Sports
Kalamazoo plays host to four non-collegiate teams:
- The Kalamazoo Wings (aka K-Wings) minor-pro hockey team plays games in Wings Stadium and has played since 1974. The team is currently a member of the ECHL which is a development league for the NHL.
The Western Michigan University Broncos, who compete in the NCAA Division I Mid-American Conference, play at the following on-campus venues:
- Waldo Stadium (football)
- Lawson Arena (hockey)
- University Arena (basketball and Volleyball)
- Hyames Field (baseball)
- Ebert Field (softball)
- Kanley Track (outdoor track and field)
Hyames Field played host to the first two College World Series held in 1947 and 1948. Future U. S. President George H. W. Bush was a first baseman for Yale in the 1947 series.
The Kalamazoo College Hornets and Kalamazoo Valley Community College Cougars also have several collegiate athletic teams.
Kalamazoo is the hometown of New York Yankees all-star shortstop Derek Jeter, Green Bay Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings, and free agent running back T.J. Duckett. YMCA basketball star Charles Rathert, Washington Nationals pitcher Scott Olsen and Chicago White Sox first baseman and gold glove winner Mike Squires was born in Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo was also the hometown of longtime Detroit Tigers owner John Fetzer, who owned the American League team from 1961 through 1984, when he sold the franchise to Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan.
The United States Tennis Association Boys 18 and 16 National Tennis Championships are hosted every summer by Kalamazoo College. The event has featured such players as Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, James Blake and Andy Roddick, before they turned professional.
The Kalamazoo Rugby Football Club, founded in 1988, competes in the Michigan Rugby Football Union. www.kalamazoorugby.com
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“...I didn’t come to this with any particular cachet. I was just a person who grew up in the United States. And when I looked around at the people who were sportscasters, I thought they were just people who grew up in the United States, too. So I thought, Why can’t a woman do it? I just assumed everyone else would think it was a swell idea.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 85 (June 17, 1991)
“Even from their infancy we frame them to the sports of love: their instruction, behaviour, attire, grace, learning and all their words aimeth only at love, respects only affection. Their nurses and their keepers imprint no other thing in them.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“The whole idea of image is so confused. On the one hand, Madison Avenue is worried about the image of the players in a tennis tour. On the other hand, sports events are often sponsored by the makers of junk food, beer, and cigarettes. What’s the message when an athlete who works at keeping her body fit is sponsored by a sugar-filled snack that does more harm than good?”
—Martina Navratilova (b. 1956)