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1
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate wish to
3congratulate the Loyola University Chicago Men's Basketball
4team for their magnificent season this year; and
 
5    WHEREAS, The Ramblers compiled a record of 28 wins and 5
6loses during the regular season and advanced to the NCAA
7Basketball Tournament for the first time since 1985; and
 
8    WHEREAS, Led by Head Coach Porter Moser, the Ramblers won
9the Missouri Valley Conference by defeating Illinois State
10University in the championship game 65 to 49 on March 4; Loyola
11ended the regular season on a ten-game winning streak; and
 
12    WHEREAS, As a result of Loyola's great regular season,
13Porter Moser was voted Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the
14Year; and
 
15    WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago has been a member of the
16Missouri Valley Conference since July 1, 2013; prior to that,
17Loyola was in the Horizon League for 34 years as a charter
18member; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago received an invitation
20to the NCAA Tournament and was the eleventh seed in the South

 

 

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1Region; in the first round, on March 15, their opponent, the
2University of Miami, Florida, was the sixth seed; it was a
3close game, with the Rambler's Donte Ingram hitting a
4three-point shot with only three-tenths of a second left, to
5give Loyola the win, 64 to 62; and
 
6    WHEREAS, In the second round (the Round of 32) on March 17,
7Loyola faced the University of Tennessee, which was the third
8seed in the South Region; in another close contest, Loyola's
9Clayton Custer hit a fifteen-foot jumper with 3.6 seconds left
10in the game to seal the victory for the Ramblers, 63 to 62;
11this would not be Custer's Last Stand; and
 
12    WHEREAS, This has been another great season for Mr. Custer;
13his honors include being named the Larry Bird Player of the
14Year in the Missouri Valley Conference and a First Team
15Scholar-Athlete in the Missouri Valley Conference; other
16highlights this season for Clayton include: Associated Press
17Honorable Mention All-America, CoSIDA Academic All-District,
18and the Lou Henson Award; Clayton and Donte Ingram were named
19NABC All-District 16; Cameron Krutwig was named MVC Freshman of
20the Year; Ben Richardson and Clayton Custer were named MVC
21First Team Scholar-Athlete and Division I-AAA Scholar-Athlete;
22and
 
23    WHEREAS, In the third round (the Sweet Sixteen) of the NCAA

 

 

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1Tournament on March 22, Loyola's opponent was the University of
2Nevada, Las Vegas, ranked as the seventh seed in the South
3Region; the Ramblers played with great enthusiasm and precision
4as time and time again they moved the ball to the basket;
5Marques Townes had an outstanding game, scoring 18 points
6including a 3-pointer with 6.3 seconds left in the game when
7Loyola was ahead by one point; with a four-point lead, the
8Ramblers held on to win 69 to 68; and
 
