Sports in the United States

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Sports are an important part of the culture of the United States. The four major professional sports leagues in the United States are Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Basketball Association (NBA), the National Football League (NFL), and the National Hockey League (NHL); all enjoy massive media exposure and are considered the preeminent competitions in their respective sports in the world. Three of those leagues have teams that represent Canadian cities, and all four are among the most lucrative sports leagues in the world. The top professional soccer league in the United States, Major League Soccer, has not yet reached the popularity levels of the top four sports leagues or its international counterparts, although average attendance has been increasing.


Sports are particularly associated with education in the United States, with most high schools and universities having organized sports. College sports competitions play an important role in the American sporting culture, and certain college sports — particularly college football and college basketball — are at least as popular as professional sports. The major sanctioning body for college sports is the NCAA.


The United States has sent athletes to every celebration of the modern Olympic Games, except the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR, which it boycotted due to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is the National Olympic Committee for the United States.

American athletes have won a total of 2570 medals at the Summer Olympic Games and another 253 at the Winter Olympic Games[citation needed]. More medals have been won in athletics (track and field) (738, 29%) and swimming (489, 19%) than any others[citation needed]. Thomas Burke was the first athlete to represent the United States at the Olympics. He took first place in both the 100 meters and the 400 meters of the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece[citation needed]. American athlete Michael Phelps is the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, with 22 Olympic medals, 18 of them gold.

Michael Phelps celebrates after winning his 8th gold medal.

The United States has won more gold and overall medals than any other country in the Summer Games and overall. The US also has the second-most overall medals at the Winter games, trailing only Norway. Earlier United States mainly conceded to Soviet Union at summer Games and to Soviet Union, Norway, East Germany at winter Games only and now strongly fights with China only at summer Games. The United States is the only country to have won at least one gold medal at every Winter Olympics, and has won the total medal count at Lake Placid in the 1932 Winter Olympics and at Vancouver in the 2010 Winter Olympics. During the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, the United States set a record for most total medals of any country at a single Winter Olympics.

The United States has hosted both Summer and Winter Games in 1932 and most occasions of the Games among other countries - eight times, four times each for the Summer and Winter Games:

Individual sports[edit]

Motor sports[edit]

Jimmie Johnson has won Driver of the Year five times.

Motor sports are widely popular in the United States, but Americans generally ignore major international series, such as Formula One and MotoGP, in favor of home-grown racing series.

Americans, like the rest of the world, initially began using public streets as a host of automobile races. As time progressed it was soon discovered that these venues were often unsafe to the public as they offered relatively little crowd control. Promoters and drivers in the United States discovered that horse racing tracks could provide better conditions for drivers and spectators than public streets. The result has been long standing popularity for oval track racing while road racing has waned; however, an extensive illegal street racing culture persists.[1]

Indianapolis 500[edit]




The CART-IRL feud coincided with an enormous expansion of stock car racing, governed by NASCAR, from its past as a mostly regional circuit mainly followed in the Southern U.S. to a truly national sport. NASCAR's audience peaked in the mid 2000s, and has declined a bit but it continues to have around 2-4 million viewers per race. Current NASCAR drivers include Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Tony Stewart, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. NASCAR's most popular race is the Daytona 500 held each year at Daytona Beach, Florida in February.

Other motorsports[edit]

In addition to autoracing, several other motorsports enjoy varying degrees of popularity in the United States: dirt track racing, sprint car racing, monster truck competitions (including the internationally popular Monster Jam circuit), demolition derby, figure 8 racing and tractor pulling.

Track & Field[edit]


A particular turning point in US track occurred in the running boom of the 1970s. After a series of American successes in various disciplines of running from the likes of marathoners Frank Shorter and Bill Rodgers as well as track athletes Dave Wottle and Steve Prefontaine, running as an American past-time finally manifested. Carl Lewis is also credited with "normalizing" the practice of having a lengthy track career as opposed to retiring once reaching the age when it is less realistic of gaining a PB (personal best) result. The United States is home to school-sponsored track and field, a tradition in which most schools from middle school through college feature a track and field team. High school track and field in the United States provides excellent development for creating a big talent pool of athletes in the country. Due to the amount of American athletes who satisfy Olympic norm standards, the US holds national trials to select the best of its top-tier athletes for Olympic competition.

Billie Jean King founded the Women's Tennis Association and other organizations.


