Georgia (U.S. State) - Sports

Sports

Main article: Sports in Georgia (U.S. state) See also: Tour de Georgia, Masters Tournament, and Bicycle Ride Across Georgia

Sports in Georgia include professional teams in all major sports, Olympic Games contenders and medalists, collegiate teams in major and small-school conferences and associations, and active amateur teams and individual sports. The state of Georgia has a team in seven major professional leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA, ABA, AFL, IL, and ECHL).

Professional baseball's Ty Cobb was the first player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was from Narrows and was nicknamed "The Georgia Peach."

The Masters golf tournament, the first of the PGA tour's four "majors", is held annually the second weekend of April at the Augusta National Golf Club.

The 1996 Summer Olympics took place in Atlanta. The stadium that was built to host various Olympic events was converted to Turner Field, the home of the Atlanta Braves.

Atlanta's Georgia Dome hosted Super Bowl XXVIII in 1994 and Super Bowl XXXIV in 2000. It hosted WWE's WrestleMania XXVII in 2011, an event which set an attendance record of 71,617 .The dome is also the venue of the annual Chick-fil-A Bowl post-season college football games. Since 2004 the FIRST World Championships have been held there.

The Georgia Dome will host the 75th Anniversary of the NCAA Final Four Men's Basketball National Championship in 2013. The Dome has previously hosted the Final Four event in 2002 and 2007.

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Famous quotes containing the word sports:

    “Guys do not have a genetic blueprint that allows them to understand or love sports.”
    —Lesley Visser, U.S. sports reporter and announcer. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 82 (June 17, 1991)

    “In the past, it seemed to make sense for a sportswriter on sabbatical from the playpen to attend the quadrennial hawgkilling when Presidential candidates are chosen, to observe and report upon politicians at play. After all, national conventions are games of a sort, and sports offers few spectacles richer in low comedy.”
    —Walter Wellesley (Red)

    “In the end, I think you really only get as far as you’re allowed to get.”
    —Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)