9    WHEREAS, In the fourth round (the Elite Eight) on March 24,
10the Ramblers played Kansas State University, ranked as the
11ninth seed in the South Region; teamwork once again was
12paramount in how Loyola played; like the three previous
13tournament games, "a star was born"; this time it was Ben
14Richardson who scored 23 points, including six of seven
15three-pointers; his superb offensive performance added to his
16already illustrious reputation; Mr. Richardson had been named
17the Missouri Valley Conference's Defensive Player of the Year;
18he was named as a First Team Scholar-Athlete in the Missouri
19Valley Conference and he was also honored as the South Region's
20Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament; by virtue of
21its victory over Kansas State, 78 to 62, Loyola won the South
22Region and moved on to the Final Four for the first time since
231963 and extended its winning streak to fourteen, the longest
24of any team in the tournament; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, In the fifth round (the Final Four), held on March
231, Loyola's opponent was the University of Michigan, ranked as
3the third seed in the West Region; the Ramblers played with a
4lot of heart and led at halftime 29 to 22; this was an
5incredible effort by Loyola given how powerful Michigan's
6offense had been all season; however, with about 6 minutes left
7in the game, Michigan took the lead and ended up with a
8victory; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Throughout Loyola's NCAA Tournament run, Sister
10Jean Dolores Schmidt was a delight and an inspiration to the
11team; as Team Chaplain, "Sister Jean" (as she is affectionately
12known) inspired and motivated the Loyola Ramblers in
13immeasurable ways; she has been a Sister in the religious order
14of the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin (BVM) since
151937 and has been Team Chaplain since 1996; now at the age of
1698, she cemented the team ethos with her signature phrase:
17"Worship, Work and Win"; in addition to her other honors,
18Sister Jean had bestowed upon her one of the greatest of sports
19honors, a bobblehead doll from the National Bobblehead Hall of
20Fame and Museum; pre-orders have already surpassed the 15,000
21mark, making her Bobblehead the biggest seller of all time by
22far; by the end of the tournament it was safe to say that
23Sister Jean was not just Loyola's treasure, but the nation's as
24well; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Other Loyola University highlights for the season
2include: a school record 32 wins, finishing the season ranked
3No. 7 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, first outright
4regular-season conference championship since 1985, first NCAA
5Tournament appearance since 1985, first NCAA Final Four
6appearance since 1963, and only the fourth No. 11 seed in NCAA
7Tournament history to reach the Final Four; during the season
8they defeated Florida, Miami, Tennessee, and Nevada, all
9nationally-ranked teams; Loyola Athletics ranked No. 1 in the
10NCAA for the second straight year with a 99% graduation success
11rate; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago has a long and storied
13history in basketball; in 1963, Loyola broke with college
14basketball's unwritten rule that no team should have more than
15two black players on the court at any given time; in so doing,
16they created a national conversation on race which led to the
17elimination of the limit on black players' court time; on March
1815, 1963, in the NCAA Tournament, Loyola played Mississippi
19State University; the governor of Mississippi had instructed
20the all-white Mississippi State team not to play against an
21integrated team; their coach and players refused to follow the
22instruction, and the game became known as the Game of Change;
23Loyola would go on to defeat the two-time defending champion,
24the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (ranked number one in the
25nation), to win the national championship; Loyola remains the

 

 

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1only Illinois school to ever win the NCAA Basketball Title; and
 
2    WHEREAS, Loyola University Chicago is a Jesuit school
3founded in 1870; its main campus, known as the Lake Shore
4Campus, is in the Rogers Park neighborhood on the northeast
5side, while its downtown campus, known as the Water Tower
6Campus, is next to Chicago's famed Magnificent Mile; Loyola has
7an enrollment of more than 16,000 students and boasts 150,000
8alumni, 85,000 of whom are in the Chicago area; team members
9volunteer at Misericordia Heart of Mercy; and
 
10    WHEREAS, As a Jesuit school, Loyola takes seriously its
11role in shaping students' lives; this is especially true of
12student-athletes, many of whom will never play professional
13sports; the degree they earn at Loyola is meaningful because of
14the school's commitment to their education, which takes the
15form of mentoring and tutoring to help guide them through a
16rigorous academic and athletic schedule; student-athletes at
17Loyola have a graduation rate of 99%; only five other schools
18in Division I sports have a graduation rate that high, four of
19them in the Ivy League; and
 
20    WHEREAS, All of Illinois is grateful and honored for the
21positive national attention brought to Loyola University and
22the City of Chicago; the Loyola University Men's Basketball
23team had a thrilling season made noteworthy by its first

 

 

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1appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1985 and by making it
2to the Final Four for the first time since 1963; Head Coach
3Porter Moser and the entire group of players: Adarius Avery,
4Jake Baughman, Dylan Boehm, Clayton Custer, Nick Dinardi, Donte
5Ingram, Aundre Jackson, Cameron Krutwig, Christian Negron, Ben
6Richardson, Cameron Satterwhite, Carson Shanks, Bruno Skokna,
7Marques Townes, Aher Uguak, and Lucas Williamson are rightly
8proud of their season and accomplishments; therefore, be it
 
9    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDREDTH GENERAL
10ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
11CONCURRING HEREIN, that we congratulate the Loyola University
12Chicago Men's basketball team for its great season and its
13tremendous success in the NCAA Tournament; and be it further
 
14    RESOLVED, That we declare May 9, 2018 as "Loyola University
15Chicago Day" in recognition of its accomplishments; and be it
16further
 
17    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
18presented to Coach Porter Moser as a token of our esteem and
19good wishes.