Gonzaga University

Adam Morrison's Attitude Is Exactly Why You Should Be Rooting For Gonzaga

... up by shooting from all over the floor - and I really mean the entire floor. John would be casually sinking half-court shots like they were nothing, the same way Steph Curry does today. It blew my mind. It was the first time I got to see firsthand how much work you need to put in to be that good. Watching him, I would daydream about how one day, if I was lucky, maybe I could wear that Gonzaga uniform and play in the Kennel. That was the fantasy. The fantasy, of course, became reality. Gonzaga was college basketball's Cinderella team when Morrison was leading the Bulldogs in the early 2000 s. This year, they're one of the favorites, and Morrison takes pride in playing a role in that progression. For most of its history, the little private school in Spokane hasn't had the fancy facilities, the name recognition, or, frankly, the top-recruited players that the UNCs and Dukes of the college-basketball world have. Instead, writes Morrison, they have long had something else, thanks to coach Mark Few and his predecessors: "this ethic ingrained in the DNA of the program that was all about teamwork and self-improvement.". Morrison's playing days ...

5 Fast Facts You Need To Know

... Cataldo named the school after St. Aloysius Gonzaga. The Italian and Jesuit saint is known for his work with victims of the plague. St. Aloysius was set to have a wealthy inheritance but decided to join a religious order known as The Society of Jesus. He died at the age of 23 after contracting the disease through his work with people who had the plague. There is a church next to the school known as St. Aloysius. The church has a statue of the saint carrying someone in his arms. Gonzaga notes it is the only Jesuit university in the world named after St. Aloysius. Click here to read more. 3. The School Ranks in the Top 10 for Best Roman Catholic Colleges & Universities. The school is no longer just for men looking to become priest, but the faith that founded the school remains at the core of Gonzaga. USA Today named Gonzaga as one of the 10 best Roman Catholic colleges and ...

Gonzaga Officials To Fans Hoping For No School Friday

... Sean Bulger, hoped classes would be canceled “in observation of such a big event in school’s history” but said he planned to fly to Phoenix regardless. “I was definitely going to go either way,” he said. “I always kind of told myself, since I was a little kid, that if this ever happened that I was going to do anything in my power to see it.”. As of Tuesday evening, nearly 1,500 others had signed a __link__ petition urging Gonzaga President Thayne Mc Culloh to cancel Friday’s classes. Gonzaga senior Sean Palermo, who created the petition, wrote that Bulldog fans have “a very strong desire to make the 20+ hour drive to Phoenix” but can’t because of classes or airline costs or both. “Many students who are willing to make this trip are being forced to stay home instead of supporting our team,” the petition reads. “We want the Zag spirit to be able to fire up the University of Phoenix Stadium and keep it rolling till we ...

Spokane Not A College Town, But Gonzaga’s Influence Spreading

... because of them,” said Hazel Jackson, a member of the Logan neighborhood council who organizes cleanups and other events. Karen Byrd, a member of the Logan neighborhood council who has lived on East Sinto Street for 30 years, said having students around has always been a perk. When classes are out, it’s quieter around her house. That’s nice for a bit, she said, but then she misses the students. “It’s just such a positive to have a variety of ages in a neighborhood,” Byrd said. Having a successful basketball team has increased interest in Gonzaga, Byrd said. She has friends in Montana and Seattle who ask about the Zags or travel to Spokane for home games, if they can get tickets. She believes the interest in the team has increased interest in the school. Byrd and her son are longtime Zags fans. After the Zags clinched their spot in the Final Four by ...

Gonzaga's Storied History Goes Beyond Basketball

... Indians. Cataldo still envisioned the college as an Indian school, yet the Spokane town fathers donated funds with a different expectation: They wanted a college for their own children. Three days after the school’s opening, Father Joset, a Jesuit missionary, arrived with two Indian boys and tried to register them. They were turned away; the school, they were told, was exclusively for “American” boys. The school opened on Sept. 17, 1887, in exactly way the school has opened every subsequent year: With a Mass of the Holy Spirit. By the end of the first year, there were 18 boys, not counting those expelled. The original students were ages 10 to 17, mostly from Washington, California, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. Two other students were expelled before the end of the year. We don’t know exactly ...

