Sports
| Club | Sport | League | Stadium |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bellingham Bells | Baseball | West Coast Collegiate Baseball League | Joe Martin Field |
| Bellingham Slam | Basketball | International Basketball League, West Conference | Whatcom Pavilion |
| Bellingham Blazers | Hockey | Northern Pacific Hockey League | Bellingham Sportsplex |
| Bellingham Roller Betties | Roller derby | WFTDA | Whatcom Community College Pavillion |
| Bellingham Bulldogs | Football | Pacific Football League (PFL) | Civic Field and Lummi High School |
| Bellingham United FC | Soccer | PCSL | Civic Field |
| Chuckanut Bay Geoducks | Rugby Union | Pacific Northwest Rugby Football Union | Bellingham Rugby & Polo Fields |
| Whatcom Warriors | Youth Ice Hockey | PCAHA & PNAHA | Bellingham Sportsplex |
| Bellingham Rapids | Indoor Soccer | PASL | Bellingham Sportsplex |
The people of Bellingham pursue a diverse range of amateur sports, with skiing and snowboarding at the Mount Baker Ski Area popular in the winter and kayaking and cycling in the summer. Mt. Baker claims an unofficial world record for seasonal snowfall, with 1,140 inches (29,000 mm) recorded in the 1998–1999 season.
Western Washington University, located in Bellingham, is home to NCAA Division II National Women's Rowing Champions. Although always nationally ranked, the Lady Vikings, in 2005, became Western's very first NCAA champion team and won again in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2011. The 2011-2012 Western Men's Basketball team won the NCAA Division II National Championship. .
Western Washington University also operates a successful collegiate road cycling program that took top-5 positions nationwide at the 2006 nationals.
Future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. began his professional career with the Bellingham Mariners. He played in the Northwest League on the team based in Bellingham.
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Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“I looked so much like a guy you couldn’t tell if I was a boy or a girl. I had no hair, I wore guys’ clothes, I walked like a guy ... [ellipsis in source] I didn’t do anything right except sports. I was a social dropout, but sports was a way I could be acceptable to other kids and to my family.”
—Karen Logan (b. 1949)
“...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)
“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)