title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis attended and played cricket for Wynberg Boys' High School. In 2009 Wynberg honoured Kallis by naming their main cricket oval after him. As a teenager, Kallis had a brief spell with Netherfield CC in England where he established himself in Northern England – Kallis was only 19 when he spent a summer at Parkside Road back in 1995, returning 791 runs at an average of 98.87 from 14 matches before making his Test debut against England later that year. Kallis also played for Old Edwardians for a spell as a teenager, where coaching staff saw the potential for him to become a first-class all-rounder; in July 1993 he was picked for South Africa U-17's against Scotland's U-19 team. He made his first-class debut in 1993/94 as an 18-year-old, playing for Western Province B. His first Test appearance was on 14–18 December 1995 against England in Durban, but he struggled with the bat in his first few matches. Kallis made his World Cup debut in 1996 in Pakistan but did not have much opportunity to excel. His breakthrough came in 1997, with 61 against Pakistan, and then two matches later, he salvaged a draw for South Africa with a fighting century against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Between 1998 and 2002, Jacques Kallis was one of the world's leading all-rounders, as seen in the ICC's cricket ratings. In 1998, he led South Africa to the ICC Champions Trophy title with two "Man of the Match" and the "Player of the Series" performances. The youngster was solid, without being spectacular, in the 1999 ICC Cricket World Cup, before a "Player of the Series" performance led South Africa to a stunning Test series victory against India in India in 2000. By late 2001 he was the world's number one ranked Test all-rounder, having held the same ranking in ODIs for the best part of 3 years. During this time, "Kallis blossomed into arguably the world's leading batsman, with a defensive technique second to none, and the adhesive qualities of a Cape Point limpet. Generally a placid and undemonstrative man, he nailed down the crucial No. 3 positions in the South African batting order after several players had been tried and discarded, and his stock rose exponentially from that moment."


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis is one of only four players in Test history (after Sir Donald Bradman and before Mohammad Yousuf and Gautam Gambhir) to make a century in five consecutive matches, which he achieved in the 2003/04 season. For his performances in 2004, 2005, and 2008, he was named in the World Test XI by ICC. He was also named in the World ODI XI by the ICC for the year 2004 and 12th man for XI in 2005. He was also selected for the ODI XI in 2007 as well. In 2005, he set the record for the fastest half-century in Test cricket history, scoring 50 against Zimbabwe off only 24 balls. In 2007, Kallis scored five centuries in four Tests, making him just the fourth man after Bradman, Ken Barrington and Matthew Hayden to score four centuries in four Tests on two different occasions. Kallis has a remarkable batting average in the mid-50s, and was consistently rated as one of the best batsmen in the world. Although a very capable bowler with 292 Test wickets, he impressed mostly with the bat between 2005 and 2007. As a result, he evolved into more of a batting all-rounder, a role in which he continued because of the emergence of Dale Steyn, Morné Morkel, and Vernon Philander. Kallis is the only man to score over 10,000 runs and to take over 200 wickets in Test cricket. Sir Garfield Sobers managed over 8,000 runs and 200 wickets by comparison, at very similar averages.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In 2005, Kallis was selected for the World XI team to play an Asian XI in a benefit match for those affected by the tsunami of 2004, along with countryman Shaun Pollock. In the same year, he was awarded the Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for the ICC player of the year. The award was shared with Andrew Flintoff of England, his only serious competitor as the world's leading all-rounder, after the votes of the academy were tied. Kallis also won the "ICC Test Player of the Year" award that year.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In 2006, Kallis was awarded the captaincy of South Africa for the third and final Test match against Australia when Graeme Smith withdrew with an injury.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In the 2007 World Cup, Kallis was South Africa's leading run-scorer with 485 runs at 80.83. He was, however, criticized in the press for scoring slowly, which cost South Africa momentum at key stages in the tournament. In August 2007, he was omitted from the 15-man South Africa squad for 2007 ICC World Twenty20, and consequently resigned as vice-captain. He was restored to the team for the Test series against Pakistan, where he scored three centuries in four innings and was awarded "Man of the Match" twice and "Player of the Series".


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Following his successful tour of Pakistan, Kallis scored two aggressive centuries in matches against New Zealand at Johannesburg's Wanderer's Stadium and Centurion Park in Pretoria, taking his total century count to five in four matches. Following this purple patch of form, Kallis endured three tours without success in the form of hundreds, although the Proteas secured historic series victories in England and Australia, and won a two-match series against Bangladesh at home.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis returned to form after an indifferent 2008 and averaged over 50 in his next six series. During this time, the Proteas won one series (against West Indies), drew four (two against India, one against England, and one against Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates), and lost one series to a resilient Australia. Kallis scored 173 in Nagpur in 2010. In the Centurion Test against India later in the year, he scored his maiden double-century in Test match cricket. His 201 not out came in a landslide victory for South Africa, as two of the team's future batting stars contributed significant hundreds of their own (AB de Villiers and future captain Hashim Amla). For the second time in his career, Kallis scored twin centuries in a match, during the third Test of the series at his home ground, Newlands in Cape Town.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In January 2012, Kallis scored his highest score in Tests – 224 against Sri Lanka at Newlands. The last eight series that Kallis played in for South Africa were all victories for the Proteas, except for one series draw against Pakistan in the UAE. Kallis became one of the few players in world cricket to have won two series each in England and Australia. The Proteas also won two series against New Zealand and one against each of India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, England, and Australia.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Throughout this period of his career, Kallis was still valued for his bowling. He contributed valuable economical overs and had a knack for taking important wickets.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In September 2014, Kallis signed a one-year contract with the Sydney Thunder in the Big Bash League. In his first appearance for the Thunder he scored an important innings of 97* and picked up a wicket.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In 2008 more responsibility was placed on Kallis as an all-rounder due to the retirement of Shaun Pollock. Despite the pressure, an all-rounder began to emerge in Wayne Parnell who did some good lower-order batting.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis endured an uncharacteristically poor 2008 with the bat, averaging well under thirty for much of it. Against the ninth-ranked Bangladesh, he averaged just 25.75 in four Test outings. He also played for Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League, where he averaged 16.85 runs per innings with the bat and 55.5 runs per wicket with the ball at an economy rate of 9.65 in the 7 matches he played before he was dropped.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: South Africa toured Australia for a three-match Test series and five-match ODI series starting in December 2008. The tourists had a successful 9–2 Test win–loss ratio in 2008; however, Australia had just come off a 2–0 away series defeat against India and had a 5–3 ratio for the calendar year. Before the series, Kallis had a batting average of 38.32 in 18 Tests against the number one ranked team, substantially lower than his overall average of 55.06. Despite an average of 124.50 in 12 Tests against lowly ranked Zimbabwe and Bangladesh, former Australia fast-bowler Rodney Hogg labeled the all-rounder "a flat-track bully, who dishes it out to the minnows like Bangladesh and Zimbabwe but goes missing against the Australians." In the first Test starting on 17 December, Kallis scored 63 in South Africa's first innings, before he was dismissed by Mitchell Johnson, in the midst of a bowling spell consisting of 5/2 in 20 balls. After failing to make a breakthrough in Australia's first innings, Kallis took 3/24 in their second, while completing four catches in the match. He then scored 57, while being involved in a 124-run partnership with AB de Villiers, as South Africa chased down 414, the second-highest fourth-innings run-chase in Test history.<ref name="South Africa in Australia Test Series - 1st Test - 2008/09">"South Africa in Australia Test Series – 1st Test – 2008/09", Cricinfo, accessed 11 November 2009</ref> In the second Test in Melbourne starting on Boxing Day, Kallis struggled to be potent in Australia's first innings, taking 1/55. While making a start in his team's first dig, he managed only 26, before taking 2/57 when the home-side batted again. Chasing just 183, Kallis was not required to bat, as South Africa completed their first Test series victory in Australia.<ref name="South Africa in Australia Test Series - 2nd Test - 2008/09">"South Africa in Australia Test Series – 2nd Test – 2008/09", Cricinfo, accessed 11 November 2009</ref> In Australia's 103 run Third Test victory in Sydney, Kallis struggled, taking 1/54 and 0/13 with the ball, while scoring 37 and four with the bat.<ref name="South Africa in Australia Test Series - 3rd Test - 2008/09"></ref>


title: Jacques Kallis

text: The win was South Africa's 11th in a year in which they drew with India in India, defeated England in England, Australia in Australia, and also recorded series wins over West Indies and Bangladesh. Kallis was featured in all of those matches and remains an integral part of the champion side's set-up.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis participated in the tour of the West Indies, in which he scored his 35th test cricket century. Kallis injured his neck during the 2010 Champions League Twenty20 playing for the Royal Challengers Bangalore and missed the Twenty20 and ODI series against Zimbabwe. He returned for the ODI series against Pakistan, scoring 66 before having to retire hurt with a cramp. He did, however, manage to lay the foundations for an eight-wicket victory.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In the same ODI Jacques Kallis scored his 129th ODI six, a record for a South African in the format. However, he picked up an injury and was a doubtful starter for the second ODI. In December 2010, on the 3rd day of the first test against India, Kallis scored his maiden double century, scoring 201* (not out). Kallis was selected by South Africa for the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In the 2011–12 season, Kallis scored his second double century in Test cricket, reaching 224 in South Africa's first innings of the third Test of the home series against Sri Lanka. The Test was Kallis's 150th; he became the sixth player in history and the first South African to reach this milestone. After the series, former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly said that he considered Kallis to be the "most-effective player" in Test cricket. Brett Lee named Kallis as the best player in the world in an interview after their victory for Kolkata Knight Riders for his performance in IPL 2012 final against Chennai Super Kings.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: He played a crucial role in the qualification of the Royal Challengers Bangalore for the Champions League T20 during IPL-3 and later on played a crucial role in the triumph of Kolkata Knight Riders in IPL-5, scoring a total of 407 runs and taking 15 wickets.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis was appointed head coach of Kolkata Knight Riders in October 2015 when head coach Trevor Bayliss resigned to take over as head coach of England cricket team in June 2015. Kallis was also batting consultant of KKR for 2015 Indian Premier League season.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In December 2019, Kallis was appointed as batting consultant for South Africa national cricket team. As of late 2020 he is a batting consultant for the England national cricket team.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis has earned high praise for his orthodox batting technique. In an article for the "Telegraph" in July 2012, former England batsman and captain Michael Vaughan wrote that Kallis, "as a batsman, is the best player in the world.". He described Kallis' batting in more detail:


