Jacksonville University
Encyclopedia : J : JA : JAC : Jacksonville University
Jacksonville University (JU) is a private university located in Jacksonville, Florida, on the shore of the St. Johns River. JU was founded in 1934 as William J. Porter University (actually a two-year college). The school changed its name to Jacksonville Junior College in 1935. The college became Jacksonville University in 1956 after having moved to its current location six years earlier.
JU's colors are forest green and white, with black and gray as tertiary colors. JU's school mascot is the Dolphins. The school is believed to be the first sports team to chose Dolphins as a mascot.
Academics
Jacksonville University is known for its aeronautics program. Unique to such a university program, JU has joined forces with Delta Connection Academy, owned and operated by Delta Air Lines, to provide high quality flight training to its aviation students. A leader in the regional airline industry, Delta Connection Academy has hiring agreements with the largest regional airlines including Atlantic Southeast Airlines, American Eagle Airlines, Chautauqua Airlines, Comair Airlines, and Trans States Airlines.In addition, the Jacksonville University Flight Team competes in National Intercollegiate Flying Association Regional and National Safety and Flight Evaluation Conference (SAFECON) against other universities. JU Flight Team has qualified from Regional competitions to earn spots in the National competitions for the past four years, but has not done well in National competitions. The best team performance came in 2004, as it was the only time that JU Flight Team finished 2nd in Regional Competition, ahead of Florida Institute of Technology. The best individual performances came from Tim Merenda, who ranked 1st as collegiate flight instructor in 2003 National SAFECON, as well as Lok Lee, who was named Region IX Top Pilot in 2005 Regional SAFECON and subsequently ranked 2nd as collegiate flight instructor in 2006 National SAFECON.
Jacksonville University also has a renowned nursing program, dance program, marine science program, as well as the second-largest NROTC program in the nation.
Athletics
JU sports teams participate in NCAA Division I (I-AA for football) in the Atlantic Sun Conference, except for football, in which they compete in the Pioneer Football League (the Atlantic Sun Conference does not sponsor football).JU has been noted for its basketball program, which has produced professional stars such as Artis Gilmore, Otis Smith and Dee Brown. In 1970, JU became the smallest school (by enrollment) to ever make it to the Final Four. After defeating St. Boneventure in the national semi-finals, the team that starred Gilmore, Pembroke Burroughs and Rex Morgan, lost to Sidney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, and UCLA in the National Championship Game. The following year, JU became the first school to average 100 points per game but could not repeat their miracle run in the tournament.
In 2006, however, JU finished the season with 24 consecutive losses, the nation's longest losing streak at the time.
Greek Life
The school's Greek system, consisting by some estimates of 30% of the school, includes the Sigma Chi, Sigma Phi Epsilon, Lambda Chi Alpha, Phi Delta Theta, FIJI, Sigma Nu, Alpha Phi Alpha and Kappa Alpha Psi fraternities and the Delta Delta Delta, Alpha Epsilon Phi, Alpha Delta Pi, Gamma Phi Beta Alpha Kappa Alpha and Gamma Eta sororities.Notable Alumni
- Tom McMillan - former Major League Baseball shortstop and member of the inaugural 1977 Seattle Mariners team.
External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.