Sports in Portland, Oregon

Although Portland, Oregon has only one major league sports team (the Trail Blazers of the NBA), it hosts a wide variety of sports and sporting events.

List of Portland teams

Hockey

Portland's first professional sports team was the Portland Rosebuds. Not only were the Rosebuds the first professional sports team in Oregon, they were the first professional hockey team in the U.S. They joined the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in 1914. They were the first U.S. team to play for the Stanley Cup (in 1916, against the Montreal Canadiens). In 1918, the team moved to Chicago and took the name Blackhawks.Fact|date=February 2007 The Rosebuds played at the Portland Hippodrome, the world’s largest indoor ice rink at the time it was built.Fact|date=February 2007 It was on NW 22nd and Marshall; it burned down in 1951.

The Portland Winter Hawks, a major-junior ice hockey team in the Western Hockey League, have been a team since 1976-1977, when the Blazers won the NBA Finals. The Winter Hawks are one of the most popular junior ice hockey teams and have many loyal fans in Portland. They have also produced many NHL stars.

Basketball

Portland has only one major league team, the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association. Several of the team's former players are in the Basketball Hall of Fame, including Dražen Petrović, Bill Walton, Lenny Wilkens, and Clyde "The Glide" Drexler. The Blazers won their only NBA Championship in 1977. They lost in the NBA finals in 1990 (to the Detroit Pistons) and 1992 (to the Chicago Bulls).

One minor league basketball team, the Portland Chinooks in the International Basketball League, has recently been established. The Oregon Riptide, an American Basketball Association team announced in summer 2006, has not materialized. The city was also home to a WNBA team, the Portland Fire. The team never made the playoffs and folded in 2002.

Baseball and Softball

The Portland Beavers are a Triple-A baseball team from the Pacific Coast League affiliated with the San Diego Padres. The current franchise was founded in 2001, though the name dates to an early Portland baseball team established in 1903. The Beavers play in PGE Park. The original Beavers stadium was Vaughn Street Park located in northwest Portland. The Beavers have won the Pacific Coast League Pennant the following years: 1906, 1910, 1911, 1913, 1914, 1932, 1936, 1945 and 1983.

There has been recent interest in attracting a Major League Baseball franchise to Portland. In 2004, the city made an unsuccessful bid for the Montreal Expos, and in 2006 was contacted by the Florida Marlins.

The local Alpenrose Dairy is host to the annual Little League softball World Series and has a velodrome on site.

Soccer

The Portland Timbers of the United Soccer Leagues First Division play at PGE Park. Since they were formed in 2001, the Timbers have made the playoffs four out of six times but have never won a championship.

Other sports teams

*Lacrosse. One of Portland's newest and fastest growing teams in popularityFact|date=February 2007 is the Portland LumberJax of the National Lacrosse League. In the LumberJax first season, they clinched their division, a rare feat for a first-year team.

*Rugby union. Portland is home to several senior-level men's rugby union football clubs and one women's club that are sanctioned members of USA Rugby. In men's rugby, the Oregon Sports Union ("ORSU Jesters") RFC [http://www.orsu.org] and the Portland Rugby Football Club (PRFC, "Portland Pigs") [http://www.portlandrugby.org] compete in Division II of the Pacific Northwest Rugby Football Union (PNRFU) [http://www.pnrfu.com/] . The Portland Avalanche RFC [http://www.avalancherugby.org] is an alternative men's rugby club open to diverse communities who compete in PNRFU Division III and (IGRAB). In 2007, ORSU finished second in PNRFU Division II, while the Portland Pigs finished fourth. IN 2008, Portland finished 2nd and have a 2 game win streak over ORSU. The PRFC were founded in 1961, while ORSU was formed in 1989 from the existing Jesters Rugby Club which was founded in 1974. The Avalanche RFC is primarily targeted towards diverse minorities in the Portland community, however, anyone who is interested is encouraged to play. In the women's competition, the ORSU Women's Rugby team [http://www.orsu.org] was founded in 1994 and remains the only women's senior rugby club in the Portland area. The ORSU Women placed first in PNRFU Division I in 2006 and 2007, and were ranked #10 nationally under USA Rugby in 2006.

*Tennis. Team Portland Tennis [http://www.teamportland-tennis.org] is a gay and lesbian tennis group that hosts the GLTA-sanctioned Rose City Open every Labor Day weekend and provides various opportunities to meet and compete within the gay community.

*Touch rugby. The Portland Touch Rugby team is a member of the US Federation of International Touch (USFIT)and has won the national championship several times. The Portland team, the Portland Hunters, is home to a number of key members of the US National Touch team who have competed in the Touch Rugby International World Cup several times.

* Australian Rules Football. Portland is home to the Portland Power USAFL team, one of the oldest in the United States, having formed in 1998. The club also runs a small metro footy league [http://www.portlandfooty.com/] . Portland holds the record attendance for an Australian Rules Football match (14,787), when visiting Australian Football League clubs Melbourne and West Coast competed at Civic Stadium in 1990.

*Paintball. The Portland Naughty Dogs compete in the National Professional Paintball League in a variety of tournaments around the U.S.

*Roller derby. The Rose City Rollers is an all-female Women's Flat Track Derby Association-affiliated league with over 140 members, founded in 2004. It consists of five teams: the Heartless Heathers, the Break Neck Betties, the High Rollers, the Guns N Rollers, and the All-Star traveling team, the Wheels of Justice, who play in interleague bouts.

*Mixed Martial Arts. Portland is also known as a hub for MMA. It's the site of Team Quest, a training camp founded by MMA legends such as Randy Couture, Dan Henderson, and Matt Lindland. Lindland is also founder and coach of the Portland Wolfpack, Portland's team in the International Fight League. Portland also is host to the semi-annual Sportfight events which frequently showcase the best up and coming fighters in the Pacific Northwest.

Other venues, events, and activities

*Auto racing. Portland is on the Champ Car World Series circuit, hosting the Grand Prix of Portland race at the Portland International Raceway. PIR also hosts a race on the American Le Mans Series and a variety of SCCA, historic, and annual races such as the Rose Cup during the city's Rose Festival.

*Skiing and snowboarding are particularly popular with Portlanders. The area is served by a number of resorts located on nearby Mount Hood, including Timberline, which allows skiing year round. The only other resort in North America with summer skiing is Whistler in British Columbia.

*Rock climbing is growing in popularity as an outdoor pastime. At numerous small crags around town, one may glimpse mountaineers-in-training with their ropes, alpenstocks, and hard-soled boots practicing their technical moves on the rock in preparation for difficult alpine ascents.

*Running is a major sport in the metropolitan area, the home of Nike and of Adidas' American operations. The Portland Marathon has been held annually in the city since 1971. The Hood to Coast Relay is the world's largest running relay race, with approximately 17,000 racers per year running from Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood to the Pacific Ocean at Seaside.

*Horse Racing. Horses have run at Portland Meadows since 1946.

*Velodrome. Amateur cycling weekly at the Alpenrose Velodrome since 1962.