title: Joe Paterno

text: On July 14, 2012, "The New York Times" reported that in January 2011, Paterno opened "surprise" negotiations to prematurely end his contract with an additional $3 million early retirement payout, prior to public knowledge of the scandal. Although his contract was not up for negotiation until the end of 2011, Paterno initiated negotiations with his superiors to amend his contract in January 2011, the same month he was notified of the police investigation. By August 2011, Paterno and his attorneys had reached a deal with the PSU Board for a total package worth $5.5 million, including a $3 million cash payout, forgiveness of a $350,000 interest-free loan issued by the university, and the use of a private box at Beaver Stadium and a private jet for 25 years, if he agreed the 2011 season would be his last. Ultimately, the board rejected Paterno's offer to resign at the end of the 2011 season. But following Paterno's firing, faced with hate mail and a threat of a defamation lawsuit by Paterno's family, the Board agreed to give Paterno and his family the $5.5 million package, which included additional perks for the family. A lawyer for the family said that Penn State proposed the retirement package.


title: Joe Paterno

text: After the Freeh report's release, critics called for the removal of the Joe Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium. A small plane towed a banner over campus, reading "Take the Statue Down or We Will". After some days of mixed messages, the school removed the statue on Sunday, July 22, in front of a crowd of student onlookers. The statue was reportedly put in storage. Spanier's successor as president, Rodney Erickson, said the statue had become "a source of division and an obstacle to healing" but made a distinction between it and the Paterno Library, also on campus.


title: Joe Paterno

text: On July 23, two weeks after the release of the Freeh report, the NCAA punished Penn State with some of the most severe sanctions ever handed down in the history of collegiate athletics. Penn State was fined $60 million, stripped of 40 total scholarships from 2013 to 2017, banned from postseason play until 2016, and vacated all 112 of its wins dating back to 1998. This included the removal of Paterno's last 111 wins at Penn State, dropping him from first to 12th on the all-time wins list. (In early 2015 the wins were restored.) The NCAA reported that "Penn State's leadership failed to value and uphold institutional integrity, breaching both the NCAA Constitution and Division I rules", and that the NCAA "intended to remediate the 'sports is king' culture that led to failures in leadership". The NCAA report harshly criticized Paterno for his role in an alleged cover-up of Sandusky's crimes, saying that Paterno, Spanier, Schultz, and Curley had demonstrated "a failure of institutional and individual integrity". Although this action was outside the normal process for investigating major violations, the NCAA said this action was merited because the alleged cover-up violated basic principles of intercollegiate athletics that were over and above specific policies.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In a September 2013 interview with the CBS show "60 Minutes", Sandusky prosecutor Frank Fina was asked if he believed Joe Paterno was involved in the alleged cover-up. Fina stated, "I do not. And I'm viewing this strictly on the evidence, not any kind of fealty to anybody. I did not find that evidence."


title: Joe Paterno

text: On September 13, 2012, a group of alumni and supporters called Penn Staters for Responsible Stewardship released a review of the Freeh Report that was critical of the Freeh Group's investigation and conclusions. In February 2013, Paterno's family released a report written by Dick Thornburgh, a former U.S. attorney general and Pennsylvania governor, disputing Freeh's investigative methods and the portrayal of Paterno in his findings, calling the Freeh report a "rush to injustice". Thornburgh concluded that the Freeh report was "seriously flawed, both with respect to the process of [its] investigation and its findings related to Mr. Paterno". In response, Freeh called the Paterno family's report "self-serving" and said that it did not change the facts and findings of his initial investigation.


title: Joe Paterno

text: NBC sportscaster Bob Costas said, "What Freeh did was not only gather facts but he reached a conclusion which is at least debatable from those facts and then he assigned a motivation, not only to Curley and Schultz and Spanier, but he specifically assigned a very dark motivation to Joe Paterno, which seems like it might be quite a leap. ... A reasonable person will conclude that there is some doubt here and that the other side of the story deserves to be heard." Similarly Todd Blackledge, ESPN college football analyst and former Penn State quarterback, noted on the media coverage, "it felt like the media felt at liberty to just connect [] all those dots, whether they had facts. Based on whatever information they had, they were going to connect the dots and tell a story. And it had tremendous momentum. Because of the serious and horrendous nature of the allegations against Jerry, that narrative went pretty much unopposed."


title: Joe Paterno

text: In 2014 NCAA internal emails revealed that the NCAA worked closely with Louis Freeh in his investigation of the Sandusky scandal. In addition, emails revealed that many in the NCAA questioned whether they had the authority to sanction Penn State and that some officials wanted to "bluff" Penn State's leadership into accepting a severe punishment, because they believed that they did not have the authority to punish Penn State. On the day the Freeh Report was released, Oregon State president Ed Ray, chairman of the NCAA's Executive Committee, sent an e-mail to NCAA president Mark Emmert, his deputy, and the former enforcement head of the NCAA that directed them to come up with a way to sanction Penn State.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Freeh had maintained publicly that his investigation was entirely independent and would include "no favoritism". This was criticized by Pennsylvania state Senator Jake Corman, who claimed, "There clearly is a significant amount of communication between Freeh and the NCAA that goes way beyond merely providing information. I'd call it coordination ... Clearly, Freeh went way past his mandate. He was the enforcement person for the NCAA. That's what it looks like. I don't know how you can look at it any other way. It's almost like the NCAA hired him to do their enforcement investigation on Penn State. At a minimum, it is inappropriate. At a maximum, these were two parties working together to get an outcome that was predetermined." NCAA Vice President of Academic and Membership Affairs Kevin Lennon wrote in another email from July 14 that the NCAA was "banking on the fact the school is so embarrassed they will do anything" before interim Penn State president Rodney Erickson signed the consent decree.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In January 2013, Senator Corman and state treasurer Rob McCord used the Freeh report as a basis to sue the NCAA, arguing that the $60 million fine should be kept to assist victims of child sexual abuse in Pennsylvania, instead of allowing it to be spread to programs beyond the state's boundaries.


title: Joe Paterno

text: On May 30, 2013, the Paterno family and members of the Penn State community (though not the university itself) filed a lawsuit in the Centre County Court of Common Pleas in an attempt to overturn sanctions against the school. The lawsuit asserted that the NCAA and the other defendants breached their contractual obligations, violated their duties of good faith and fair dealing, intentionally interfered with contractual relations, and defamed and/or commercially disparaged the individuals filing the lawsuit.


title: Joe Paterno

text: On January 16, 2015, the NCAA agreed to a settlement, removing the probationary period imposed on Penn State and restoring Paterno's 111 wins between 1998 and 2011. Corman proclaimed, "Today is a victory for due process which was not afforded in this case. Today is a victory for the people of Pennsylvania. Today is a victory for Penn State nation."


title: Joe Paterno

text: A year after the report was issued, the chairman of the Penn State Board of Trustees, which had originally commissioned the report, said that Freeh's conclusions amounted to "speculation." In a January 2015 interview with the Associated Press, Penn State President Eric Barron said, "I have to say, I'm not a fan of the report. There's no doubt in my mind, Freeh steered everything as if he were a prosecutor trying to convince a court to take the case."


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno was a long-time advocate for some type of college football playoff system. The question was posed to him frequently over the years, as only one of his five undefeated teams was voted national champion. The college football playoff system would become a reality three years after Paterno's exit from the game.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno believed that scholarship college athletes should receive a modest stipend so that they have some spending money. As justification, Paterno pointed out that many scholarship athletes came from poor families and that other students had time to hold down a part-time job, whereas busy practice and conditioning schedules prevented college athletes from working during the school year.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno initially preferred not to play true freshmen, but later in his career he did play redshirts in order to refrain from being at a competitive disadvantage. Some Penn State recruits, like recruits at many other schools, now graduate from high school a semester early so that they can enroll in college during the spring semester and participate in spring practice. Several team members from the recruiting class of 2005, including Justin King, Anthony Scirrotto, and Derrick Williams, received considerable playing time as true freshmen during the 2005–2006 season.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In 2010, Paterno and former Chicago Bears head coach Mike Ditka suggested that concussions and other injuries in the NFL and college football might be reduced if face masks were eliminated.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Penn State's football players were twice recognized for outstanding academic performance by the New America Foundation's Academic Bowl Championship Series while under the leadership of Paterno. The team was ranked number one out of the top 25 ranked BCS teams in 2009 and 2011. The criteria in the rankings include the graduation rate of the team as compared to the rest of university, the difference between the graduation rate of African-American players and the rest of the squad as well as the same statistics for the rest of the students at Penn State, and the graduation rate differences between the African American players and students.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In 2002, 76-year-old Paterno chased down referee Dick Honig in a dead sprint following a 42–35 overtime home loss to Iowa. Paterno saw Tony Johnson catch a pass for a first down with both feet in bounds on the stadium's video replay board, but the play was ruled an incompletion. This being after Penn State had rallied from a 35–13 deficit with 9 minutes left in the game to tie the score at 35, and were driving on their first possession in overtime (a touchdown would have tied the game at 42). Penn State failed on fourth down and Iowa held on for the win.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Just weeks later, in the final minute of the Michigan game, the same wide receiver, Johnson, made a catch that would have given Penn State a first down and put them in range for a game-winning field goal. Although Johnson was ruled out of bounds, replays clearly showed that Johnson had both feet in bounds and the catch should have been ruled complete.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In 2004, the Big Ten Conference became the first college football conference to adopt a form of instant replay. The previous two incidents, along with Paterno's public objections, and the Big Ten's Clockgate controversy, are often cited as catalysts for its adoption. Within the next year, almost all of the Division I-A conferences adopted a form of instant replay based on the Big Ten model.


