Sports in Portland, Oregon
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Although Portland, Oregon has but one major league sports team (the Trail Blazers of the NBA), it hosts a wide variety of sports and sporting events.
Contents |
[edit] List of Portland teams
| Club | Sport | League | Championships | Home Venue | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portland Trail Blazers | Basketball | National Basketball Association | 1 (1976-77) | Rose Garden Arena | 1970 |
| Portland Timbers | Soccer | United Soccer Leagues First Division | 0 | PGE Park | 2001 |
| Portland Winter Hawks | Ice Hockey | Western Hockey League | 2 (1982-83, 1997-98) | Rose Garden Arena, Memorial Coliseum | 1976 |
| Portland Naughty Dogs | Paintball | National Professional Paintball League | Multiple tournaments | None | 1996 |
| Portland Beavers | Baseball | Pacific Coast League | 0 | PGE Park | 2001 |
| Rose City Rollers | Roller Derby | Women's Flat Track Derby Association | 0 | Portland Metropolitan Exposition Center | 2004 |
| Portland Chinooks | Basketball | International Basketball League | 0 | Multiple arenas | 2005 |
| Portland LumberJax | Indoor lacrosse | National Lacrosse League | 0 | Rose Garden Arena | 2006 |
| Portland Wolfpack | Mixed Martial Arts | International Fight League | 0 | Rose Garden Arena | 2006 |
[edit] Hockey
Portland's first professional sports team was the Portland Rosebuds. Not only were they the first professional sports team in Oregon, they were the first professional hockey team in the U.S. They joined the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1914. They were the first U.S. team to play for the Stanley Cup (in 1916, against the Montreal Canadiens). In 1918, the team moved to Chicago and took the name Blackhawks.[citation needed] The Rosebuds played at the Portland Hippodrome, the world’s largest indoor ice rink at the time it was built.[citation needed] It was on NW 22nd and Marshall; it burned down in 1951.
The Portland Winter Hawks, a major-junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League, have been a team since 1976-1977, when the Blazers won the NBA Finals. The Winter Hawks are one of the most popular junior ice hockey teams and there are many loyal fans in Portland. They have also produced many NHL stars.
[edit] Basketball
Portland has only one major league team, the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. The team has several players in the Basketball Hall of Fame, including Dražen Petrović, Bill Walton, Lenny Wilkens, and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler. The Blazers won their only NBA Championship in 1977. They lost in the NBA finals in 1990 (to the Detroit Pistons) and 1992 (to the Chicago Bulls).
One minor league basketball team, the Portland Chinooks in the International Basketball League, has recently been established. The Oregon Riptide, an American Basketball Association team announced in summer 2006, has not materialized.
The city was also home to a WNBA team, the Portland Fire. The team never made the playoffs and folded in 2002.
[edit] Baseball and Softball
The Portland Beavers are a Triple-A baseball team from the Pacific Coast League affiliated with the San Diego Padres. The current franchise was founded in 2001, though the name dates to an early Portland baseball team established in 1903. The Beavers play in PGE Park.
There has been recent interest in attracting a Major League Baseball franchise to Portland. In 2004, the city made an unsuccessful bid for the Montreal Expos, and in 2006 was contacted by the Florida Marlins.
The local Alpenrose Dairy is host to the annual Little League softball World Series and has a velodrome on site.
[edit] Soccer
The Portland Timbers of the United Soccer Leagues First Division play at PGE Park. Since they were formed in 2001, the Timbers have made the playoffs four out of five times but have never won a championship.
[edit] Other sports teams
- Lacrosse. One of Portland's newest and fastest growing teams in popularity[citation needed] is the Portland LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League. In the LumberJax first season, they clinched their division, a rare feat for a first-year team.
- Paintball. The Portland Naughty Dogs compete in the National Professional Paintball League in a variety of tournaments around the U.S.
- Roller derby. The Rose City Rollers is an all-female Women's Flat Track Derby Association-affiliated league with over 140 members, founded in 2004. It consists of five teams: the Heartless Heathers, the Break Neck Betties, the High Rollers, the Guns N Rollers, and the All-Star traveling team, the Wheels of Justice, who play in interleague bouts.
- Mixed Martial Arts. Portland is also known as a hub for MMA. It's the site of Team Quest, a training camp founded by MMA legends such as Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, and Matt Lindland. Lindland is also founder and coach of the Portland Wolfpack, Portland's team in the International Fight League.
[edit] Other venues, events, and activities
- Auto racing. Portland is on the Champ Car World Series circuit, hosting the Grand Prix of Portland race at the Portland International Raceway. PIR also hosts a race on the American Le Mans Series and a variety of SCCA, historic, and annual races such as the Rose Cup during the city's Rose Festival.
- Skiing and snowboarding are particularly popular with Portlanders. The area is served by a number of resorts located on nearby Mount Hood, including Timberline, which allows skiing year round. The only other resort in North America with summer skiing is Whistler in British Columbia.
- Rock climbing is growing in popularity as an outdoor pastime. At numerous small crags around town, one may glimpse mountaineers-in-training with their ropes, alpenstocks, and hard-soled boots practicing their technical moves on the rock in preparation for difficult alpine ascents.
- Running is a major sport in the metropolitan area, the home of Nike and of Adidas' American operations. The Portland Marathon has been held annually in the city since 1971. The Hood to Coast Relay is the world's largest running relay race, with approximately 17,000 racers per year running from Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood to the Pacific Ocean at Seaside.
- Horse Racing. Horses have run at Portland Meadows since 1946.
