Italian Football League (IFL) is the top level American football league in Italy established in 1980.
The Gateway Grizzlies are a professional baseball team based in the St. Louis suburb of Sauget, Illinois, in the United States. The Grizzlies are a member of the West Division of the Frontier League, which is a partner league of Major League Baseball. The Grizzlies played their home games during their inaugural 2001 season at Sauget Field. In 2002, GCS Credit Union Ballpark opened and has remained the club's home since. GCS Credit Union Ballpark initially opened up to the public in time for the 2002 season for the Gateway Grizzlies. Some of the defining features of Grizzlies Ballpark include lawn seats, bleacher seats, box seating, party suites, hot tub suite, and more.
The Memphis Grizzlies are an American professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The Grizzlies compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The Grizzlies play their home games at FedExForum. The Grizzlies are currently the only team in the major professional North American sports leagues based in the city of Memphis, and the only professional basketball team in the state of Tennessee.
The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1995, along with the Toronto Raptors, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. Following the 2000–01 season, the team relocated to Memphis, Tennessee, United States and was renamed the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies played their home games at General Motors Place for all of their six seasons in Vancouver.
Predrag Radosavljević, better known by the nickname Preki, is a former soccer player and coach. He is currently an assistant coach with Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer (MLS). He previously coached Sacramento Republic FC and Saint Louis FC in the United Soccer League and coached in MLS with Toronto FC and Chivas USA. Born in Yugoslavia, he represented the United States national team.
Nicholas John Collison is an American former professional basketball player who is a special assistant for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He spent his entire career with the Seattle SuperSonics, later renamed the Thunder in 2008. Collison was drafted by the SuperSonics in the first round of the 2003 NBA draft and retired as a member of the Thunder in 2018. As a college player, he went to two Final Fours with the Kansas Jayhawks.
Ronald "Flip" Murray is a retired American professional basketball player who last played for Al Mouttahed Tripoli of the Lebanese Basketball League. He is a 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m), 200 lb point guard–shooting guard. After attending Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia, where he starred on the basketball team, he played college basketball for four seasons, first at the Meridian Community College in Meridian, Mississippi, from 1997 to 1999, and then at Shaw University located in Raleigh, North Carolina, from 2000 to 2002. He is nicknamed "Flip" by childhood friends who often said he looked like Bernie Mac's character, "Flip", from the movie Above The Rim.
Stromile Emanuel Swift is an American former professional basketball player. He played college basketball for Louisiana State University (LSU) before being drafted second overall by the Vancouver Grizzlies in the 2000 NBA draft. At 6'10" and 220 lbs, he played the power forward and center positions.
The Seattle metropolitan area is home to several legendary professional and amateur sports teams. This includes seven teams in major leagues, several in minor leagues, and collegiate programs for two National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I universities and one NCAA Division II university.
The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) was a junior ice hockey league established in 1993. It was sanctioned by the United Hockey Union, the junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union. Previously, it was sanctioned by USA Hockey from 1994 to 2011. Teams played approximately 50 games in the regular season schedule, mimicking what players would experience at the collegiate level. As of January 2022, there are no active teams in the league following the creation of the Can-Am Junior Hockey League by former WSHL teams.
The 1995–96 NBA season was the Grizzlies' first season in the National Basketball Association. The Vancouver Grizzlies, along with the Toronto Raptors became expansion NBA franchises in 1995. They were the first NBA teams to play in Canada since the 1946–47 Toronto Huskies. The Grizzlies revealed a new primary logo of a grizzly bear holding a basketball, and got new uniforms with Native American markings on the trims of their jerseys, adding turquoise and brown to their color scheme.
The Seattle Sounders were an American professional soccer team that was founded in 1994 and played in several second-division leagues, beginning with the American Professional Soccer League. They played in the A-League, later renamed the USL First Division, from 1997 to 2008. The team was named for the Seattle Sounders of the North American Soccer League (NASL), which folded in 1983. The Sounders folded after the 2008 season as part of a transition to a new Major League Soccer (MLS) team named Seattle Sounders FC that debuted in 2009.