title: Joe Paterno

text: After the announcement of his appointment as head coach in 1966, Paterno set out to conduct what he called a "Grand Experiment" in melding athletics and academics in the collegiate environment, an idea that he had learned during his years at Brown. As a result, Penn State's players have consistently demonstrated above-average academic success compared to Division I-A schools nationwide. According to the NCAA's 2008 Graduation Rates Report, Penn State's four-year Graduation Success Rate of 78% easily exceeds the 67% Division I average, second to only Northwestern among Big Ten institutions. In 2011, Penn State football players had an 80% graduation rate and showed no achievement gap between its black and white players, which is extremely rare for Division I football teams. The New American Foundation ranked Penn State No. 1 in its 2011 Academic Bowl Championship Series.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno was also renowned for his charitable contributions to academics at Penn State. He and his wife Sue have contributed over $4 million towards various departments and colleges, including support for the Penn State All-Sports Museum, which opened in 2002, and the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center, which opened in 2003. After helping raise over $13.5 million in funds for the 1997 expansion of Pattee Library, the university named the expansion Paterno Library in their honor.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In 2007, former player Franco Harris and his company R Super Foods honored Paterno for his contributions to Penn State by featuring his story and picture on boxes of Super Donuts and Super Buns in Central PA. A portion of the sales will be donated to an endowment fund for the university library that bears his name.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno also attended the annual Penn State Dance Marathon, a popular weekend-long charity event and the largest student-run philanthropy in the world (it raised over $10 million in 2012), every year to raise money for kids with cancer.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno was a political conservative and a personal friend of President George H. W. Bush. He campaigned for Bush door-to-door in the 1988 New Hampshire primary, and seconded his nomination at the Republican National Convention. Paterno was also a close friend of President Gerald R. Ford, and introduced President George W. Bush at a campaign rally before the 2004 presidential election. Before the 1974 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, a group of Pennsylvania Republican Party leaders briefly considered Paterno for Andrew Lewis' ticket as the candidate for lieutenant governor.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In 2004, his son Scott Paterno, an attorney, won the Republican primary for Pennsylvania's 17th congressional district but lost in the November general election to Democratic incumbent Tim Holden. "I brought my kids up to think for themselves since day one," Joe Paterno said in 2008. "I got a son who's a Republican, who ran for Congress, Scott. I'm a Republican. I've got a son, Jay, who's for Obama. I've got a daughter, who I'm pretty sure she's going to be for Hillary [Clinton]. So God bless America."


title: Joe Paterno

text: While serving as an assistant coach, Paterno met freshman coed Suzanne Pohland at the campus library; she was a Latrobe native 13 years his junior and an English literature honors student. They married in 1962, the year she graduated. They had five children: Diana, Joseph Jr. "Jay", Mary Kay, David, and Scott. All of their children are Penn State graduates, and Jay Paterno was the quarterbacks coach at Penn State until his departure following the hiring of new head coach Bill O'Brien on January 7, 2012. The Paternos had 17 grandchildren.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno and his wife co-authored the children's book "We Are Penn State!", which takes place during a typical Penn State homecoming weekend.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In November 2006, Paterno was involved in a sideline collision during a game against Wisconsin. He was unable to avoid the play and was struck in the knee by Badgers linebacker DeAndre Levy's helmet. Paterno, then 79 years old, suffered a fractured shin bone and damage to knee ligaments. He coached the 2007 Outback Bowl from the press box before making a full recovery.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In November 2008, Paterno had successful hip replacement surgery after spraining his leg while trying to demonstrate onside kicks during a practice session. While recovering, he coached the remainder of the season and the 2009 Rose Bowl from the press box. After sustaining these injuries, he made use of a golf cart to move around the field during practices.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno was injured again in August 2011, after colliding with a player during practice. He sustained hairline fractures to his hip and shoulder. No surgery was required, but Paterno began the 2011 regular season schedule in a wheelchair.


title: Joe Paterno

text: In November 2011, Scott Paterno reported that his father had a treatable form of lung cancer. On January 13, 2012, Paterno was hospitalized in State College for complications relating to his cancer treatment, and he remained there until his death nine days later on January 22, 2012. His death resulted in tributes from prominent leaders in the U.S., including former President George H. W. Bush, who called Paterno "an outstanding American who was respected not only on the field of play but in life generally—and he was, without a doubt, a true icon in the world of sports." Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett said of Paterno, "His legacy as the winningest coach in major college football and his generosity to Penn State as an institution and to his players, stand as monuments to his life. ... His place in our state's history is secure." On January 23, Corbett ordered all state flags to be lowered to half staff in Paterno's honor. At the time of his death, Penn State was still finalizing Paterno's retirement package.


title: Joe Paterno

text: Paterno's funeral was held in State College on January 25, 2012. About 750 mourners attended the private ceremony, after which thousands of mourners lined the route of the funeral procession. Paterno was buried in Spring Creek Presbyterian Cemetery just outside the town. Approximately 12,000 people attended a public memorial service that was held at the Bryce Jordan Center on January 26, 2012.


