Sports in Boston

Boston, Massachusetts, is home to several major professional sports franchises. They include the Red Sox (baseball), the Celtics (basketball, in the state where the sport was invented), and the Bruins (ice hockey). The New England Patriots (American football) and the New England Revolution (soccer, or association football) play at Gillette Stadium in nearby Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Several Boston-area colleges and universities are also active in college athletics including: Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern, and Harvard. The city is also home to prestigious sports events such as the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta.

Sports are a major part of the city's culture (as well as the culture of the Greater Boston area). Boston sports fans are known for their fanatical devotion to the Red Sox and knowledge of the team's history. However, in recent memory Boston is now known as an American football town, as the Patriots have long seized the title as the most popular team in New England, according to surveys. Fenway Park, home of the Red Sox, is the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball (MLB) and holds a legendary status among baseball fans. Within the same era, what is now the world's oldest existing indoor multi-sports facility – today's Matthews Arena, primarily used by Northeastern University's college sports teams – first opened in 1910, only some 400 meters (1/4 mile) away from the original home field of the Red Sox – and is where on December 1, 1924, the Boston Bruins played their first NHL regular season game.

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, 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.

Major league professional teams

Current teams

Former teams

Major league professional championships

Boston Red Sox (MLB)

9 World Series titles
*1903
*1912
*1915
*1916
*1918
*2004
*2007
*2013
*2018

Boston Braves (MLB)

1 World Series title

*1914

New England Patriots (NFL)

6 Super Bowl titles
*2001 ( XXXVI)
*2003 ( XXXVIII)
*2004 ( XXXIX)
*2014 ( XLIX)
*2016 ( LI)
*2018 ( LIII)

Boston Celtics (NBA)

17 NBA Finals titles
*1957
*1959
*1960
*1961
*1962
*1963
* 1964
*1965
*1966
*1968
*1969
*1974
* 1976
* 1981
*1984
*1986
*2008

Boston Bruins (NHL)

6 Stanley Cup titles
*1929
*1939
*1941
* 1970
* 1972
*2011

New England Whalers (WHA)

1 Avco World Trophy
* 1973

21st century sporting success

Since the turn of the century, Boston's professional sports teams have won 12 championships: six by the Patriots (Super Bowls XXXVI (2001), XXXVIII (2003), XXXIX (2004), XLIX (2014), LI (2016), and LIII (2018)), four by the Red Sox (, , , and ) and one each by the Celtics () and the Bruins (2011) respectively. Their sports teams have also appeared an additional 12 times as league finalists: five by the Revolution (2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2014), three by the Patriots (Super Bowls XLII (2007), XLVI (2011), and LII (2017)), two by the Bruins (2013, and 2019) and two by the Celtics ( and ). The recent sporting success of their teams has given rise to the city's monicker as the " City of Champions", and " Titletown".

In the 2000s, Boston's professional teams had what was argued to be the most successful decade in sports history, winning six championships (three by the Patriots, two by the Red Sox, and one by the Celtics), while also appearing an additional five times as league finalists (four by the Revolution, one by the Patriots).

In the 2010s, their professional teams rivaled their 2000s achievements, winning six additional championships (three by the Patriots, two by the Red Sox, and one by the Bruins), while also appearing an additional six times as league finalists (two by the Patriots, two by the Bruins, one by the Celtics, and one by the Revolution).

When the Bruins won the 2011 Stanley Cup Finals, the city of Boston became the first city in the 21st century to have at least four of its major professional league teams win a league championship, and became the only city to ever have championships in four major professional leagues within a ten-year span, accomplishing this feat in a span of six years, four months, and nine days (from the Patriots' championship win on February 6, 2005 to the Bruins' championship win on June 15, 2011). Los Angeles would accomplish this same feat in 2022. This sporting achievement was what Dan Shaughnessy of ''Sports Illustrated'' dubbed as Boston completing the "Grand Slam of North American sports."

Since 2002, DUKWs (aka "duck boats") provided by Boston Duck Tours have been used as Boston's championship parade vehicles, starting with the New England Patriots after the Patriots won Super Bowl XXXVI over the St. Louis Rams. As a result of this recent practice, the catch phrase "cue the duck boats" has been utilized whenever a Boston sports team has won a championship in advance of its celebratory parade. While much of the parade routes over the years consisted of the duck boats staying on land, some featured them traversing both the land and across the Charles River.

Soccer

According to American folklore, Pilgrim fathers observed a form of soccer called pasuckuakohowog that was played by Native Americans along the Massachusetts coast as early as 1620, the earliest observance of soccer of any form in what is currently the United States.

