Sports
The Lansing Lugnuts are a Class A Midwest League, Minor League Baseball team, currently affiliated with the Toronto Blue Jays. The team plays its home games at Cooley Law School Stadium, which was built at a cost of $12.7 million and opened in 1996 in downtown Lansing. It was partially renovated in 2006. Cooley Law School Stadium has a seating capacity of 11,215 fans, and was built to accommodate additional expansion. The team has won two Midwest League championships, their first in 1997 and their second in 2003. Previously known as Oldsmobile Park, the facility was renamed Thomas M. Cooley Law School Stadium in April 2010, in reference to the park's new sponsor.
The Summit at the Capital Centre is a hockey arena and convention center located in the suburb of Dimondale that hosts youth and high school hockey.
The Lansing Capitals began play in the International Basketball League in 2006.
Michigan State University sponsors both men's and women's sports, usually competing as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The Spartans have won National Titles in Men's Basketball, Football, Men's Boxing, Men's Cross Country, Men's Gymnastics, Men's Ice Hockey, Men's Soccer, and Men's Wrestling.
On November 27, 2011 MSU beat Northwestern in their Big Ten Football finale to secure the top Big Ten record at 7-1 in conference play, and set up their entrance to the first Big Ten Football Championship Game to be held December 3, 2011 at Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana against the Wisconsin Badgers.
Lansing Community College also sponsors many sports, competing as members of the Michigan Community College Athletic Association. The Stars have won NJCAA titles in the following sports: Women's Softball, Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Men's Cross Country, Women's Cross Country, Women's Marathon and Men's Marathon.
The Lansing area is also known for its many golf courses, with two courses owned by Michigan State University, four municipal courses, and many additional public and private courses in the area. Walnut Hills Country Club in nearby East Lansing formerly hosted the LPGA's Oldsmobile Classic from 1992 to 2000. The Michigan PGA recently relocated from the Detroit area to Bath, Michigan, which is on the northern edge of Lansing.
In the 1980s and 1990s Lansing was a major player in semi-pro football. The Lansing Crusaders won MFL/MCFL championships in 1982, 1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, and 1990. The team finished second in 1984, 1986, and 1991.
Other past sports teams include:
- Lansing – Michigan State League (baseball) – 1889 to 1890
- Lansing Senators – Michigan State League (baseball) – 1895 and 1902
- Southern Michigan League – 1907 to 1914
- Central League – 1921 to 1922
- renamed the Lansing Lancers – Michigan State League – 1940
- and then back as the Lansing Senators – Michigan State League – 1941
- Lansing Capitals – North American Basketball League – 1966–67 to 1967–68
- Lansing Lancers – International Hockey League – 1974 to 1975
- Capital City Cardinals – Michigan Charity Football League – 1980
- Lansing Crusaders – Michigan Charity Football League – 1980 to 1988
- Michigan Football League – 1989 to 1994
- Capital City Cowboys – Michigan Football League – 1992
- Lansing Ice Nuts – International Independent Hockey League – 2003 to 2004
Read more about this topic: Lansing, Michigan
Famous quotes containing the word sports:
“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)
“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)