title: Joe Paterno

text: At the time of his death, Paterno had accumulated a record of 409 wins, 136 losses, and 3 ties. However, on July 23, 2012, the NCAA officially vacated 111 of Paterno's wins based on the findings of the Freeh report regarding his involvement in the Penn State sex abuse scandal. All wins dating back to 1998 were vacated, the year Paterno was first informed of Sandusky's suspected child abuse. Based on the criteria used by the NCAA, Paterno no longer held the record for most victories by an NCAA Division I football coach. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden held the NCAA major college record for wins at 377, while for NCAA Division I schools, Grambling State University coach Eddie Robinson's 408 victories stood as the official record. The 111 wins were restored on January 16, 2015, as a part of a settlement between the NCAA and Penn State, once again making him the most victorious coach in FBS NCAA football history.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Nemanja Matić (, ; born 1 August 1988) is a Serbian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Italian Serie A club Roma. Starting his career as an attacking midfielder, Matić shifted to a defensive midfielder during his spell at Benfica. He is known for his consistent performances on the pitch and his combative style of play.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić began his senior career at Kolubara, before joining Slovak side Košice in 2007. He moved to English club Chelsea for £1.5 million in 2009. Used sparingly during his first spell at the club, he spent the 2010–11 season on loan at Dutch club Vitesse, and in the summer of 2011, he moved to Benfica as part of a swap deal involving David Luiz. He won the Primeira Liga Player of the Year award for his performances in the 2012–13 season. Matić returned to Chelsea in January 2014, for £21 million. He was named in the PFA Team of the Year for the 2014–15 season. In July 2017, he was reunited with former Chelsea manager José Mourinho after signing for Manchester United.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić represented Serbia at under-21 level. He made his senior international debut in 2008 and scored twice in 48 appearances. He was part of Serbia's squad at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić was born in Šabac, SR Serbia. He began playing football at age five with FK Vrelo from the eponymous village, coached by his own father. He began his senior career at Kolubara, before signing for Slovak club Košice in 2007. While living in the country, he also received Slovak citizenship.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 18 August 2009, Matić signed for Chelsea from Košice for a fee of around £1.5 million on a four-year contract, having been on trial at Middlesbrough. He was given the number 24 shirt by Chelsea but was not able to make his debut immediately due to the injury he picked up at the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Football Championship. He was on the bench for Chelsea's League Cup match against Queens Park Rangers on 23 September 2009, but did not take any part in the 1–0 victory. Matić made his Premier League debut for Chelsea on 21 November, coming on as a substitute for Florent Malouda in the 69th minute in a 4–0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 23 August 2010, Matić transferred to Eredivisie club Vitesse on a one-year loan, together with teammates Slobodan Rajković and Matej Delač.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 31 January 2011, Matić agreed to join Portuguese club Benfica in the summer of 2011, as part of a deal for Chelsea to sign Brazilian centre-back David Luiz. Under Benfica manager Jorge Jesus, Matić was converted from a playmaker into a defensive midfielder.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 14 April 2012, Matić started for Benfica in the 2012 Taça da Liga Final against Gil Vicente, where he won his first trophy with the Lisbon-based club.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 13 January 2013, Matić scored Benfica's first goal in a 2–2 draw with "O Clássico" rivals Porto. The next day, he was awarded with a contract extension lasting until 2018, with the buyout clause set at €45 million.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: In the second leg of Benfica's Europa League round of 32 tie against Bayer Leverkusen, Matić headed in a late goal after a cross from Lima to seal a 3–1 aggregate victory. Matić was an integral member throughout the 2012–13 Primeira Liga campaign as Benfica looked to claim the club's first league championship since 2010. Going into the penultimate game of the season against Porto, both teams were undefeated in league play, but a stoppage-time winner from substitute Kelvin gave Porto a 2–1 victory.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 15 May, Matić faced former employers Chelsea in the Europa League final in Amsterdam but was on the losing side as Benfica fell to a 2–1 defeat, courtesy of a last minute Branislav Ivanović header. On 4 July 2013, he was named Primeira Liga Player of the Year after having won the monthly award three times over the course of the season.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: In the 2013–14 season, Matić played half of the season, with 22 matches and 3 goals, he helped Benfica to win the Primeira Liga and Taça de Portugal. On 13 January 2014, Matić placed second in the 2013 FIFA Puskás Award.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 15 January 2014, Matić rejoined Chelsea for a fee of £21 million (€25M), on a five-and-a-half-year contract. He made his second debut for the club four days later, replacing Willian in a 3–1 win against Manchester United.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 3 February, Matić made his first Premier League start in Chelsea's fixture away at championship rivals Manchester City. He was named man of the match by Sky Sports as Chelsea ended City's unbeaten run at the City of Manchester Stadium with a 1–0 win.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić scored his first Premier League goal on 30 August 2014, in a 6–3 win at Everton. A month later, Matić scored the only goal as Chelsea won away at Sporting CP in the group stage of the Champions League; on 5 November in the same competition, his goal earned Chelsea a 1–1 draw at Maribor.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić was given a straight red card in Chelsea's 1–1 home draw against Burnley on 21 February 2015, for pushing over Ashley Barnes following a high tackle by him, which resulted in the bending of Matić's shin. On appeal, his suspension was shortened to two matches, including the League Cup Final.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 26 April 2015, Matić was named as one of four midfielders in the PFA Team of the Year, alongside teammate Eden Hazard. Four more Chelsea players were included in the selection.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 12 September 2015, Matić scored his first goal of the 2015–16 Premier League season against Everton, but it was not enough to save Chelsea from a 3–1 loss. Matić was sent off for two yellow cards in the first half of Chelsea's 2–1 loss at West Ham United on 24 October 2015.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: For the majority of the 2016–17 Premier League season, Matić played as a central midfielder in a 3–4–3 formation. He scored the 4th goal in Chelsea's 4–2 FA Cup semi-final win over Tottenham Hotspur on 22 April 2017. On 8 May 2017, he scored his first ever goal at Stamford Bridge, in a 3–0 victory over Middlesbrough.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 30 July 2017, a photo was leaked of Matić wearing a Manchester United training kit printed with the number 31 vacated by Bastian Schweinsteiger the previous March, fuelling rumours that Matić was on the verge of a reunion with former Chelsea manager José Mourinho. Manchester United confirmed the deal the next day, with Matić signing a three-year contract with an option for an extra year, for a fee reported to be in the region of £40 million.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Two days after signing, he made his first appearance in a friendly against Sampdoria, finishing in a 2–1 win over the Italian side. On 13 August 2017, Matić made his league debut in a 4–0 win over West Ham United at Old Trafford, in which he was named Man of the Match. On 5 March 2018, Matić scored his first goal for the club with a half-volley in a 3–2 comeback win over Crystal Palace after being 2–0 down. The goal was later voted Manchester United goal of the season.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: During the boxing day matches of the 2018–19 Premier League, Matić scored his first goal of the season and his second for Manchester United in a 3–1 win over Huddersfield Town.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 29 January 2020, Matić scored the only goal in a 1–0 derby win; however he was also sent off during the game which United lost 3–2 on aggregate.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 17 March 2020, Manchester United announced that they would be triggering a clause in Matić's contract to extend it by another year rather than allowing it to expire in the summer of 2020, keeping him at the club for a fourth year. On 6 July 2020, Matić signed a new three-year contract with the club, securing his future until 2023.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 14 June 2022, it was announced that Matić had agreed to join Roma on a one-year contract, following the expiry of his Manchester United contract. On 14 August, he made his debut for the club, as a substitute, in a 1–0 away win against Salernitana in the Serie A.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić's debut for the Serbia under-21 team came in a match against Denmark on 11 October 2008. After three matches and two goals for the Serbia under-21 squad, he was called up to the Serbian senior squad and made his debut in a friendly against Poland on 14 December 2008, in a 1–0 loss.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić took part in the 2009 UEFA Euro Under-21 Championship, where he played 85 minutes in the first group match against Italy in a 0–0 draw. Matić, however, injured himself after contact with Italian forward Sebastian Giovinco. He broke the fifth metatarsal in his right foot and was forced to undergo surgery.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: In December 2012, Matić announced he would not play for the Serbian national team while Siniša Mihajlović was the coach. The reason he gave for this decision is that he felt he was not given the right opportunity by the coach not playing a single minute in his last five call-ups. On 6 September 2013, Matić returned to his national team on a 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Croatia, being sent off in the 75th minute.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: He scored his first international goal on 29 March 2015, in a UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying match away to Portugal at the Estádio da Luz, equalising via an overhead kick, albeit in a 2–1 defeat. On 11 October, in a loss against the same opponents by the same score at the Partizan Stadium, Matić received a straight red card within a minute of teammate Aleksandar Kolarov's dismissal.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: In June 2018, he was selected in the Serbian squad for the 2018 World Cup, playing all three group stage matches.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: On 28 August 2020, the Football Association of Serbia announced that he had retired from international football; he made 48 appearances and scored two goals for Serbia. He earned his final cap against Luxembourg on 10 September 2019.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: A left-footed defensive midfielder, Matić's poise and power, in addition to his in-game intelligence and tactical awareness, have enabled his attacking teammates to flourish. He is often used at a holding position and screens the defence while providing cover for attacking movements. Just before he joined Manchester United, he had a tackle success rate of 75% in 123 Premier League appearances, a higher rate than N'Golo Kante, Ander Herrera, Fernandinho and Jordan Henderson. José Mourinho commented on Matić, "At this moment, he is a giant, not for his size but for the way he plays." Matić's qualities have led to comparison to his ex-teammate at Manchester United, Michael Carrick. Prior to joining Benfica, he played as an attacking midfielder, before being shifted to a holding midfield role.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: Matić's younger brother, Uroš, is also a professional footballer, playing for Abha Club, a team in Saudi Arabia. Matić is of partial Macedonian descent as his maternal grandfather is from Volkovija. Matić has three children with his wife, Aleksandra.


title: Nemanja Matić

text: In November 2018, Matić refused to wear a Remembrance poppy on his shirt for a match against Bournemouth. After the match, Matić was castigated and got threats by a number of people via social networks for not respecting servicemen who have died in war. Matić stated that he will not wear a poppy because his village of Vrelo was hit by the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth ( ) is a port city in the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of St. Louis County. Located on Lake Superior in Minnesota's Arrowhead Region, the city is a hub for cargo shipping. Commodities shipped from the Port of Duluth include coal, iron ore, grain, limestone, cement, salt, wood pulp, steel coil, and wind turbine components. Duluth is south of the Iron Range and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is named after Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, the area's first known European explorer. The population was 86,697 at the 2020 census, making it Minnesota's fifth-largest city. Duluth forms a metropolitan area with neighboring Superior, Wisconsin. The two cities are commonly called the Twin Ports.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Situated on the north shore of Lake Superior at the westernmost point of the Great Lakes, Duluth is the largest metropolitan area, the second-largest city and the largest U.S. city on the lake, and is accessible to the Atlantic Ocean away via the Great Lakes Waterway and St. Lawrence Seaway. The Port of Duluth is the world's farthest inland port accessible to oceangoing ships, and by far the largest and busiest port on the Great Lakes. The port is among the top 20 U.S. ports by tonnage.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: A tourist destination for the Midwest, Duluth has the nation's only all-freshwater aquarium, the Great Lakes Aquarium; the Aerial Lift Bridge, which is adjacent to Canal Park and spans the Duluth Ship Canal into the Duluth–Superior harbor; and Minnesota Point (known locally as Park Point), the world's longest freshwater baymouth bar, spanning . The city is also the starting point for vehicle trips touring the North Shore of Lake Superior toward Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Ojibwe occupied a historic settlement at "Onigamiinsing" ("at the little portage"), the portage across Minnesota Point between Lake Superior and western St. Louis Bay, which forms Duluth's harbor. For both the Ojibwe and the Dakota, interaction with Europeans during the contact period revolved around the fur trade and related activities.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: According to Ojibwe oral history, Spirit Island, near the Spirit Valley neighborhood, was the "Sixth Stopping Place", where the northern and southern branches of the Ojibwe Nation came together and proceeded to their "Seventh Stopping Place", near the present city of La Pointe, Wisconsin. The "Stopping Places" were the places the Native Americans occupied during their westward migration as the Europeans overran their territory.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Several factors brought fur traders to the Great Lakes in the early 17th century. The fashion for beaver hats in Europe generated demand for pelts. French trade for beaver in the lower St. Lawrence River led to the depletion of the animals in the region by the late 1630s, so the French searched farther west for new resources and new routes, making alliances with the Native Americans along the way to trap and deliver their furs.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Étienne Brûlé is credited with the European discovery of Lake Superior before 1620. Pierre-Esprit Radisson and Médard des Groseilliers explored the Duluth area, Fond du Lac (Bottom of the Lake) in 1654 and again in 1660. The French soon established fur posts near Duluth and in the far north where Grand Portage became a major trading center. The French explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut, whose name is sometimes anglicized as "DuLuth", explored the St. Louis River in 1679.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: After 1792 and the independence of the United States, the North West Company established several posts on Minnesota rivers and lakes, and in areas to the west and northwest, for trading with the Ojibwe, the Dakota, and other native tribes. The first post was where Superior, Wisconsin, later developed. Known as Fort St. Louis, the post became the headquarters for North West's new Fond du Lac Department. It had stockaded walls, two houses of each, a shed of , a large warehouse, and a canoe yard. Over time, Indian peoples and European Americans settled nearby, and a town gradually developed at this point.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1808, German-born John Jacob Astor organized the American Fur Company. The company began trading at the Head of the Lakes in 1809. In 1817, it erected a new headquarters at present-day Fond du Lac on the St. Louis River. There, portages connected Lake Superior with Lake Vermilion to the north and with the Mississippi River to the south. After creating a powerful monopoly, Astor got out of the business about 1830, as the trade was declining. But active trade carried on until the failure of the fur trade in the 1840s. European fashions changed, and many American areas were getting over-trapped, with game declining.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1832 Henry Schoolcraft visited the Fond du Lac area and wrote of his experiences with the Ojibwe Indians there. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow based the Song of Hiawatha, his epic poem relating the fictional adventures of an Ojibwe warrior named Hiawatha and the tragedy of his love for Minnehaha, a Dakota woman, on Schoolcraft's writings.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Natives signed two Treaties of Fond du Lac with the United States in the present neighborhood of Fond du Lac in 1826 and 1847, in which the Ojibwe ceded land to the American government. As part of the Treaty of Washington (1854) with the Lake Superior Band of Chippewa, the United States set aside the Fond du Lac Indian Reservation upstream from Duluth near Cloquet, Minnesota.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: As European Americans continued to settle and encroach on Ojibwe lands, the U.S. government made a series of treaties, executed between 1837 and 1889, that expropriated vast areas of tribal lands for their use and relegated the Native American peoples to a number of small reservations. Interest in the area was piqued in the 1850s by rumors of copper mining. A government land survey in 1852, followed by a treaty with local tribes in 1854, secured wilderness for gold-seeking explorers, sparked a land rush, and led to the development of iron ore mining in the area. The 1854 Ojibwe Land Cession Treaty would force the Ojibwe onto what are now known as the Fond du Lac and Grand Portage Reservations, though some land rights such as hunting and fishing were retained.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Around the same time, newly constructed channels and locks in the East permitted large ships to access the area. A road connecting Duluth to the Twin Cities was also constructed. Eleven small towns on both sides of the St. Louis River were formed, establishing Duluth's roots as a city.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: By 1857, copper resources were scarce and the area's economic focus shifted to timber harvesting. A nationwide financial crisis, the Panic of 1857, caused most of the city's early pioneers to leave. A history of Duluth written in 1910 relates, "Of the handful remaining in 1859 four men were unemployed and one of those was a brewer. Capital idea; build a brewery. The absence of malt and hops and barley did not at all embarrass those stout-hearted settlers." The water for brewing was obtained from a stream that emptied into Lake Superior that came to be called Brewery Creek, as it is still known today. While the brewery "was not a pecuniary success", a few decades later it became the Fitger Brewing Company.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The opening of the canal at Sault Ste. Marie in 1855 and the contemporaneous announcement of the railroads' approach had made Duluth the only port with access to both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Soon the lumber industry, railroads and mining were all growing so quickly that the influx of workers could hardly keep up with demand, and storefronts popped up almost overnight. By 1868, business in Duluth was booming. In a Fourth of July speech Dr. Thomas Preston Foster, the founder of Duluth's first newspaper, coined the expression "The Zenith City of the Unsalted Seas".


