Sports in North Carolina
Athletes and sports teams from North Carolina compete at every level of competition in the United States including NASCAR the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL along with several colleges and universities in various conferences across an array of divisions.
Baseball
Though it has never been home to a Major League Baseball club, North Carolina is home to a vast collection of minor league clubs most notably the Triple-A Charlotte Knights and Durham Bulls, the top farm teams for the Chicago White Sox and Tampa Bay Rays, respectively.
Overall, North Carolina is home to 20 professional or semi-professional teams. Most colleges with athletic programs also field baseball teams.
Basketball
Professional
North Carolina's first professional basketball team was the American Basketball Association's Carolina Cougars. The Cougars played in North Carolina between 1969 and 1974 and split their games between the Greensboro Coliseum, the original Charlotte Coliseum and Raleigh's Dorton Arena.
Following the Cougars' move to St. Louis it would be fourteen years before professional basketball would return to the Old North State when Charlotte was awarded the NBA's 24th franchise, the Charlotte Hornets. The Hornets played at the Charlotte Coliseum before moving to New Orleans following a bitter dispute between team ownership and the city over funding for a new arena. Two years after the Hornets decamped the Queen City was named as the home of the expansion Charlotte Bobcats who would play two seasons at the Coliseum before taking up residence at the new Time Warner Cable Arena in Uptown. North Carolina Tar Heels legend Michael Jordan is the majority owner of the Bobcats.
College
Despite having hosted three professional teams, North Carolina is best known as a hotbed of college basketball and is home to some of the most successful and most popular teams in the nation in both the men's and women's game.
North Carolina is home to what some consider the best rivalry in American sports, North Carolina vs. Duke. Chapel Hill (UNC) and Durham (Duke) are only 8 miles apart. This rivalry reaches its climax in basketball but often spills over to other sports. North Carolina State and Wake Forest are also considered major rivals of the Blue Devils and Tar Heels, for more on the four-way rivalry see Tobacco Road.
Other major college teams in the state include the Charlotte 49ers, Davidson Wildcats, East Carolina Pirates, UNC Asheville Bulldogs, UNC Greensboro Spartans, and UNC Wilmington Seahawks.
Football
North Carolina is home to the Carolina Panthers of the NFL who play their home games at the 74,500-seat Bank of America Stadium in Uptown Charlotte. The Panthers played their first season in 1995 at Memorial Stadium on the campus of Clemson University in neighboring South Carolina. On February 1st, 2004 the Panthers played in Super Bowl XXXVIII.
The Panthers were not North Carolina's first foray into professional football though, in the mid-1970s the Hornets of the World Football League called American Legion Memorial Stadium in Charlotte home.
College football is also very popular in North Carolina with most major colleges fielding teams and UNC Charlotte preparing to do so in 2013. Notably North Carolina is home to the Appalachian State Mountaineers from Boone, App State has won national titles at the Division I-FBS level in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Charlotte is home to the Belk Bowl.
Golf
Pinehurst Resort, a world famous golf resort, is located in the Sandhills and has played host to several major golf championships including the United States Open Championship, the PGA Championship, and the Ryder Cup Matches. In 2014 Pinehurst will make history when it becomes the first course to host both the men's and women's U.S. Open in the same year.
Several professional tours make stops in North Carolina every year, including the EGolf Professional Tour (formerly the Tarheel Tour) which is based in Charlotte. Annual PGA Tour stops in the state are the Quail Hollow Championship at the Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, and the Greater Greensboro Open which has alternated between several course in Greensboro. The second-tier Nationwide Tour visits Raleigh every year for the Carolina Classic.
Ice Hockey
The 2006 Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes call Raleigh's RBC Center home. The Stanley Cup won by the Hurricanes was the first major professional sports championship won by a team based in North Carolina. The primary development team for the Hurricanes, the Charlotte Checkers, also play in North Carolina.
Fayetteville also has an ice hockey team, the FireAntz of the Southern Professional Hockey League.
Motorsports
North Carolina has a proud history in motorsports and claims to be the home to 80% of American racing teams, mostly from NASCAR. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is located in uptown Charlotte.
Stars
Richard Petty (Level Cross) and Dale Earnhardt (Kannapolis) were both born in North Carolina and are a great source of pride for Carolinians (both North and South) and Southerners in general. Both men won the Winston Cup a record 7-times.
Earnhardt's son, Dale Jr. (also Kannapolis) has become the face of NASCAR and is a sports hero in the Carolinas. Fellow current drivers Brian Vickers (Thomasville), and Scott Riggs (Durham) are also very popular with local fans.
Dale Sr. is the son of Ralph Earnhardt (now passed) and the father of Kerry Earnhardt (also both Kannapolis).
Petty's father Lee (passed) and son Kyle (both Randleman) are also very popular. Kyle's son Adam (High Point) was killed when his car crashed during a practice at New Hampshire International Speedway in Loudon, New Hampshire.
Outside of the Earnhardt and Petty clans North Carolina is home to many other NASCAR legends such as Junior Johnson (Wilkes County), Richard Childress (Winston-Salem), Ned and Dale Jarrett (both Newton), Andy Petree (Hickory), and Rick Hendrick (Warrenton).
