 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(June 2023) |
Minnesota has a number of professional and semi-professional sports teams in various sports and leagues. Most are based in Minneapolis, though every major league team in the state is named for Minnesota itself.
All teams currently play their home games in Minneapolis except United, the Wild, and the Wind Chill. United and the Wild play home games exclusively in St. Paul; the Wind Chill splits its home schedule between Blaine and St. Paul.
| Team | Sport | League | Venue | Dissolved/moved |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minneapolis Lakers | Basketball | National Basketball Association | Minneapolis Auditorium | 1960 (moved to Los Angeles) |
| Minnesota Muskies | Basketball | American Basketball Association | Met Center | 1968 (Moved to Miami) |
| Minnesota Kicks | Soccer | North American Soccer League | Metropolitan Stadium | 1981 |
| Minnesota North Stars | Ice hockey | National Hockey League | Met Center | 1993 (moved to Dallas) |
| Minnesota Arctic Blast | Roller hockey | Roller Hockey International | Target Center | 1996 |
| Minnesota Fighting Pike | Arena football | Arena Football League | Target Center | 1996 |
| Minnesota Thunder | Soccer | USL First Division | National Sports Center | 2009 |
| Minnesota Lightning | Soccer | USL W-League | National Sports Center | 2009 |
| Minnesota Whitecaps | Ice hockey | National Women's Hockey League | TRIA Rink | 2023 |
| Minnesota Swarm | Box lacrosse | National Lacrosse League | Xcel Energy Center | 2015 (moved to Georgia) |
Teams from Minnesota are also represented in university sports. For example, the Golden Gophers of the University of Minnesota are organized in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and, through 2020–21, are the only college sports program in the state to be represented in Division I. They compete against other teams in the Big Ten Conference.
The Gophers were joined in July 2021 by the St. Thomas Tommies, representing the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul. [1] The Tommies, who were involuntarily removed from their Division III Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC) effective at the end of the 2020–21 school year, will begin a four-year transition to Division I as members of the Summit League. Other universities are in Division II and III.
Four ice hockey teams from Minnesota are represented in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
The Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) is a college ice hockey conference which operates in the Midwestern United States. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a women's-only conference.
The University of St. Thomas is a private Catholic research university with campuses in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. Founded in 1885 as a Catholic seminary, it is named after Thomas Aquinas, the medieval Catholic theologian and philosopher who is the patron saint of students. As of fall 2021, St. Thomas enrolled 9,347 students, making it Minnesota's largest private, nonprofit university.
The North Dakota Fighting Hawks are the athletic teams that represent the University of North Dakota (UND), located in the city of Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Fighting Hawks compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I level as a member of the Summit League. With 17 varsity teams, North Dakota is best known for its Ice Hockey team and American Football team. North Dakota's main rivalries are with the North Dakota State Bison and the Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Sports in Minnesota include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, especially in the Winter Olympics, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations and active amateur teams and individual sports. The State of Minnesota has a team in all five major professional leagues. Along with professional sports, there are numerous collegiate teams including the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers and St. Thomas Tommies in NCAA Division I, as well as many others across the Minnesota public and private colleges and universities.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers men's ice hockey team is the college ice hockey team at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. They are members of the Big Ten Conference and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ice hockey. The Golden Gophers are one of the most prominent and storied programs in college hockey, having made 41 NCAA Tournament appearances and 23 trips to the Frozen Four. They have won five NCAA national championships, in 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003. The team also shared the 1929 National Intercollegiate Athletic Association championship with Yale, and captured the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championship for amateur hockey in 1940.
College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America.
Bally Sports North is an American regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports Group, and operates as a Bally Sports affiliate. The channel broadcasts coverage of sporting events involving teams located in the Upper Midwest region, with a focus on professional and collegiate sports teams based in Minnesota.
The DePaul Blue Demons are the athletic teams that represent DePaul University, located in Chicago, Illinois. The Blue Demons participate in NCAA Division I and are a member of the Big East Conference.