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1869–70, Duluth was the fastest-growing city in the country and was expected to surpass Chicago in only a few years. When Jay Cooke, a wealthy Philadelphia land speculator, convinced the Lake Superior and Mississippi Railroad to create an extension from St. Paul to Duluth, the railroad opened areas due north and west of Lake Superior to iron ore mining. Duluth's population on New Year's Day of 1869 consisted of 14 families; by the Fourth of July, 3,500 people were present to celebrate.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In the first "Duluth Minnesotian" printed on August 24, 1869, the editor placed the following notice on the editorial page:


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1873, Cooke's empire crumbled and the stock market crashed, and Duluth almost disappeared from the map. But by the late 1870s, with the continued boom in lumber and mining and with the railroads completed, Duluth bloomed again. By the turn of the century, it had almost 100,000 inhabitants, and was again a thriving community with small-business loans, commerce and trade flowing through the city. Mining continued in the Mesabi Range and iron was shipped east to mills in Ohio, a trade continuing into the 20th century.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Early doubts about the Duluth area's potential were voiced in "The Untold Delights of Duluth," a speech U.S. Representative J. Proctor Knott of Kentucky gave in the U.S. House of Representatives on January 27, 1871. His speech opposing the St. Croix and Superior Land Grant lampooned Western boosterism, portraying Duluth as an Eden in fantastically florid terms. The speech has been reprinted in collections of folklore and humorous speeches and is regarded as a classic. The nearby city of Proctor, Minnesota, is named for Knott.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth's unofficial sister city, Duluth, Georgia, got its name in 1871, shortly after Knott's speech gained national attention. Prominent Georgia newspaperman and politician Evan P. Howell was called upon to make remarks at the dedication of a new railroad line into Howell's Crossing, a village named for his grandfather. Howell humorously suggested that the community be called "Duluth" instead, and townspeople agreed.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Proctor Knott is sometimes credited with characterizing Duluth as the "zenith city of the unsalted seas," but the honor for that coinage belongs to journalist Thomas Preston Foster, speaking at a Fourth of July picnic in 1868.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: During the 20th century, the Port of Duluth was for a time the busiest port in the United States, surpassing even New York City in gross tonnage. Lake freighters carried iron ore through the Great Lakes to processing plants in Illinois and Ohio. Ten newspapers, six banks and an 11-story skyscraper, the Torrey Building, were founded and built. As of 1905, Duluth was said to be home to the most millionaires per capita in the United States.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1907, U.S. Steel announced that it would build a $5 million plant in the area. Although steel production did not begin until 1915, predictions held that Duluth's population would rise to 200,000–300,000. Along with the Duluth Works steel plant, US Steel developed Morgan Park, as a company town for steel workers. It is now a city neighborhood within Duluth.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Diamond Calk Horseshoe Company was founded in 1908 and later became a major manufacturer and exporter of wrenches and automotive tools. Duluth's huge wholesale Marshall Wells Hardware Company expanded in 1901 by opening branches in Portland, Oregon, and Winnipeg, Manitoba; the company catalog totaled 2,390 pages by 1913. The Duluth Showcase Company, which later became the Duluth Refrigerator Company and then the Coolerator Company, was established in 1908. The Universal Atlas Cement Company, which made cement from the slag byproduct of the steel plant, began operations in 1917.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Because of its numerous jobs in mining and industry, the city was a destination for large waves of immigrants from Europe during the early 20th century. It became the center of one of the largest Finnish communities in the world outside Finland. For decades, a Finnish-language daily newspaper, "Päivälehti," was published in the city, named after the former Grand Duchy of Finland's pro-independence leftist paper. The Finnish community of Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) members published a widely read labor newspaper "Industrialisti." From 1907 to 1941, the Finnish Socialist Federation and then the IWW operated Work People's College, an educational institution that taught classes from a working-class, socialist perspective.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Immigrants from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Ireland, England, Italy, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Romania, and Russia also settled in Duluth. At one time, Duluth was home to several historic immigrant neighborhoods, including Little Italy. Today, people of Scandinavian descent constitute a strong plurality of Duluth's population, accounting for more than one third of the residents identifying European ancestry.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In September 1918 a group calling itself the Knights of Liberty dragged Finnish immigrant Olli Kinkkonen from his boarding house, tarred and feathered him, and lynched him. Kinkkonen did not want to fight in World War I and had planned to return to Finland. His body was found two weeks later hanging in a tree in Duluth's Lester Park.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Another lynching in Duluth occurred on June 15, 1920, when three innocent black male circus workers: Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, were attacked by a white mob and hanged after allegedly raping a teenage white girl. The Duluth lynchings took place on First Street and Second Avenue East. In the late 20th century, journalist Michael Fedo wrote "The Lynchings in Duluth" (1970), which began to raise awareness of the event. Community members from many different groups began to come together for reflection and education. The men's unmarked graves were located and in 1991, gravestones were erected with funding from a local church. Vigils were held at the intersection where the men were lynched. In 2000, a grassroots committee was formed, and began to offer speakers to groups and schools. It decided to commemorate the event with a memorial. The Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial, which includes a corner wall and plaza, was dedicated in 2003. It includes three -tall bronze statues of the three men. The CJMM Committee continues to work for racial justice through educational outreach, community forums, and scholarships for youth.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1918, the Cloquet Fire (named for the nearby city of Cloquet) burned across Carlton and southern St. Louis counties, destroying dozens of communities in the Duluth area. The fire was the worst natural disaster in Minnesota history in terms of the number of lives lost in a single day. Many people died on the rural roads surrounding the Duluth area, and historical accounts tell of victims dying while trying to outrun the fire. The "News Tribune" reported, "It is estimated that 100 families were rendered homeless by Saturday's fire in the territory known as the Woodland District... In most cases, families which lost their homes also lost most or all of their furniture and personal belongings, the limited time and transportation facilities affording little opportunity for saving anything but human life." The National Guard unit based in Duluth was mobilized in a heroic effort to battle the fire and assist victims, but the troops were overwhelmed by the enormity of the fire.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Retired "Duluth News Tribune" columnist and journalist Jim Heffernan writes that his mother "recalled an overnight vigil watching out the window of their small home on lower Piedmont Avenue with her father, her younger sisters having gone to sleep, ready to be evacuated to the waterfront should the need arise. The fire never made it that far down the hill, but devastated what is now Piedmont Heights, and, of course, a widespread area of Northeastern Minnesota." In the fire's aftermath, tens of thousands of people were left injured or homeless; many of the refugees fled into the city for aid and shelter.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: For the first half of the 20th century, Duluth was an industrial port boom town dominated by its several grain elevators, a cement plant, a nail mill, wire mills, and the Duluth Works plant. Handling and export of iron ore, brought in from the Mesabi Range, was integral to the city's economy, as well as to the steel industry in the Midwest, including in manufacturing cities in Ohio.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Aerial Lift Bridge (earlier known as the "Aerial Bridge" or "Aerial Ferry Bridge") was built in 1905 and at that time was known as the United States' first transporter bridge—only one other was ever constructed in the country. In 1929–30, the span was converted to a vertical-lift bridge (also rather uncommon). The bridge was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 1916, after Europe had entered the Great War (World War I), a shipyard was constructed on the St. Louis River. A new workers neighborhood, today known as Riverside, developed around the large operation. Similar industrial expansions took place during the Second World War, as Duluth's large harbor and the area's vast natural resources were put to work for the war effort. Tankers and submarine chasers (usually called "sub-chasers") were built at the Riverside shipyard. The population of Duluth continued to grow in the postwar decade and a half, peaking at 107,884 in 1960.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Economic decline began in the 1950s, when high-grade iron ore ran out on the Iron Range north of Duluth; ore shipments from the Duluth harbor had been critical to the city's economy. Low-grade ore (taconite) shipments continued, boosted by new taconite pellet technology, but ore shipments were lower overall.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In the 1970s the United States experienced a steel crisis, a recession in the global steel market, and like many American cities Duluth entered a period of industrial restructuring. In 1981, US Steel closed its Duluth Works plant, a blow to the city's economy whose effects included the closure of the cement company, which had depended on the steel plant for raw materials (slag). More closures followed in other industries, including shipbuilding and heavy machinery. By decade's end, unemployment rates hit 15 percent. The economic downturn was particularly hard on Duluth's West Side, where ethnic Eastern and Southern European workers had lived for decades.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: During the 1980s, plans were underway to extend Interstate 35 through Duluth and up the North Shore, bringing new access to the city. The original plan called for the interstate to run along the shore on an elevated concrete structure, blocking the city's access to Lake Superior. Kent Worley, a local landscape architect, wrote an impassioned letter to then mayor Ben Boo asking that the route be reconsidered. The Minnesota Department of Transportation agreed to take another look, with Worley consulting. The new plan called for parts of the highway to run through tunnels, which allowed preservation of Fitger's Brewery, Sir Ben's Tavern, Leif Erickson Park, and Duluth's Rose Garden. Rock used from the interstate project was used to create an extensive new beach along Lake Superior, along which the city's Lakewalk was built.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: With the decline of the city's industrial core, the local economic focus gradually shifted to tourism. The downtown area was renovated to emphasize its pedestrian character: streets were paved with red brick and skywalks and retail shops were added. The city and developers worked with the area's unique architectural character, converting old warehouses along the waterfront into cafés, shops, restaurants, and hotels. Combined with the new rock beach and Lakewalk, these changes developed the new Canal Park as a tourism-oriented district. Duluth's population, which had declined since 1960, stabilized at around 85,000.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: At the beginning of the 21st century, Duluth has become a regional center for banking, retail shopping, and medical care for northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and northwestern Michigan. It is estimated that more than 8,000 jobs in Duluth are directly related to its two hospitals. Arts and entertainment offerings, as well as year-round recreation and the natural environment, have contributed to expansion of the tourist industry. Some 3.5 million visitors each year contribute more than $400 million to the local economy.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: More recently a collection of like-minded businesses in Lincoln Park, an old rundown blue-collar neighborhood with high unemployment and poverty rates, was cultivated by a group of entrepreneurs who have begun rebuilding and revitalizing the area. Since 2014 at least 25 commercial real estate transactions have occurred and 17 businesses have opened, including restaurants, breweries, coffee shops and artist studios. Due to the neighborhood's revitalization, many developers are also investing in housing projects in anticipation of further growth.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth's prominence as a port city gave it an economic advantage in its early years, but as various industries began to wane, new efforts to reclaim areas of the waterfront for public use emerged. Notable among them is the reclamation of the St. Louis River corridor, which runs along the edge of the city's western neighborhoods. Many of these sites, filled with legacy pollutants due to previous industrial use, have been or are in the process of being restored by the EPA, with several developments, such as Pier B Resort and Hotel, demonstrating the revitalization opportunity of these former industrial spaces.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Other efforts to reclaim waterfront space in Duluth have been led by the Duluth Waterfront Collective. One notable example includes the Highway 61 Revisited concept, which seeks to reimagine the I-35 corridor as it runs through the city's downtown. The group's efforts have been met with interest, with the city council voting to explore options for the corridor in 2021.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: While the acreage of land utilizing the waterway for port-related purposes has shifted in recent years, the goods being shipped through the Duluth-Superior port have shifted to reflect a changing economy. In recent decades, declines in the shipment of coal and iron ore have been met by increases in the shipment of wind turbine components and multimodal shipping containers.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of ; is land and is water. It is Minnesota's second-largest city by land area, surpassed only by Hibbing. Duluth's canal connects Lake Superior to the Duluth–Superior harbor and the Saint Louis River. It is spanned by the Aerial Lift Bridge, which connects Canal Park with Minnesota Point (or "Park Point"). Minnesota Point is about long, and when included with adjacent Wisconsin Point, which extends from the city of Superior, Wisconsin, is the largest freshwater baymouth bar in the world at a total of .


