers on 10 November 1971. He spent three years and made 80 league appearances for Tranmere under player/manager and ex-Liverpool teammate, Ron Yeats. Lawrence then drifted back into the non-league game with Chorley, before retiring.

International career
During his time at Liverpool, Lawrence won three caps for Scotland. His international debut came on 3 June 1963 in a friendly international at Dalymount Park, Dublin, which the Republic of Ireland won 1–0. Lawrence had to wait six years for his second and third caps, a 1–1 draw with West Germany in a 1970 World Cup qualifier and a 5–3 victory over Wales in a British Home Championship match. During the latter appearance, his last international, Lawrence collided with the crossbar and had to be carried off.

Later years and death
After Lawrence retired from professional football he returned to work at Rylands, the wire manufacturer.

In February 2015, Lawrence was inadvertently interviewed in the street by BBC journalist Stuart Flinders, who was asking elderly people if they remembered the 1966–67 FA Cup Fifth Round game between Liverpool and Everton. Lawrence, smiling, replied, "Yeah, I do. I played in it. I was the goalkeeper for Liverpool."

Lawrence died on 10 January 2018 in Warrington, at the age of 77.

Honours
Liverpool
 * Football League First Division: 1963–64, 1965–66
 * FA Cup: 1964–65
 * FA Charity Shield: 1964 (shared), 1965 (shared), 1966

title: Tommy Lawrence


text:
Anthony Ulrich

Anthony Ulrich may refer to:

 * Anthony Ulrich, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1633–1714)
 * Duke Anthony Ulrich of Brunswick (1714–1776)

title: Anthony Ulrich


text:
Talk:Commercial pilot licence

Untitled
I think this page needs some rewriting. First, it does not mention Part 141. Second, I don't think it is necessary to duplicate the FAR, since it is available online and is in theory subject to change. I would add a discussion of the value of the certificate, and the restrictions for Part 91 operations. And there are some grammar fixes.

Then it needs to be harmonized with the Private and Instrument rating descriptions. Also, the Private certificate is described on overlapping ways on the Private Pilot License page and the Aviator page, so that should be tidied up.

I'll leave this a few days to see if anyone comments. DavidBrooks 20:25, 3 Dec 2004 (UTC)

Licence spelling
Explanation: in the spring of 2005 there was some discussion between US/Canada/UK editors over the spelling of Licen[cs]e. At the same time, the existing articles were getting unwieldy as they were describing differing licensing schemes in several English-speaking countries. So we created separate articles for different jurisdictions. Then, in index articles like this, the compromise position was that the UK spelling should be used because the correct word in the US is "certificate"; the word "license" has no formal meaning. David Brooks 20:20, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
 * And, of course, the de interwiki has to use the de spelling. David Brooks

License vs Certificate
In aviation, typically pilots licenses are refered to as " Pilot Certificates." Requesting page title change to "Commercial Pilot Certificate" Will (talk) 22:31, 10 December 2009 (UTC)

There is currently a redirect for "License" that leads here, to "Licence." Technically, the page should have neither nomenclature, and should be named "Commercial Pilot Certificate." However, I do not know the name of the requested move template. If anyone could help, it would be appreciated. Thanks, -xwingsx- (talk) 14:41, 11 September 2010 (UTC)

 * As the article states, the term Commercial Pilot Certificate is a US term. Elsewhere (UK, Australia for example) Commercial Pilot Licence is the normal term. A move would be inappropriate. 122.107.58.27 (talk) 06:54, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Licence spelling (again)
See "Licence spelling" above. The article now has a mixture of "c" and "s" - a single spelling would appear preferable. It seems to be sensible that, as the US doesn't call it a license, and most countries that do, use the spelling licence for the noun, "licence" should be used uniformly. The PPL page should also be made consistent. 122.107.58.27 (talk) 07:09, 31 October 2010 (UTC)

Medical Certification Requirements
The statement "To proceed in obtaining a commercial pilot license, the applicant must first obtain first-class medical certification." is clearly wrong for US/FAA certification. Only a 3rd class medical certificate is required to take the practical test for a commercial pilot certificate, and only a 2nd class medical certificate is required to exercise most privileges of the commercial certificate with certain exceptions for flight instruction (only 3rd class is needed).

