Sports
Professional sports teams in Arizona include:
| Club | Sport | League | Championships |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Cardinals | Football | National Football League | 2 (1925, 1947) |
| Phoenix Suns | Basketball | National Basketball Association | 0 |
| Arizona Diamondbacks | Baseball | Major League Baseball | 1 (2001) |
| Phoenix Coyotes | Ice hockey | National Hockey League | 0 |
| Arizona Rattlers | Arena Football | Arena Football League | 3 (1994, 1997, 2012) |
| Arizona Sundogs | Ice hockey | Central Hockey League | 1 (2007–08) |
| Phoenix Mercury | Basketball | Women's National Basketball Association | 2 (2007, 2009) |
| Phoenix FC | Soccer | USL Pro | 0 |
| FC Tucson | Soccer | USL Premier Development League | 0 |
| Arizona Storm | Indoor Soccer | Professional Arena Soccer League | 0 |
| Real Phoenix FC | Indoor Soccer | Professional Arena Soccer League | 0 |
| Tucson Padres | Baseball | Pacific Coast League | 0 |
| Yuma Scorpions | Baseball | Golden Baseball League | 1 (2007) |
Due to its numerous golf courses, Arizona is home to several stops on the PGA Tour, most notably the Phoenix Open, held at the TPC of Scottsdale, and the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Marana.
With three state universities and several community colleges, college sports are also prevalent in Arizona. The intense rivalry between Arizona State University and the University of Arizona predates Arizona's statehood, and is the oldest rivalry in the NCAA. The thus aptly named Territorial Cup, first awarded in 1889 and certified as the oldest trophy in college football, is awarded to the winner of the “Duel in the Desert,” the annual football game between the two schools. Arizona also hosts several bowl games in the Bowl Championship Series. The Fiesta Bowl, originally held at Sun Devil Stadium, is now held at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. University of Phoenix Stadium was also home to the 2007 BCS National Championship Game and hosted Super Bowl XLII on February 3, 2008. The Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl is held at Sun Devil Stadium.
Besides being home to spring training, Arizona is also home to two other baseball leagues, Arizona Fall League and Arizona Winter League. The Fall League was founded in 1992 and is a minor league baseball league designed for players to refine their skills and perform in game settings in front of major and minor league baseball scouts and team executives, who are in attendance at almost every game. The league got exposure when Michael Jordan started his time in baseball with the Scottsdale Scorpions. The Arizona Winter League, founded in 2007, is a professional baseball league of four teams for the independent Golden Baseball League. The games are played in Yuma at the Desert Sun Stadium, but added two new teams in the California desert, and one more in Sonora for the 2008 season.
Read more about this topic: Sports In Arizona
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“Sweet smiling village, loveliest of the lawn,
Thy sports are fled and all thy charms withdrawn;
Amidst thy bowers the tyrant’s hand is seen,
And desolation saddens all thy green;
One only master grasps the whole domain,
And half a tillage stints thy smiling plain;”
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730?–1774)
“It was so hard to pry this door open, and if I mess up I know the people behind me are going to have it that much harder. Because then there’s living proof. They can sit around and say, “See? It doesn’t work.” I don’t want to be their living proof.”
—Gayle Gardner, U.S. sports reporter. As quoted in Sports Illustrated, p. 87 (June 17, 1991)
“Short of a wholesale reform of college athletics—a complete breakdown of the whole system that is now focused on money and power—the women’s programs are just as doomed as the men’s are to move further and further away from the academic mission of their colleges.... We have to decide if that’s the kind of success for women’s sports that we want.”
—Christine H. B. Grant, U.S. university athletic director. As quoted in the Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A42 (May 12, 1993)