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth's topography is dominated by a steep hillside that climbs from Lake Superior to high inland elevations. Duluth has been called "the San Francisco of the Midwest," alluding to San Francisco's similar water-to-hilltop topography. This similarity was most evident before World War II, when Duluth had a network of streetcars and an inclined railroad, the 7th Avenue West Incline Railway, that, like San Francisco's cable cars, climbed a steep hill. The change in elevation is illustrated by Duluth's two airports. The weather station at the lakeside Sky Harbor Airport on Minnesota Point has an elevation of , while Duluth International Airport, atop the hill, is higher at .


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Even as the city has grown, its populace has tended to hug Lake Superior's shoreline, so Duluth is primarily a southwest–northeast city. The considerable development on the hill has given Duluth many steep streets. Some neighborhoods, such as Piedmont Heights and Bayview Heights, are atop the hill with scenic views of the city. Skyline Parkway is a scenic roadway that extends from Becks Road above the Gary – New Duluth neighborhood near the western end of the city to the Lester Park neighborhood on the east side. It crosses nearly Duluth's entire length and affords views of Lake Superior, the Aerial Lift Bridge, Canal Park, and the many industries that inhabit the largest inland port.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: A developing part of the city is the Miller Hill Mall area and the adjacent big-box retailer shopping strips "over the hill" along the Miller Trunk Highway corridor. The 2009–10 road reconstruction project in Duluth's Miller Hill area improved movement through the U.S. Highway 53 corridor from Trinity Road to Maple Grove Road. The highway project reconstructed connector roads, intersections, and adjacent roadways. A new international airport terminal was completed in 2013 as part of the federal government's Stimulus Reconstruction Program.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The geology of Duluth demonstrates the Midcontinent Rift, formed as the North American continent began to split apart about 1.1 billion years ago. As the earth's crust thinned, magma rose toward the surface. These intrusions formed a -thick sill, primarily of gabbro, which is known as the Duluth Complex. An intrusion of the Duluth Complex can be seen at Enger Tower, which is built on a knob of exposed gabbro.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The lava flows formed the conditions for the creation of Lake Superior agates. As the lava solidified, gas trapped within the flows formed an amygdaloidal texture (literally, rock filled with small vesicles). Later, groundwater transported dissolved minerals through the vesicles depositing concentric bands of fine-grained quartz called chalcedony. The color scheme is caused by the concentration of iron present in the groundwater at the time that each new layer was being deposited. The process went on until the cavity had been completely filled. Over time erosion freed the agates from the solidified lava, which is not as hard as quartz. Lake Superior agates are the Minnesota gemstone.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The creation of the Lake Superior basin reflects the erosive power of continental glaciers that advanced and retreated over Minnesota several times in the past 2 million years. The mile-thick ice sheets easily eroded the sandstone that filled the axis of the rift valley but encountered more resistance from the igneous rocks forming the flanks of the rift, now the margins of the lake basin. As the last glacier retreated, meltwaters filled the lake to as high as above the current level; the Skyline Parkway roughly follows one of the highest levels of the ancient Lake Superior, Glacial Lake Duluth. The sandstone that buried the igneous rocks of the rift is exposed near Fond du Lac. At one time a large number of quarries produced the stone, sold as Fond du Lac or Lake Superior brownstone. It was widely used in Duluth buildings and also shipped to Minneapolis, Chicago, and Milwaukee, where it was also used extensively. The weathered sandstone forms the sandy lake bottom and shores of Park Point.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth has a humid continental climate (Köppen "Dfb"), slightly moderated by its proximity to Lake Superior. Winters are long, snowy, and very cold, normally seeing maximum temperatures remaining at or below on 100 days (the second-most of any city in the contiguous US behind International Falls), falling to or below on 38 nights and bringing consistent snow cover from late November to early April. Winter storms that pass south or east of Duluth can often set up easterly or northeasterly flow, which leads to occasional upslope lake-effect snow events that bring or more of snow to the city while areas inland receive considerably less. The average annual snowfall is 90.2 in. The lake steams in the winter when moist, lake-warmed air at the surface rises and cools, losing some of its moisture-carrying capacity.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth has been called "The Air-Conditioned City" because of the summertime cooling effect of Lake Superior. Using data on the minimum monthly temperature between 1981 and 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed a Comparative Climatic Data report. With a minimum average monthly low temperature of and a maximum average monthly low temperature of , Duluth was found to be the fifth-coldest city in the United States.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Summers are warm, although nights are generally cool, with daytime temperatures averaging in July, with that figure being a few degrees warmer inland. Temperatures reach or exceed on average, only two days per year, while the city has officially seen temperatures on only three days, all during the July 1936 heat wave, part of the Dust Bowl years. The phrase "cooler by the lake" can be heard often in weather forecasts during the summer, especially on days when an easterly wind is expected. Great local variations are also common because of the rapid change in elevation between the nearly hilltop and shoreside. Often this variation manifests itself as snow in higher elevations while rain falls near Lake Superior.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The record low temperature in Duluth is , set on January 2, 1885, and the record high temperature is , set on July 13, 1936. On average, the first freezing temperature occurs on September 30, and the last on May 14, although a freezing temperature has occurred in August; the average window for measurable (≥) snowfall is October 22 through April 26.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: From June 19–20, 2012, Duluth suffered the worst flood in its history, caused by of rain throughout the course of thirty hours. Combined with its rocky sediments, hard soil and 43 streams and creeks, the city could not handle the massive rainfall. Mayor Don Ness declared a state of emergency, asking for national assistance. Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton declared a state of emergency, sending the National Guard and the Red Cross to assist in the relief efforts. Several sinkholes opened throughout the city, causing massive property damage. Several feet of standing water accumulated in many city alleys and parking lots. Streets were turned into rapids and many roads split apart due to the heavy flow of water. A portion of West Skyline Parkway tumbled down the hill, isolating a neighborhood. The Saint Louis River, in Duluth's Fond du Lac neighborhood, flooded Highway 23, isolating that neighborhood as well, and damaging roadways and bridges.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Lake Superior Zoo flooded in the early hours of June 20; 11 barnyard animals drowned, as did a turkey vulture, a raven and a snowy owl. The rising waters enabled a polar bear to escape her exhibit, though she was quickly found on zoo grounds, tranquilized and moved to safety. Two harbor seals escaped the zoo grounds but were later found on Grand Avenue. All three animals were moved to Como Park Zoo in Saint Paul for a temporary, but indeterminate, amount of time. The polar bear was transferred to the Kansas City Zoo in late 2012 as part of the American Zoological Association's (AZA) Species Survival Program breeding recommendation.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Tornadoes are uncommon in Duluth, considering its latitude and location next to the climate-moderating Lake Superior. However, on August 9, 2012, at around 11 AM, a tornado touched down on Minnesota Point. It had originally started as a waterspout in Superior Bay, from Sky Harbor Airport, but briefly found its way onto the sandbar's shoreline, making it a true tornado. It quickly dissipated, but soon touched down again on Superior's Barker's Island, where it again quickly dissipated. It caused no serious damage; the tornado was categorized as an EF0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. At the time the National Weather Service reported that it was Duluth's first tornado. Further investigation showed that more than years ago, on May 26, 1958, Duluth had a "miniature tornado" that collapsed a garage and damaged two area lake cabins. It lasted only five minutes. The "News-Tribune" reported a possible twister on July 11, 1935: "Swirling into the city on the wings of a torrential rain, a miniature tornado struck in the heart of the Gary-New Duluth district shortly before 8 a.m. yesterday, flattening a row of coal sheds (and) a frame garage and causing general damage to trees in the vicinity. The United States weather bureau had no means of officially recording the twister, the high wind having limited itself to the Gary-New Duluth district."


