Sports in Memphis, Tennessee

Sports in Memphis, Tennessee are supported in the city by Memphis Park Services, which offers a wide range of public facilities, including 17 swimming pools, 8 public golf courses, 48 athletic fields hosting a range of 510 youth and 269 adult teams, 130 basketball courts (101 outdoor and 29 indoor), 7 tennis centers and a soccer complex.^[1]

Memphis is also home to professional sports teams in basketball, baseball and other sports. Golf, basketball, baseball and tennis are popular recreational sports in Memphis.

The FedEx Forum, home of the Memphis Grizzlies and the University of Memphis Tigers basketball teams.

Overview of Professional Teams

Club	Sport	League	Venue
Memphis Grizzlies	Basketball	National Basketball Association	FedExForum
Memphis Redbirds	Baseball	Pacific Coast League	AutoZone Park
Mississippi RiverKings	Ice hockey	Southern Professional Hockey League	Landers Center
Memphis Blues	Rugby union	USA Rugby South	Tobey Field
R.M.K. Cham. and the Cellular S.C.	Tennis ATP & WTA	ATP 500 & WTA Int.	Racquet Club of Memphis

Basketball

The Memphis Grizzlies of the National Basketball Association is the only one of the "big four" major sports leagues in the city. The team played at the Pyramid Arena from 2001–2004 and then moved to the FedExForum in downtown Memphis.

The Memphis Tigers basketball team represents the University of Memphis in NCAA Division I men's college basketball. The Tigers compete in American Athletic Conference and play their home games at FedExForum.

The Memphis Houn'Dawgs was an American Basketball Association (ABA) team based in Memphis, Tennessee. The team began play in the fall of 2000. The team played in the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi, and only played the 2000-2001 ABA season before disbanding. The name was an apparent nod to the proposed NFL franchise team, the Memphis Hound Dogs (in turn, a nod to the song of the same name by Elvis Presley) which never got off the ground.

Baseball

The entrance to AutoZone Park.

Memphis has had several professional baseball teams over the years, including the Memphis Chicks (1902–1960, 1978–1997), the Memphis Blues (1968–1976), and since 1998, the Memphis Redbirds of the Pacific Coast League. The Redbirds are a Triple A baseball farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals and play at AutoZone Park, a state-of-the-art baseball-only venue in downtown Memphis.

Football

Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium from the air.

The University of Memphis Tigers football team plays their home games in Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The Memphis Kings is an amateur football team that plays in the North American Football League. The Panthers play at Robert Halle Stadium.

Memphis has hosted several professional football teams for brief periods over the years. The Memphis Tigers played there in the late 1920s and early 1930s,.^[2] In more recent years the city has been host to teams from five different professional leagues. Memphis held a franchise, the Memphis Southmen, in the short-lived professional World Football League (1974–1975). The Memphis Showboats played in the United States Football League (1984–1985). The Memphis Mad Dogs were an expansion franchise of the Canadian Football League in 1995. The NFL's Tennessee Titans, formerly known as the Houston Oilers, relocated to Memphis for one season (as the Tennessee Oilers) in 1997 before moving to Nashville. Most recently the Memphis Maniax represented the city in the XFL (2001). Each of these teams called the Liberty Bowl their home field.

Memphis also saw indoor football in the forms of the Memphis Pharaohs in the Arena Football League (1995-1996) who played home games at Pyramid Arena, and the Memphis Xplorers in AF2 (2000-2006) who played their home games at DeSoto Civic Center in the nearby suburb city of Southaven, Mississippi.

Golf

Golf is a very popular form of recreation in Memphis, which has eight municipal courses.^[3] The City's first public facility, Galloway Golf Course, was created in 1923.^[4] There are now over 30 public and private golf courses in the Memphis Metropolitan Area.^[5] Memphis is home to the annual FedEx St. Jude Classic, a regular part of the PGA TOUR.

Ice hockey

The Mississippi RiverKings are a professional hockey team of the Southern Professional Hockey League. The RiverKings play at the Landers Center in nearby Southaven, Mississippi.

Motorsports

Memphis is also home to Memphis Motorsports Park, just north of the city on the outskirts of Memphis and Millington, TN. The venue has a 3/4-mile (1207 m) paved oval track that annually hosts 2 NASCAR-sanctioned events, a Busch-series race (the Sam's Town 250) and a Craftsman Truck series race (the O'Reilly 200). It also has a 1/4-mile (402 m) drag strip that annually hosts the NHRA POWERade O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals, as well as locally sanctioned events that run from February to November. Another racetrack in the Memphis metro area is Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas. It is a 1/4 mile track that midget, sprint and stock-car races happen.

Rugby

Memphis is also home to the Memphis Blues, a Rugby Union team, which plays at Tobey Field in Midtown, Memphis.

Memphis Women's Rugby is a women's senior club team (Rugby Union) which also plays at Tobey Field in Midtown, Memphis. The team is a member of USA Rugby South, Division II.^[6]

Roller Derby

Memphis has an active presence in the derby world courtesy of Memphis Roller Derby. The team is a sanctioned member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association and competes in the South Central Region. The Memphis league has four home teams that compete in intra-league bouts, plus one travel team that competes in other cities.

Tennis

Memphis Park Services maintains seven public tennis centers.^[1] Memphis is home to the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships and the Cellular South Cup. The Regions Morgan Keegan Championships is an ATP event, and the Cellular South Cup is a WTA event. The senior event, the Stanford Championships started in Memphis, but it has since relocated to Dallas, Texas.