Tracks
Once a major part of the NASCAR circuit North Carolina now only has one track on the schedule, Charlotte. The 167,000-seat Charlotte track is arguably the heart and soul of NASCAR. The track, actually in Concord, hosts three Sprint Cup events every season, including the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race (formally The Winston). Charlotte also hosts NASCAR's longest and most grueling race, the Coca-Cola 600, every May. The winner of the race earns tremendous respect among peers and fans due to the distance (the longest on the circuit) and the weather (North Carolina is known for extremely humid and hot summers). During race weeks Concord is said to balloon from its normal population of just under 56,000 to over 300,000.
Tracks that formerly hosted Cup Series events include North Wilkesboro Speedway, Rockingham Speedway, and Metrolina Speedway.
Soccer
There are no Major League Soccer teams in North Carolina but the state is home to three professional teams, the Carolina RailHawks of the NASL play at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, along with the Charlotte Eagles and Wilmington Hammerheads of the USL Professional Division. Additionally the Carolina Dynamo of Greensboro play in the national USL Premier Development League and Charlotte and Greensboro both have women's teams in the USL W-League.
As with other sports, college soccer is important in North Carolina. The Tar Heels have dominated women's college soccer on a national level, laying claim to the lion's share of all Division I national championships in the sport. The Heels have also been successful in men's soccer winning national and conference champions. Duke and Wake Forest have also won national soccer championships.
On June 9, 2011 Charlotte will host a group stage game during the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Other sports
In recent years lacrosse has experienced a period of steady growth in North Carolina that has seen high schools in the three main metropolitan areas add the sport to their programs, this growth culminated in Charlotte being awarded a Major League Lacrosse expansion team, the first professional outdoor lacrosse team in the South. Duke and North Carolina field lacrosse teams for both sexes and both of the schools' men's teams have won national championships -- North Carolina is, interesting, the westernmost school to win the men's national championship -- and North Carolina's women's team has appeared in a championship final. Division I High Point and five schools in the Division II Conference Carolinas also play lacrosse.
Softball is popular at the collegiate, scholastic, and recreational levels.
North Carolina and NC State field women's gymnastics teams in the East Atlantic Gymnastics League, which both have each won four times.
The state is home to nine NCAA Women's Field Hockey Championship titles with North Carolina winning six and Wake Forest winning three.
Miscellany
The North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame was established in February, 1963, with the support of the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce, "to honor those persons who by excellence of their activities in or connected with the world of sports have brought recognition and esteem to themselves and to the State of North Carolina." The Hall of Fame inducted its first five members in December of that year.
List of Division I schools
| Institution | Location | Established | Conference | School type | Undergraduate Enrollment | Varsity sports |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Appalachian State | Boone | 1899 | SoCon | Public (UNC) | 13,447 | 18 |
| Campbell | Buies Creek | 1887 | A-Sun | Private (Baptist) | 2,843 | 19 |
| Davidson | Davidson | 1837 | SoCon | Private (Presbyterian) | 1,700 | 21 |
| Duke | Durham | 1838 | ACC | Private | 6,244 | 26 |
| East Carolina | Greenville | 1907 | C-USA | Public (UNC) | 17,728 | 19 |
| Elon | Elon | 1889 | SoCon | Private (United Church of Christ) | 4,849 | 16 |
| Gardner–Webb | Boiling Springs | 1905 | A-Sun | Private (Baptist) | ~4,000 | 19 |
| High Point | High Point | 1924 | Big South | Private (Methodist) | 2,699 | 14 |
| North Carolina | Chapel Hill | 1789 | ACC | Public (UNC) | 16,764 | 28 |
| North Carolina A&T | Greensboro | 1891 | MEAC | Public (UNC) | 9,735 | 11 |
| North Carolina Central | Durham | 1910 | MEAC | Public (UNC) | 8,600 | 16 |
| North Carolina State | Raleigh | 1887 | ACC | Public (UNC) | 23,730 | 26 |
| UNC Asheville | Asheville | 1927 | Big South | Public (UNC) | 3,453 | 9 |
| UNC Charlotte | Charlotte | 1946 | A-10 | Public (UNC) | 16,584 | 12 |
| UNC Greensboro | Greensboro | 1891 | SoCon | Public (UNC) | 12,291 | 16 |
| UNC Wilmington | Wilmington | 1947 | CAA | Public (UNC) | 10,581 | 19 |
| Wake Forest | Winston-Salem | 1834 | ACC | Private (Baptist) | 4,231 | 18 |
| Western Carolina | Cullowhee | 1889 | SoCon | Public (UNC) | 8,891 | 13 |
Notes:
- Campbell will join the Big South in the summer of 2011 for all sports except for football (Pioneer Football League), swimming (Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association), and wrestling.
- Davidson competes in the Pioneer Football League for football, the Colonial Athletic Association for women's swimming & diving, the NORPAC conference for field hockey, and the American Lacrosse Conference for lacrosse.
- Gardner-Webb is a member of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association for swimming
- North Carolina is a member of the ACC for all sports except fencing and gymnastics (East Atlantic Gymnastics League).
- NC A&T is a member of the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association for swimming.
- NC State is a member of the ACC for all sports except gymnastics (East Atlantic Gymnastics League), and rifle (SEARC).
Team list
Venues
See List of sports venues in North Carolina
External links
Notes and references
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