Texas is home of several national sports league franchises among other professional sports, being the second most populated U.S. state. Since the state is located in the South Central United States, most teams are part of the Central / South or West league divisions, with the notable exception of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, which is an NFC East franchise.
Contents |
Many Texans are passionate about American football and intensely follow high school and college football teams — often they dominate social and leisure activity. Professional football is also intensely popular in Texas, and the state is home to two National Football League (NFL) franchises, the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans.
The Cowboys, founded in 1960, are one of the most popular teams in the league and have fans in many parts of the United States, leading to the nickname "America's Team". They are also one of the most successful, having reached eight Super Bowls and won five (tied with the San Francisco 49ers for second all-time). The Cowboys play their home games at Cowboys Stadium in nearby Arlington, into which they moved in 2009 after having spent 38 years at Texas Stadium in Irving.
The Texans were founded in 2002 and play their home games at Reliant Stadium, the first NFL stadium with a retractable roof. From 1960 to 1996, Houston was home to another professional football team, the Houston Oilers, who started in the American Football League (AFL) in 1960 and joined the NFL in 1970. The Oilers played their home games at the Astrodome, but the failure of team owner Bud Adams to reach an agreement with the city on a new stadium led to his moving the franchise to Nashville, Tennessee, where it was renamed the Tennessee Titans.
Baseball has a strong presence in Texas, with Major League Baseball teams the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros. In 2005, the Astros became the first team in Texas to make it to the World Series. The Rangers followed the Astros in 2010 to their first World Series. Minor league baseball is also closely followed in Texas—especially in the smaller metropolitan areas. The Fort Worth Cats are a team in Fort Worth, Texas that has won 3 straight championships, one in the Central Baseball League and the last two in the American Association. College baseball is also quite popular, as Texas A&M University, Rice University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston and Baylor University have all made multiple College World Series appearances.
Basketball is also popular, and Texas hosts three NBA teams: the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Dallas Mavericks. All three have won championships. Additionally, Texas is home to one WNBA team, the San Antonio Silver Stars as the Houston Comets folded at the end of the 2008 season. The Comets were the winners of the first four WNBA Championships in league history, in the 1997–2000 seasons.
From 1905–1915, people in Dallas and Fort Worth turned out by the thousands for horse racing, which was usually tied to the state fair schedule. Dallas established a Jockey Club early on. The Fort Worth Driving Club (for owners of Standardbred trotters and pacers) had 101 members when it opened in 1905. Trotters raced at a park in Fort Worth, but both cities attracted thousands of people for each style of racing.[1]
Ice hockey has been a growing participatory sport in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL) became the Dallas Stars in 1993. The Stars made the Stanley Cup Playoffs their first year in Dallas and remained competitive through the rest of decade, culminating in a Stanley Cup championship in 1999. The team returned to the Stanley Cup Finals the next year, only to lose to the New Jersey Devils. In addition to the 1999 Stanley Cup and 2000 Western Conference championship, the team has also won two President's Trophies as the NHL's regular-season points champion and seven division titles.
Prior to the advent of the Stars, top-tier professional ice hockey existed in Texas in the form of the Houston Aeros, who played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1973 to 1978. The team was notable for featuring hockey legend Gordie Howe, who was lured out of retirement by the prospect of playing alongside his sons, Mark and Marty. Led by the Howes, the Aeros won back-to-back Avco World Trophies as the WHA champions in 1974 and 1975. The Aeros folded after they failed to gain admission into the NHL, first as part of a merger between the WHA and NHL and then as an expansion team.