Tennis is a popular sport in the U.S.,[citation needed] with the pinnacle of the sport in the country being the US Open played every fall in New York. Tennis is popular in all five categories (Men's and Ladies' Singles; Men's, Ladies' and Mixed Doubles);[citation needed] however, the most popular are the singles. The United States has had a lot of success in tennis for many years, with players such as Billie Jean King (pictured), Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and Pete Sampras dominating their sport in the past. More recently, the Williams sisters, Venus Williams and Serena Williams, have been a strong force in the women's game, and the twin brothers Bob and Mike Bryan have claimed nearly every possible record for men's doubles teams.

Outdoor sports[edit]

Hunting and fishing are very popular in the U.S., especially in rural areas. Other popular outdoors activities in the country include hiking, mountain climbing, paintball and kayaking. In winter, many Americans head to mountainous areas for skiing and snowboarding. Cycling and road bicycle racing have increased in popularity, fueled by the success of cyclists Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong (although Armstrong has now been stripped of most of his honors due to doping revelations).

Other popular individual sports[edit]

  • Skateboarding – Skateboarding culture was born in the U.S., which holds many of the top tournaments and produces the majority of professional skateboarders.
  • Surfing
  • Horse racing – The Breeders Cup and the Triple Crown are the two most prominent competitions; the latter has not been swept since 1978, the longest drought in the contest's history.
  • Fencing
  • Swimming – Swimming is a major competitive sport at high school and college level, but receives little mainstream media attention outside of the Olympics.
  • Mountain biking
  • Bowling – Bowling is the most popular participation "game" sport in the U.S. with more than 43 million people going bowling at least once a year.[4]
  • Figure skating
  • Snowboarding

Popular team sports[edit]


The most popular team sports in the United States are American football, basketball, baseball/softball, soccer, and ice hockey. All five of these team sports are popular with fans, are widely watched on television, have a fully professional league, are played by millions of Americans, and enjoy varsity status at many Division 1 colleges.

Sport Favorite
TV viewing
record (mil)
(since 2000)1
Professional League Participants[6] NCAA DI Teams
(Men + Women)
American football 38.8% 111.5m National Football League 8.9 million 249 (249M + 0W)
Basketball 15.3% 39.1m National Basketball Association 24.4 million 698 (350M + 348W)
Baseball/Softball 14.8% 35.9m Major League Baseball 23.3 million 589 (298M + 291W)
Soccer 8.2% 29.2m Major League Soccer 13.6 million 531 (204M + 327W)
Ice Hockey 3.8% 8.5m National Hockey League 3.1 million 95 (59M + 36W)
  1. TV viewing record measures the game with the most TV viewers in the U.S. since 2000.[7][8][9][10][11]

American football[edit]

American football, known within the U.S. simply as football, has the most participants of any sport at both high school[12] and college levels.[13]



Tom Brady against the Washington Redskins on August 28, 2009.

During football season in the fall, fans have the opportunity to watch high school games on Fridays and Saturdays, college football on Saturdays, and NFL games on Sundays, the usual playing day of the professional teams. However, some colleges play games on Tuesday (the Mid-American Conference in particular plays a national game Tuesday nights) and Wednesday nights, while the NFL offers weekly games on Monday (since 1970) and Thursday (since 2006). Between September and Thanksgiving weekend, there is at least one nationally televised college or professional football game every day.[citation needed]

Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest annual sporting event held in the United States. The Super Bowl itself is always among the highest-rated programs off all-time in the Nielsen ratings.

Notable NFL players include Joe Montana, Roger Staubach, Dick Butkus, Joe Greene, Bart Starr, Johnny Unitas, Walter Payton, Steve Young, Jerry Rice, Brett Favre, Emmitt Smith, and Ray Lewis. Notable current NFL players include Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, and Adrian Peterson.

Indoor American football, a form of football played in indoor arenas, has several professional and semi-professional leagues. The Arena Football League, which plays by the formerly proprietary code of arena football, was active from 1987 to 2008 and folded in 2009, but several teams from the AFL and its former minor league, af2, relaunched the league in 2010. Most other extant indoor leagues date to the mid-2000s (decade) and are regional in nature.

The Canadian Football League has a niche market in the United States; the league has not had any teams or played any games in the United States since the mid-1990s but has had at least some television coverage continuously since 2004. Roughly half of the CFL's players come from the United States, a number that is limited at that level by the league's domestic player quotas.