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Wiki Education assignment: CMN2160C
— Preceding unsigned comment added by Aribme12345 (talk • contribs)

title: Talk:Commercial pilot licence


text:
Robert Galbraith

Robert Galbraith may refer to:
 * Robert Galbraith (judge) (died 1543), Scottish Lord of Session
 * Robert Galbraith (logician) (1483−1544), Scottish logician who taught with Juan de Celaya
 * Robert Leslie Thomas Galbraith (1841–1924), Irish-born merchant and political figure in British Columbia
 * Robert Sharpe Galbraith (1857–1890), Mayor of Tauranga, New Zealand (1889–1890)
 * Robert Galbraith (Medal of Honor) (1878–1949), United States Navy Gunner's Mate, 3rd class
 * Robert Galbraith, a pen name of Joanne Rowling (born 1965), British novelist, best known by her other pen name, J. K. Rowling

title: Robert Galbraith


text:
U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions

Prior to the Supreme Court's decision in Obergefell v. Hodges (2015), U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions of several different types passed, banning legal recognition of same-sex unions in U.S. state constitutions, referred to by proponents as "defense of marriage amendments" or "marriage protection amendments." These state amendments are different from the proposed Federal Marriage Amendment, which would ban same-sex marriage in every U.S. state, and Section 2 of the Defense of Marriage Act, more commonly known as DOMA, which allowed the states not to recognize same-sex marriages from other states. The amendments define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and prevent civil unions or same-sex marriages from being legalized, though some of the amendments bar only the latter. The Obergefell decision in June 2015 invalidated these state constitutional amendments insofar as they prevented same-sex couples from marrying, even though the actual text of these amendments remain written into the state constitutions.

Thirty-one U.S. state constitutional amendments banning legal recognition of same-sex unions have been adopted. Of these, ten make only same-sex marriage unconstitutional; sixteen make both same-sex marriage and civil unions unconstitutional; two make same-sex marriage, civil unions, and other contracts unconstitutional; and one is unique. Hawaii's amendment is unique in that it does not make same-sex marriage unconstitutional; rather, it allows the state to limit marriage to opposite-sex couples. Virginia's amendment prevents the state from recognizing private contracts that "approximate" marriage. Observers have pointed out that such language encompasses private contracts and medical directives. Furthermore, the Michigan Supreme Court has held that the state's amendment bans not only same-sex marriage and civil unions, but also domestic partnership benefits such as health insurance. On November 3, 2020, Nevada became the first U.S. state to repeal its amendment banning same-sex marriage following approval of 2020 Nevada Question 2.

State constitutional amendments are typically approved first by the legislature or special constitutional convention and then by the voters in a referendum. In some states, one or both of these steps is repeated. The percentages shown in the list are results from the referendum stage, not the legislative stage.

History
The idea of extending marriage rights to same-sex couples did not become a political issue in the United States until the 1990s. During that decade, several Western European countries legalized civil unions, and in 1993 the Supreme Court of Hawaii ruled in Baehr v. Lewin, 852 P.2d 44 (Haw. 1993), that refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples was sex-discrimination under that state's constitution. In response, voters passed Hawaii Constitutional Amendment 2. This amendment differed from future marriage amendments in other states as it did not ban same-sex marriage itself, but merely empowered the state legislature to enact such a ban. In November 1998, 69% of Hawaii voters approved the amendment, and the state legislature exercised its power to ban same-sex marriage. Only three constitutional bans on same-sex unions (in Alaska, Nebraska, and Nevada) were proposed between 1998 and 2003. All three amendments passed. In Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's November 2003 decision in Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the court legalized same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. Social and religious conservatives feared that their own state supreme courts would issue such rulings at some point in the future; in order to prevent this, they proposed additional constitutional bans on same-sex marriage. The following year, eleven constitutional referendums banning same-sex unions were placed on state ballots.

On April 3, 2009, Nate Silver post his model of the predicted years that each of the 50 states would vote against a marriage ban, with the last one being Mississippi in 2024.

Purpose and motivation
Constitutional bans on same-sex unions were advocated in response to the legalization of same-sex marriage in other jurisdictions, notably Canada and Massachusetts.

Some amendments and some proposed amendments forbade a state from recognizing even non-marital civil unions and domestic partnerships, while others explicitly allowed for same-sex unions that were not called "marriages".

Such amendments had two main purposes:
 * Preventing a state's courts interpreting their state's constitution to permit or require legalization of same-sex marriage.
 * Preventing a state's courts recognizing same-sex marriages that were legally performed in other jurisdictions.