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Whether on the front or back foot, he plays well on the on- and off-side. He’s not Brian Lara or Ricky Ponting in terms of aggression or flair but he is rock solid and, added to that, has every shot in the book.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Also, his cover drive and flick off the hip are right up there in terms of execution and attractiveness. ... He can score quickly at times but it is his way of being able to read situations that sets him apart. ... He knows when to grind it out or move up through the gears. Some people think he could move through the gears quicker when batting, and that is probably a fair argument on occasions, but the majority of the time he knows what he can do at the crease and believes South Africa has a better chance of winning if he stays there.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Given his impressive all-around record, Kallis has also been compared with Sir Garfield Sobers. In November 2012, noted journalist Gideon Haigh wrote in "The Australian" that statistically, they were almost inseparable; Sobers scored 8032 at an average of 58 and took 235 wickets at an average of 34, while Kallis at the time of writing averaged 57 with the bat and 33 with the ball. Haigh also analysed how Kallis and Sobers were also polar opposites in certain ways:


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Sobers [was] all prowling grace and feline elasticity, with his 360-degree batswing and three-in-one bowling; [whereas] Kallis [is] all looming bulk and latent power, constructed like a work of neo-brutalist architecture. ... Yet what they are just as many opposites of are their respective eras. Sobers was the most explosive cricketer of a more staid age, the more mercurial because of the orthodoxy and rigidity around him; Kallis is the most stoic and remorseless cricketer of an era more ostentatious and histrionic. ... Sobers was a cavalier among roundheads; Kallis has steadily become a roundhead among cavaliers.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Kallis shared a close relationship with his father, Henry, whom Kallis cited as his primary influence. His sister Janine Kallis, five years his junior, was a cheerleader in Indian Premier League 2009 and is also a physiotherapist based in East London. When it was discovered that his father had terminal cancer, Kallis took time out of cricket to be with his father:


title: Jacques Kallis

text: We heard something was wrong with my dad during the [2003] World Cup. He started feeling unwell and then, out of the blue, we were told he only had a few months to live. It was a huge shock because we've always been a very close family. I missed the first couple of Tests in England that year so I could be at home with him. It was obviously the saddest time of my life but those last weeks were maybe some of the most beautiful. It gave me a chance to say thank you and goodbye. After a while, I realized how lucky I was to do that. It's far harder if a parent is taken away before you have that time together. So his death put cricket in perspective for me. It's just a game – and a very simple game if you keep your mind straight.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: In January 2019, Kallis married Charlene Engels. The couple has a son, Joshua Henry Kallis, born on 11 March 2020.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: The Jacques Kallis Scholarship Foundation was established in Kallis' benefit year to combine the academic and life skills programs of existing school structures with funding and mentoring support from Jacques Kallis. The Foundation with its partners hopes to provide talented youngsters the opportunity to reach their full sporting and academic potential.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Currently, the Foundation sponsors 2 boys from Wynberg Boys', 2 boys from Pretoria Boys High School, 2 from Maritzburg College, and 2 from Selborne College. Jacques Kallis participates in annual fundraising events for his Foundation, to which he invites fellow South African celebrities and cricketers like Mark Boucher and André Nel.


title: Jacques Kallis

text: Jacques Kallis has achieved the following career-best rankings in the cricket ratings as determined by the International Cricket Council 3:


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Kevin Maurice Johnson (born March 4, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player and Democratic Party politician who served as the 55th Mayor of Sacramento, California from 2008 to 2016. Elected in 2008 and re-elected in 2012, Johnson is the first African American to serve as Mayor of Sacramento. Before entering politics, Johnson was a professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). After a stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers during a portion of his rookie year, the point guard played as a member of the Phoenix Suns for the remainder of his NBA career.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: During his 12-year playing career, Johnson was a three-time NBA All-Star as well as four-time second team All-NBA selection and held numerous records for the Phoenix Suns organization. At the University of California, Berkeley, Johnson was named a two-time All-Pac-10 Conference player and an honorable-mention All-American by the Associated Press.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson holds a B.A. in political science from U.C. Berkeley that he completed after his initial retirement from the NBA. Since founding St. HOPE in 1989, Johnson has been active in education reform. As Mayor of Sacramento, Johnson launched two education initiatives: Stand UP and Sacramento READS!, to benefit students in Sacramento. Johnson also helped to deter the Sacramento Kings basketball team from moving to Anaheim, and, later, to Seattle, Washington.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson, the son of Georgia West and Lawrence Johnson, was born March 4, 1966, in Sacramento. After his father died in a boating accident when he was three, Johnson was raised by his grandparents, the Peat family. He attended Sacramento High School, where he starred in both baseball and basketball. In his senior year, Johnson led the state of California in scoring (32.5 ppg) and was named the Northern California Player of the Year.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson accepted a scholarship to play basketball for the University of California, Berkeley. As a four-year starter, Johnson ended his college career in 1987 as the school's all-time leader in assists (since eclipsed by Jason Kidd), steals, and scoring (since eclipsed by Lamond Murray, Sean Lampley, Patrick Christopher, Joe Shipp and Jerome Randle). Johnson was named to the Pac-10's All-Conference First Team in his junior and senior seasons, averaging 17.2 points and 5 assists in his final year. He led Cal to the program's first post-season appearances in 26 seasons with NIT bids in 1986 and 1987 and was the first player in the Pac-10 Conference to post a triple-double. In 1992, Johnson became the first Golden Bear to have his jersey (No. 11) retired.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson briefly played for Cal's baseball team and the Oakland Athletics drafted him as a shortstop in the 23rd round of the 1986 MLB draft. After playing a couple games with Oakland's minor-league team in Modesto, California during the summer of 1986, Johnson ended his baseball career, finding the road to professional baseball more arduous and risky compared to basketball.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Following his senior season of college basketball, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected Johnson with the seventh pick in the 1987 NBA draft. Originally drafted by Cleveland to challenge the incumbent point guard Mark Price for the starting spot, Johnson found himself playing limited minutes as Price's backup during the 1987–88 NBA season.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: On February 28, 1988, Johnson, Mark West, Tyrone Corbin, and a future draft pick were traded to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for forward Larry Nance, Mike Sanders, and a future draft pick. Adjusting quickly to the change of scenery and much-increased playing time, Johnson excelled and the league named him the NBA Rookie of the Month for April 1988 as he averaged 15.1 points, an 86.4% free throw percentage, 10.6 assists, and 5.6 rebounds.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In his first full season with Phoenix, Johnson grew into one of the game's elite players, averaging 20.4 points, 12.2 assists, a 50.5% field goal percentage, and an 88.2% free-throw percentage. With those numbers, Johnson joined Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas as the only players in NBA history to average at least 20 points and 12 assists in a season. His rapid improvement earned him the 1988–89 NBA's Most Improved Player Award. The 1988–89 season was the first of three straight seasons in which Johnson averaged at least 20 points and 10 assists, joining Oscar Robertson and Isiah Thomas as the only players in league history to accomplish that feat. It also represented the beginning of a new era for the previously moribund Suns' franchise. In K.J.'s first seven full seasons in Phoenix from 1989 to 1995, the Suns won the most regular season games in the NBA (394, an average of 56 and never fewer than 53), constituting the only club to win at least 50 every year during that span, and they won the second-most playoff games (46), trailing only the Chicago Bulls.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson received berths to the NBA All-Star Team in 1990, 1991, and 1994. In the 1991 All-Star Game in Charlotte, Johnson wore number 41 instead of his familiar number 7. NBC announcers Bob Costas and Mike Fratello speculated that the decision represented K.J.'s quiet way of honoring teammate Mark West, the Suns' stoic, largely unrecognized center who thanklessly executed the dirty work on the glass and in the paint.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In the 1991 NBA All-Star Game, Johnson started alongside Magic Johnson in the Western Conference backcourt. In anticipation of the game, the "Sporting News" asked whether K.J. may have surpassed Magic as the best player on the court. The previous spring in the 1990 Western Conference Semifinals, Johnson led the Suns past Magic's league-best, 63-win Los Angeles Lakers, four games to one. Over the last two games, Johnson closed out the series by averaging 33.5 points and a dozen assists as the Suns won both Game Four and Game Five, with K.J. vastly outplaying Magic Johnson in the fourth quarter of both contests. Indeed, Johnson's clutch performances led Hall of Fame center and NBC commentator Bill Walton to later remark, "Kevin Johnson ... really came to the top of this league in the 1990 playoffs when he waxed Magic Johnson and the Lakers in the early rounds. Kevin Johnson—and the Suns—taking care of business in 1990, four to one over the Lakers ... Kevin Johnson just totally outplaying Magic." Johnson's performance during the 1990 playoffs led the Suns to a second consecutive berth in the Western Conference Finals as Phoenix became the only team to ever defeat John Stockton's Jazz (55 wins) and Magic Johnson's Lakers (63 wins) in the same postseason.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson made the playoffs every year of his career after his rookie season, reversing the fortunes of the perennially losing Phoenix Suns. The 1992–93 Suns, led by Johnson and new teammate Charles Barkley, posted an NBA-best 62–20 record and managed to make it to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls four games to two. Johnson averaged 17.8 points and 7.9 assists in the playoffs and established an NBA record for Finals minutes played by logging 62 minutes in Game 3 (a 129–121 triple-OT victory) vs. the Bulls.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: But even before Johnson played his first regular season game with Charles Barkley, he suffered an undiagnosed sports hernia in October 1992 when he attempted to lift heavy-set rookie teammate Oliver Miller off the ground during warmups before a preseason game. By the middle of the 1995–96 season, Johnson had suffered a second undiagnosed sports hernia. Primarily due to the groin, hamstring, quadriceps, and other muscle strains stemming from these undiagnosed hernias, Johnson missed 109 regular season games during his four seasons with Barkley from 1992–93 through 1995–96 (although he only missed one playoff game during his entire career). When diligent off-season workouts during the summer of 1996 failed to erase the abdominal and groin pain that had been plaguing Johnson since the middle of the last season, the Suns' doctors finally diagnosed the second hernia just before the start of training camp in the fall of 1996. Then, during surgery to repair the sports hernia, the Phoenix doctors discovered the second, "hidden" hernia that had existed for four years.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In 1994, he averaged 26.6 points and 9.6 assists in the postseason, scoring 38 points three different times in ten games and averaging 11.0 assists in those three contests.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In 1995, after an injury-riddled regular season, Johnson returned to form in the postseason. He averaged 24.8 points on 57.3% shooting from the field and 9.3 assists in ten games, including 43 points (18–24 FG) with 9 assists, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and just 1 turnover in Game Four of the Western Conference Semifinals at Houston and 46 points (21–22 FT) with 10 assists against only 1 turnover in Game Seven. During that series, K.J. sank more three-pointers (5) than he'd hit in the entire 1994–95 regular season (4).


