Sports in Massachusetts have a long history with both amateur athletics and professional teams. Most of the major professional teams have won multiple championships in their respective leagues. Massachusetts teams have won 6 Stanley Cups (Boston Bruins),[1] 18 NBA Championships (Boston Celtics),[2] 6 Super Bowls (New England Patriots),[3] and 10 World Series (9 Boston Red Sox, 1 Boston Braves).[4] The New England Revolution won the MLS Supporter's Shield in 2021 (the club's only major trophy to date).[5] Early basketball and volleyball was created in Massachusetts, which homes the Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield),[6] and the Volleyball Hall of Fame (Holyoke).[6] Massachusetts also houses the Cape Cod Baseball League. It is also home to prestigious sports events such as the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta. The Falmouth Road Race in running and the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic in bicycle racing are also very popular events with long histories.
The Greater Boston region is the only city/surrounding area in American professional sports in which all facilities are privately owned and operated. The Patriots and Revolution both own Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the Red Sox own Fenway Park, and TD Garden is owned by Delaware North, owner of the Bruins. The Celtics rent TD Garden from Delaware North.
The PGA Tour Deutsche Bank Championship is a regular professional golf tour stop in the state. Massachusetts has played host to nine U.S. Opens, four U.S. Women's Opens, two Ryder Cups, and one U.S. Senior Open.
Many colleges and universities in Massachusetts are active in college athletics. There are a number of NCAA Division I members in the state for multiple sports: Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, Harvard University, College of the Holy Cross, University of Massachusetts Amherst, and the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
Massachusetts has produced several successful Olympians including Thomas Burke, James Connolly, and John Thomas (track & field); Butch Johnson (archery); Nancy Kerrigan (figure skating); Todd Richards (snowboarding); Albina Osipowich (swimming); Aly Raisman (gymnastics); Patrick Ewing (basketball); as well as Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione, Bill Cleary, and Keith Tkachuk (ice hockey).[7] [8]
Notable soccer (or association football) players from Massachusetts include Bert Patenaude, Billy Gonsalves, Geoff Cameron, Miles Robinson, Sam Mewis, and Kristie Mewis. Patenaude and Gonsalves (both inductees of the National Soccer Hall of Fame and natives of Fall River, Massachusetts)[9] [10] played for the U.S. men's national team at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930 (hosted in Uruguay). Patenaude scored the first hat-trick in World Cup history.[11] The USMNT finished in third place.[12]
In 1999, Sports Illustrated published the fifty (50) greatest 19th and 20th century sports figures from each U.S. state. The criteria used was "not necessarily to where [the athletes] were born, but to where they first showed flashes of the greatness to come." The ten highest ranked Massachusetts athletes were as follows:[13]
| Rank | Name | Sport | Hometown | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Rocky Marciano | Boxing | Brockton, MA | Held the world heavyweight title from 1952 to 1956 |
| 2. | Doug Flutie | American football | Natick, MA | Played at Boston College; won the Heisman Trophy in 1984 |
| 3. | Patrick Ewing | Basketball | Cambridge, MA | Played at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School; 2× Olympic gold medalist (1984, 1992); selected as one of the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History in 2021; Basketball Hall of Fame inductee |
| 4. | Bobby Carpenter | Ice hockey | Beverly, MA | First U.S. player to jump from high school to NHL (in 1981) |
| 5. | Rebecca Lobo | Basketball | Southwick, MA | Massachusetts' all-time leading high school basketball scorer (boys and girls); Basketball Hall of Fame inductee |
| 6. | Alberto Salazar | Track & field | Wayland, MA | 3× New York Marathon winner (1980–82); Boston Marathon winner (1982) |
| 7. | Tom Glavine | Baseball | Billerica, MA | 2× NL Cy Young Award (1991, 1998); 1995 World Series MVP; Baseball Hall of Fame inductee |
| 8. | Pie Traynor | Baseball | Somerville, MA | Posted a career batting average of .320; Baseball Hall of Fame inductee |