The Montana State Bobcats football program competes in the Big Sky Conference of the NCAA's Division I Football Championship Subdivision for Montana State University. The program began in 1897 and has won three national championships. It is the only college football program in the nation to win national championships on three different levels of competition, NAIA, NCAA Division II, and NCAA Division I-AA. Through the 2022 season, the Bobcats had played in 1,049 games with an all-time record of 525–492–32.
The 2001–02 NBA season was the Grizzlies’ 7th season in the National Basketball Association, and their first season in Memphis. After six years of struggling in Vancouver, the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis, Tennessee. Although it was the first NBA team for the city, Memphis played home to an American Basketball Association team known as the Memphis Sounds from 1970–1975. The Grizzlies had the sixth overall pick in the 2001 NBA draft, and selected small forward Shane Battier from Duke University, and acquired top draft pick and Spanish basketball star Pau Gasol, point guard Brevin Knight and former University of Memphis star Lorenzen Wright from the Atlanta Hawks; Gasol was drafted by the Hawks with the third overall pick. During the off-season, the team acquired point guard Jason Williams, and veteran shooting guard Nick Anderson from the Sacramento Kings, and signed free agent Rodney Buford. However, center Bryant Reeves missed the entire season with a preseason back injury, and never played for the team in Memphis during the regular season.
The Oklahoma City Thunder are an American professional basketball team based in Oklahoma City. The Thunder compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team plays its home games at Paycom Center.
The 1995–96 NBA season was the Bucks' 28th season in the National Basketball Association. The Bucks had the eleventh overall pick in the 1995 NBA draft, and selected Gary Trent out of Ohio University, but soon traded him to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for top draft pick Shawn Respert out of Michigan State University. During the off-season, the team re-signed free agent and former Bucks forward Terry Cummings, and acquired former All-Star center Kevin Duckworth from the Washington Bullets. Early into the season, they traded Todd Day and Alton Lister to the Boston Celtics in exchange for Sherman Douglas, and dealt Eric Murdock and second-year forward Eric Mobley to the expansion Vancouver Grizzlies in exchange for Benoit Benjamin.
The 2001–02 NBA season was the 35th season for the Seattle SuperSonics in the National Basketball Association. During the off-season, the Sonics signed free agents Calvin Booth, and Jerome James. Heading into Nate McMillan's first full season as head coach, the Sonics struggled losing five of their first seven games, and held a 9–14 start to the season. However, they won 14 of their next 20 games and played above .500 for the remainder of the season, holding a 25–23 record at the All-Star break, but lost six of their final eight games, finishing fourth in the Pacific Division with a 45–37 record, which was only a one-game improvement over the previous season where they missed the playoffs.
The expansion of the National Basketball Association has happened several times in the league's history since it began play in 1946. The most recent examples of the expansion of the NBA are the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat in 1988, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic in 1989, Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995, and New Orleans Hornets in 2002. In June 2022, Commissioner Adam Silver confirmed that while there are no current plans to expand beyond 30 teams, the NBA "invariably will expand."
The 2022 Minor League Cricket season was the second season of Minor League Cricket, established by USA Cricket (USAC) and Major League Cricket (MLC) in 2019. Toyota returned from the previous season as title sponsor, with Sunoco tapped as the Official Fuel and Convenience Store of MiLC. The season was hosted over 20 venues across the United States, with matches being broadcast through Willow and Sling TV. It was played from June 25 to August 28, 2022.
The Seattle Sounders–Vancouver Whitecaps rivalry is a soccer rivalry between the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Seattle Sounders FC, both based in the Pacific Northwest region. The rivalry originated in the North American Soccer League of the 1970s, with both cities reviving expansion teams, and has carried into lower-level leagues, including the A-League and USL First Division. The rivalry moved to Major League Soccer, the top division of soccer in the United States and Canada, in 2011. The two clubs are part of the Cascadia Cup, the trophy and competition created in 2004 by supporters of the Portland Timbers, Vancouver Whitecaps, and the Seattle Sounders which is awarded each season to the best top-flight soccer team in the Cascadia region.
