Sports in New England

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Three popular American sports were invented in New England. Basketball was invented by James Naismith, a Canadian, in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. [1] Volleyball was invented by William G. Morgan in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1895. [2] Paintball was invented in 1981 in Henniker, New Hampshire. [3]

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It is also widely believed the first organized ice hockey game in the United States was played in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1883. [4]

The region is famous for its passion for baseball and the Boston Red Sox, as well as for the intense rivalry between the Red Sox and the New York Yankees.

On November 1, 1924, the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League became the first NHL franchise to be based in the United States. They are now the second-oldest surviving major professional sports team in Boston, after the Red Sox. The Bruins' historic rivalry with the Montreal Canadiens for ice hockey fans in the Boston area has, at times, reached the level of intensity of the Yankees – Red Sox rivalry in professional baseball in the region.[ citation needed ]

The New England Patriots football team is based in Foxborough, Massachusetts, halfway between Boston and Providence. In 1999, the Patriots flirted with the idea of moving to Hartford, in what three National Football League (NFL) franchise owners called "the greatest financial deal any NFL owner has ever received".[ citation needed ] The deal, however, fell through, and the team remained in Foxborough.

Both the oldest Major League Baseball (MLB) professional baseball park still in use, Fenway Park, dating from April 1912, as well as the oldest indoor ice hockey rink still in use worldwide, Matthews Arena, which first opened in 1910 and currently stands on the property of Northeastern University for their collegiate ice hockey teams, are within the Boston city limits.

Famous sportsmen playing for New England teams

List of professional and semi-professional sports teams in New England

Baseball

Football

Basketball

Ice hockey

Soccer

Lacrosse

Motorsports facilities in New England

Gaelic football

Rugby union

Rugby league

NCAA Division I schools in New England

Football Bowl Subdivision
Football Championship Subdivision
Non-football

Additionally, three colleges compete at the Division I level in ice hockey only: American International and Bentley College compete in the Atlantic Hockey Association, while Merrimack compete in Hockey East and America East in the second half of 2013.

Hartford Whalers

Until April 13, 1997, Hartford also had its own major hockey team, the Hartford Whalers. Originally known as the New England Whalers, they changed their name in 1979 after leaving the WHA for the NHL, hoping to carve a niche market in Hartford.

In 1997, the Whalers left Hartford for Raleigh, North Carolina (amid much controversy), where they became the Hurricanes.

Fan base

In the parts of southwestern Connecticut that are close to New York City, most people are New York Yankees and New York Mets fans, who are often self-identified as suburban New Yorkers. The New York Giants and New York Jets also receive significant support from New England, primarily from the southwestern portions of Connecticut. Additionally, until the team relocated to Washington, D.C., for the start of the 2005 season, the Montreal Expos received some fan support in northern New England. The Quebec Nordiques and Montreal Canadiens were the NHL closest teams in Northern New England.

For the Mets, when they were in the World Series in their championship season of 1986, split allegiances among fans of both the Mets and opposing Boston Red Sox led to an article in The Boston Globe to coin the phrase "Red Sox Nation". [5]

Since the mid nineteen nineties, the University of Connecticut men's and women's basketball programs (winning 5 men's and 11 women's NCAA national titles since 1995) has drawn a large regional following especially in their home state of Connecticut. [6]

The Boston College Eagles hockey team has also attracted a large following, winning four national championships in 2001, 2008, 2010, and 2012. Their football team also garnered support while current Atlanta Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan played for the Eagles. The Boston University Terriers hockey team has likewise received large support over the years, winning the national championship in 2009, and has been a staple of Boston collegiate hockey over the past century. The Green Line Rivalry between Boston University and Boston College has been said to be one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports; the two teams compete against each other as well as the hockey teams from fellow Boston universities Harvard University Crimson and Northeastern University Huskies. [7]

New England is home to an NFL Football team, the New England Patriots. The Patriots, based in Foxborough, Massachusetts, are the most popular NFL team in Massachusetts. [8] However, the other 5 states all have fan base with another NFL team, but the Patriots remain supreme overall . The Pittsburgh Steelers have a fanbase in eastern New England (Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Maine), and the New York Giants are dominant in the western states (Connecticut, with a sizable number in Vermont). [9]

