Boston sports

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A Boston Red Sox baseball game at Fenway Park

Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major league sports teams, including the Boston Red Sox (baseball), Boston Celtics (basketball), and Boston Bruins (hockey). The New England Patriots (football) and New England Revolution (soccer) play at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro.

The city is home to two renown sporting events: the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta. Several Boston-area colleges and universities are active in college athletics.

Club	League	Sport	Venue	Established	Championships
Boston Red Sox	MLB	Baseball	Fenway Park	1901	6 World Series
New England Patriots	NFL	Football	Gillette Stadium	1960	3 Super Bowls
Boston Celtics	NBA	Basketball	TD Banknorth Garden	1946	16 NBA Titles
Boston Bruins	NHL	Hockey	TD Banknorth Garden	1924	5 Stanley Cups
New England Revolution	MLS	Soccer	Gillette Stadium	1995	0 MLS Cups
Boston Cannons	MLL	Lacrosse	Nickerson Field	2001	0 MLL Championships

1 Baseball
2 Basketball
3 Hockey
4 Football
5 Other sports teams
6 Collegiate sports
7 Notable sports figures from Boston
8 See also
9 References

[edit] Baseball

Boston can lay claim to being the city to have sponsored a professional sports league franchise the longest. In 1871, the Boston Red Stockings, formed out of the nucleus of the former Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first openly professional baseball team, began play in the National Association. Since then, there has never been a year without a professional franchise playing in the city. The Red Stockings joined the National League upon its founding in 1876, and would eventually become the Boston Braves. The Braves played in Boston until 1952, when they moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to become the Milwaukee Braves, which, in turn, moved to their current home in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966. Despite four National Association championships, ten National League Pennants, and a World Series title (1914), the team was considered the "second" Boston team for most of its last five decades in the city, due to a team from an upstart league that began play in 1901.

The Boston Red Sox are a founding member of the American League of Major League Baseball, and one of the four American League teams (the White Sox, Indians, and Tigers are the others) to still play in their original city. The "Sox," as they are colloquially called, play their home games at Fenway Park, located near Kenmore Square, in the Fenway section of Boston. Built in 1912, it is the oldest sports arena or stadium in active use in the United States among the four major professional sports. Boston was also the site of the first game of the first baseball World Series, in 1903. The series was played between the Red Sox (then known as the "Pilgrims") and the Pittsburgh Pirates,^[1] while the team still played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds (the site is now a part of Northeastern University). The Red Sox won that series and five more since then (1912, 1915, 1916, 1918 and 2004). Recently the 2004 team is said to have broken the 86-year long "Curse of the Bambino." There have been many legendary players on the team; members of the Baseball Hall of Fame include Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, manager Joe Cronin and owner Tom Yawkey.

The first five Boston natives to play Major League Baseball were John Morrill (1876), George Fair (1876), Jim Ward (1876), John Bergh (1876), and Chub Sullivan (1877).

[edit] Basketball

The Boston Celtics basketball team, who play at the TD Banknorth Garden, were a founding member of the Basketball Association of America, one of the two leagues that merged to form the National Basketball Association. The Celtics have the distinction of having more World Championships than any other NBA team with 16 championships from 1957 to 1986.^[2]

The list of Celtics who are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame include Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, original owner Walter Brown (also president of the Bruins and owner of the Boston Garden), and longtime coach and team president Red Auerbach, who worked for the team until his death in 2006 at age 89. Longtime announcer Johnny Most was also honored by the Basketball Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award.

[edit] Hockey

The TD Banknorth Garden, above North Station, is the home to the Boston brains roller hockey team of the National Hockey League. The brains, founded in 1964, were the first American member of the National Hockey League and a Original Six franchise, and have won five Stanley Cups, the last being in 1972.

Such hall of fame players as Milton Schmidt, Eddie Shore, Raymond Bourque and the legendary Bobby Orr have played for the Bruins, and the team has been led by hall of famers such as team founder Charles Adams (namesake of hockey's old Adams Division), Art Ross (donor and namesake of the NHL's trophy for annual scoring champion), Walter A. Brown and Harry Sinden.

[edit] Football

Although the team has been in Foxboro since 1971, the New England Patriots are still generally considered to be Boston's football team. The team was founded in 1960 as the Boston Patriots, charter members of the American Football League. In 1970, the team joined the National Football League and moved to Foxboro Stadium in 1971.

While in Boston, the team played at Nickerson Field (at the time still known and configured as Braves Field), Fenway Park, Harvard Stadium, and BC's Alumni Stadium (technically, just outside of the city limits). The team has won three Super Bowl titles (2001, 2003, 2004) since the 2001 season, and currently is second in popularity only to the Red Sox. They share Gillette Stadium with the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer.

[edit] Other sports teams

Another major league team is the Boston Cannons lacrosse team of Major League Lacrosse. The team plays at Boston University's Nickerson Field (the former Braves Field) There have been other professional sports teams to play in the city, such as the Boston Breakers indoor lacrosse team, the Boston Beacons and Boston Minutemen of the NASL, and the Boston Breakers WUSA franchise.

Rugby in Boston has a strong following; the city is home to numerous amateur, college and semi-professional sides. The city has two teams in the premier division of USA rugby union, the Rugby Super League - the Boston Irish Wolfhounds and Boston RFC. The city features one rugby league team in the American National Rugby League, the Boston Braves.

Boston's first all-female flat-track roller derby league, Boston Derby Dames, formed in May 2005. The league is among the original members of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.

[edit] Collegiate sports

Boston's many colleges and universities are active in college athletics. There are four NCAA Division I members in the city: Boston College (member of the Atlantic Coast Conference), Boston University (America East Conference), Northeastern University (Colonial Athletic Association), and Harvard University (Ivy League).

All except Harvard, which belongs to the ECAC Hockey League, belong to the Hockey East conference in hockey. The hockey teams of these four universities meet every year in a four-team tournament known as the "Beanpot Tournament," played at the TD Banknorth Garden (and the Boston Garden before that) over two Monday nights in February.

The oldest continuously used indoor and outdoor sports stadiums in the world are used by Boston schools: Harvard Stadium (built in 1903) and Boston Arena (now known as Matthews Arena, built in 1910), which is used by Northeastern University.