Sports in Massachusetts

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. For instance, as of July 2025, 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] Additionally, the New England Revolution won the U.S. Open Cup in 2007^[5] and the MLS Supporter's Shield in 2021.^[6] Massachusetts is also notable for being the birthplace of both basketball and volleyball,^[7] and it is home to the Basketball Hall of Fame (Springfield) and the Volleyball Hall of Fame (Holyoke).^[8] Moreover, the state hosts the Cape Cod Baseball League^[9] and prestigious sports events such as the Boston Marathon^[10][11] and the Head of the Charles Regatta (Boston).^[12] Other popular sports events in Massachusetts include the Falmouth Road Race in running, which started in 1973,^[13] and the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, an annual bicycle race held from 1960 to 2020.^[14]

The Greater Boston region is the only city/surrounding area in American professional sports in which all facilities are privately owned and operated. The Kraft Sports Group, which holds ownership of both the Patriots and New England Revolution (a Major League Soccer team), owns Gillette Stadium located in Foxborough, Massachusetts.^[15][16] Fenway Sports Group, led by principal owner John W. Henry, owns both Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox.^[17][18] TD Garden is owned by Delaware North,^[19] and its chairman, Jeremy M. Jacobs, along with his family, owns the Bruins.^[20][21] The Celtics rent TD Garden from Delaware North.^[22]

The PGA Tour Deutsche Bank Championship was a regular professional golf tournament held from 2003 to 2018 in Norton, Massachusetts.^[23] As of July 2025, Massachusetts has played host to ten U.S. Opens,^[24] four U.S. Women's Opens,^[25] two Ryder Cups,^[26] and two U.S. Senior Open.^[27]

Massachusetts is home to many colleges and universities that are active in college athletics,^[28] hosting several NCAA Division I (D-I) institutions that compete in multiple sports. The D-I schools include Boston College, Boston University, Northeastern University, Harvard University, College of the Holy Cross, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Massachusetts Lowell, Merrimack College, and Stonehill College.^[29][28]

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).^[30][31]

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,^[32][33] 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.^[34] The USMNT finished in third place.^[35]

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:^[36]

• 
  Rocky Marciano
  (Boxer)
• 
  Doug Flutie
  (American football)
• 
  Patrick Ewing
  (Basketball Hall of Famer)
• 
  Aly Raisman
  (Olympic gymnast)

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.

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 is the MIAA's 35th sport in 2016, following a 2015 MIAA vote that passed by a wide majority.^[38] 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.^[38]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sports in Massachusetts.

• Massachusetts Sports Teams List 2023