Nationwide, the NFL obtains the highest television ratings for regular and post-season games among major sports. This situation began in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the establishment of the Super Bowl and merger of the existing professional leagues, the old NFL and the American Football League, into one NFL league. Since then, watching NFL games on television on Sunday afternoons has become a common routine for many Americans during the football season. Among the professional American football teams in the NFL which have become practically identified with their host cities are the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Dallas Cowboys, the New York Giants, the Green Bay Packers and the Washington Redskins. It could also be said[clarification needed] that college football (i.e. NCAA) enjoys unparalleled popularity in the southeastern states, where there are fewer professional teams in the major sports leagues.[citation needed] In many of these areas, college football is the most avidly followed sport, with the Saturday college games being the biggest event of the week.




Alex Rodriguez batting in 2007

Notable American baseball players in history include Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, Cy Young, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, Yogi Berra, Hank Aaron, Nolan Ryan, Cal Ripken, Roger Clemens, and Jackie Robinson, who was instrumental in dissolving the color line and allowing African-Americans into the major leagues. The more noted players of today include Derek Jeter and Albert Pujols.




Of those Americans citing their favorite sport, basketball is ranked second (counting amateur levels) behind football.[citation needed] However, in regards to professional sports the NBA is ranked third in popularity.[15] More Americans play basketball than any other team sport, according to the National Sporting Goods Association, with over 26 million Americans playing basketball. Basketball was invented in 1891 by physical education teacher James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts.

The National Basketball Association, more popularly known as the NBA, is the world's premier men's professional basketball league and one of the major professional sports leagues of North America. It contains 30 teams (29 teams in the U.S. and 1 in Canada) that play an 82-game season from October to June. After the regular season, eight teams from each conference compete in the playoffs for the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. The American Basketball Association, active from 1967 until 1976, when it merged with the NBA, was the last major competitor of the NBA.



Most U.S. states also crown state champions among their high schools. Many high school basketball teams have intense local followings, especially in the Midwest and Upper South.[citation needed] Indiana has 10 of the 12 largest high school gyms in the United States,[16] and is famous for its basketball passion, known as Hoosier Hysteria.

Notable NBA players in history include Wilt Chamberlain (4 time MVP), Bill Russell (5 time MVP), Bob Pettit (11 time all NBA team), Bob Cousy (12 time all NBA team), Walt Frazier, Jerry West, (12 time all NBA team), Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6 time MVP), Magic Johnson (3 time MVP), Larry Bird (3 time MVP), Michael Jordan (6 time finals MVP), John Stockton (#1 in career assists and steals), Karl Malone (14 time all NBA team), Shaquille O'Neal (3 time finals MVP) and Jason Kidd (#2 in career assists and steals). Notable players in the NBA today include Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Dwyane Wade, James Harden, Dwight Howard, Demarcus Cousins, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony.

Ever since the 1990s, an increasing number of players born outside the United States have signed with NBA teams, sparking league interest in different parts of the world. Among the notable foreign-born players in the NBA today are two-time MVP Steve Nash (a South Africa-born Canadian), 2007 Finals MVP Tony Parker (France), and 11 time all-star Dirk Nowitzki (Germany), the first European to win the NBA Most Valuable Player Award.

Aside from its huge popularity as a high school and college sport in Indiana and Kentucky, basketball may also be the most popular professional sport in cities during particular periods when the local NBA team may be enjoying an era of remarkable success, such as in Chicago during the dynasty days of the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan during the 1990s, or in Los Angeles ever since the Los Angeles Lakers developed as a perennial powerhouse and title contender since the 1980s, becoming the most popular sports team in the city[citation needed] and the league's glamor team in part due to the many Hollywood stars regularly attending their games. Professional basketball is also primarily followed in cities where there are no other sports teams in the four major professional leagues, such as in the case of the Oklahoma City Thunder,[17] the Sacramento Kings, the San Antonio Spurs, or the Portland Trail Blazers. New York City has also had a long historical connection with college and professional basketball, and many basketball legends initially developed their reputations playing in the many playgrounds throughout the city. Madison Square Garden, the home arena of the New York Knicks, is often referred to as the "Mecca of basketball."