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In game four of the previous year's series with Houston, Johnson completed a remarkable play, driving the baseline and dunking over Rockets' center Hakeem Olajuwon. The shot became an oft-played highlight for the ages and was part of a second consecutive 38-point, 12-assist effort by the point guard.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In the summer of 1994, Johnson played with the U.S. national team, otherwise known as Dream Team II, in the 1994 FIBA World Championship, reuniting with old teammate and point guard rival Mark Price to win the gold medal. Johnson led Dream Team II in both total assists (31) and assists per game (3.9), while shooting 47.1% (16–34) from the field and 50.0% (16–32) on two-point field goal attempts. The U.S. head coach, Don Nelson, stated, "I really like having KJ on the court. The thing that stood out is how he sacrificed his scoring to be a distributor of the ball and make his team win. We didn't need his offense on this team. We did need his defense, penetration and assists. He gave us all three."


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson retired after the 1997–98 season, but returned briefly after receiving a call from his former coach and friend Cotton Fitzsimmons during the 1999–2000 season to replace the injured Jason Kidd during the playoff run. Johnson helped the Suns win their first playoff series in five years. After Phoenix lost in the second round to the Los Angeles Lakers, he retired for the second and final time.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: The Kevin Johnson Corporation includes operations of several subsidiary organizations specializing in real estate development and management, sports management, and business acquisition. A key component of The Kevin Johnson Corporation includes appearances and public speaking engagements for corporations, academic institutions, and community organizations.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In 1989, while still an NBA player, Johnson founded St. HOPE (Helping Others Pursue Excellence) as an after-school program for kids in his native Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento, California. St. HOPE eventually expanded to run as a nonprofit umbrella organization that consisted of three divisions: St. HOPE Academy, St. HOPE Public Schools, and St. HOPE Development Corporation. This encompassed the new vision to be a nonprofit community development corporation whose mission is to "revitalize communities through public education, civic leadership, economic development, and the arts." Johnson served as CEO of St. HOPE until January 2008.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: The St. HOPE Development Corporation, founded in 1994, has focused its efforts on Oak Park. The Development Corporation has enabled the renovation of a number of projects including a historic bank building that is now a local U.S. Bank branch, a Victorian house that has been converted to office space, and a 25,000 square foot art gallery and retail complex that includes the Guild Theater and 40 Acres Art Gallery.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: St. HOPE Public Schools is a pre-K-through-12th-grade independent charter school system that provides education to nearly 2,000 students in seven small schools. One of the schools St. HOPE impacted was Sacramento High School (colloquially known as Sac High and now the Sacramento Charter High School), where three generations of Johnson's family including him attended. In October 2002, Sac High was at risk of being shut down and restricted into five smaller schools due to low test scores. But by January 2003, Johnson had raised seed money from the Gates Foundation and drafted a petition to reopen Sac High as an independent charter school. On September 2, 2003 Sac High reopened as Sacramento Charter High School, a charter school with 1,450 students. Since St. HOPE's involvement with Sac High, student performance has improved. In 2010 Sac High's API score improved to 719, compared to 610 in 2006. The number of students who completed all courses required for University of California or California State University Admission also rose between those years from 84% to 90.6%.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: These improved test scores attracted the attention of a school in New York and St. HOPE eventually expanded into Harlem at the St. HOPE Leadership Academy Charter School which opened in 2008. Since 2007, the decision to expand St. HOPE to New York has been taught as a case study in the Entrepreneurship in Education Reform class at Harvard Business School. Following presentation of the case study, Johnson discusses it over lunch with the Harvard students and faculty. The class works as a feeder program for students to participate in the Mayoral Fellowship Program in Sacramento.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: On March 5, 2008, Johnson announced he would run for mayor of Sacramento, his hometown, challenging incumbent Heather Fargo. Election day was June 3, 2008. Since no candidate received a majority of the vote in the nonpartisan election, there was a runoff.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson garnered the endorsement of the Sacramento Police Officers Association (SPOA), the Region Builders, the Chamber of Commerce, Realtors' Association and Labor Council, among others. Johnson was also endorsed by Sacramento City Council members Steve Cohn (Vice Mayor) and Sandy Sheedy, and by former Sacramento Mayor Jimmie Yee.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: On June 4, 2008, Kevin Johnson, who led by 8 percentage points, forced a runoff election for mayor versus the two-term incumbent. 374 of 378 precincts were reported, and Johnson was ahead of Mayor Heather Fargo 47% to 40%. Five other candidates split the rest of the vote. The candidates needed more than 50% to win the election. Third place finisher Leonard Padilla endorsed Mayor Fargo on June 4, 2008. Johnson, by late May, loaned his campaign $500,000 and raised $490,000, while Fargo raised $340,000 despite having started fundraising in 2005.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Volunteer Sacramento was launched alongside Cities of Service, a bipartisan coalition of mayors founded in 2009 to encourage public service. As one of the founding cities, Sacramento logged 1.7 million hours of service and created $22 million in economic impact in 2009. In 2010, 3 million hours of service were logged, adding a $70 million economic impact in the region. For these efforts, Sacramento was awarded a City of Service Leadership Grant.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: For Arts' Sake was launched to increase interest and support of Sacramento's local art. In response to this commitment, Sacramento was chosen by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. as the first city in the nation to pilot the "Any Given Child" program. The program is designed to bring equal access to arts programming for children K-8. It currently operates in Sacramento City Unified School District and Twin Rivers Unified School District.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Sacramento Steps Forward is an initiative launched to end chronic homelessness in Sacramento. Johnson assumed leadership as Chair of the regional Policy Board to End Homelessness and joined the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness in 2009. By 2011, 2,350 households were moved into permanent housing and Sacramento was awarded approximately $6 million through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-housing Program.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson launched the STAND UP education initiative to increase student achievement in Sacramento schools with $6 million being raised to bring education reform and innovative programming to Sacramento.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In 2010, Johnson was the founding chair of the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Public Schools Task Force and the Co-Chair of U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan's Mayoral Advisory Council.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: The Greenwise initiative was launched to diversify economic development, go green, and promote Sacramento as the "Emerald Valley." Sacramento was selected by President Obama to participate in the Better Buildings Challenge which provides federal investment to achieve energy efficiency. Sacramento committed to reducing energy use 20% by 2020 in 12 million square feet of building space. The Greenwise initiative works to establish programs to achieve this commitment.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Think Big was launched to facilitate the economic development of Sacramento, including the construction of a new entertainment and sports complex. Think Big oversees progress at the downtown Railyards, an area that has been left unutilized since the 1980s and is currently one of the largest urban infill project in the country.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In 2011 Johnson launched another education initiative, Sacramento READS!, in response to the "literacy crisis in Sacramento." Beginning in 2011, Sacramento READS! was designed as a 10-year initiative to ensure all children in Sacramento can read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade by focusing on school readiness, attendance, and limiting summer learning loss.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: The City-Schools Collaborative was launched to better align city services with school districts to maximize resources to support public education.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: The Gang Prevention Task Force was launched to form a three-year city-county partnership to reduce gang violence through school-based and job-training programs. Johnson acquired over $17 million in federal and state stimulus dollars for law enforcement and community policing.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson announced he would run for reelection for Mayor of Sacramento on September 14, 2011. Election day was June 5, 2012. Johnson was challenged by three individuals: Jonathan Michael Rewers, Leonard Padilla, and Richard Jones. Since Johnson received a majority of the vote (more than 50% of the vote), no run-off was required. Johnson raised at least $841,394 in his reelection bid and spent $500,000 of that on the race.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson was endorsed by Sacramento City Council members Angelique Ashby (Vice Mayor), Steve Cohn, and Jay Schenirer. Johnson also received support from the Sacramento Police Officers Association, the Sacramento Area Firefighters Local 522, and the Sacramento Metro Chamber along with California Senate pro Tem President Darrell Steinberg, Governor Jerry Brown, and Senator Dianne Feinstein.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In June 2012 Johnson was elected the second vice president of the United States Conference of Mayors (USCM). He became the first Sacramento mayor to be elected to the second vice president position and became the first Sacramento mayor to serve as president, which he was set to assume in 2014. This was the second national leadership position Johnson assumed in 2012, as he was previously elected to the first vice president of the National Conference of Black Mayors, where he assumed the presidency in 2013. After becoming president of the National Conference of Black Mayors (NCBM), Johnson took steps that resulted in the dissolution of the organization.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson has served on the board of directors for the University of California Alumni Association, Phoenix Suns Charities, Christian Athlete Ministries, Phoenix Symphony, the School House Foundation, Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), and on the advisory board for the Caring Institute.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson has received numerous awards for his dedication and contributions to his community. In 1991, Former President George H. W. Bush honored Johnson with as the 411th Point of Light recipient in recognition of Johnson's concern and compassion for children and education. In addition to being selected as one of the "15 Greatest Men on Earth" by "McCall's", Johnson has received the NBA's J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, the John R. Wooden Lifetime Achievement Award 2008, the Good Morning America Award from "Sports Illustrated", the "Most Caring American" award by the Caring Institute, and induction into the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame in Boise, Idaho.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: A teenager told Phoenix police in 1996 that Johnson had allegedly molested her in his home during the summer of 1995, when she was sixteen years old. During a phone conversation secretly recorded by detectives, Johnson apologized to the girl after she confronted him with the accusation. However, he also stated that "what you're saying happened, I'm not entirely agreeing happened." "The Sacramento Bee" stated that they had received a copy of a proposed settlement agreement, under which Johnson would have paid the girl's family $230,000. After conducting an investigation, the Maricopa County Attorney's Office declined to prosecute, on the grounds that there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction. On October 8, 2015, press accounts surfaced of a 1996 police video which showed detectives saying there was a likely chance that he was abusing her and others.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: On April 16, 2008, rival mayoral candidate Leonard Padilla distributed a 2007 report of similar allegations made against Johnson at St. HOPE Sacramento High School; these accusations were investigated by local police, but no charges were filed. On April 29, 2008, a group of female civic leaders that included former Sacramento Mayor Anne Rudin, Sacramento Municipal Utility District board member Genevieve Shiroma, and former State Senator Deborah Ortiz demanded the release of the police report on the matter.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: The teacher to whom the student initially brought the complaint subsequently resigned over the incident, claiming, "St. HOPE sought to intimidate the student through an illegal interrogation and even had the audacity to ask me to change my story." Two classmates and a school counselor confirmed the teacher's version of events. Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel responded, saying, "I think the allegations at the school were handled in the way that you would want them handled. Immediately they followed all the normal protocols that they were supposed to follow. I think it was pretty clear there was nothing there... We did ask the young lady whether anyone had influenced her—her answer was no." The Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said on May 30, 2008, that Johnson's actions, though ill-advised, were not illegal.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: On April 9, 2009, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown announced that St. HOPE Academy had agreed to pay $423,836.50 over ten years in settlement of allegations that it did not appropriately spend AmeriCorps grants and education awards and did not adequately document spending of grants. The settlement amount represented one half of the $847,673 in AmeriCorps funds received by St. HOPE Academy over three years from 2004 to 2007. Johnson, St. HOPE Academy's founder and former CEO, agreed to pay $72,836.50 of St. HOPE Academy's $73,836.50 initial payment. In settlement, St. HOPE Academy acknowledged not adequately documenting a portion of its AmeriCorps grant expenditures, and the Corporation for National and Community Service terminated its September 24, 2008 suspension of St. HOPE Academy and Johnson from receiving federal funds, ending questions about Sacramento's eligibility to receive federal stimulus funds.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: In 2007, "The Sacramento Bee" investigated Johnson's real estate holdings in the Oak Park neighborhood of Sacramento and found that more than half the properties owned by Johnson and his entities had been cited for various code violations, including fire risk from overgrown vegetation, dead animals, junk and debris on the properties, as well as decaying and fire-damaged buildings. A local group, Oak Park United against Slumlords (OPUS), complained that Johnson was "stopping progress" in the neighborhood by refusing to develop some of its key properties.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson attended a charity event at Sacramento Charter High School on September 21, 2016, when a man approached him and hit him in the face with a pie. Johnson then allegedly assaulted his assailant, later alleging self-defense. The perpetrator, Sean Thompson, was arrested on a felony charge of assaulting a public official and misdemeanor charge of battery on school property.