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: As of the census of 2020, the population was 86,697. The population density was . There were 39,762 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 85.0% White, 3.6% Black or African American, 2.6% Native American, 1.6% Asian, 0.8% from other races, and 6.5% from two or more races. Ethnically, the population was 2.4% Hispanic or Latino of any race. The most common ancestries in Duluth were German (24.0%), Norwegian (14.2%), Swedish (10.3%), Irish (9.8%), and Polish (6.7%). 95.2% of residents were born in the United States, and 72.7% were born in Minnesota. 95.2% spoke only English at home, and 1.7% spoke Spanish. 94.5% have at least a high school degree, and 39.0% have at least a Bachelor's degree.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: As of the census of 2010, there were 86,265 people, 35,705 households, and 18,680 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 38,208 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 90.4% White, 2.3% African American, 2.5% Native American, 1.5% Asian, 0.3% from other races, and 3.0% from two or more races and ethnicities. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.5% of the population.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: There were 35,705 households, of which 24.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.2% were married couples living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.0% had a male householder with no wife present, and 47.7% were non-families. 35.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.84.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The median age in the city was 33.6 years. 18.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 19.6% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 23.4% were from 25 to 44; 24.8% were from 45 to 64; and 13.8% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of the city was 49.0% male and 51.0% female.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: As of the census of 2000, there were 35,500 households and 19,918 families in the city. The population density was . There were 36,994 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 92.7% White, 1.6% Black or African American, 2.4% Native American, 1.1% Asian, 0.0% Pacific Islander, 0.3% from other races, and 1.8% from two or more races. 1.1% of the population was Hispanic or Latino of any race.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Among Duluth's households, 26.6% had children under 18, 41.4% were married couples living together, 11.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 43.9% were non-families. 34.5% of all households were one-person households, and 13.3% had someone 65 or older living alone. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.90.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 21.3% under the age of 18, 16.2% from 18 to 24, 26.1% from 25 to 44, 21.3% from 45 to 64, and 15.1% 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 93.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over there were 89.7 males.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth's median household income was $33,766; median family income was $46,394. Males had a median income of $35,182, females $24,965. The per capita income was $18,969. About 8.6% of families and 15.5% of all residents were below the poverty line, including 15.4% of those under 18 and 9.5% of those 65 or over.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is the major regional center for health care, higher education, retail, and business services not only of its own immediate area but also of a larger area encompassing northeastern Minnesota, northwestern Wisconsin, and the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It is also a major transportation center for the transshipment of coal, taconite, agricultural products, steel, limestone, and cement. In recent years it has seen strong growth in the transshipment of wind turbine components coming and going from manufacturers in both Europe and North Dakota and of oversized industrial machinery manufactured all around the world and destined for the tar sands oil extraction projects in northern Alberta. The Port of Duluth handles an average of 35 million short tons of cargo and nearly 900 vessel visits each year. 90% of the port's vessels are "Lakers," ships that ship goods exclusively among the upper four Great Lakes and are too large to transit the Welland Canal. 10% are "Salties", ships that can traverse the seaway all the way from the Atlantic Ocean.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Twin Ports has attracted several new engineering firms including TKDA, Barr Engineering, LHB, Enbridge and Lake Superior Consulting, as well as new start-ups in various fields, including Loll Designs and Epicurean, two sister companies that make eco-friendly furniture and kitchen utensils respectively, and microbrewery Bent Paddle. Women's clothing retail chain Maurices is also headquartered in Duluth, as are luggage manufacturers and suppliers Duluth Pack and Frost River. In 1989, the workwear and accessories brand Duluth Trading Company was founded on a barge in the city's shipping district. The company moved its headquarters to southern Wisconsin in 2000.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is a center for aquatic biology and aquatic science. The city is home to the EPA's Mid-Continent Ecology Division Laboratory and the University of Minnesota–Duluth. These institutions have spawned many economically and scientifically important businesses that support Duluth's economy. A short list of these businesses includes ERA Laboratories, LimnoLogic, the ASci Corporation, Environmental Consulting and Testing, and Ecolab.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The city is popular for tourism. Duluth is a convenient base for trips to the scenic North Shore via Highway 61 and to fishing and wilderness destinations in Minnesota's far north, including the Superior National Forest, Lake Vermilion and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. Tourists also may drive on the North Shore Scenic Drive to Gooseberry Falls State Park, Baptism Falls (Minnesota's largest waterfall), the vertical cliff of Palisade Head, Isle Royale National Park (reached via ferry), Grand Portage National Monument in Grand Portage, and High Falls of the Pigeon River (on the Canada–US border). Thunder Bay, Ontario, can be reached by following the highway into Canada along Lake Superior.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In 2006, a volunteer task force was formed to manage the spiraling retiree health care benefit obligations that were threatening to bankrupt the city. Mayor Don Ness called it "the single most important volunteer effort in our city's history." After reforming and restructuring the benefits and a court case that went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court, in 2013 the liability stood at an estimated $191 million. In 2014, Ness announced "a full solution for the retiree health care issue that once threatened to bankrupt our city."


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In the summer of 1913, the world's first heavier-than-air airline service opened in the form of a biplane flying boat named "Lark of Duluth", offering joyrides over the Duluth harbor. Not a commercial success, the flights ended later that summer when the designer of the aircraft's engine crashed it. After being purchased and used for scheduled flights in Florida, the plane returned to Duluth and other locations for passenger flights in 1914, until it was ultimately damaged in a hard landing later that year in California and pronounced unsalvageable. A replica of the 1913 Lark of Duluth was constructed and flown by the Duluth Aviation Institute in 2013, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of commercial aviation.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Several multinational aviation corporations operate near Duluth. Since 1994, the city has been home to the headquarters and main manufacturing facility of Cirrus Aircraft, whose 1,500-plus employees build the world's best-selling general aviation aircraft, the SR22, and the world's first single-engine personal jet, the Vision SF50. James Fallows, national correspondent for "The Atlantic", said that Cirrus' rapid growth in Duluth over the years "was a major, major factor in the town's modern emergence". Former mayor Gary Doty called the arrival of Cirrus in the mid-1990s a "crucial turning point" for Duluth, and said it was "the catalyst for more positive attitudes about the city... If that hadn't happened, then we might really have been in a tailspin." The company is Duluth's largest manufacturer. In January 2012, another aircraft manufacturer, Kestrel Aircraft, maker of the K-350 turboprop plane and later known as ONE Aviation, moved to the Twin Ports; and in October of that year, AAR Corp opened an aircraft repair and maintenance facility at the Duluth airport. Both companies ceased operations in the region during the COVID-19 pandemic.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In January 2013, the Duluth International Airport opened a new terminal, now named the "U.S. Representative James L. Oberstar Terminal" after the late Jim Oberstar.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Air National Guard's 148th Fighter Wing is based in Duluth and was in 2016 the city's seventh-largest employer. It is one of a handful of National Guard units with an active association, which in the 148th's case means having the capability to provide training for Air Force pilots. The 179th Fighter Squadron is a unit of the 148th.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Historic Old Central High School, built in 1892 of locally quarried sandstone at a cost of $460,000, now houses an 1890s classroom museum. It features a clock tower with chimes patterned after Big Ben in London; the clock faces are each in diameter, overlooking the Duluth harbor. It is listed with the National Register of Historic Places; they begin the listing writing, "Old Central is a very fine example of that traditionally rich architectural style known as Romanesque and is certainly the most outstanding structure of its kind to be found in northern Minnesota."