Ice hockey[edit]

Ice hockey is another popular sport in the United States. The sport is commonly referred to simply as "hockey." In the U.S. the game is most popular in regions of the country with a cold winter climate, namely the northeast and the upper Midwest. However, since the 1990s, hockey has become increasingly popular in the Sun Belt due in large part to the expansion of the National Hockey League to the southeast and southwest U.S., coupled with the mass relocation of many residents from northern cities with strong hockey support to these Sun Belt locations.

The NHL is the major professional hockey league in North America, with 23 U.S.-based teams and 7 Canadian-based teams competing for the Stanley Cup. While NHL stars are still not as readily familiar to the general American public as are stars of the NFL, MLB, and the NBA, average attendance for NHL games in the U.S. has been steadily increasing,[citation needed] and has surpassed average NBA attendance in recent seasons,[when?] buoyed in part by the NHL Winter Classic being played in large outdoor stadiums.


One of the nation's greatest ever sporting moments was the "Miracle on Ice", which came during the 1980 Winter Olympics when the U.S. hockey team beat the Soviet Union 4–3 in the first game of the medal round before going on to beat Finland to claim the gold medal.

After winning the Cup, players traditionally skate around holding the trophy above their heads, as Pavel Datsyuk of the Detroit Red Wings does here when the Wings captured their 11th cup in 2008

Historically, the vast majority of NHL players had come from Canada, with a small number of Americans (mostly out of the Minnesota, Michigan and New England areas). In the 1959–60 NHL season, the league was 97 percent Canadian, and only one American-born player, Charlie Burns (who had grown up in Toronto), was a regular in the league.[18] Ten years later, in 1969–70, the situation had changed little; Canadians made up 95 percent of the league, and only five American-born players were regulars.[18] Things began to change for Americans due to NHL expansion in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as well as the creation of the World Hockey Association in the latter decade. At the time, Eastern Europeans were largely unavailable for political reasons, and Swedes and Finns, though skilled, were seen by many NHL figures as lacking in physical and mental toughness. This gave Americans their first real opportunity to prove themselves in the league, and by the 1979–80 season, slightly more than 10 percent of NHL players were American-born.[18]

The success of European teams, especially the Soviets, against Canadians in the 1970s helped to change stereotypes against European players.[18] During the 1970s and 1980s, the first wave of European players entered the league, mostly from Sweden, Finland, and Eastern Europe. After the fall of communism in Europe, many players from the former Soviet bloc flocked to the NHL. The late 2000s (decade) saw another surge in the number of American-trained players.[citation needed] Today, the majority of NHL players are Canadian, more than 20% are Americans, and virtually all of the remainder are European-trained. (For a more complete discussion, see Origin of NHL players.)

Notable NHL players in history include Wayne Gretzky (leading point scorer), Mario Lemieux, Chris Chelios, Guy Lafleur, Steve Yzerman, Gordie Howe (6 time MVP), Nicklas Lidstrom, Bobby Hull, and Bobby Orr. Famous NHL players today include Sidney Crosby, Alexander Ovechkin, and Claude Giroux.

College hockey has a regional following in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States. It is increasingly being used to develop players for the NHL and other professional leagues, much in the way junior ice hockey does in Canada (the U.S. has junior leagues, the United States Hockey League and North American Hockey League, but they are more restricted to protect junior players' college eligibility). The Frozen Four is college hockey's national championship.

A variation of ice hockey, played primarily at the recreational level, is pond hockey. Several national tournaments are held in the northeastern and upper midwestern United States each year.

Ice hockey competes for "most popular sport" status in areas of northern and western New York State, the northern Great Lakes states and in some parts of New England. NHL teams such as the Detroit Red Wings, the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Boston Bruins, the Philadelphia Flyers, and the New York Rangers are among the most popular sports teams in their home cities.[citation needed] Additionally, American youth hockey development has made great strides in recent decades. While Canada continues to lead the world in youth participation, the U.S. now has more youth hockey players than all other countries, apart from Canada, combined.[18] However, as compared to the other major sports leagues, the sport has comparatively less fan following among minorities in the US, and the majority of players in the NHL are still Canadian or European rather than American.


Landon Donovan representing the U.S. at the 2010 World Cup.

Soccer has been increasing in popularity in the United States in recent years. Soccer is played by over 13 million people in the U.S., making it the third most played sport in the U.S., more widely played than ice hockey and American football. Most Division 1 colleges field both a men's and women's varsity soccer team.