title: Kevin Johnson (basketball)

text: Johnson married Michelle Rhee, the former Chancellor of the District of Columbia School System, on September 3, 2011, in front of 40 people at a Tennessee mountain resort. They had originally planned to get married the year before, but decided to postpone it in the wake of a large amount of media attention to their nuptials.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter, often referred to as Master Splinter or Sensei by his students/sons, is a fictional character from the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" comics and all related media. A mutant rat, he is the grave and stoic sage of the Turtles, their ninjutsu and martial arts instructor, as well as their adoptive father. In some incarnations—including the original comics—he was the pet rat of martial artist Hamato Yoshi (Japanese: 濱戸義), while in others he is a mutated or reincarnated Yoshi himself. The character was originally a parody of the Marvel Comics character Stick.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In both the original comics and the live-action movies, Splinter is the pet rat of a ninja named Hamato Yoshi in Japan. Intelligent for his species, Splinter is able to learn ninjutsu art by mimicking his master's movements while he practiced. Yoshi becomes embroiled in a dispute with a fellow ninja by the name of Oroku Nagi and is eventually murdered by Nagi's brother, Oroku Saki, who is seeking revenge for his brother's death. However, in the 1990 film and 2003 TV series Nagi is removed entirely. Additionally, in the 1990 film, Splinter escapes from his cage during the murder, and attacks Saki, clawing at his face. Saki, in turn, slices his ear off. It is suggested that this mutilation is the reason Saki took the Shredder disguise to hide the scars. In contrast, in the 2003 TMNT cartoon series, it was Hun's face which Splinter clawed.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Without a home, Splinter is forced to run away and live in New York City's sewers. Due to a traffic accident, four baby turtles and a canister of mutagenic ooze are sent down into the sewer. The canister mutates both Splinter and the turtles, in which it also enhanced the former's already sophisticated intellect. Splinter names the four turtles Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo (after a book on Renaissance artists that he found in a storm drain) and trains them in the arts of ninjutsu so that they can avenge his dead master while raising them as his own sons.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the 2003 TMNT cartoon, he possesses a significant reputation as a ninja master; in a multi-part episode, he is revealed to be a champion of the Battle Nexus, a multi-dimension-spanning contest where the greatest combatants of various dimensions come together to fight each other for the title of Battle Nexus Champion. When the Turtles learn of the Battle Nexus, they participate as well, resulting in Splinter forfeiting when called upon to fight Michelangelo, as he wishes to allow his sons the opportunity to fight where he succeeded in the past.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the episode, "Tempus Fugit", Splinter and the Turtles, who time-traveled into the future, were sent back to the present time, but the villain, Viral, blasts Splinter with a decompiler ray that scatters his bits all over the internet. While Splinter was not seen much in the "Back to the Sewers" season, the focus of those episodes is the Turtles' efforts to find Splinter's data bits by traveling all over cyberspace. Splinter is restored in the final episode and helps defeat the Cyber Shredder.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the 1987 "TMNT" cartoon, Splinter and Yoshi are the same person. He is a martial art instructor for the Foot Clan in Japan, and also has a passion for Renaissance art. Yoshi is framed by his rival, Oroku Saki, for trying to murder their common dojo master. Unable to prove his innocence and expelled from the Foot Clan, Splinter moves to New York City, where he lives as a hermit in its sewers and befriends the rats. One day, he comes across four baby turtles which were accidentally dropped by a boy through a sewer grate. Splinter keeps them as pets and treats them like his children. When he finds the turtles near some broken barrels that are oozing glowing pink, later retconned to green, chemical liquid, he tries to clean them with his bare hands. As a result, they are all affected by the leaking chemical, which is a mutagen. The mutagen combines the DNA of living beings who have been in contact. Thus, the turtles, being in a pet store with people touching them, turn into young humanoid turtles. Yoshi, having been in contact with sewer rats, becomes a humanoid rat. Although, Master Splinter did get the chance to be human again in the episode "Splinter No More", but realizes he prefers being with the turtles and had no place as a human anymore.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Yoshi raises the turtles by himself and gives them the names of his favorite Renaissance artists: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Yoshi is given the nickname "Splinter", due to his proficiency at breaking wooden boards, and he teaches them the art of ninjutsu in order to protect themselves. Like many real-life ninja masters, he has a strong sense of honor and follows very strict rules which all four of his students adopt. Master Splinter always has a wise quote or speech for the turtles and often steps in with his ninja skills when the turtles are caught in a, seemingly inescapable, predicament.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Master Splinter does not have a father/son relationship with the turtles, as suggested in other versions, but more of a teacher/student bond. Despite not having that father/son relationship with the turtles, Splinter, in the episode "The Old Switcheroo", shows a glimpse of fatherly concern for Leonardo when he is injured by one of Donatello's contraptions. In addition, in "Turtles Forever" the old 1987 series turtles are surprised when the 2003 series turtles call Splinter "father". However, in the movie, the 2003 series Leonardo comments that it feels right to be with the 1987 Splinter regardless of the differences between the two worlds. Splinter's assurances that he feels the same, coupled with his comment that Leonardo and his brothers will always be welcome there, helps Leonardo see the common similarities between the teams, regardless of their different styles and methods.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the final episode, "Divide and Conquer", Splinter explains to the turtles after they defeated Dregg that they are no longer his students but his equals and they have finally become ninja masters.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: The 1990 live action concert tour entitled "Coming Out of Their Shells", saw Splinter described as the rat owned by Hamato Yoshi mutated to a humanoid form, rather than Yoshi himself mutated into a ratlike body, bringing him more in line with the original Mirage Comics incarnation as well as that of the then recently released feature film, which also followed the Mirage origin. In the concert events, he is still the Turtles' mentor in the martial arts, as well as encouraging their musical pursuits, and sings the track "Skipping Stones" as a solo ballad. He encourages the Turtles as they deal with the Shredder's plot to steal all music in the world, though he does not physically join the battles against Shredder or his foot soldiers. Peter Renaday reprises his role as Splinter's voice in non-musical portions of the event, though the VHS tape of the inaugural show held at Radio City Music Hall leaves him uncredited.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Archie Comics published the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures" which began as an adaptation of the 1987 TV series in comic form, though the series eventually deviated from this and began telling its own stories with little to no connection to the original cartoon, effectively becoming a separate continuity. In the comic, they maintained Splinter's human background even when they started publishing original storylines.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the 2012 series, Splinter is again introduced as Hamato Yoshi, voiced by Hoon Lee. His relationship with Oroku Saki is mostly intact, with the Hamato and Foot Clans later revealed to have had a long-term conflict with each other. Despite being raised as brothers, both Yoshi and Saki become rivals due to their affection for Tang Shen, and Saki wishes to discredit Yoshi in front of her. Yoshi loses his temper and the altercation destroyed their friendship, culminating with Saki learning of his true heritage and starting a battle that burns down the Hamato Clan monastery, indirectly killing Shen and, seemingly, Shen and Yoshi's daughter, Miwa.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: After moving to New York City, Yoshi has just purchased four pet turtles when he stumbles upon an exchange in an alley between two Kraang droids. Seeking to silence Yoshi before he can share what he has seen, a fight ensues and the canister the droids have been carrying smashes open, splashing both Yoshi and his turtles with a mutagen. As the result of stepping on the tail of a black rat upon entering an alley, Yoshi mutates while the Turtles take on human characteristics. Realizing he can no longer live a normal life, he retreats to the New York sewers where he raises his pets as sons and teaches them ninjutsu.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter's sons, along with their new friend April O'Neil, soon become involved in the conflict with both of Splinter's old enemies, the Shredder and the Kraang. Reluctantly allowing the group to get involved, Splinter appoints Leonardo as their leader and continues to offer counsel and lessons as they engage various foes. Recognizing great sensitivity in April, he begins training her as a kunoichi and comes to regard her with a fatherly fondness. Splinter ventures from his lair on only two occasions. The first is when he falls under the control of the Rat King, who attempts to persuade him to forsake his humanity and embrace the life of a rat. Splinter eventually breaks free with the Turtles' help and defeats the Rat King. The second is when Shredder kidnaps April and lures Splinter to his stronghold for a final confrontation. Splinter overpowers Shredder's men and engages his old foe. Shredder reveals that Splinter's daughter, Miwa, had not died and that Shredder had taken her and raised her as his own. Splinter nearly defeats Shredder, only to be attacked by Miwa; Miwa, whose name is now Karai, has been taught, by Shredder, that Splinter is responsible for her mother's death.