The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Spirit Squads comprise the cheerleading organization at the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota. Being the first program ever to form worldwide, the University of Minnesota is consequently considered the "Birthplace of Cheerleading". Today, the Gopher Spirit Squads consist of four separate squads: a cheer squad, a dance team, a hockey cheer squad, and the school's mascot, Goldy Gopher. The squads consistently perform well at national competitions including 21 national championships in dance since 2003, a 2nd-place finish for All-Girl in 2013, a fifth-place finish in 2017, and four-time national champion Goldy Gopher in 2011, 2013, 2017, and 2018. The current head coach is Sam Owens.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate athletic team of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The team competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I and are members of the Big Ten Conference.
The 2009–10 Western Collegiate Hockey Association women's ice hockey season marked the continuation of the annual tradition of competitive ice hockey among Western Collegiate Hockey Association members.
The Minnesota Golden Gophers women's ice hockey team plays for the University of Minnesota at the Twin Cities campus in Minneapolis. The team is one of the members of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA) and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in Division I. The Golden Gophers have won six NCAA Championships as well as the final American Women's College Hockey Alliance Championship. In the WCHA, they have also been regular season champions 11 times and tournament champions 8 times. In addition to their overall success as a competitive team, the Gophers have also been ranked in the nation's top two teams for attendance since becoming a varsity sport, and the team holds the second largest single-game attendance record for women's collegiate hockey, drawing 6,854 fans for the first Minnesota women's hockey game on November 2, 1997. The team also holds the distinction of having the longest winning streak in women's or men's college hockey at 62 games from February 17, 2012 to November 17, 2013, winning back-to-back NCAA titles during the stretch.
The St. Thomas Tommies football program represents University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Football began at the university in the late 1890s and the first official varsity intercollegiate games were played in 1904. St. Thomas was a charter member of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, formed in 1920. The Tommies also appeared at the 1949 Cigar Bowl. In 2019, the MIAC announced that St. Thomas would be "involuntarily removed" from the conference at the end of the spring 2021 athletic season citing "athletic competitive parity" concerns. St. Thomas received approval from the NCAA to begin competing at the NCAA Division I FCS level as a member of the Pioneer Football League starting with the 2021 season and became the first program to jump from NCAA Division III to Division I FCS.
The NCAA Division III women's ice hockey is a college ice hockey competition governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as part of the NCAA Division III. Sixty-seven teams competed in NCAA Division III women's hockey across eight conferences in the 2023–24 season.
The St. Thomas Tommies are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent University of Saint Thomas. The school's athletic program includes 21 varsity sports teams. Their mascot is a tiger named Tommie, and the school colors are purple and gray. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I as members of the Summit League in all varsity sports except for football, which competes in the Pioneer Football League, the men's ice hockey team, which competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, and the women's ice hockey team, which competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. St. Thomas offers 10 varsity sports for men and 11 for women.
Sports in Minneapolis–Saint Paul includes a number of teams.
The 2021–22 St. Thomas Tommies men's basketball team represented the University of St. Thomas in the 2021–22 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The Tommies, led by 11th-year head coach John Tauer, played their home games at Schoenecker Arena in Saint Paul, Minnesota as members of the Summit League.
The St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies women's ice hockey team represents the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) in NCAA Division I competition in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association (WCHA).
The 1946 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference football season was the season of college football played by the eight member schools of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC), sometimes referred to as the Minnesota College Conference, as part of the 1946 college football season.
The St. Thomas (Minnesota) Tommies men's ice hockey team represents the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota) in NCAA Division I ice hockey.
 | This section is empty. You can help by adding to it. (October 2021) |
State of Minnesota | |
|---|---|
Saint Paul (capital) | |
| Topics |
|
| Society | |
| Regions | |
| Largest cities pop. over 25,000 |
|
| Counties |
|