The United States men's national team and women's national team, as well as a number of national youth teams, represent the United States in international soccer competitions and are governed by the United States Soccer Federation (U.S. Soccer). The U.S. men's team is one of only seven teams in the world to have qualified for every World Cup since 1990.[19] The U.S. women's team is tied with Germany for most Women's World Cup championships, and is the only team that has never finished worse than third place in a World Cup.[20]

Major League Soccer is the premier soccer league in the United States. MLS has 19 clubs (16 from the U.S. and 3 from Canada). The 34-game schedule runs from mid-March to late October, with the playoffs and championship in November. Soccer-specific stadiums continue to be built for MLS teams around the country. MLS has a particularly solid following in the Pacific Northwest, where there is a strong rivalry between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders. Other professional men's soccer leagues in the U.S. include the Division II North American Soccer League, and the Division III USL Pro.

Brandi Chastain known for her game-winning penalty in the 1999 World Cup final.

Many American sports fans, as compared to decades ago, now follow international soccer competitions such as the World Cup. Soccer fans also follow foreign club competitions such as the UEFA Champions League and England's Premier League, and there is growing interest in Major League Soccer, the top domestic professional league. Younger generations of Americans are developing stronger fan appreciation for the sport, due to factors such as the U.S. hosting of the 1994 World Cup and the formation of Major League Soccer, as well as increased U.S. television coverage of soccer competitions. Many immigrants living in the United States, also continue to follow soccer as their favorite team sport.

Women's professional soccer in the United States has not seen sustained success. The professional women's leagues—the Women's United Soccer Association and Women's Professional Soccer—each folded after three seasons. U.S. Soccer has since established a new professional league, the National Women's Soccer League, which started in 2013. However, at the lower levels of the salary scale, the NWSL is effectively semi-professional.

Many notable international soccer players have played in the U.S. in NASL — including Pelé, Eusébio, George Best, Franz Beckenbauer, and Johan Cruyff — or in MLS — including Roberto Donadoni, Lothar Matthäus, David Beckham, and Thierry Henry.


Other team sports[edit]

Other popular team sports in the United States, measured by number of participants, include:

  1. Volleyball (10.7 million)[6]
  2. Disc Ultimate (4.9 million)[21]
  3. Lacrosse (684,730)[22]
  4. Rugby (335,001)[23]


Lacrosse is a team sport that is believed to originate with the Iroquois, a confederacy of indigenous tribes that reside in Canada and what is now upstate New York, and was popular among numerous tribes both within and outside the Iroquois in the eastern United States well before the arrival of European settlers. The Iroquois field their own separate national team, the Iroquois Nationals, in recognition of the confederacy's creation of the sport.

Lacrosse is most popular in the East Coast area. All forms of lacrosse are increasing in national popularity.[citation needed] NLL and MLL are the national box and outdoor lacrosse leagues, respectively, and have increased their following in recent years, with the NLL slightly more popular than MLL. Also, many of the top Division I college lacrosse teams draw upwards of 7–10,000 for a game, especially in the Mid-Atlantic and New England areas.[citation needed]



Volleyball is also a notable sport in the United States, especially at the college and university levels. Unlike most Olympic sports which are sponsored widely at the collegiate level for both sexes, the support for college volleyball is dramatically skewed in favor of the women's game. In the 2011–12 school year, over 300 schools in NCAA Division I alone (the highest of three NCAA tiers) sponsored women's volleyball at the varsity level,[24] while fewer than 100 schools in all three NCAA divisions combined sponsored varsity men's volleyball, with only 23 of them in Division I.[25] This is partially due to Title IX; female-oriented sports such as volleyball help balance a college's athletic opportunities for women with those for men.


Rugby Union[edit]

Rugby union, popular in other English-speaking nations, is not as well known in the United States. Rugby is played recreationally and in colleges, though it is not governed by the NCAA (see College rugby). There are more than 457,983 registered and unregistered players,[26] with more than a quarter being women. The semi-professional Rugby Super League is the premier domestic competition. The U.S. national team competes at the Rugby World Cup. In the sevens variation of the sport, the men's national team is one of 15 "core teams" that participate in every event of the annual IRB Sevens World Series, and the women's national team is one of nine core teams in the IRB Women's Sevens World Series.

