Syracuse, New York Syracuse ( ) is a City (New York), city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, Onondaga County, New York, United States. It is the fifth-most populous city in the state of New York following New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffa ...

, United States, is a top-division, minor-league and college sports city. Teams include the

Syracuse Mets The Syracuse Mets are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A affiliate of the New York Mets. They are located in Syracuse, New York, and play their home games at NBT Bank Stadium, which open ...

of AAA Baseball and the

Syracuse Crunch The Syracuse Crunch are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League (AHL). They play in Syracuse, New York, at the Upstate Medical University Arena. They are the primary development affiliate of the National Hockey League's Tampa ...

of the AHL. The most attended sporting events in Syracuse are those of the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Orange.

Professional teams

The Syracuse Mets, who play in the

International League The International League (IL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the United States. Along with the Pacific Coast League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A level, which is one grade below Major League Baseball ...

, are a AAA Minor League Baseball affiliate of the

New York Mets The New York Mets are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of Queens. The Mets compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. They are one of two major league ...

. The Syracuse Crunch are an

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

affiliate of the

Tampa Bay Lightning The Tampa Bay Lightning (colloquially known as the Bolts) are a professional ice hockey team based in Tampa, Florida. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. They play th ...

History

Syracuse has had several top-level pro teams. Most notable are the Syracuse Nationals, an

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

team which played 17 seasons in Syracuse (1947–1963) before moving to

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

to become the

Philadelphia 76ers The Philadelphia 76ers, colloquially known as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eas ...

; and two different

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

teams: the Syracuse Stars of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

in 1879, which didn't finish their first season; and the Syracuse Stars of the

American Association American Association may refer to: Baseball * American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891 * American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997 * American Association of Profe ...

in 1890.

Baseball

Syracuse has been represented in

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

for all but four years since 1877, when the Syracuse Stars competed in the

League Alliance The League Alliance was the first semi-affiliated minor league baseball league. Proposed by Al Spalding on January 15, 1877. Independent baseball teams were to affiliate with National League teams, which would honor their respective contracts. The ...

, an early minor league. Syracuse fielded two major league versions of the Stars: in the

and the

. Apart from those seasons, however, the Stars were members of high minor leagues such as the Eastern League (forerunner to the International) and the New York State League through 1917. From 1918–27, the Stars competed in the

and were an early farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals. In 1928 the IL franchise moved to

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

and became the

Montreal Royals The Montreal Royals were a minor league professional baseball team in Montreal, Quebec, during 1897–1917 and 1928–1960. A member of the International League, the Royals were the top farm club (Class AAA) of the Brooklyn Dodgers from 1939; pi ...

. The Stars moved down one classification to the New York–Penn League for 1 seasons before moving to nearby Utica.Johnson, Lloyd, and Wolff, Miles, eds., ''The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball'', 3d edition. Durham, N.C.:

Baseball America ''Baseball America'' is a sports enterprise that covers baseball at every level, including MLB, with a particular focus on up-and-coming players in the MiLB, college, high school, and international leagues. It is currently published in the form o ...

, 2007

Basketball

Syracuse was from 1946 until 1963 home to the

's Syracuse Nationals, which are now the Philadelphia 76ers. They played 17 seasons in Syracuse and won the NBA championship in 1955. The NBA's 24-second clock was invented in and first came into use in Syracuse. In March 2005 the city dedicated a monument to this fact. It is a 125% scaled model of the original shot clock used.

Cycling

Football

Syracuse had a professional football team from 1890 to 1900 known as the Syracuse Athletic Association, the independent All-Syracuse team which was known in 1921 as the

Syracuse Pros A nameless professional American football team, based in Syracuse, New York and generically known as the Syracuse Pros or Syracuse Eleven, was once thought to have joined the American Professional Football Association (now the National Football ...

in the

American Professional Football Association The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the maj ...

before leaving the league and reverting to the All-Syracuse team, and briefly in the

1936 American Football League season The 1936 AFL season is the first season of the second American Football League, the formation of which was announced by Harry March, former personnel director of the NFL's New York Giants, on December 15, 1935. Fifteen cities bid for charter fran ...