Wrestling

Memphis also has a fertile history when it comes to pro wrestling. The sport's greatest name to come out of the city is Jerry "The King" Lawler. Other greats who started out in Memphis include Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock, Mick Foley, "Macho Man" Randy Savage", and Ric Flair. Memphis has two pro-wrestling organizations, "Power-Pro Wrestling" which is filmed in the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis, and Memphis Wrestling which is filmed in the DeSoto Civic Center in Desoto County, Mississippi.

Overview of Collegiate Teams

Club	Venue
Memphis Tigers men's basketball	FedExForum
Memphis Tigers women's basketball	Elma Roane Fieldhouse
Memphis Tigers Football	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
Memphis Tigers Baseball	FedExPark
Memphis Tigers Soccer	Mike Rose Soccer Complex
Memphis Tigers Softball	Tigers Softball Complex
Memphis Tigers Golf	Frank L. Flautt Golf Center
Memphis Tigers Tennis	Racquet Club of Memphis
Rhodes Lynx Basketball	Mallory-Hyde Gymnasium
Rhodes Lynx Football	Crain Field
Christian Brothers Buccaneers Basketball	Canale Arena
Christian Brothers Buccaneers Soccer	Signaigo Field
Christian Brothers Buccaneers Baseball	Nadicksbernd Field
Christian Brothers Buccaneers Softball	Bland Field

Overview of defunct professional teams

Sports Franchise	League	Year	Stadium
Memphis Rogues	NASL	1978–1980	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
Memphis Americans	MISL	1981–1984	Mid-South Coliseum
Memphis Showboats	USFL	1984–1986	Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium
Memphis Storm	AISL	1986–1990	Mid-South Coliseum
Memphis Storm	USISL	1990–1994	Shelby Farms Show Place Arena
Memphis Express	USL PDL	2002–2005	Mike Rose Soccer Complex/Collierville High School

Memphis has been represented by several now-defunct professional sports franchises, including the Memphis Pharaohs of Arena Football, the Memphis Maniax of the XFL, the Memphis Xplorers of the AF2, the Memphis Showboats of the USFL, the Memphis Southmen of the WFL, the Memphis Houn'Dawgs of the ABA, the Memphis Sounds of the original ABA in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and the Memphis Mad Dogs of the CFL.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sports in Memphis, Tennessee.

State of Tennessee

Nashville (capital)

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Regions	Blue Ridge Mountains Cumberland Mountains Cumberland Plateau Highland Rim Mississippi Plain Nashville Basin Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians Tennessee Valley Tri-Cities

Largest cities	Bartlett Bristol Chattanooga Clarksville Cleveland Franklin Hendersonville Jackson Johnson City Kingsport Knoxville Memphis Murfreesboro Nashville

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City of Memphis and Memphis metropolitan area (counties in TN, MS and AR)

Topics

Districts

Neighborhoods

Metro area
landmarks

Tennessee	A. Schwab's Art Museum of the University of Memphis AutoZone Stadium Bartlett Museum Beale Street Bellevue Baptist Church Belz Museum Botanic Garden Brooks Museum Burkle Estate Central Station Chickasaw Bluff Children's Museum Chucalissa Museum Cotton Museum Davies Manor Dixon Gallery and Gardens Downtown Trolleys Elmwood Cemetery FedExForum Fire Museum Fort Assumption Fort Wright Graceland Hernando de Soto Bridge Liberty Bowl Stadium Libertyland Lichterman Nature Center Lincoln American Tower Magevney House Mallory-Neely House Meeman-Shelby Forest State Park Memorial Park Cemetery Cotton Exchange Memphis International Airport Motorsports Park National Cemetery Parkway System Railroad & Trolley Museum Memphis Zoo Mississippi River Mississippi River Park Mud Island Monorail National Civil Rights Museum National Ornamental Metal Museum Oaklawn Garden Orpheum Theatre Overton Park Peabody Hotel Pink Palace The Pyramid Rhodes College Rock N' Soul Museum St. Jude Children's Research Hospital St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral Shelby Farms Stax Museum Sun Studio South Main Arts District Temple Israel Tennessee Brewery Tipton County Museum T. O. Fuller State Park Tom Lee Park Union Station University of Memphis Victorian Village Wolf River

Mississippi	Arkabutla Lake Bally's Casino BankPlus Amphitheater at Snowden Grove DeSoto County Museum Lander's Center Gold Strike Casino Holly Springs National Forest Horseshoe Casino Mississippi River Resorts Casino Tunica Sam's Town Gambling Hall Southaven Towne Center Tunica Resorts Snowden Grove Park Tanger Outlets Southaven Tunica Roadhouse Casino Wall Doxey State Park

Arkansas	Horseshoe Lake Mississippi River Southland Greyhound Park Wapanocca National Wildlife Refuge

Metro area
suburbs

Tennessee	Arlington Atoka Bartlett Collierville Covington Germantown Lakeland Millington Munford Northaven Oakland Piperton Somerville Shelby Forest

Mississippi	Byhalia Hernando Holly Springs Horn Lake Olive Branch Senatobia Southaven Tunica Robinsonville/Tunica Resorts Walls

Arkansas	Earle Marion West Memphis

Metro area
counties

Tennessee	Shelby Fayette Tipton

Mississippi	DeSoto Marshall Tate Tunica

Arkansas	Crittenden

MMA Former UFC Light Heavy Weight, and current #1 contender, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson was born and raised in Memphis.

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