Rugby participation in the US has grown significantly in recent years, growing by 350% between 2004 and 2011.[27] A 2010 survey by the National Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association ranked rugby as the fastest growing sport in the US.[28] Rugby's profile in the U.S. has received a tremendous boost from the IOC's announcement in 2009 that rugby would return to the Olympics in 2016. Since the Olympic announcement, rugby events such as the Collegiate Rugby Championship, the USA Sevens, and the Rugby World Cup have been broadcast on network TV. The USA Sevens, held every year in February, regularly draws more than 60,000 fans to Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas.

Two recent American presidents have been rugby players. Bill Clinton developed an interest in rugby in England, playing at Oxford University.[29] George W. Bush was a keen player, during high school and University, and was on Yale's 1st XV, and in 1968, he was part of their dramatic win over Harvard.[29][30]



Cricket, another common sport in Commonwealth countries, is not a popular sport in the U.S., but has a niche market and is slowly growing in popularity. Many amateur cricket leagues have been formed by Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Australian, South African, English and Caribbean immigrants, and as a result, the sport has made limited inroads because of a large influx of migrants from cricketing countries who make up almost 16 million of the American population.[31] Cricket used to be the most popular sport in America during the 18th and early 19th centuries,[citation needed] when it suffered a rapid decline as the homegrown sport of baseball overtook cricket as the bat-and-ball code of choice. The first intercollegiate tournament in America was a cricket tournament.[citation needed]

The first annual Canada vs. U.S. cricket match, played since the 1840s, was attended by 10,000 spectators at Bloomingdale Park in New York.[citation needed] The U.S. vs. Canada cricket match is the oldest international sporting event in the modern world, pre-dating even today's Olympic Games by nearly 50 years.[citation needed]

The U.S. participated in the 2004 ICC Champions Trophy where they were comprehensively beaten by Australia and New Zealand. United States of America Cricket Association governs the professional Cricket in the country. United States Cricket team currently plays in World Cricket League Division IV to work their way up to 2013 Cricket World Cup Qualifier in order to enter 2015 Cricket World Cup. In 2011, they played Americas Region Twenty20 Division One tournament and qualified for the 2012 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier. United States Cricket team also plays in the ICC Americas Championship and were qualified for ICC Intercontinental Cup in the past.

United States Youth Cricket Association formed in 2010 to develop the interest in sport among the young kids. Cricket is one of the most watched pay per view sports in the U.S.,[citation needed] and multiple channels are provided by DirecTv, Dish Network and Comcast TV services. Starting 2012, ESPN will broadcast Cricket on ESPN3 and on its regular channels.[32] The only professional Cricket Stadium in the U.S. is Central Broward Regional Park located in Lauderhill, Florida. The Leo Magnus Cricket Complex in Los Angeles and Philadelphia Cricket Club in Philadelphia are few other established Cricket Grounds in the country.

Ultimate and Disc Sports (Frisbee)[edit]

Main article: Ken Westerfield
Disc ultimate is the most popular game of all the disc sports

Alternative sports, using the flying disc, began in the mid-sixties. As numbers of young people became alienated from social norms, they resisted and looked for alternative recreational activities, including that of throwing a Frisbee.[33] What started with a few players like Victor Malafronte, Z Weyand and Ken Westerfield experimenting with new ways of throwing and catching a Frisbee, later would become known as playing freestyle.[34] Organized disc sports, in the 1970s, began with promotional efforts from Wham-O, a few tournaments and professionals using Frisbee show tours to perform at universities, fairs and sporting events. Disc sports such as freestyle, double disc court, guts, disc ultimate and disc golf became this sports first events.[35][36] Two events, the team sport of disc ultimate and disc golf are very popular worldwide and are now being played professionally.[37][38] The World Flying Disc Federation, Professional Disc Golf Association, and the Freestyle Players Association, are the official rules and sanctioning organizations for flying disc sports worldwide.

Disc ultimate is a team sport played with a flying disc. The object of the game is to score points by passing the disc to members of your own team, on a rectangular field, 120 yards (110m) by 40 yards (37m), until you have successfully completed a pass to a team member in the opposing teams end zone. There are currently over four million people that play some form of organized ultimate in the US. Ultimate is also being played professionally with two newly formed leagues, the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) and Major League Ultimate (MLU).