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: As the second season progresses, Splinter tells the turtles about his true relationship with Karai. He is able, eventually, to convince Karai of the truth about their past, but she subsequently mutates into a snake-like being when Shredder's plan for revenge backfires. Later, Earth is invaded by the Kraang and, in the ensuing battle, much of Splinter's lair is destroyed before Splinter is able to defeat Kraang Sub-Prime. Splinter then leaves the lair to find his missing sons. Splinter again engages Shredder in battle and, seemingly victorious, Splinter prepares to reunite with his sons, April, and Casey Jones, only to be attacked from behind by Shredder and thrown into a sewer drain. He is rescued from drowning by Karai and left in an area of the sewer to recover.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: At the end of the 3rd season, Splinter asks Shredder for a truce to stop the alien Triceratons. Shredder agrees but at the end of the battle, Shredder stabs Splinter in the back (literally). The turtles hold him one last time before they, Casey and April flee with Fugitoid, as he arrives at the very last moment in a spaceship as Earth is sucked into a black hole.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: When the turtles go through the time and fail to claim all the Black-Hole Generator pieces to help in the battle against the Triceratons and warn Splinter in time to stop Shredder from killing him. Splinter defeats Shredder, somewhat paralyzing him as Tiger Claw takes him away. When Shredder has himself infused with mutagen, he kidnaps Karai and demands her to come. Splinter fights Shredder along with the turtles, and the fight, leading up to rocky crevices and chasms below, Splinter and Shredder fall into a gaping chasm. Shredder's fall stops short as he lands on a rock outcrop as Splinter falls way down. He is still alive but his leg is broken. He sees the Rat King come toward him, seemingly surviving his fall down as well. Meanwhile, the turtles try to find him but Shredder goes after them. Splinter fights the Rat King but soon tumbles down and realizes that his fight with the Rat King was all a hallucination because of his fever he had developed in the chasm. He finds the skeletal remains of the Rat King and Donatello and Michelangelo find him, alive and well.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: He later attempts to use his healing mantras to help April recover from the influence of the crystal fragment of the mystical Sol Star, and receives a vision of the ancient Aeons themselves but is overpowered by the form of a demonic Aeon. As April becomes possessed by the cosmic entity from within the Sol Star fragment, he attempts to reach her but is contained by April's exceptionally strong telekinesis. Regaining consciousness in the ransacked lair, he warns Donatello to be very careful as that being was not April. When April awakens from her ordeal, he expresses how impressed he is at how April was able to literally destroy her demons. He is once again killed by Shredder during a battle when Super Shredder impales him with his mutated claws and throws him off a rooftop. Splinter is buried at the O'Neil farmhouse. His spirit still gives his sons advice.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: The IDW Comics series, which began in 2011, presents a new origin for both Splinter and the Turtles. All five were originally test subjects at Baxter Stockman's bioengineering firm, Stockgen Corporation. When agents of the Foot Clan break into Stockgen and attempt to steal an alien mutagen, Splinter and the Turtles escape but are exposed to the mutagen in the process. While the element of Splinter being Hamato Yoshi is still present, Oroku Saki is now the Foot Clan's medieval leader, with Splinter and the Turtles being the reincarnations of Yoshi and his sons.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the back-story, Hamato Yoshi was a member of the Foot Clan in feudal Japan. He is initially known for his unruly temper and lack of discipline. But with the help of his master, Masato, and his love, Tang Shen, he learned to control his temper and becomes a skilled warrior. His contemporary, Oroku Saki, seeks to make the Foot a clan to be feared. When Yoshi openly objects to the needless slaughter of a village connected to an assassination target, he and his family are declared traitors. Yoshi cannot save Tang Shen from being murdered but does save his sons. Yoshi raises and trains his sons for three years until Saki and the Foot find them. When his sons are executed before his eyes, Yoshi swears that he will destroy Oroku Saki before he, himself, falls under the blade.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: The live-action 2014 reboot uses the test subject origin story, but Splinter is neither a reincarnation of Hamato Yoshi nor is he associated with him in any way. In fact, Yoshi is written out of the script entirely and Splinter simply learns ninjutsu from a discarded book after being mutated. In the movie, Splinter tells April that he does not remember his life before being in a laboratory, implying that there may be more to Splinter's character.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In "Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", Splinter is once again Hamato Yoshi, a descendant of the Hamato clan; however, as a young child, he escapes the responsibility of his clan in order to pursue a career as a martial arts film star (taking inspiration from Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee) under the name "Lou Jitsu". He lives with his adopted sons in their sewer lair and can be seen spending his time reliving his glory days by rewatching his movies as an action hero before he had been unexpectedly mutated into a rat.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter shows a great aptitude in using anything as a potential weapon, as shown in his films' he fights with Fish and Ladders in the episode 'Evil League of Mutants'.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Afraid that his sons would be put in harm's way he is less diligent in training them in ninjutsu, until he learns that the Foot Clan have been assembling the Shredder's armour, and he takes a more active role in preparing them for the danger his irresponsibility has placed them in. Little do they know, that their idol Lou Jitsu that they have been playfully emulating for years is in fact their sensei, they learn to appreciate their father for more than he seemed.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: It is revealed that Splinter escaped his responsibility as a Hamato due to his mother being forced to leave him because of it when he was young, causing him to dislike his clan and their duty.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter's physical appearance remains fairly consistent in all incarnations of the character; he is portrayed as an elderly rat dressed in robes. The coloration of his fur varies depending on the incarnation. While brown fur is the most common depiction, he is sometimes depicted as having gray fur. In the original live-action movies, he is missing part of his right ear, which was cut off by Saki. In the 2012 series, Splinter is physically taller and younger than he was in past incarnations. He also has a more rat-like design along with distinctive body marks on his fur.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter is portrayed as wise, intelligent, and a skilled "elderly martial arts master". He is nearly always calm. Even when angry, he refrains from raising his voice. He is the quintessential calm, all-knowing, and wise master of all martial arts. Also, Splinter has strong willpower as he doesn't give up without a fight. Also, in the 1987 series, Splinter can control his brain waves through his willpower.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter cares for his adopted sons with fierce devotion, rescuing them in very critical moments in the series, such as when Shredder attempted to execute the four on a building, or when Bishop tried to literally tear them apart for science. He is furious when the Foot attempts to slay the Turtles with a robot Splinter and goes all the way to Japan after the four are kidnapped by the Tribunal. Splinter does go to the Turtles for help whenever he was in a tough spot, especially shown in the 1987 series episode "The Old Switcheroo" when an accident caused himself and Shredder to switch bodies as he went to them for help in getting back to his real body but had a hard time convincing them at first but they believed him when they heard his wise wisdom and that he didn't want to fight them as they worked together to set things right.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Despite his love for his sons, Splinter is fairly militant with them, especially when they are young and inexperienced. Splinter's main fear is that he and his family will one day be exposed to the outside world, as he is understandably protective. He disciplines the turtles when they become disobedient or unruly. His punishments include making them do back-flips repeatedly in the second live-action movie, or being sent to the Hashi, a form of punishment in the 2014 film by using chopsticks for balance. At times, Splinter does get physical with the Turtles whenever he gets mad with them or breaks up their siblings arguments, which led him to ground them, especially in 2012 series.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter is not completely cut off from the pleasures of modern culture. Splinter is often depicted to be a fan of soap operas. This is stated in a few different incarnations but is most displayed in the 2003 series sixth season, where that hobby is mentioned several times. It is also mentioned in both the 2007 animated film and the 2012 series that he very much enjoys dessert, particularly Ice pops.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: In the 2018 series, Splinter is displayed as somewhat irresponsible, spending most of his time eating and watching TV, although he occasionally shows the traits mentioned above.