known as the Syracuse Braves. In 1902, the first World Series of Football was played at New York's original Madison Square Garden. The five teams in the tournament were the New York Knickerbockers, Syracuse AC, Warlow AC, the Orange (New Jersey) AC, and New York. Syracuse won the tournament 6-0 with Glenn (Pop) Warner at guard. The December 28, 1902, game where Syracuse defeated New York 5-0 at Madison Square Garden is credited as the first indoor pro football game. The Syracuse Express were established in 1984, and were members of the Mid Continental Football League, before that league contracted into the Midwest. They joined the upstart New York Amateur Football League (NYAFL), where they became one of the league's premier teams, along with their rivals, the Buffalo Gladiators. After absorbing the Cortland Warriors, in 1999 the team became the Central New York Express, although they still played their games in suburban Syracuse. The Express won one NYAFL title in 2003. The NYAFL merged to become the Northeastern Football Alliance and with the change, the team changed and was replaced by a new team named the Syracuse Shock. Syracuse had a team for one season in the American Indoor Football League called the

Syracuse Soldiers The Syracuse Soldiers was a 2006 expansion member of the American Indoor Football League. They played their home games at the War Memorial at Oncenter in Syracuse, New York until the AIFL ended their season on Friday, May 19, 2006. The team wa ...

. Syracuse has a minor league football team
Syracuse Strong

Ice hockey

Syracuse has had several

teams, which traditionally did not last longer than three seasons. The

Syracuse Blazers The Syracuse Blazers were a minor league professional ice hockey team that played in the Onondaga County War Memorial and State Fair Coliseum in Syracuse, New York. The team played in the Eastern Hockey League from 1967 to 1973 and the North ...

began play in the

Eastern Hockey League The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league. Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953) The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart, ...

in 1973. The league disbanded in 1973; the team then affiliated with the

North American Hockey League The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is one of the top junior hockey leagues in the United States and is in its 48th season of operation in 2022–23. It is the only Tier II junior league sanctioned by USA Hockey, and acts as an alternati ...

. 1994 marked the introduction of a new team, the

, which have been playing at the Upstate Medical University since.

Lacrosse

The Syracuse Spirit was a member of the American Lacrosse League, a short lived professional lacrosse league in 1988, based in Syracuse, New York. The Spirit played their home games at the Griffin Field in Liverpool, New York. The general manager of the Spirit was Tom Scofield and the head coach was Jim Booth. The Spirit had a 4–1 record when the league folded. Syracuse had a team in the

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

(NLL) called the

Syracuse Smash The Syracuse Smash were a member of the National Lacrosse League from 1998 to 2000. They were based in Syracuse, New York. The team finished last in the standings each of their three seasons, before moving to Ottawa, Ontario to become the Ottawa ...

for three seasons from 1998 to 2000. They moved to

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

in 2001 and became the

Ottawa Rebel The Ottawa Rebel was a team in the National Lacrosse League based in Ottawa, Ontario from 2001 until 2003. They initially played at the Corel Centre (now called the Canadian Tire Centre), but part-way through the 2002 season moved to the smaller ...

Soccer

The

Syracuse Salty Dogs The Syracuse Salty Dogs (formally Syracuse Football Club) were a professional men's soccer team based in Syracuse, New York. The name of the club originates from "Salty Dog" which is nautical slang for an experienced sailor who has spent much o ...

existed for two seasons (2002–2004) until folding due to financial problems. The game attendance had been among the highest in the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

. The Syracuse Silver Knights played in the Major Arena Soccer League from 2010 before moving to Utica and becoming Utica City FC in 2018.

Venues

Sports venues in and around Syracuse include the following:

JMA Wireless Dome

Syracuse University's JMA Wireless Dome can hold over 33,000 and 50,000 people, for

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

respectively, making it the largest domed

stadium A stadium ( : stadiums or stadia) is a place or venue for (mostly) outdoor sports, concerts, or other events and consists of a field or stage either partly or completely surrounded by a tiered structure designed to allow spectators to stand o ...

in the

Northeastern United States The Northeastern United States, also referred to as the Northeast, the East Coast, or the American Northeast, is a geographic region of the United States. It is located on the Atlantic coast of North America, with Canada to its north, the Southe ...

and the largest on a college campus. Especially the Orange's basketball games have been making use of the Dome's capacity over the past few years. The third most attended college sporting events are lacrosse games, with the Orange at times drawing over 6,000 fans.

NBT Bank Stadium (baseball)

Other indoor arenas

Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion The Tennity Ice Skating Pavilion (The TIP) is an ice arena in Syracuse, New York. Named for donors Marilyn and Bill Tennity, the facility opened in October 2000 for the use of Syracuse University students. The facility is the home of Syracuse Un ...

, Syracuse University (ice hockey) *

Upstate Medical University Arena The Upstate Medical University Arena (originally known as Onondaga County War Memorial and later as the Oncenter War Memorial Arena) is a multi-purpose arena located in Syracuse, New York. It is part of the Oncenter Complex. Designed by Edgart ...