Other sports[edit]

Australian rules football in the United States is a fast growing team and spectator sport that[citation needed] was first played in the country in 1996.[39] The United States Australian Football League is the governing body for the sport in the U.S., with various clubs and leagues around the country. The National Championships are held annually. The United States men's national Australian rules football team and the women's national team both regularly play international matches and play in the Australian Football International Cup, a tournament for all competing countries apart from Australia.






Other team recreational activities[edit]

Angleball is a high fitness sport developed in the 1940s by College Hall of Fame football coach Rip Engle as a way for players to maintain physical fitness in the off-season. It has light contact and minimal rules.[40] Angleball is used for muscle conditioning in the NFL, and for fun by colleges, schools, camps and all-age groups. Because of angleball's light contact gameplay that emphasizes skill, accuracy and endurance, it has been called the best game ever developed for groups up to 40 composed of mixed ages and genders.[citation needed] Angleball gameplay is simple. Two large balls are placed atop standards (normally 10' tall posts with a 10' radius circle around the post) at opposite sides of a field. Teams pass a smaller ball back and forth, attempting to knock the other team's ball off its perch with the smaller ball. An offensive player who is touched by a defensive player cannot shoot for a goal and has three seconds to pass the ball.

Capture the flag is played recreationally by adults and children.



Roller derby is a contact sport played on roller skates that has had brief surges of popularity throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Roller Derby was portrayed in the 2009 film Whip It and in the 2012 documentary "Derby, Baby! A story of love, addiction and rink rash" Since September 2009, there were 350 women's, men's, and junior leagues in the U.S.A.[41] There are multiple Associations that govern roller derby: JRDA = Junior Roller Derby Association MADE = Modern Athletic Derby Endeavor MRDA = Men's Roller Derby Association OSDA = Old School Derby Association RDCL = Roller Derby Coalition of Leagues USARS = USA Roller Sports WFTDA = Women's Flat Track Derby Association WFTDA-AL = WFTDA Apprentice

Organization of American sports[edit]

Amateur sports[edit]

John Wooden, UCLA basketball coaching legend.


Pre-game activities at University of Tennessee football game

High school and college sports fill the developmental role that in many other countries would be the place of youth teams associated with clubs. The major professional sports leagues operate drafts once a year, in which each league's teams selected eligible prospects. Eligibility differs from league to league. Baseball and ice hockey operate minor league systems for players who have finished education but are not ready or good enough for the major leagues. The NBA also has a development league for players who are not ready to play at the top level.

Especially in basketball and football, high school and particularly college sports are followed with a fervor equaling or exceeding that felt for professional sports; college football games can draw six-digit crowds and, for upper-tier schools, sports are a significant source of revenue.

Professional sports[edit]



International competition is not as important in American sports as it is in the sporting culture of most other countries, although Olympic ice-hockey and basketball tournaments do generate attention. The first international baseball tournament with top-level players, the World Baseball Classic, also generated some positive reviews after its inaugural tournament in 2006.

Government regulation[edit]


Sports media in the United States[edit]


The advent of cable and satellite television has greatly expanded sports offerings on American TV. ESPN, the first all-sports cable network in the U.S., went on the air in 1979. It has been followed by several sister networks and competitors.

Many of the professional sports teams run their own cable networks. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner started the YES Network which broadcasts primarily Yankees games and television shows. His starting of his own network led to almost all teams having a station for their franchises.

Despite the size of the sports market in the U.S., the country does not have a national daily sports newspaper. This is because the contiguous 48 states spread across four time zones, and games on the West Coast may not end until early morning in the East (resulting in the phenomenon of East Coast bias). This makes it difficult to distribute a national newspaper with the scores of late games in time for morning delivery. However, there are many weekly American sports magazines, the best-known being Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, and the development of the Internet also has allowed for national sports Web sites to flourish.

Sports are also widely broadcast at the local level, ranging from college and professional sports down to (on some smaller stations) recreational and youth leagues. Internet radio has allowed these broadcasts to reach a worldwide audience.

Most popular sports in the United States[edit]



Baseball vs. Football[edit]



Advocates of football, in turn, point to football's large television audience, including the Super Bowl, though the sport is also facing some negative publicity in the world of youth sports due to media coverage of documented health and injury risks posed to players, including the potential long-term health concerns which concussions pose for children or teenagers.[44][45] Certain teams of both sports, such as the Green Bay Packers, Boston Red Sox,[46] New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals,[47] New England Patriots, Oakland Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers,[48] have cultivated famously loyal fan bases across the country.