Gonzaga President Thayne Mcculloh Sees Bulldogs’ History, Success Tied To Community

... of such a title after fighting for it for so many years, said Mc Culloh, and so is the city that has rallied behind the Zags for just as long. “I’m not sure that there were as many people in the community who might have believed that this is possible until, maybe until this year, and until this tremendous run,” Mc Culloh said. “But this community has supported … this program for a long time.”. Over the years, Mc Culloh has watched the city stick by the Zags and the university, even after the tough losses and disappointing endings. For decades, Spokane has stood behind the Zags as they grew into the national spotlight. The local fans made sure all the home games were sold out. They donated to the program, to grow it and watch it thrive in person inside the Kennel. The fans were there when the Zags went to the Elite Eight in 1999, the first time in school history. They were they there when Arizona edged GU by one point in double overtime that ended Gonzaga’s 2003 run in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. They watched Adam Morrison lay on the court and cry after the Zags fell to UCLA in the 2006 Sweet 16 – Morrison’s last game in ...

How The Basketball Program Helped Gonzaga University Flourish

... came Przemek Karnowski , the 300-pound bear of a player spreading his arms wide to catch his coach. It was, considering time, place and event, a perfect metaphor for coach and university. Standing quite literally at the highest point of his coaching career, Few finally needed someone from Gonzaga to rescue him. For 19 years, he’d been doing the saving, his Bulldogs not only growing a basketball team from nothing but also helping to save a university in the process. “The school was in real trouble" was the assessment of longtime benefactor Jack Mc Cann in 1998. Gonzaga coach Mark Few was an assistant under former coach Dan Monson before being hired as head coach. AP Photo/Elaine Thompson. Asked to join the board of trustees that year, the Gonzaga graduate discovered his alma mater was falling apart, operating at a deficit for several years, the school’s credit rating plummeting, the endowment slipping and administrators forced to slash budgets simply to pay the bills. ...

Fans Cheer All Across Spokane As Gonzaga University Advances To The Final Four

... on Xavier. Maybe this is it, everyone thought. Maybe this is the year the Zags make it to the Final Four. It is. The optimism of fans was rewarded and Troy Haacky, who sipped a beer and ate popcorn at the Garland Theater before tip off, confidently predicted the Zags would win it by 20 points. They won by 24. It was the third time Haacky had attended a free watch party at the theater. “The energy of the crowd is electrifying,” he said. “It’s contagious.”. Longtime fan Ken Degenstein was also optimistic before the game began. “I think they’ll win,” he said. “They’ve got a good chance.”. The atmosphere inside the theater was indeed contagious, where people watched the game with hundreds of their closest friends. They groaned with every lost ball and missed shot and cheered with every stolen ball. A three-point shot was enough to make everyone cheer wildly. Across town at the 24 Taps sports bar, there wasn’t an empty seat inside or outside on the patio. Josh Brunner was feeling confident at half time. “We’re tired of hearing about people doubting them all the time,” he said. “They‘re playing ...

Gonzaga Fans Take In Boisterous National Championship At Jack And Dan’s

... he said, pointing to the dancing customers surrounding the bar. Nearby, first-year medical student Sharon Uhder sat with a textbook flipped wide open to her notes for an upcoming test Thursday. “There’s three places you could be for the game: Phoenix, the Kennel, or Jack and Dan’s,” she explained. Several of her fellow customers agreed, arriving several hours before tipoff at the bar made famous under the ownership of Jack Stockton and Dan Crowley. A deck of playing cards under one hand, the other nursing a Bloody Mary, 70-year-old Michelle Connelly spent her third straight afternoon at the bar Monday, waiting for her two adult sons to join her. “This is fantastic. It’s history in the making,” said Connelly. The longtime Moscow resident celebrated her birthday at the landmark watering hole Sunday, a day after sitting in a folding chair and watching the Zags best the South Carolina Gamecocks to make ...

Enrollment, Endowment Soar With Gonzaga Hoops Success

... Dan Monson. It was the beginning of the Zags’ long-running success and branding. “Basketball has certainly been a major factor these 20 years in terms of people’s awareness of the university,” GU President Thayne Mc Culloh said. And, “we’ve certainly not missed the opportunity to capitalize on the success of the team and the appearance they’ve had on the national stage.”. Publicity about the Zags helps raise awareness of the 130-year-old Spokane university. Mc Culloh thinks of the team as the portal that guides the public into learning more about Gonzaga and its academic programs. “It invites people to look at us more closely,” he said. “It allows people to think about the opportunities they might have as students if they attended Gonzaga.”. Over the past two decades, university leaders also have worked to increase financial aid and develop new programs for an emerging workforce. “I think it’s fair to say there have been many initiatives,” Mc Culloh said. “Our view is that they’ve all worked together.”. Along with a larger student body, Gonzaga has grown more ethnically and racially diverse over the past two ...