title: Splinter (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

text: Splinter appears as a supporting character in most video games based on the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" franchise. In "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" on the Nintendo Entertainment System, he transforms back into a human if the player reaches the ending. Splinter is a playable character in the 2003 video game, "", "", "" and "".


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Trick-or-treating is a traditional Halloween custom for children and adults in some countries. During the evening of Halloween, on October 31, people in costumes travel from house to house, asking for treats with the phrase "trick or treat". The "treat" is some form of confectionery, usually candy/sweets, although in some cultures money is given instead. The "trick" refers to a threat, usually idle, to perform mischief on the resident(s) or their property if no treat is given. Some people signal that they are willing to hand out treats by putting up Halloween decorations outside their doors; houses may also leave their porch lights on as a universal indicator that they have candy; some simply leave treats available on their porches for the children to take freely, on the honor system.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: The history of trick-or-treating traces back to Scotland and Ireland, where the tradition of guising, going house to house at Halloween and putting on a small performance to be rewarded with food or treats, goes back at least as far as the 16th century, as does the tradition of people wearing costumes at Halloween. There are many accounts from 19th-century Scotland and Ireland of people going house to house in costume at Halloween, reciting verses in exchange for food, and sometimes warning of misfortune if they were not welcomed. In North America, the earliest known occurrence of guisingchildren going from house to house for food or money while disguised in costumeis from 1911, when children were recorded as having done this in the province of Ontario, Canada. The interjection "trick or treat!" was then first recorded in the same Canadian province of Ontario in 1917. While going house to house in costume has long been popular among the Scots and Irish, it is only in the 2000s that saying "trick or treat" has become common in Scotland and Ireland. Prior to this, children in Ireland would commonly say "help the Halloween party" at the doors of homeowners.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: The activity is prevalent in the Anglospheric countries of the United Kingdom, Ireland, the United States, Canada, and Australia. It also has extended into Mexico. In northwestern and central Mexico, the practice is called "calaverita" (Spanish diminutive for "calavera", "skull" in English), and instead of "trick or treat", the children ask, ""¿Me da mi calaverita?"" ("[Can you] give me my little skull?"), where a "calaverita" is a small skull made of sugar or chocolate.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Traditions similar to the modern custom of trick-or-treating extend all the way back to classical antiquity, although it is extremely unlikely that any of them are directly related to the modern custom. The ancient Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis records in his book "The Deipnosophists" that, in ancient times, the Greek island of Rhodes had a custom in which children would go from door-to-door dressed as swallows, singing a song, which demanded the owners of the house to give them food and threatened to cause mischief if the owners of the house refused. This tradition was claimed to have been started by the Rhodian lawgiver Cleobulus.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Since the Middle Ages, a tradition of mumming on a certain holiday has existed in parts of Britain and Ireland. It involved going door-to-door in costume, performing short scenes or parts of plays in exchange for food or drink. The custom of trick-or-treating on Halloween may come from the belief that supernatural beings, or the souls of the dead, roamed the earth at this time and needed to be appeased.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: It may otherwise have originated in a Celtic festival, "Samhain", held on 31 October–1 November, to mark the beginning of winter, in Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Man, and "Calan Gaeaf" in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany. The festival is believed to have pre-Christian roots. In the 9th century, the Catholic Church made 1 November All Saints' Day. Among Celtic-speaking peoples, it was seen as a liminal time, when the spirits or fairies (the "Aos Sí"), and the souls of the dead, came into our world and were appeased with offerings of food and drink. Similar beliefs and customs were found in other parts of Europe. It is suggested that trick-or-treating evolved from a tradition whereby people impersonated the spirits, or the souls of the dead, and received offerings on their behalf. S. V. Peddle suggests they "personify the old spirits of the winter, who demanded reward in exchange for good fortune". Impersonating these spirits or souls was also believed to protect oneself from them.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Starting as far back as the 15th century, among Christians, there had been a custom of sharing soul-cakes at Allhallowtide (October 31 through November 2). People would visit houses and take soul-cakes, either as representatives of the dead, or in return for praying for their souls. Later, people went "from parish to parish at Halloween, begging soul-cakes by singing under the windows some such verse as this: 'Soul, souls, for a soul-cake; Pray you good mistress, a soul-cake!'" They typically asked for "mercy on all Christian souls for a soul-cake". It was known as 'Souling' and was recorded in parts of Britain, Flanders, southern Germany, and Austria. Shakespeare mentions the practice in his comedy "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" (1593), when Speed accuses his master of "puling [whimpering or whining] like a beggar at Hallowmas". In western England, mostly in the counties bordering Wales, souling was common. According to one 19th century English writer "parties of children, dressed up in fantastic costume […] went round to the farm houses and cottages, singing a song, and begging for cakes (spoken of as "soal-cakes"), apples, money, or anything that the goodwives would give them".


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In Scotland and Ireland, "guising" – children going from door to door in disguise – is traditional, and a gift in the form of food, coins or "apples or nuts for the Halloween party" (and in more recent times, chocolate) is given out to the children. The tradition is called "guising" because of the disguises or costumes worn by the children. In the West Mid Scots dialect, guising is known as "galoshans". In Scotland, youths went house to house in white with masked, painted or blackened faces, reciting rhymes and often threatening to do mischief if they were not welcomed. While guising has been recorded in Scotland in the 16th century, a more contemporary record of guising at Halloween in Scotland is in 1895, where masqueraders in disguise carrying lanterns made out of scooped out turnips, visit homes to be rewarded with cakes, fruit, and money. In Ireland, children in costumes would commonly say "Help the Halloween Party" at the doors of homeowners.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Halloween masks are referred to as "false faces" in Ireland and Scotland. A writer using Scots language recorded guisers in Ayr, Scotland in 1890: Guising also involved going to wealthy homes, and in the 1920s, boys went guising at Halloween up to the affluent Thorntonhall, South Lanarkshire. An account of guising in the 1950s in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, records a child receiving 12 shillings and sixpence, having knocked on doors throughout the neighbourhood and performed. Growing up in Derry, Northern Ireland in the 1960s, "The Guardian" journalist Michael Bradley recalls children asking, “Any nuts or apples?”. In Scotland and Ireland, the children are only supposed to receive treats if they perform a party trick for the households they go to. This normally takes the form of singing a song or reciting a joke or a funny poem which the child has memorised before setting out. While going from door to door in disguise has remained popular among Scots and Irish at Halloween, the North American saying "trick-or-treat" has become common in the 2000s.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: The earliest known occurrence of the practice of guising at Halloween in North America is from 1911, when a newspaper in Kingston, Ontario, Canada reported on children going "guising" around the neighborhood.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: American historian and author Ruth Edna Kelley of Massachusetts wrote the first book length history of the holiday in the US; "The Book of Hallowe'en" (1919), and references souling in the chapter "Hallowe'en in America"; "The taste in Hallowe'en festivities now is to study old traditions, and hold a Scotch party, using Burn's poem "Hallowe'en" as a guide; or to go a-souling as the English used. In short, no custom that was once honored at Hallowe'en is out of fashion now." Kelley lived in Lynn, Massachusetts, a town with 4,500 Irish immigrants, 1,900 English immigrants, and 700 Scottish immigrants in 1920. In her book, Kelley touches on customs that arrived from across the Atlantic; "Americans have fostered them, and are making this an occasion something like what it must have been in its best days overseas. All Hallowe'en customs in the United States are borrowed directly or adapted from those of other countries".


