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Marquette University, located at the western edge of downtown Milwaukee, was founded by the Society of Jesus in 1881 by John Martin Henni, the first Catholic bishop of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Marquette College was named after 17th-century missionary and explorer Father Jacques Marquette. Marquette is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university. It currently has a student body of 11,500, making Marquette one of the largest Jesuit universities in the United States, and the largest private university in the state of Wisconsin.
The 80 acre Marquette University campus includes 11 renowned schools and colleges, including award winning schools of business, nursing, engineering and law. Marquette also has a long and storied history of very successful athletics programs, but the school is best known for the success of its men's basketball team.
Marquette Basketball is 9th all-time in the NCAA for postseason appearances with 40, including 25 NCAA Tournament appearances (17th all time). The Marquette Warriors, as they were called until July of 1994 when the nickname was changed to the Golden Eagles, won the 1977 NCAA Tournament. They also won the NIT Championship in 1970 and made a Final Four appearance in 1974 during their heyday.
It’s difficult to mention Marquette Basketball without bringing up the name of its most famous coach, Al McGuire. McGuire coached the Marquette University men's basketball team from 1964 to 1977. During his tenure he compiled very impressive numbers, resulting in his induction to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1992.
McGuire’s childhood was one of poverty as the son of an Irish immigrant saloonkeeper in New York City. He played three years of basketball at St. John's Prep in Queens and went on to star at St. John's University (1947-1951) where he played for four years and captained the 1951 team that went 26-5 and finished third in the NIT. He became head coach at Marquette University in 1964 after coaching stints at Dartmouth and Belmont Abbey.
In 1977, McGuire’s final season as a head coach, he led the Marquette Warriors to the university's only NCAA basketball championship. McGuire's Marquette team, led by Butch Lee and Jerome Whitehead, defeated Dean Smith's North Carolina Tar Heels for the title. McGuire died after a long bout with leukemia in 2001 at the age of 72, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Coached by former Michigan State assistant Tom Crean and led by future NBA All Star Dwyane Wade, in 2003 Marquette defeated top-ranked Kentucky to reach the NCAA Final Four. Wade played a historic game, becoming one of only four players in NCAA Men's Tournament history to record a triple-double. Wade was named an AP All-American two years in a row and won Conference USA Player of the Year while at Marquette. Since Wade left Marquette, the University responded to an increase in applications by becoming more academically selective while maintaining undergraduate enrollment of around 8,000.
On February 3, 2007, over three years after his final game at Marquette, Wade's number 3 was retired at halftime of their game against Providence. Other notable jerseys Marquette has retired include Glenn "Doc" Rivers (31), Maurice "Bo" Ellis (31), George Thompson (24) and Butch Lee (15). Marquette has also retired the number 77 in honor of Al McGuire’s 1977 Championship title, and number 11 in honor of the Apollo 11 crew.
A large portion of Marquette's students come from the Midwestern United States. These students generally come from urban areas surrounding Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis, Detroit, and St. Louis. The student body is roughly 85% Caucasian and 55% female, and most students are of a Catholic religious background. Marquette boasts a significantly high retention rate, with about 90% of students returning for their sophomore year.
Marquette boasts a large number of famous alumni, including Felix Perez Camacho, current governor of Guam, current commentator for ESPN and former head basketball coach Rick Majerus and actor and comedian Chris Farley. The Marquette campus was featured in Farley’s 1995 hit motion picture Tommy Boy, in which Farley wore his own Marquette Rugby jacket during a scene filmed on location at the University.
Marquette University
915 W Wisconsin Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53233
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