New Hampshire Motor Speedway is an oval racetrack which has hosted several NASCAR and American Championship Car Racing races, whereas Lime Rock Park is a traditional road racing venue home of sports car races. Both NASCAR Cup races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway draw over 100,000 fans, thus making NHMS the largest capacity sports venue in New England. [10] New Hampshire also possesses the New England Dragway facility in Epping, New Hampshire, as one of the very few remaining dragstrips in the New England region.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hockey East</span> Ice hockey conference in New England, US

The Hockey East Association, also known as Hockey East, is a college ice hockey conference which operates entirely in New England. It participates in the NCAA's Division I as a hockey-only conference.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gillette Stadium</span> Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, United States

Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is 22 miles (35 km) southwest of downtown Boston, Massachusetts and 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Providence, Rhode Island. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL) and the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS). It opened in 2002, replacing the adjacent Foxboro Stadium. It also served as the home venue for the University of Massachusetts (UMass) Minutemen football team in 2012 and 2013, while on-campus Warren McGuirk Alumni Stadium underwent renovations; it continued to serve as a part-time home venue for higher attendance UMass games through 2018. Gillette Stadium's seating capacity is 64,628, including 5,876 club seats and 82 luxury suites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">America East Conference</span> US collegiate athletic conference

The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ECAC Hockey</span> American collegiate ice hockey conference

ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relationship ended in 2004; however, the ECAC abbreviation was retained in the name of the hockey conference. ECAC Hockey is the only ice hockey conference with identical memberships in both its women's and men's divisions. Cornell has won the most ECAC men's hockey championships with 13, followed by Harvard at 11. Quinnipiac, which joined the league in 2005, already has 7 regular season championships. ECAC Hockey teams have won 10 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championships, most recently in 2023.

The Yankee Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the eastern United States. From 1947 to 1976, it sponsored competition in many sports, but was a football-only league from mid-1976 until its dissolution in 1996. It is essentially the ancestor of today's CAA Football, the legally separate football league operated by the Coastal Athletic Association (CAA), and the continuation of the New England Conference, though all three leagues were founded under different charters and are considered separate conferences by the NCAA. Also, CAA Football does not recognize the New England Conference as one of its predecessors, though it does recognize the Yankee Conference as such.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England road marking system</span> Regional Road Network

The New England road marking system was a regional system of marked numbered routes in the six-state region of New England in the United States. The routes were marked by a yellow rectangular sign with black numbers and border. Many signs were painted on telephone poles. The routes were approved by the highway departments of the six New England states in April 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Cable News</span> US television network

New England Cable News (NECN) is a regional 24-hour cable news television network owned and operated by NBCUniversal serving the New England region of the United States. It focuses on regional news, though in some low priority timeslots, paid programming and programming from WNBC such as Talk Stoop and Open House are seen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Patriots Radio Network</span> Official radio network of the NFLs New England Patriots

The New England Patriots Radio Network is a radio network which carries live game broadcasts of the New England Patriots. The network's flagship station is WBZ-FM in Boston. Bob Socci, who now does the play-by-play with former Patriots quarterback Scott Zolak providing the color commentary and former Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham and WBZ-TV/WSBK-TV sports reporter Steve Burton providing the sideline reports. Marc Bertrand and Boston Globe sports columnist Chris Gasper host the pregame, and the postgame show is hosted by Bertrand. Albert Breer and Patriots Football Weekly writers Paul Perillo is a regular guest on the network's pre-game show.

The Yankee Quill Award is a regional American journalism award that recognizes a lifetime contribution toward excellence in journalism in New England. The award is bestowed annually by the Academy of New England Journalists, and administered by the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded by fellow journalists in the region.