Organized college and high school sports[edit]

High school cheerleaders

The most popular college sports, measured by NCAA reporting on varsity team participation,[49] are: (1) football (64,000), (2) baseball/softball (47,000), (3) track and field (46,000),[50] (4) soccer (43,000), (5) basketball (32,000), (6) cross-country running (25,000), and (7) swimming/diving (20,000). The most popular sport among female athletes is soccer, followed closely by track and field.[13]

Among organized high school sports, the sports with the highest number of participants are: (1) football, (2) basketball, (3) track & field, (4) baseball/softball, (5) soccer, and (6) cross-country. Wrestling is the sixth most popular sport for boys, while volleyball is the third most popular sport for girls.[51]

Popular high school sports in various regions of the U.S. include the Texas High School Football championships, the Indiana Basketball championships, and ice hockey in Minnesota.

List of Sports Leagues in the United States[edit]

The Five Major Sports Leagues[edit]

Other Team Sports Leagues[edit]

Other Individual Sports Leagues[edit]

See also[edit]


  4. ^ a b
  5. ^ Sports Business Journal, Fan base complexity sets up intense competition for attention, June 27, 2011,
  6. ^ a b U.S. Census Bureau, Participation in Selected Sports Activities: 2009,
  7. ^ "2014 Superbowl"
  8. ^ "2001 World Series game 7"
  9. ^ "2010 NBA finals game 7"
  10. ^ "2014 World Cup final"
  11. ^ "2011 Stanley Cup game 7"
  12. ^
  13. ^ a b
  14. ^
  15. ^ "Harris Poll of top sports: 2006". 
  18. ^ a b c d e Dryden, Ken (February 20, 2014). "Miracle Off Ice". Retrieved February 20, 2014. 
  19. ^ National_team_appearances_in_the_FIFA_World_Cup#Ranking_of_teams_by_number_of_appearances
  20. ^ FIFA Women's World Cup
  21. ^
  22. ^ U.S. Lacrosse, 2011 Participation Survey,
  23. ^ International Rugby Board, Year in Review 2012, page 46,
  24. ^ "2011-12 Participation Study – Women's Sports". NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report, 1981–82 – 2011–12. NCAA. October 2012. p. 71. Retrieved January 4, 2013. 
  25. ^ "2011-12 Participation Study – Men's Sports". NCAA Sports Sponsorship and Participation Rates Report, 1981–82 – 2011–12. NCAA. October 2012. p. 72. Retrieved January 4, 2013. 
  26. ^ "USA country profile". International Rugby Board. Retrieved 2008-01-16. 
  27. ^
  28. ^ Denver Post |url= missing title (help). 
  29. ^ a b Cain, Nick & Growden, Greg "Chapter 21: Ten Peculiar Facts about Rugby" in Rugby Union for Dummies (2nd Edition), p297 (pub: John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, England) ISBN 978-0-470-03537-5
  30. ^ Clarke, Wes Famous Ruggers, retrieved August 24, 2009
  31. ^ Donahe, Tom (August 11, 2014). Cricket is again making a hit in the U.S.; Olean teams part of resurgence in game’s popularity. Olean Times Herald. Retrieved August 11, 2014.
  32. ^ "USA news: ESPN buys US rights for 2015 World Cup | USA Cricket News". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 2012-09-04. 
  33. ^ Jordan Holtzman-Conston (2010). Countercultural Sports in America: The History and Meaning of Ultimate Frisbee. Waltham, Mass. ASIN 3838311957. 
  41. ^ Roller Derby Worldwide
  42. ^ As American as Mom, Apple Pie and Football? - Harris Interactive, 16 January 2014
  43. ^ Wrestlezone Forums online debate,
  44. ^ NYTimes article:N.F.L. Acknowledges Long-Term Concussion Effects,
  46. ^ Red Sox Nation
  47. ^ Best Fans in Baseball,
  48. ^ "NFL's best fans? We gotta hand it to Steelers (barely) - NFL - ESPN". 2008-08-29. Retrieved 2012-09-04. 
  51. ^ National Federation of State High School Associations, Indianapolis, The 2007–2008 High School Athletics Participation Survey