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Other museums include the Duluth Children's Museum in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Founded in 1930, it is the fifth-oldest of its kind in the nation. It features interactive exhibits, educational programs, and opportunities for creative play designed for children, their families and caregivers, and school field trips. The museum also curates an artifact collection of over 25,000 objects drawn from the lives and cultures of people who have resided in the region, particularly American Indians and immigrants. Other museums include the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth and the Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The premiere community art center is the Duluth Art Institute, with galleries, a fiber studio and darkroom in the Depot downtown and ceramic and multi-purpose studios in the Lincoln Park neighborhood. A number of local art galleries are also located downtown and in Canal Park. The Duluth Public Library has three locations. Duluth is also home to a professional ballet company, the Minnesota Ballet. Duluth shares a symphony orchestra—the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra—with Superior, Wisconsin. In summer free concerts are often held in Chester Park, where local musicians play for crowds. The Bayfront Blues Festival is held in early August.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is home to several local theater companies, including The Duluth Playhouse, one of the oldest operating community theaters in the United States. Founded in 1914, the Playhouse's main offices and two of its theaters are housed in the historic Depot Building on Michigan Street. The Playhouse has a comprehensive theatrical season across multiple stages, including Duluth's Nor Shor Theater as of April 2018. It also has a renowned education program.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The NorShor Theatre is a historic movie palace on Superior Street that was restored for use as a performance venue. The century-old venue is generally considered a local landmark. After 19 months of construction and renovations, the Norshor opened in 2018 with a 600-seat, stadium-style, balconied, live-performance auditorium, a bar, and a lounge.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Since 2004, Duluth has celebrated Gay Pride with a parade on Labor Day weekend. Since 1998, the city has held the Homegrown Music Festival the first week in May. The festival features over 170 local musical acts performing across the city. The Junior Achievement High School ROCKS – Battle of the Bands showcases middle school and high school bands from central Minnesota to the Canada–US border and northern Wisconsin and takes place at the DECC in mid-April. Duluth also hosts the Northeastern Minnesota Book Awards, honoring books about the region.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Canal Park is a district with recreation activities, restaurants, cafés, hotels, and shops, especially those dealing in antiques. Formerly a warehouse district, the area converted to a recreation-oriented district following the decline in manufacturing in the 1980s. A walking path offers views of Park Point's sand dunes and swimming beaches and the lighthouse pier.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The path passes under the Aerial Lift Bridge, a vertical lift bridge spanning the Duluth Ship Canal into Duluth's harbor. It was originally an exceedingly rare aerial transfer bridge—a bridge that slides a basketlike "gondola" back and forth to transfer people and vehicles from one side to the other. The wreck of the "Thomas Wilson", a classic early-20th-century whaleback ore boat, lies underwater less than outside the Duluth harbor ship canal.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Duluth Lakewalk, expanded and improved beginning in the 1980s, is a seven-mile walking/biking path that begins in Canal Park and follows the lakeshore, crossing through Leif Erickson Park and the Duluth Rose Garden, and ending at the Bayfront Festival Park, an area with a covered pavilion where festivals, concerts, and other events are held.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is the starting point for the North Shore of Lake Superior scenic route that runs from Duluth, at the southwestern end of the lake, to Thunder Bay and Nipigon in the north and Sault Ste. Marie in the east. The route was already a popular tourist destination after 1855 when the Great Lakes lock system first allowed steamboats onto the lake and eastern tourists began to travel onto Lake Superior for recreational purposes. By the mid-1870s, many excursion boats, coastal steamers, and ferries ran along the North Shore, primarily out of Duluth and Thunder Bay. After docking in Duluth they canoed or were ferried up the North Shore, staying in hunting and fishing camps, and later hotels and small cabins.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Great Lakes Aquarium is in the Duluth Waterfront Park. A freshwater aquarium, it features animals and habitats found in the Great Lakes Basin and other freshwater ecosystems such as the Amazon River. The aquarium houses 205 different species of fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. It is one of the few aquariums in the United States to focus on freshwater exhibits.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Great Lakes Maritime Museum and Visitor Center contains historical exhibits, maritime artifacts, and a recreation of a ship's pilot house, cabins, and staterooms with life-size mannequins that speak to the visitors. In the pilot house children can pretend to command the ship using a ship's steering wheel and other instruments. The exhibits contain artifacts from the many sunken ships in the Duluth harbor. One exhibit tells the story of the Edmund Fitzgerald, which sank in a November gale after departing from the Duluth Superior port. There is a small movie theater and a viewing room where visitors can watch the ships arriving in the harbor and find arrival times of the ships that will arrive throughout the day.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: After transporting coal and iron in the Great Lakes for more than 40 years, the "S.S. William A. Irvin" was docked in Duluth and serves as a preserved example of the shipping history of the Great Lakes. As the flagship of U.S. Steel's Great Lakes Fleet, she provided what has been called the "comfort and elegance to dignitaries and guests who traveled the Lakes with her" while hauling materials from Two Harbors and Duluth to U.S. Steel's mills of Lakes Michigan and Erie in Ohio and Indiana.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Lake Superior Railroad Museum is in the Duluth Union Depot. It has seven steam, 14 diesel, and two electric locomotives, and over 40 other pieces of rolling stock. The collection includes the William Crooks, the first locomotive to operate in the state of Minnesota, and the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway Number 227, a "Yellowstone" locomotive that was among the largest steam engines ever. Only 18 Yellowstones were ever built, and Duluth exhibits one of the three that remain.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The North Shore Scenic Railroad is a heritage railroad that operates between Duluth and Two Harbors, Minnesota. It is owned by the Lake Superior Railroad Museum and offers several different types of passenger excursion trains between May 28 and October 15 each year. The railroad was started in 1990, using the Lakefront Line once owned by the Duluth, Missabe and Iron Range Railway.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The original brewery was built in 1857 on a stream that came to be known as Brewery Creek; it was purchased by Michael Fink in 1881 and moved downstream to its present location on Superior Street. Fink's Lake Superior Brewery hired a new brewmaster, August Fitger, a graduate of one of Germany's premier brewing schools, and the brewery was renamed A. Fitger & Co. / Lake Superior Brewery. The brewery was successful and stayed in operation even through prohibition but finally closed in 1972 after 115 years of continual operation, making it the oldest business in Duluth. The complex was reopened in 1984 and contains a craft brewery, several restaurants, hotels, shops, and a museum. Fitger's Brewery Complex is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Glensheen Historic Estate, on the shore of Lake Superior, was built as the family home for wealthy businessman Chester Adgate Congdon. Glensheen sits on of lakefront property, has 38 rooms and is built in the Jacobean architectural tradition, inspired by the Beaux-Arts styles of the era. The building was designed by Minnesota architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., with interiors designed by William French. The formal terraced garden and English-style landscape was designed by the Charles Wellford Leavitt firm of New York. Construction began in 1905 at a cost of $854,000 (about $ in dollars), and was completed in 1908. Aside from its architectural significance, Glensheen is noteworthy for the murders of Elisabeth Congdon and her nurse on June 27, 1977. The mansion is open to tours year-round.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The 16-acre Lake Superior Zoo offers year-round recreational activities and features animals from around the world, including Amur tigers, snow leopards, African lions, brown bears, kangaroos, gray wolves, and a variety of birds, reptiles, primates and barnyard animals. The zoo offers learning programs and regularly features special events.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Enger Tower is an , five-story blue stone observation tower atop Enger Hill in Duluth. The tower provides panoramic views of the Twin Ports from lookouts accessible by stairs, and a green beacon is mounted atop the tower.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is in the path of many avian flyways and migratory birds, which pass over the area in great numbers. Hawk Ridge, on Skyline Parkway, is ideal for viewing migratory raptors. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Hawk Ridge has attracted visitors from all 50 states and 40 countries, from Labor Day through October. Volunteers and licensed bird banders capture raptors in nets and band them while large crowds gather to observe the capture and release.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Just off the Lakewalk is a park named Gichi-Ode' Akiing, Ojibwe for "a grand heart place." The Duluth City Council approved the name change from Lake Place Park in 2018. A memorial to Kechewaishke, also known as Chief Buffalo, honors his symbolic petition carried to president Millard Fillmore in 1849. Kechewaishke signed the 1854 Treaty of La Pointe a year before his death, with the provision that of land at the corner of Lake Superior be given to his adopted son Benjamin G. Armstrong. Known as the Buffalo Tract, Armstrong's land comprised part of today's downtown Duluth.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, named for winter mail carrier John Beargrease, is an annual sled dog race that runs from Duluth to Grand Portage. Beargrease and his brothers were among the first to carry mail between Two Harbors and Grand Marais, going by dogsled, boat, and horse for almost 20 years before the towns were connected by road. Competitors can choose between two distances: a round trip between Duluth and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, and a course from Duluth to Tofte. The race begins at Billy's Bar in northeastern Duluth. Run every January since 1980, it is regarded as a training ground for Alaska's larger and more elite Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: In May, Duluthians celebrate the annual smelt run with the Magic Smelt Parade along the city's lakewalk. It is a family-oriented affair conducted in the manner of a New Orleans Second Line Parade, with a "Main Line" led by a small brass band followed by the "second liners", who walk and dance behind the band. The Smelt Parade's second liners wear silver hats, capes, and other costumes related to smelt. A Smelt King and Smelt Queens also take part in the parade.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Since 1977, Duluth has played host to Grandma's Marathon, held annually in June. Named after its original sponsor, Grandma's Restaurant, it draws runners from all over the world. The course starts just outside Two Harbors, Minnesota, runs down Old Highway 61 (the former route of Highway 61 along the North Shore of Lake Superior), and finishes in one of Duluth's tourism neighborhoods, Canal Park. The same route is also taken during the North Shore Inline Marathon, held in September and also drawing racers from all over the world.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Each year in November, the Christmas City of the North Parade takes place in Duluth. The parade dates to 1957, when the holiday shopping season ran particularly short. Wanting to extend Christmas shopping days, Bob Rich, who at the time owned the former WDSM-TV, now KBJR-TV, came up with the idea. Since then, the parade has marched through downtown Duluth annually on the Friday night before Thanksgiving. The event has survived pouring rain, snow and frigid cold. Even in years when instruments were too cold to produce music, the bands became choirs, using their voices to entertain the crowd. Recorded by Merv Griffin in 1962, the "Christmas City" song is the parade's signature sound. According to Rich's grandson, the song was written by a local resident and his grandfather asked his friend Griffin, at that time not the well-known TV personality he later became, if he would sing the song and put it to music.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Since 2009, the Benlyville Tour of Lights decorates the Bayfront Festival Park during November and December with over 5,000,000 lights. It has been called the United States' "largest display of Christmas lights that patrons can walk around".