| 9. | Harry Agganis | Baseball American football | Lynn, MA | Played at Boston University; Boston Red Sox (1954–55); College Football Hall of Fame inductee |
| 10. | Johnny Kelley | Track & field | Arlington, MA | Olympian; competed in the Boston Marathon over 50 times (winning twice) |
| Club | League | Sport | Venue (capacity) | Founded | Championships | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Red Sox | align=center | MLB | Baseball | Fenway Park (37,500) | align=center | 1901 | 9 World Series |
| Boston Bruins | align=center | NHL | Ice Hockey | TD Garden (17,565) | align=center | 1924 | 6 Stanley Cups |
| Boston Celtics | align=center | NBA | Basketball | TD Garden (18,625) | align=center | 1946 | 18 NBA titles |
| New England Patriots | align=center | NFL | Football | Gillette Stadium (68,750) | align=center | 1960 | 6 Super Bowls |
| New England Revolution | align=center | MLS | Soccer | align=center | 1995 | 0 MLS Cups; 1 Supporters' Shield | |
| Club | League | Sport | Venue (capacity) | Founded | Dissolved | Championships | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boston Braves | align=center rowspan="3" | MLB | Baseball | Braves Field (40,000) | align=center | 1871 | align=center | 1952 | 1 World Series | |
| Worcester Brown Stockings | Worcester Agricultural Fairgrounds | align=center | 1880 | align=center | 1882 | |||||
| Boston Reds | Congress Street Grounds | align=center | 1890 | align=center | 1891 | |||||
| Boston Bulldogs | align=center rowspan="3" | NFL | Football | Braves Field (40,000) | align=center | 1929 | align=center | 1929 | ||
| Boston Redskins | Fenway Park (35,000) | align=center | 1932 | align=center | 1936 | |||||
| Boston Yanks | align=center | 1944 | align=center | 1948 | ||||||
| Boston Breakers | align=center | USFL | Nickerson Field (15,000) | align=center | 1983 | align=center | 1984 | |||
| Boston Rovers | align=center rowspan="4" | NASL | Soccer | Manning Bowl (21,000) | align=center | 1967 | align=center | 1967 | ||
| Boston Beacons | Fenway Park (33,375) | align=center | 1968 | align=center | 1968 | |||||
| Boston Minutemen | Alumni Stadium (30,000) Nickerson Field (15,000) | align=center | 1974 | align=center | 1976 | |||||
| New England Tea Men | Foxboro Stadium (60,000) | align=center | 1978 | align=center | 1980 | |||||
| New England Whalers | align=center | WHA | Ice Hockey | Boston Garden (14,448) | align=center | 1972 | align=center | 1974 | 1 Avco World Trophy |
9 World Series titles
1 World Series title
6 Super Bowl titles
18 NBA Finals titles
6 Stanley Cup titles
1 Avco World Trophy
In addition to the schools listed here, Franklin Pierce University, a full Division II member located near the state border in Rindge, New Hampshire, plays its men's and women's ice hockey home games in Massachusetts on the campus of The Winchendon School. FPU plays men's hockey in the Northeast-10 and women's hockey as a D-I program in the New England Women's Hockey Alliance.
| School | Nickname | Conference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bay Path University | Wildcats | Independent | |
| Hampshire College | Black Sheep | Yankee Small College Conference |
| School | Nickname | Region | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology | Shockers | 21 | |
| Bristol Community College | Bayhawks | 21 | |
| Bunker Hill Community College | Bulldogs | 21 | |
| Holyoke Community College | Cougars | 21 | |
| Mass Bay Community College | Buccaneers | 21 | |
| Northern Essex Community College | Knights | 21 | |
| Quinsigamond Community College | Chiefs | 21 | |
| Roxbury Community College | Tigers | 21 | |
| Springfield Technical Community College | Rams | 21 |
See main article: article and Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) is an organization that sponsors activities in thirty-three sports, comprising 374 public and private high schools in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The MIAA is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), which writes the rules for most U.S. high school sports and activities. The MIAA was founded in 1978, and was preceded by both the Massachusetts Secondary School Principals' Association (MSSPA) (1942–78) and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council (MIAC) (1950–78).
Rugby will become the MIAA's 35th sport in 2016, following a 2015 MIAA vote that passed by a wide majority.[15] As of 2015, there are 19 boys’ teams and 5 girls’ teams across the state, with the majority of the Catholic Conference schools fielding rugby teams.[15]