Some proponents of such amendments feared that states would be forced to recognize same-sex marriages celebrated in other jurisdictions. They pointed to the full faith and credit clause, which requires each state to recognize the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of each other state. On the other hand, opponents argued that state constitutional amendments would do nothing to resolve this perceived problem. Traditionally, courts have held that a state is free to decline to recognize a marriage celebrated elsewhere if the marriage violates the state's strong public policy. (§134 of the First Restatement of Conflicts, on Marriage and Legitimacy (1934)). That tradition was broken in 1967 with the Loving v. Virginia case decided by a unanimous Supreme Court, which confirmed that the full faith and credit clause did require recognition of all legal marriages. Similarly, in Obergefell v. Hodges the Supreme Court ruled that the federal constitution required state recognition of same-sex marriages. All state constitutions are trumped by the federal constitution due to the supremacy clause.

Conservative mobilization
State referendums on constitutional bans of same-sex unions have at times been accused of having been used as a "get-out-the-vote" tactic by some Republicans and social conservatives. When voters see that a particular legislative initiative appears on the ballot, they are thought to feel more motivated to turn out to vote, enhancing ballot numbers for other candidates and issues of their party. The presence of these amendments on state ballots has been credited by some as supposedly providing a boost to Republicans in the 2004 election, and the 2004 Ohio amendment in particular has been cited as aiding President George W. Bush's reelection campaign by motivating evangelical social conservatives in the state to go to the polls. President George W. Bush's close political consultant, Karl Rove, has been an enthusiastic proponent and organizer of legislation banning same-sex unions.

After the 2006 elections some activists argued that such referendums were starting to lose their potential to mobilize conservative voters. Kevin Cathcart, director of Lambda Legal pointed to the narrow defeat of Arizona's Proposition 107, which would have rendered civil unions as well as same-sex marriage unconstitutional. Nevertheless, that same election saw seven such amendments pass; these seven included an amendment in Virginia which banned civil unions as well as same-sex marriages.

Variants
Most U.S. state constitutional amendments banning same-sex unions banned civil unions as well as same-sex marriage.

Two marriage amendments differed greatly from all others: Hawaii's and Virginia's. The former gave the Hawaii state legislature the authority to ban same-sex marriages but did not explicitly make such unions unconstitutional. Virginia's amendment not only banned same-sex marriage and civil unions, but arguably rendered any state recognition of private contracts entered into by unmarried couples unconstitutional.

Failed amendments

 * Arizona Proposition 107 – On November 7, 2006, Arizona rejected a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage and civil unions by 51.8% of the vote. Two years later Arizona voters approved a more narrow amendment banning only same-sex marriage.
 * Minnesota Amendment 1 – On November 6, 2012, Minnesota rejected a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage with 51.90% of the electorate opposed. A majority of all votes cast would be required to amend the state constitution.

Obergefell v. Hodges
On June 26, 2015 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Obergefell that state laws banning same-sex marriage violate the Fourteenth Amendment, rendering such laws unconstitutional and invalidating the remaining 14 same-sex marriage bans still being fully or partially enforced.

As of 2016, bills have been introduced in Virginia and other states to legislatively repeal the null-and-void amendments.


text:
Alicia's Diary

"Alicia's Diary" is a short story written by Victorian novelist Thomas Hardy in 1887. It is the diary of a girl named Alicia that is a tragic romance. The story was reprinted in the 1913 collection A Changed Man and Other Tales.

Plot
Her sister, Caroline, and their mother have gone to France, and eventually Alicia's suspicions are confirmed that Caroline has become engaged to an artist named Charles. Charles keeps postponing the wedding. Alicia's mother dies. Due to the death of their mother and the coldness and procrastination of Charles to her, Caroline is dying. Also, Alicia tries to leave them alone to catalyse the romantic process and to avoid charming Charles. Charles catches a glimpse of Alicia, and they soon fall in love with each other. Needless to say, Alicia feels very guilty because of her incestuous feelings toward the fiancée of her sister. Alicia and Charles make a deal that Charles should marry the dying Caroline, but not tell her it wasn't a legitimate marriage. If Caroline dies, Alicia and Charles can be married. If Caroline lives and does not want to marry Charles (after they tell her it wasn't a legitimate wedding), Alicia is free to marry Charles. The third option comes to pass, so Alicia must sacrifice her love for Charles and yield to her sister marrying Charles. Caroline and Charles marry. Shortly following the wedding, Charles leaves and does not return. Four months later, Alicia informs us that Charles drowned himself. Five years later, Alicia adds a final note that Caroline married a man named Higham, who was the one who pretended to marry Caroline and Charles. Alicia ends the short story by concluding that everyone involved in deceiving her sister have now repented (Higham by love, she says). "[M]ay she be deceived no more."

title: Alicia's Diary