title: Trick-or-treating

text: While the first reference to "guising" in North America occurs in 1911, another reference to ritual begging on Halloween appears, place unknown, in 1915, with a third reference in Chicago in 1920.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: The interjection "Trick or treat!" — a request for sweets or candy, originally and sometimes still with the implication that anyone who is asked and who does not provide sweets or other treats will be subjected to a prank or practical joke — seems to have arisen in central Canada, before spreading into the northern and western United States in the 1930s and across the rest of the United States through the 1940s and early 1950s. Initially it was often found in variant forms, such as "tricks or treats," which was used in the earliest known case, a 1917 report in "The Sault Daily Star" in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario: Almost everywhere you went last night, particularly in the early part of the evening, you would meet gangs of youngsters out to celebrate. Some of them would have adopted various forms of "camouflage" such as masks, or would appear in long trousers and big hats or with long skirts. But others again didn't. . . . "Tricks or treats" you could hear the gangs call out, and if the householder passed out the "coin" for the "treats" his establishment would be immune from attack until another gang came along that knew not of or had no part in the agreement.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: As shown by word sleuth Barry Popik, who also found the first use from 1917, variant forms continued, with "trick or a treat" found in Chatsworth, Ontario in 1921, "treat up or tricks" and "treat or tricks" found in Edmonton, Alberta in 1922, and "treat or trick" in Penhold, Alberta in 1924. The now canonical form of "trick or treat" was first seen in 1917 in Chatsworth, only one day after the Sault Ste. Marie use, but "tricks or treats" was still in use in the 1966 television special, "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown".


title: Trick-or-treating

text: The thousands of Halloween postcards produced between the start of the 20th century and the 1920s commonly show children but do not depict trick-or-treating. The editor of a collection of over 3,000 vintage Halloween postcards writes, "There are cards which mention the custom [of trick-or-treating] or show children in costumes at the doors, but as far as we can tell they were printed later than the 1920s and more than likely even the 1930s. Tricksters of various sorts are shown on the early postcards, but not the means of appeasing them".


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Trick-or-treating does not seem to have become a widespread practice until the 1930s, with the first U.S. appearance of the term in 1932, and the first use in a national publication occurring in 1939.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Behavior similar to trick-or-treating was more commonly associated with Thanksgiving from 1870 (shortly after that holiday's formalization) until the 1930s. In New York City, a Thanksgiving ritual known as Ragamuffin Day involved children dressing up as beggars and asking for treats, which later evolved into dressing up in more diverse costumes. Increasing hostility toward the practice in the 1930s eventually led to the begging aspects being dropped, and by the 1950s, the tradition as a whole had ceased.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Almost all pre-1940 uses of the term "trick-or-treat" are from the United States and Canada. Trick-or-treating spread throughout the United States, stalled only by World War II sugar rationing that began in April, 1942 and lasted until June, 1947.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Early national attention to trick-or-treating was given in October, 1947 issues of the children's magazines "Jack and Jill" and "Children's Activities", and by Halloween episodes of the network radio programs "The Baby Snooks Show" in 1946 and "The Jack Benny Show" and "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in 1948. Trick-or-treating was depicted in the "Peanuts" comic strip in 1951. The custom had become firmly established in popular culture by 1952, when Walt Disney portrayed it in the cartoon "Trick or Treat", and Ozzie and Harriet were besieged by trick-or-treaters on an episode of their television show. In 1953 UNICEF first conducted a national campaign for children to raise funds for the charity while trick-or-treating.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Although some popular histories of Halloween have characterized trick-or-treating as an adult invention to re-channel Halloween activities away from Mischief Night vandalism, there are very few records supporting this. Des Moines, Iowa is the only area known to have a record of trick-or-treating being used to deter crime. Elsewhere, adults, as reported in newspapers from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s, typically saw it as a form of extortion, with reactions ranging from bemused indulgence to anger. Likewise, as portrayed on radio shows, children would have to explain what trick-or-treating was to puzzled adults, and not the other way around. Sometimes even the children protested: for Halloween 1948, members of the Madison Square Boys Club in New York City carried a parade banner that read "American Boys Don't Beg." The National Confectioners Association reported in 2005 that 80 percent of adults in the United States planned to give out confectionery to trick-or-treaters, and that 93 percent of children, teenagers, and young adults planned to go trick-or-treating or participating in other Halloween activities.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Despite the concept of trick-or-treating originating in Britain and Ireland in the form of souling and guising, the use of the term "trick or treat" at the doors of homeowners was not common until the 1980s, with its popularisation in part through the release of the film "E.T." Guising requires those going door-to-door to perform a song or poem without any jocular threat, and according to one BBC journalist, in the 1980s, "trick or treat" was still often viewed as an exotic and not particularly welcome import, with the BBC referring to it as "the Japanese knotweed of festivals" and "making demands with menaces". In Ireland before the phrase "trick or treat" became common in the 2000s, children would say "Help the Halloween Party". Very often, the phrase "trick or treat" is simply said and the revellers are given sweets, with the choice of a trick or a treat having been discarded.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Trick-or-treating typically begins at dusk on October 31. Some municipalities choose other dates. Homeowners wishing to participate sometimes decorate their homes with artificial spider webs, plastic skeletons and jack-o-lanterns. Conversely, those who do not wish to participate may turn off outside lights for the evening or lock relevant gates and fences to keep people from coming onto their property.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In most areas where trick-or-treating is practiced, it is considered an activity for children. Some jurisdictions in the United States forbid the activity for anyone over the age of 12. Dressing up is common at all ages; adults will often dress up to accompany their children, and young adults may dress up to go out and ask for gifts for a charity.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Children of the St. Louis, Missouri, area are expected to perform a joke, usually a simple Halloween-themed pun or riddle, before receiving any candy; this "trick" earns the "treat". Children in Des Moines, Iowa also tell jokes or otherwise perform before receiving their treat.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In some parts of Canada, children sometimes say "Halloween apples" instead of "trick or treat". This probably originated when the toffee apple was a popular type of candy. Apple-giving in much of Canada, however, has been taboo since the 1960s when stories (of almost certainly questionable authenticity) appeared of razors hidden inside Halloween apples; parents began to check over their children's fruit for safety before allowing them to eat it. In Quebec, children also go door to door on Halloween. However, in French-speaking neighbourhoods, instead of "Trick or treat", they will simply say "Halloween", though it traditionally used to be ""La charité, s'il-vous-plaît"" ("Charity, please").


title: Trick-or-treating

text: Some organizations around the United States and Canada sponsor a "trunk-or-treat" on Halloween night (or, on occasion, a day immediately preceding Halloween, or a few days from it, on a weekend, depending on what is convenient). Trunk-or-treating is done from parked car to parked car in a local parking lot, often at a school or church. The activity makes use of the open trunks of the cars, which display candy, and often games and decorations. Some parents regard trunk-or-treating as a safer alternative to trick-or-treating, while other parents see it as an easier alternative to walking the neighborhood with their children.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: This annual event began in the mid-1990s as a "fall festival" for an alternative to trick-or-treating, but became "trunk-or-treat" two decades later. Some have called for more city or community group-sponsored trunk-or-treats, so they can be more inclusive. By 2006 these had become increasingly popular.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In Portugal, children go from house to house in All Saints Day and All Souls Day, carrying pumpkin carved lanterns called coca, asking everyone they see for Pão-por-Deus singing rhymes where they remind people why they are begging, saying "...It is for me and for you, and to give to the deceased who are dead and buried" or "It is to share with your deceased" In the Azores the bread given to the children takes the shape of the top of a skull. The tradition of pão-por-Deus was already recorded in the 15th century.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In Sweden, children dress up as witches and monsters when they go trick-or-treating on Maundy Thursday (the Thursday before Easter) while Danish children dress up in various attires and go trick-or-treating on Fastelavn (or the next day, Shrove Monday). In Norway, the practice is quite common among children, who come dressed up to people's doors asking for, mainly, candy. The Easter witch tradition is done on Palm Sunday in Finland (virvonta).


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In parts of Flanders, some parts of the Netherlands, and most areas of Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, children go to houses with home-made beet lanterns or with paper lanterns (which can hold a candle or electronic light), singing songs about St. Martin on St. Martin's Day (the 11th of November), in return for treats. The equivalent of "trick-or-treat" in German language is "Süßes oder Saures", asking for sweeties or threatening something less pleasant.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In Northern Germany and Southern Denmark, children dress up in costumes and go trick-or-treating on New Year's Eve in a tradition called "".


title: Trick-or-treating

text: UNICEF started a program in 1950 called Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF in which trick-or-treaters ask people to give money for the organization, usually instead of collecting candy. Participating trick-or-treaters say when they knock at doors "Trick-or-treat for UNICEF!" This program started as an alternative to candy. The organization has long produced disposable collection boxes that state on the back what the money can be used for in developing countries.


title: Trick-or-treating

text: In Canada, students from the local high schools, colleges, and universities dress up to collect food donations for the local Food Banks as a form of trick-or-treating. This is sometimes called "Trick-or-Eat".


title: Hampden Park

text: Hampden Park (Scottish Gaelic: Pàirc Hampden), often referred to as Hampden, is a football stadium in the Mount Florida area of Glasgow, Scotland. The -capacity venue serves as the national stadium of football in Scotland. It is the normal home venue of the Scotland national football team and was the home of club side Queen's Park for over a century. Hampden regularly hosts the latter stages of the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup competitions and has also been used for music concerts and other sporting events, such as when it was reconfigured as an athletics stadium for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.


title: Hampden Park

text: There were two 19th-century stadia called Hampden Park, built on different sites. A stadium on the present site was first opened on 31 October 1903. Hampden was the biggest stadium in the world when it was opened, with a capacity in excess of 100,000. This was increased further between 1927 and 1937, reaching a peak of 150,000. The record attendance of 149,415, for a Scotland v England match in 1937, is the European record for an international football match. Tighter safety regulations meant that the capacity was reduced to 81,000 in 1977. The stadium has been fully renovated since then, with the most recent work being completed in 1999.


