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
Read more about this topic: Kalamazoo?
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“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)
“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)
“It is usual for a Man who loves Country Sports to preserve the Game in his own Grounds, and divert himself upon those that belong to his Neighbour.”
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719)