(ice hockey)

Golf courses

* Atunyote Golf Club, Turning Stone Resort * Burnet Park Golf Course *

Drumlins Country Club The Syracuse Orange are the athletic teams that represent Syracuse University. The school is a member of NCAA Division I and the Atlantic Coast Conference. Until 2013, Syracuse was a member of the Big East Conference. The school's mascot is ...

(36-hole golf course) * Green Lakes Golf Course

Ski areas and resorts

Bristol Mountain Ski Resort Bristol Mountain, formally known as Bristol Mountain Winter Resort, is a ski resort located in South Bristol, New York in the Finger Lakes region. It is located from the center of Rochester, New York, the nearest major city to the resort, and ab ...

, Canandaigua * Four Seasons Golf and Ski Center, Fayetteville * Greek Peak Mountain Resort, Cortland * Highland Forest (county park),

Fabius In Roman mythology, Fabius was the son of Hercules and an unnamed mother. In "The Life of Fabius Maximus" from the ''Parallel Lives'' by Plutarch, Fabius, the first of his name, was the son of Hercules by a nymph or a woman native to the country, ...

(

cross-country Cross country or cross-country may refer to: Places * Cross Country, Baltimore, a neighborhood in northwest Baltimore, Maryland * Cross County Parkway, an east–west parkway in Westchester County, NY * Cross County Shopping Center, a mall in Yo ...

)"Highland Forest,"
Onondaga County Parks. Accessed: January 8, 2014. * Labrador Mountain, Truxton * Osceola Tug Hill Cross-Country Ski Center, Osceola * Song Mountain Resort, Tully * Toggenburg Mountain, Fabius

College teams

Syracuse University Orange

;Men's teams *

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

* Cross Country *

Football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

* Rowing *

Soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

* Track & Field ;Women's teams * Basketball * Cross Country *

Field Hockey Field hockey is a team sport structured in standard hockey format, in which each team plays with ten outfield players and a goalkeeper. Teams must drive a round hockey ball by hitting it with a hockey stick towards the rival team's shooting ci ...

Ice Hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

* Lacrosse * Rowing * Soccer * Softball * Tennis * Track & Field * Volleyball

Le Moyne College Dolphins

Le Moyne College,

NCAA Division II NCAA Division II (D-II) is an intermediate-level division of competition in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). It offers an alternative to both the larger and better-funded Division I and to the scholarship-free environmen ...

;Men's teams * Baseball * Basketball * Cross Country * Golf * Lacrosse * Soccer * Swimming/Diving ;Women's teams * Basketball * Cross Country * Lacrosse * Soccer * Softball * Swimming/Diving * Tennis * Volleyball

SUNY-ESF Mighty Oaks

State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, USCAA ;Men's teams * Basketball * Cross Country * Golf * Soccer *

Woodsman Woodsman (also, woodsmen, pl.) is a competitive, co-ed intercollegiate sport in the United States, Canada and elsewhere based on various skills traditionally part of forestry educational and technical training programs. In North America, the sp ...

;Women's teams * Cross Country * Soccer * Woodsman

Onondaga Community College Lazers

Onondaga Community College Onondaga Community College (OCC) is a public community college that serves Onondaga County, New York, at two campuses. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. History The college was founded in 1961 and began instruction ...

NCAA Division III NCAA Division III (D-III) is a division of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States. D-III consists of athletic programs at colleges and universities that choose not to offer athletic scholarships to their stu ...

National championships

;Baseball * 1878: Syracuse Stars: International Association (AAA Baseball) Pennant ;Basketball * 1955: Syracuse Nationals: NBA World Champions * 2003: Syracuse University Orange: NCAA Division I Basketball National Champions ;Field Hockey *2015: Syracuse University Orange: NCAA Division I Field Hockey National Champions - 1st Women's program at Syracuse to win a national championship ;Football * 1959: Syracuse University Orange: NCAA Division I-A Football National Champions ;Lacrosse * Syracuse University Orange: NCAA Division I Lacrosse National Champions: ** 1983, 1988, 1989, 1993, 1995, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2008, 2009. * 2004: Le Moyne College Dolphins: NCAA Division II Lacrosse National Champions * 2016: Le Moyne College Dolphins: NCAA Division II Lacrosse National Champions ''Note: Until 2004, Syracuse University's teams were called the Orangemen and Orangewomen. Now they are known as the Orange.''

References

External links

*
Gersbacher, Ron. (2012). "History of Syracuse Baseball, 1858 to Present"

Syracuse.com. "CNY Golf Course Guide: Searchable Guide of Local Golf Courses"

Onondaga Community College Lazers
{{New York Sports