In 1862, The Oneida Football Club in Boston, who grew tired of the chaotic, disorganized, and very violent games that arose from different schools, as well as the rule variations of soccer that existed as a by-product of no formal rules for the game during that era. Miller organized other recent preparatory school graduates from relatively elite public (state) schools in the area, such as Boston Latin School and the English High School of Boston to join this team that played their games at Boston Common. Between 1862–65, playing against other pickup teams within Boston's collegiate community, the Oneidas never lost a match. Like American football historians, soccer historians trace the origins of their sport in the region to the Oneida Football Club and their brand of football that they played called the "Boston Game", which was a hybrid of both sports today that featured a rounded ball that could be kicked, carried, and thrown. The Boston game would go on to be introduced to Yale University, Columbia University, Cornell University, and Boston's Harvard University. This hybrid form of football, that would evolve into what is now American football, would eventually adopt codified rules based primarily on those established for English rugby, gained prominence and acceptance within the college circles, and upper-class status, relegating the uncodified "soccer" variety of the game to working-class status, that was adopted by the immigrant communities that brought along their soccer customs and traditions with them to the region.

In 1923, the world’s first indoor soccer league with 11-a-side teams on a full-sized field opened the winter season at the Commonwealth Calvary Armory in Boston.

In 1924, the Boston Soccer Club was formed and played in the professional American Soccer League, which comprised teams based in the northeastern U.S. region. The team was later renamed the Boston Bears in 1929 and played for an additional few seasons before the league folded in 1933 due to the Great Depression in the United States.

At the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930, Bert Patenaude (from Fall River, Massachusetts) scored the first hat-trick in World Cup play. The USMNT finished in third place.

1967 brought about the birth of nationwide professional soccer featuring two competing leagues. Of the two, Boston only played in the United Soccer Association and was represented by the Boston Rovers, whose roster was composed of players from Shamrock Rovers F.C. from the League of Ireland as well as guest players. They played their home matches at the Manning Bowl in Lynn, Massachusetts. In 1968, the United Soccer Association and the National Professional Soccer League merged to become the FIFA-backed, major professional North American Soccer League (NASL). Boston was represented that year by the Boston Beacons who played their lone season at Fenway Park. In 1974–76, Boston was represented in the league by the Boston Minutemen who played their home games in various stadiums within Greater Boston, including Nickerson Field and Foxboro Stadium. From 1978–80, Greater Boston was represented in the league by the New England Tea Men who played out of Foxboro Stadium. The team would relocate to Jacksonville, Florida after three seasons.

After the NASL folded on March 28, 1985, a new nationwide professional soccer league would re-emerge in 1996 in the form of Major League Soccer (MLS) following the success of the 1994 FIFA World Cup (with Foxboro Stadium as one of nine venues). Greater Boston would be represented by the New England Revolution, who play all their home games in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Gillette Stadium has served as the Revolution's current home stadium since 2002. The club's nickname "Revolution" refers to the New England region's significant involvement in the American Revolutionary War that took place from 1775 to 1783. The Revolution have participated in five MLS Cup finals in 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2014, but have not yet won. They won the 2021 MLS Supporters' Shield for the best regular season record.

Notable footballers who played in Boston include Portuguese legend Eusébio, and U.S. national team members: Taylor Twellman, Clint Dempsey, Alexi Lalas, and Billy Gonsalves (a native of Fall River, Massachusetts and was nicknamed the "Babe Ruth of American Soccer" during his career).

Basketball

The Boston Celtics basketball team, who play at the TD Garden, were a founding member of the Basketball Association of America, one of the two leagues that merged to form the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Celtics, along with rivals the Los Angeles Lakers, have the distinction of having more Championships than any other NBA team, with seventeen championships from 1957 to 2008. They had a remarkable run of titles from the 1956–57 until the 1968–69 seasons, winning 11 of 13 championships in that span, including an NBA record 8 titles in a row from 1958–59 until 1965–66, under legendary center Bill Russell.

The list of Celtics who are members of the Basketball Hall of Fame include, among others, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy, John Havlicek, Dave Cowens, Larry Bird, Sam Jones, Nate Archibald, original owner Walter Brown, and longtime coach and team president Red Auerbach, who worked for the team until his death in 2006 at age 89. Longtime announcer Johnny Most was also honored by the Basketball Hall of Fame as a recipient of the Curt Gowdy Media Award. After finishing with a record of 24–58 in 2006–07, the team acquired Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett from the Seattle SuperSonics and Minnesota Timberwolves, respectively, to aid longtime Celtics star Paul Pierce make up one of the best defensive and offensive lineups in NBA history. With help of up-and-coming Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, and head coach Doc Rivers the team once again made history by winning the 2008 NBA Finals and their 17th championship against long-time rivals the Lakers.

One of the most notable athletes from Greater Boston was Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing who grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School. Ewing won Olympic gold medals as a member of the 1984 and 1992 U.S. men's basketball teams and was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996 and as one of the 75 Greatest Players in NBA History in 2021.