The Boston Red Sox Radio Network is an American radio network composed of 54 radio stations which carry English language coverage of the Boston Red Sox, a professional baseball team in Major League Baseball (MLB). Lawrence, Massachusetts station WEEI-FM (93.7 FM), which serves Boston and the Greater Boston area, serves as the network's Flagship. The network also includes 49 affiliates in the U.S. states of Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, and Florida: 28 AM stations, 24 of which supplement their signals with one or more FM translators; and 21 full-power FM stations, one of which supplements its signal with several FM translators. Joe Castiglione currently serves as the network's play-by-play announcer; since the start of the 2020 Red Sox season, Will Flemming, Sean McDonough, Jon Sciambi, Dave O'Brien, Dale Arnold and Tom Caron have alternated with Castiglione providing color commentary. In addition to traditional over-the-air AM and FM broadcasts, network programming airs on SiriusXM satellite radio; and streams online via SiriusXM Internet Radio, TuneIn Premium, and MLB.com Gameday Audio.

The Pawsox Radio Network was the radio network of the Pawtucket Red Sox, a Triple-A minor league affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. There were 12 stations and three F.M. translators in the network, including the flagship and part-time stations. The network last broadcast games for the Pawtucket team in 2019, as the 2020 minor league season was cancelled and the team relocated to Worcester, Massachusetts, becoming the Worcester Red Sox for the 2021 season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Rugby Football Union</span>

The New England Rugby Football Union (NERFU) is a Geographical Union (GU) for rugby union teams in New England.

The New England League was a mid-level league in American minor league baseball that played intermittently in five of the six New England states between 1886 and 1949. After 1901, it existed in the shadow of two Major League Baseball clubs in Boston and alongside stronger, higher-classification leagues.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Caron</span>

Tom Caron is a sportscaster and anchor on New England's NESN network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sports in Boston</span> Historically prominent sports teams

Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major professional sports franchises. They include the Red Sox (baseball), the Celtics, and the Bruins. The New England Patriots and the New England Revolution play at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough, Massachusetts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England</span> Region in the Northeastern United States

New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick to the northeast and Quebec to the north. The Gulf of Maine and Atlantic Ocean are to the east and southeast, and Long Island Sound is to the southwest. Boston is New England's largest city and the capital of Massachusetts. Greater Boston is the largest metropolitan area, with nearly a third of New England's population; this area includes Worcester, Massachusetts, the second-largest city in New England, Manchester, New Hampshire, the largest city in New Hampshire, and Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of and largest city in Rhode Island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New England Conference</span>

The New England Conference was a collegiate sports conference in the Eastern United States, more specifically in New England, that operated from 1923 to 1947. As four of its charter members remained aligned in football from the conference's inception through 2011, this conference can be considered the earliest ancestor of today's Colonial Athletic Association football conference.

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 culture of New England comprises a shared heritage and culture primarily shaped by its indigenous peoples, early English colonists, and waves of immigration from Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. In contrast to other American regions, most of New England's earliest Puritan settlers came from eastern England, contributing to New England's distinctive accents, foods, customs, and social structures.

Transportation in New England encompasses the region's rail and highway networks, seaports, and airports. New England has one of the United States' oldest intercity transportation systems, which remain important to the region's economy. It is also home to the continent's first subway system. The densely populated area has many cities and towns connected by rail and road, and the larger cities each have commercial airports with daily flights to destinations outside of the region.

References

  1. "James Naismith: Physical Education Instructor Who Invented Basketball". about.com. Archived from the original on July 9, 2012.
  2. "Volleyball - General Information". www.volleyball.org.
  3. Slater, Dahksha. "Who Made That Paintball?" New York Times. Published August 15, 2014. Accessed October 1, 2023.
  4. O’Connor, Brion (10 April 2018). "Concord, N.H., Revisiting a Pond Hockey Legacy" via NYTimes.com.
  5. Cobb, Nathan (October 20, 1986). "Baseball Border War; In Milford Conn., Geography Brings Sox and Mets Fans". Boston Globe. p. 8.
  6. "UConn Huskies Surge in Popularity on SNY - UConn Today". today.uconn.edu.
  7. "Beanpot Hockey". www.beanpothockey.com.
  8. "The NFL Fan & Brand Report for 2018".
  9. "The Most Popular NFL Teams In States That Don't Have One".
  10. "NHMS By-the-Numbers". www.nhms.com. Retrieved 2018-04-10.