Basketball

Basketball is a sport played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches (46 cm) in diameter and 10 feet (3.048 m) high mounted to a backboard at each end.

A team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the shooting team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line, and two points if shot from in front of the line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, after the other team was assessed with certain fouls. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time (overtime) is issued when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by throwing it to a teammate, or by bouncing it while walking or running (dribbling). It is a violation to lift, or drag, one's pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling.

Boston College Eagles

The Boston College Eagles are the athletic teams representing Boston College. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sub-level for football), primarily competing in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

Nickname and mascot History

The Eagle nickname and mascot for Boston College's teams were given by Rev. Edward McLaughlin. Fr. McLaughlin, incensed at a Boston newspaper cartoon depicting the champion BC track team as a cat licking clean a plate of its rivals, penned a passionate letter to the student newspaper, The Heights, in the newspaper's first year in 1920. "It is important that we adopt a mascot to preside at our pow-wows and triumphant feats," wrote Fr. McLaughlin. "And why not the Eagle, symbolic of majesty, power, and freedom?

The Boston College mascot is Baldwin the Eagle, an American bald eagle whose name is a pun derived from the bald head of the eagle and the word "win."

Boston (horse)

Boston (1833–1850), was an outstanding chestnut Thoroughbred racehorse and a Leading sire in North America three times from 1851 to 1853. He started in about 45 races, winning 40 of these, including 15 in succession. Boston was later one of the initial inductees into the Hall of Fame.

Breeding

He was a chestnut stallion with a white blaze on his nose and he was foaled in Richmond, Virginia. Boston was bred by the Virginia attorney John Wickham (who had been Aaron Burr's counsel in his trial for treason). He was by the very good racehorse, Timoleon (by the great Sir Archy), his dam was Sister to Tuckahoe by Ball’s Florizel. Boston was inbred to Diomed in the third generation (3m x 3f). He was a half-brother to the Shylock mare who founded a successful family. They were from the number 40 family which traced back to the imported mare, Kitty Fisher.

As a two-year-old, Boston was lost by his breeder in a card game and was given to Wickham's friend Nathaniel Rives, of Richmond to repay his debt of $800. He was named after a popular card game and later given the nickname of "Old Whitenose". Boston had a wilful temperament and was difficult to train. Sent to the stable of John Belcher, and then to the trainer L. White, and then back to Belcher, White said, "The horse should either be castrated or shot—preferably the latter."

Boston (cocktail)

A Boston is a cocktail made with London dry gin, apricot brandy, grenadine, and the juice of a lemon.

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Boston (dance)

The Boston refers to a series of various step dances, considered a slow Americanized version of the waltz presumably named after where it originated. It is completed in one measure with the weight kept on the same foot through two successive beats. The "original" Boston is also known as the New York Boston or Boston Point.

Variations of the Boston include:

References