Ice hockey

The TD Garden, above North Station, is the home to the Boston Bruins ice hockey team of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Bruins, founded in 1924, were the first American member of the NHL and an Original Six franchise, and have won six Stanley Cups, the latest being in 2011, where they defeated the Vancouver Canucks in seven games. The Bruins' first venue — the only one of the Original Six teams to have its original venue still in existence — was the former Boston Arena on Huntington Avenue, having been built in 1910 under that name and now exists as Northeastern University's Matthews Arena, which is also the oldest purpose-built indoor ice hockey arena still in use in the world for the sport, used for Northeastern Huskies collegiate ice hockey and basketball in the 21st century.

Hall of Fame players such as forward Milt Schmidt, and defensemen Eddie Shore, Raymond Bourque and the legendary Bobby Orr have played for the Bruins, as well as the NHL's tallest-ever player, Slovakian-born defenseman Zdeno Chára, the former captain of the Bruins. The team has been managed/coached by Hall of Famers such as team founder Charles Adams (namesake of hockey's old Adams Division), Art Ross (donor and namesake of the NHL's trophy for annual scoring champion), Walter A. Brown, Schmidt and Harry Sinden. Orr was voted the greatest athlete in Boston history in the ''Boston Globe'' newspaper's poll of New Englanders in 1975, beating out baseball and basketball stars such as Ted Williams, Bill Russell (basketball), Bill Russell, Carl Yastrzemski and Bob Cousy.

Since their initial meeting on December 8, 1924, the longest-standing rivalry in the NHL is the one between the Bruins and their Canadian archrival, the Bruins–Canadiens rivalry, Montreal Canadiens, as these two teams have met 34 times in the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, with Montreal taking 18-straight playoff series from the Bruins between 1946 and 1987.

Boston's local colleges are also very strong in hockey. Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey, Boston College and Boston University Terriers men's ice hockey, Boston University are always competitive and at the top of the college rankings, both competing in the Hockey East conference. In the past ten years, Boston College has won three national championships (2008, 2010 and 2012) and Boston University has won one (2009). BC and BU, along with the Northeastern Huskies, also of Hockey East, and the Harvard Crimson of ECAC Hockey, compete in the Beanpot (ice hockey), Beanpot, considered the most prestigious in-season collegiate hockey tournament. It is played on the first two Mondays of February at TD Garden, with the semifinal matchups rotating on a year-to-year basis.

Baseball

The Boston Red Sox are a founding member of the American League of Major League Baseball (MLB), and one of the four American League teams (the Chicago White Sox, White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Guardians, and Detroit Tigers, Tigers are the others) to still play in their original city. The "BoSox", or "Sox" as they are colloquially called, play their home games at Fenway Park, located near Kenmore Square, in the Fenway-Kenmore, Fenway section of Boston. Built in 1912, it is the oldest sports arena or stadium in active use in the United States among the four major professional sports.
Boston was also the Huntington Avenue Grounds, site of the first game of the first baseball World Series, in 1903. The Boston-New York baseball rivalry has existed since May 7, 1903: the Yankees–Red Sox rivalry, Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, with the New York team then being known as the "Highlanders", from their Upper Manhattan Hilltop Park, home field location. The 1903 World Series was played between the Red Sox (then known as the "Americans") and the Pittsburgh Pirates, while the team still played at the Huntington Avenue Grounds (the site is now a part of Northeastern University, Boston, Northeastern University). The Sox won that series and eight more since then (1912, 1915, 1916, 1918, 2004, 2007, 2013, and 2018). The 2004 Boston Red Sox season, 2004 team is said to have broken the 86-year-long "Curse of the Bambino." There have been many legendary players on the team including Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Carlton Fisk, Wade Boggs, Jim Rice, Pedro Martínez, Roger Clemens, and David Ortiz.

For the first half of the 20th century, Boston had two Major League Baseball franchises. The History of the Boston Braves, Boston Braves, operated in the National League from 1871 to 1952 before relocating to Milwaukee, and finally moving to their current home, Atlanta. They played their home games at South End Grounds (1871–1914) and Braves Field (1915–1952). In 1914, the Braves performed one of the most memorable comebacks in major league history, going from last place to first place in two months, becoming the first team to win a List of National League pennant winners, pennant after being in last place on the Fourth of July. The Braves went on to sweep Connie Mack's heavily favored Athletics in four games in the 1914 World Series. The franchise is the oldest continuous professional sports franchise.

American football

The Boston game

The Boston Game is thought to be the origin of American football, played by New England University-preparatory school, prep schools. In 1855, manufactured inflatable balls were introduced. These were much more regular in shape than the handmade balls of earlier times, making kicking and carrying more skillful. Two competing versions had evolved during this time; the "kicking game" which resembled soccer and the "running" or "carrying game" which resembled rugby union. hybrid of the two, known as the "Boston game", was played by a group known as the Oneida Football Club

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