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth fielded a National Football League team called the Kelleys (officially the Kelley Duluths after the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store) from 1923 to 1925 and the Eskimos (officially Ernie Nevers' Eskimos after the early NFL great, their star player) from 1926 to 1927. The Eskimos were then sold and became the Orange Tornadoes (Orange, New Jersey). This bit of history became the basis for the 2008 George Clooney/Renée Zellweger movie, "Leatherheads".


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Duluth–Superior Dukes of the Northern League Independent Professional Baseball played in West Duluth's Wade Stadium from the league's inception in 1993 until 2002 when the team moved to Kansas City, Kansas, and became the Kansas City T-Bones. The Dukes were Northern League champions in 1997. An earlier Northern League, based in the Midwest, was also in operation off and on from 1902 to 1971, the longest stint being 1932–1971. The Dukes were a farm team for the Detroit Tigers from 1960 to 1964 and several other teams in later years before the Northern League folded in 1971. The Dukes produced notable players such as Denny McLain, Bill Freehan, Gates Brown, Ray Oyler, Jim Northrup, Mickey Stanley, John Hiller, and Willie Horton, all of whom were members of the 1968 world champion Detroit Tigers.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth is also home to Horton's Gym, the home gym of professional boxers Zach "Jungle Boy" Walters and Andy Kolle, as well as a number of other professional prizefighters. Horton's Gym was run by Chuck Horton from 1994 to 2011. During that time, Horton trained some of the most recognized professional and amateur boxers in Minnesota such as Walters, Kolle, RJ Lasse, Gary Eyer and Wayne Putnam. In 2011, Horton turned the gym over to Zach Walters so that Horton could concentrate solely on training professional boxers; Walters changed the gym's name to Jungle Boy Boxing Gym. Horton is currently the trainer of Al Sands; Sands won the North American Boxing Association's U.S. Cruiserweight title in April 2014.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The University of Minnesota Duluth Bulldog hockey games are televised nationally and attended by thousands in person at the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center (DECC). A new hockey arena, Amsoil Arena, opened December 30, 2010, adjacent to the DECC. Several Bulldogs, including hockey great Brett Hull and Matt Niskanen have gone on to success in the National Hockey League. On April 9, 2011, the Bulldog men's team defeated Michigan to win their first national championship in school history. They won the championship again in 2018 and 2019.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The UMD women's ice hockey team has won five NCAA Division I national championships (2001–03, 2008, 2010). The 2010 title game against Cornell University lasted through nearly three full overtimes and was the longest women's ice hockey championship game in NCAA history. The 2003 women's Frozen Four tournament was played at the DECC with the Bulldogs claiming their third consecutive national title by defeating Harvard University via a dramatic double-overtime goal by Nora Tallus in front of a sellout home crowd. The 2008 Frozen Four tournament was also held at the DECC and saw the Bulldogs claim their fourth national title with a 4–0 shutout of the Wisconsin Badgers. The Women's Frozen Four was held in Amsoil Arena in 2012.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Duluth Dukes were an amateur baseball team that played its home games at Bulldog Park on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth and at Wade Stadium. The Dukes were composed of current and former college players and former professional players. The Dukes competed in two leagues: the Arrowhead League of the Minnesota Baseball Association, and the Upper 13 League of the Wisconsin Baseball Association.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Duluth Xpress are an amateur baseball team that plays its games at the Ordean Middle School baseball field. The team is made up of current and former college players and former professional players. The Xpress compete in the Arrowhead League, a class B league in Minnesota town team baseball.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Duluth Huskies are a college summer wood bat league baseball team based in Duluth and playing in the Northwoods League. The team plays its home games at Wade Stadium. The roster includes some of the top college baseball players in the country. The Huskies play 34 home games each summer between June and August.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Twin Ports North Stars are an amateur baseball team that plays its games at Ordean Field at Duluth East High School. The North Stars are composed of current and former college and professional baseball players who reside in the Twin Ports area. As of 2013, the North Stars compete out of the Arrowhead League, a Class B league in the Minnesota Baseball Association.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: High school teams in the Duluth area include Denfeld High School, Duluth East High School, and Duluth Marshall School.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Rowing has a long history in Duluth. The Duluth Boat Club was established in 1886 near the site of the present-day Great Lakes Aquarium. Between 1911 and 1923, Duluth won 20 national championships with several players going on to win perfect scores and remain undefeated in national and international competitions. Today, club membership remains strong, with members competing in regional and national regattas.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The National Premier Soccer League team Duluth FC plays its home games at Denfeld High School's Public Schools Stadium.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Bandy is a team sport similar to ice hockey. All American Bandy League matches are played at Guidant John Rose Minnesota Oval in Roseville. In 2012, the Duluth team Dynamo Duluth finished second in the league. and in 2013 they became champions for the first time. In 2009 they won North American Cup, which is rink bandy.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Roller derby is a contact sport played by two teams of five members roller skating in the same direction (counter-clockwise) around a track. The Harbor City Roller Derby, an 18+ league, was founded in 2007 and is Duluth–Superior's first women's flat-track roller derby league.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: The Duluth Curling Club was founded in 1891 and has met in the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center since 1976. The club fielded the 2018 men's Olympic curling gold medal team.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth has numerous parks, including six parks on Lake Superior: Leif Erikson Park, which includes a lakeside rose garden; Brighton Beach Park; Canal Park, on Park Point; the Lakewalk (connecting Canal Park and Leif Erickson Park via the lakeshore); and Lafayette Park, on Park Point. The Park Point Recreation Area near the end of Park Point has a community center, numerous pavilions, a swimming beach, sand volleyball court, picnic tables and grills, and a boat launch. Park Point Pine Forest, at the tip of Park Point, is popular for bird-watching in the spring and fall when shorebirds use the area as a resting point during their migration. A shipping schedule of ships entering the harbor is available as well as five live cams including a cam of the canal, the lift bridge, and the beach.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Other parks include historic Lester Park, one of Duluth's most popular parks. Just upstream from where Amity Creek joins the Lester River, a large, deep pool has formed that attracts cliff diving. Amity Creek is the site of The Seven Bridges Road, a four-mile section of Skyline Parkway where it follows Amity Creek from the top of the bluffs down to Lake Superior. The 400-foot drop has resulted in a long cascade of waterfalls.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluth's other parks include Congdon Park, Hartley Park, Chester Park, Bayfront Festival Park, Cascade Park, Enger Park, Lincoln Park, Brewer Park, Fairmount Park, Indian Point Park, Magney–Snively Park, and Fond du Lac Park, as well as some small neighborhood parks and athletic fields. Lester Park, Congdon Park, Hartley Park, and Chester Park have trail systems, and three of these parks—all but Hartley—also have waterfalls, as does Lincoln Park. Hartley Park also has a nature center. Lester Park and Enger Park have public golf courses. Fairmount Park has the Lake Superior Zoo. Jay Cooke State Park is a Minnesota state park about southwest of Duluth. The park is along the Saint Louis River and is one of Minnesota's ten most visited state parks.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: For many years the "Leif Erikson", a Viking ship that was built in Norway by local boat builders to replicate the type of ship sailed by Leif Erikson who arrived in North America around 997 A.D. was on display in the Leif Erickson park. The vessel is long, has a beam and draws of water. The Dragon's Head and Tail are considered by architects to be masterpieces. The ship was invited to Duluth by Norwegian-American immigrant and businessman H.H. Borgen. When the crew landed in Duluth on June 23, 1927, they had traveled a distance of , the greatest distance for a ship of its size in modern history. Hundreds of people lined the dock to greet the ship as it sailed into the Duluth harbor.


title: Duluth, Minnesota

text: Duluthian Emil Olson purchased the ship soon after the voyage and donated the "Leif Erikson" to the City of Duluth. The ship was placed on display in Duluth's Lake Park, which was later named Leif Erikson Park.