title: Hampden Park

text: The stadium houses the offices of the Scottish Football Association (SFA) and Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL). Hampden has hosted prestigious sporting events, including three European Cup / Champions League finals, two Cup Winners' Cup finals and a UEFA Cup final. Hampden is a UEFA category four stadium and it is served by the nearby Mount Florida and King's Park railway stations.


title: Hampden Park

text: Queen's Park, the oldest club in Scottish football, have played at a venue called Hampden Park since October 1873. The first Hampden Park was overlooked by a nearby terrace named after Englishman John Hampden, who fought for the roundheads in the English Civil War. Queen's Park played at the first Hampden Park for 10 years beginning with a Scottish Cup tie on 25 October 1873. The ground hosted the first Scottish Cup Final, in 1874, and a Scotland v England match in 1878.


title: Hampden Park

text: The club moved to the second Hampden Park, 150 yards from the original, because the Cathcart District Railway planned a new line through the site of the ground's western terrace. A lawn bowling club at the junction of Queen's Drive and Cathcart Road marks the site of the first Hampden. The second Hampden Park opened in October 1884. It became a regular home to the Scottish Cup Final, but Celtic Park shared some of the big matches including the Scotland v England fixture in 1894.


title: Hampden Park

text: In the late 1890s, Queen's Park requested more land for development of the second Hampden Park. This was refused by the landlords, which led to the club seeking a new site. Henry Erskine Gordon agreed to sell 12 acres of land off Somerville Drive to Queen's Park in November 1899. James Miller designed twin grandstands along the south side of the ground with a pavilion wedged in between. The natural slopes were shaped to form banks of terracing, designed by Archibald Leitch. Construction of the new ground took over three years to complete; during the process, a disaster occurred at Ibrox in which part of the wooden terraces collapsed. In response, the terraces at Hampden were firmly set in the earthwork and innovative techniques were used to control spectators.


title: Hampden Park

text: Third Lanark A.C. took over the second Hampden Park in 1903 and renamed it Cathkin Park after their previous ground of the same name. The club rebuilt the ground from scratch due to a failure to agree a fee for the whole stadium which resulted in Queen's Park removing the pavilion and other fittings (which they owned, while the ground itself was leased). During the first season following the move (1903–04, in which they finished as champions), Third Lanark played several of their home matches at the new Hampden while work was carried out on Cathkin Park. Third Lanark went out of business in 1967 and Cathkin Park is now a public park with much of the original terracing still evident.


title: Hampden Park

text: In the stadium's first match on 31 October 1903 Queen's Park defeated Celtic 1–0 in the Scottish Football League, having played eight of their first nine league matches away from home and the other at the old Cathkin Park awaiting its opening. The first Scottish Cup Final played at the ground was an Old Firm match in 1904, attracting a record Scottish crowd of 64,672. The first Scotland v England match at the ground was played in April 1906 with 102,741 people in attendance, which established Hampden as the primary home of the Scotland team. Hampden Park was the biggest stadium in the world from the time of its opening until it was surpassed by the Maracanã in 1950. Along with Celtic Park and Ibrox, the city of Glasgow possessed the three largest football stadia in the world at the time Hampden opened.


title: Hampden Park

text: Attendances continued to increase during the remainder of the 1900s, as 121,452 saw the 1908 Scotland v England match. The two Old Firm matches played for the 1909 Scottish Cup Final attracted a total of 131,000. After the second match there was a riot because there was confusion over what would happen next when the second match also ended in a draw. The fans believed that the replay would be played to a conclusion and demanded that a period of extra time be played. The Scottish Cup trophy was withheld as Hampden was not in a fit condition to host a second replay. In response to the riot, the Scottish Football Association decided to stop using Hampden as the Scottish Cup Final venue.


title: Hampden Park

text: Queen's Park conducted extensive ground improvements after the 1909 riot. A new world record of 127,307 were in attendance to see Scotland play England in 1912. A fire in 1914 destroyed the pavilion, which was replaced by a four-storey structure with a press box on the roof. The Scottish Cup Final returned to Hampden in 1920, when a large crowd of 95,000 saw Kilmarnock win the cup against Albion Rovers. Record crowds attended the 1925 Scottish Cup Final, a 5–0 win for Celtic against Rangers, and the 1927 Scotland v England match, England's first win in the stadium. Hampden became the "de facto" sole venue of the Scottish Cup Final after 1925 and Queen's Park purchased more land in 1923 to bring the total to 33 acres. 25,000 places were added to the terraces and rigid crush barriers were installed in 1927.


title: Hampden Park

text: World record crowds attended Scotland matches against England in 1931 and 1933. In 1933, Austria, who had beaten Scotland 5–0 in Vienna in 1931, became the first foreign national side to visit Hampden Park. After intervention from the Glasgow Corporation in 1935 regarding public order and safety of the huge, ever-increasing crowds attending matches in the city, Queen's Park and Hampden defeated a rival bid from Rangers and Ibrox – which itself already had a capacity well over 100,000 – to enlarge the ground at the expense of the club, in exchange for becoming the official venue for the Scotland v England fixture and the Cup Final (and collect a designated portion of gate receipts from these matches), while the city would provide improvements in transport provision and other infrastructure to support the regular influx of spectators to the venue. This work increased the official theoretical capacity of the ground to 183,388 in 1937, but the SFA were only allowed to issue 150,000 tickets for games. The 1937 Scotland v England match had an official attendance of 149,415, but at least 20,000 more people entered the ground without tickets. A week later the 1937 Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Aberdeen drew an official crowd of 147,365, with 20,000 more people locked outside; this stood as a world record for a club match until 1963. The 1938 and 1939 cup finals were contested by provincial sides and did not test the new capacity, but the England match of 1939 attracted 149,269.


title: Hampden Park

text: During the Second World War, matches at heavily attended grounds were initially prohibited due to the fear of aerial bombing by the Luftwaffe. Scottish national league and cup competitions were suspended for the duration of the war, but regional league and cup competitions were established in their place. Attendance was initially restricted to 50 percent of capacity; therefore, when 75,000 attended a wartime cup final in May 1940, it was the maximum permitted. The Parashots, a forerunner of the Home Guard, set up a command post at Lesser Hampden in 1940. A government official presented an order demanding that both the Hampden and Lesser Hampden pitches be ploughed and used to plant vegetables, but the Queen's Park committee chose to ignore the order and the government did not pursue it. Wartime internationals were played at Hampden, and 91,000 saw Scotland beat England 5–4 on 18 April 1942.


title: Hampden Park

text: After the Second World War ended in 1945, Hampden started to host Scotland matches more frequently. Before then, Hampden had only hosted 15 matches against England and one match each against Austria and Czechoslovakia. During the post-war attendance boom, Hampden was the only stadium big enough to host the crowds who wanted to see the team. Matches that would have ordinarily attracted a crowd of 40,000 were being attended by nearly 100,000. A fire on 25 December 1945 destroyed the stadium press box and damaged offices. The press box was replaced with a plainer two-storey structure that overhung the pitch. The Hampden fixture list was also expanded by the new Scottish League Cup competition. In 1947, Rangers defeated Aberdeen in the first League Cup Final, a year after a 135,000 crowd watched the last edition of its wartime predecessor, the Southern League Cup, played between the same teams. The capacity of the ground was officially cut to 135,000 following the Burnden Park disaster in Bolton in March 1946, but before that reduction was confirmed, 139,468 watched the Scotland v England Victory International on 13 April of that year.


title: Hampden Park

text: The re-entry of the Home Nations into FIFA in 1947 was marked by a match between a Great Britain and a Rest of Europe select on 10 May 1947. Great Britain won 6–1 and 130,000 people attended. Unusually, a league match between Third Lanark and Hibernian was played immediately afterwards at Hampden because Cathkin Park was undergoing repair work. The first FIFA World Cup qualification match played at Hampden was a 2–0 win for Scotland against Wales on 9 November 1949; this match was also part of the 1950 British Home Championship. The win appeared to guarantee Scotland qualification for the 1950 FIFA World Cup because the top two finishers in the Championship were offered places in the tournament, but the SFA decreed that they would only send a team if they were British champions. Scotland only needed a draw against England at Hampden to meet that condition but lost 1–0.


title: Hampden Park

text: The Coronation Cup, a competition to mark the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, was held in Glasgow during May 1953. Four major clubs from each of Scotland and England were invited, with the Old Firm clubs playing their matches at Hampden. Celtic and Hibernian progressed to the final, and a crowd of 117,060 saw Celtic win 2–0.


title: Hampden Park

text: Scotland hosted the Magical Magyars of Hungary in December 1954 in front of 113,506 fans. The Scots put up a good fight against one of the most outstanding teams in the world at the time, but eventually lost 4–2. Scotland qualified for the 1958 FIFA World Cup by defeating Spain, including Luis Suarez, Ladislao Kubala and Alfredo Di Stéfano, at Hampden.


title: Hampden Park

text: Hampden hosted the 1960 European Cup Final; Real Madrid defeated Eintracht Frankfurt 7–3 with 130,000 people in attendance. Floodlights were installed at Hampden in 1961 and were inaugurated with a friendly match between Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers. The ground then also hosted the 1962 and 1966 finals of the European Cup Winners' Cup. The attendances for each of these finals was less than 50,000, and the SFA did not offer to host another European final until the 1976 European Cup Final, in which Bayern Munich defeated St Etienne. St Etienne believed that two of their efforts which hit the square crossbar and rebounded into play would have resulted in goals if it had been round, and the French club subsequently bought the goalposts and displayed them in their museum.