Minor league professional hockey has also become popular in the last several decades. The Houston Huskies played in the old United States Hockey League (USHL) and won its championship in 1948, led by legendary NHL coach Toe Blake. In 1994, Houston received a franchise in the International Hockey League (IHL), which was named the Aeros after the city's old WHA side. The new Aeros won the IHL's Turner Cup in 1999. In 2001, the team transferred to the American Hockey League (AHL) after the IHL's demise; it won the AHL's Calder Cup in 2003 and reached the Calder Cup Finals in 2011. The AHL has established two more teams in Texas since that time – the San Antonio Rampage (owned by the NBA's San Antonio Spurs and affiliated with the NHL's Florida Panthers) began play in 2002, and the Texas Stars (an AHL affiliate of the Dallas Stars based in the Austin suburb of Cedar Park), were founded in 2009. In addition to the AHL, six of the sixteen teams of the Central Hockey League are also based in Texas.
Soccer has always been a special sport in Texas, and it is the fastest growing sport in the state. The old North American Soccer League had teams in the Dallas/Fort Worth area and in Houston. The Dallas Tornado played between 1968–1981, while the Houston Stars played for one season in 1968. Houston returned to the league in 1978 as the Hurricanes and played until 1980. Soccer return to Texas with the 1994 FIFA World Cup with the Cotton Bowl hosting matches. In 1996, the Dallas Burn was born as one of ten founding member of the MLS, which is the current Division 1 professional soccer league overseen by the USSF. They were the only team in Texas until the Houston Dynamo join them in 2006, by then the Dallas Burn were renamed FC Dallas with a new logo and colors, and also a new permanent soccer-specific stadium called Pizza Hut Park. The Dynamo won the MLS Cup in their first year in Houston and again in their second year in 2007.
Many Texas universities have rich athletic traditions. Originally, most Texas Division I universities were part of the Southwest Conference until it dissolved in 1996. Four of the largest programs in Texas are now part of the Big 12 Conference: the Baylor Bears, Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Longhorns, and Texas Tech Red Raiders. In addition to the four Big 12 schools, Texas is home to six other Division I (Bowl Sub-Division) teams: the TCU Horned Frogs of the Mountain West Conference; the SMU Mustangs, the Houston Cougars, the Rice Owls and the UTEP Miners, all of Conference USA; and the North Texas Mean Green of the Sun Belt Conference. Texas has the most Division I-FBS schools in America, ten.
According to a survey of Division I-A coaches the rivalry between the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas, the Red River Shootout, ranks the third best in the nation.[2] A fierce rivalry, the Lone Star Showdown, also exists between the two state's largest universities, Texas A&M University and the University of Texas. The SMU Mustangs and Texas Christian University Horned Frogs have a rivalry called the Battle for the Iron Skillet. The Houston–Rice rivalry exists between the University of Houston and Rice University with a large focus on the Bayou Bucket Classic.
Texas is home to many other Division I programs that compete in the Championship Sub-Division such as the: Lamar University Cardinals, Sam Houston State Bearkats, and the Texas State Bobcats. All competing in the Southland Conference
Collegiate teams nationwide see Texas as an American Football recruiting hotbed. In 2006, 170 players in the NFL came from Texas high schools.[3]
Most primary and secondary school athletic, music, and academic contests in Texas are organized and administered by the University Interscholastic League (UIL).[4]
Texans also enjoy going to the rodeo. The annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo is the largest rodeo in the world. The event begins with trail rides that originate from several points throughout the state, all of which convene at Reliant Park. The World’s first rodeo was held in Pecos, Texas on 4 July 1883. The Southwestern Exposition and Livestock Show in Fort Worth, Texas has a cowboy, and a Mexican and many traditional rodeos. The State Fair of Texas is held in Dallas, Texas each year at Fair Park.
Other popular sports in Texas include year-round golf, fishing, and auto racing. Lacrosse, originally played by some of the indigenous tribes, is growing in popularity. Soccer is a popular participatory sport, especially among children, and as a spectator sport it is slowly growing in stature. The state is also home to motorsport venues such as the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth and the Texas World Speedway in College Station. Dallas and Houston have hosted street races, the Dallas Grand Prix and the Grand Prix of Houston.
|
||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||