Sports in North Carolina

Despite having over eight million people, the disbursement of North Carolina's population over three major metropolitan areas precluded attracting any major professional sports league teams until recently. North Carolina remains without a Major League Baseball team despite numerous efforts to attract a team to the state (including the 2010 push to relocate the Florida Marlins to Charlotte). Much of this has to do with North Carolinians preference of college athletics.

On June 19, 2006 the Carolina Hurricanes, a National Hockey League (NHL) franchise based in Raleigh, won the Stanley Cup. The Hurricanes are the first professional sports team from North Carolina to win their sport's highest championship. Home games are played in RBC Center. The now defunct AFL team, the Carolina Cobras, played in the RBC Center from 2000 to 2002.

The National Football League is represented by the Carolina Panthers, who play home games in the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte. The National Basketball Association is represented by the Charlotte Bobcats; home games are played in the Charlotte Bobcats Arena in Charlotte which was also home court to the defunct Women's National Basketball Association team, the Charlotte Sting.

The Carolina RailHawks are a men's professional soccer team in the USL First Division, due to compete in their first season in 2007. Home field is the SAS Stadium in Cary. North Carolina has two teams in the USL Second Division, the Charlotte Eagles (who have won multiple titles) and the Wilmington Hammerheads. The state also boasts two teams from the Premier Development League, the Carolina Dynamo playing out of Greensboro, and the Cary RailHawks U23's who groundshare with the RailHawks. Like in other sports, soccer enjoys popularity at the college level.

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.

Michael Jordan (Wilmington), a famous basketball player, is a North Carolinian. Professional wrestler Ric Flair (calls Charlotte home) is also well worth mentioning.

College athletics

2007 Appalachian State vs. Michigan football game

On September 1, 2007 Applachian State had perhaps the biggest win in program history with a road upset of the #5 Michigan Wolverines, 34-32. With the win Appalachian became the first ever FCS (I-AA) team to defeat an AP nationally ranked FBS (I-A) team. This victory was seen by some analysts to be one of the greatest upsets in NCAA football history. [cite news|title=Appalachian State earns role as conquering hero|author=Pat Ford|publisher=ESPN|date=2007-09-01|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=forde_pat&id=3001214&sportCat=ncf] [cite news|title=Hundreds of Mountaineers fans celebrate upset win|author=Mark Schlabach|publisher=ESPN|date=2007-09-01|url=http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/columns/story?columnist=schlabach_mark&id=3001520] [cite news|title=It's great to be a Mountaineer!|author=Associated Press|publisher=CNNSI|date=2007-09-01|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/football/ncaa/09/02/appalachian.state.party.ap/index.html] [cite news|title=The Mother of All Upsets|author=Stewart Mandel|publisher=CNNSI|date=2007-09-01|url=http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/si_blogs/football/ncaa/2007/09/mother-of-all-upsets.html]

North Carolinians are generally very passionate about college athletics, particularly college basketball.

North Carolina vs. Duke

North Carolina is home to what many 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 including football where the teams play for the Victory Bell. The soccer rivalry is also substantial due to the fact that the two teams are always near the top of the Atlantic Coast Conference standings.

At the end of the school year the school which has beaten the other more times in all sports is awarded the Carlyle Cup.

Other rivalries

As UNC and Duke are not the only college athletic powers in the state other big rivalries exist. Among these include the other two North Carolina-based ACC schools, NC State (Raleigh) and Wake Forest (Winston-Salem). As with UNC-Duke, the rivalry is mainly in basketball but exists in the other sports as well. N.C. State also has a traditional football rivalry with East Carolina (Greenville). A recent source of pride for North Carolinians has been the football success of Appalachian State (Boone). The Mountaineers won the Division I FCS (I-AA) championship in 2005, 2006, and 2007. Appalachian enjoys a rivalry with fellow high country school Western Carolina (Cullowhee). This rivalry is mainly in football though it also extends to other sports.

Recently two schools from Mecklenburg, UNC Charlotte and Davidson, have started to meet regularly in basketball despite being in separate conferences.

List of Division I schools

Venues

"See North Carolina sports venues by capacity"

Notes and references