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, 18 NBA Championships, 6 Super Bowls, and 10 World Series. Additionally, the New England Revolution won the U.S. Open Cup in 2007 and the MLS Supporter's Shield in 2021. Massachusetts is also notable for being the birthplace of both basketball and volleyball, and it is home to the Basketball Hall of Fame and the Volleyball Hall of Fame. Moreover, the state hosts the Cape Cod Baseball League and prestigious sports events such as the Boston Marathon and the Head of the Charles Regatta. Other popular sports events in Massachusetts include the Falmouth Road Race in running, which started in 1973, and the Fitchburg Longsjo Classic, an annual bicycle race held from 1960 to 2020.
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, owns Gillette Stadium located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Fenway Sports Group, led by principal owner John W. Henry, owns both Fenway Park and the Boston Red Sox. TD Garden is owned by Delaware North, and its chairman, Jeremy M. Jacobs, along with his family, owns the Bruins. The Celtics rent TD Garden from Delaware North.
The PGA Tour Deutsche Bank Championship was a regular professional golf tournament held from 2003 to 2018 in Norton, Massachusetts. As of July 2025, Massachusetts has played host to ten U.S. Opens, four U.S. Women's Opens, two Ryder Cups, and two U.S. Senior Open.
Massachusetts is home to many colleges and universities that are active in college athletics, 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.
Notable athletes from Massachusetts
Massachusetts has produced several successful Olympians including Thomas Burke, James Connolly, and John Thomas ; Butch Johnson ; Nancy Kerrigan ; Todd Richards ; Albina Osipowich ; Aly Raisman ; Patrick Ewing ; as well as Jim Craig, Mike Eruzione, Bill Cleary, and Keith Tkachuk.Notable soccer 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, played for the U.S. men's national team at the inaugural FIFA World Cup in 1930. Patenaude scored the first hat-trick in World Cup history. The USMNT finished in third place.
''Sports Illustrated'''s 50 Greatest Sports Figures from Massachusetts
In 1999, Sports Illustrated published the fifty greatest 19th and 20th century sports figures from each U.S. state. The criteria used was "not necessarily to where were born, but to where they first showed flashes of the greatness to come." The ten highest ranked Massachusetts athletes were as follows:Major league professional championships
Boston Red Sox (MLB)
9 World Series titlesBoston Braves (MLB)
1 World Series titleNew England Patriots (NFL)
6 Super Bowl titlesBoston Celtics (NBA)
18 NBA Finals titlesBoston Bruins (NHL)
6 Stanley Cup titlesNew England Whalers (WHA)
1 Avco World TrophyCollege sports
NCAA: Divisions I and II
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.
NCAA: Division III
High school
The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association is an organization that sponsors activities in thirty-three sports, with 383 public and private member high schools in Massachusetts as of November 2023. The MIAA is a member of the National Federation of State High School Associations, which writes the rules for most U.S. high school sports and activities. Established in 1978, the MIAA succeeded the Massachusetts Secondary School Principals' Association, which operated from 1942 to 1978, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Council, active from 1950 to 1978.In 2016, the MIAA recognized rugby as the 35th sport following a vote in 2015 that passed by a wide majority. As of 2022, there are 19 MIAA boys’ teams and 7 MIAA girls’ teams across the state. By 2025, four boys' teams were competing in Division I and seven in Division II, while four girls' teams competed in Division I.