About This Quiz
Between the NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS, there are 147 professional sports teams situated in North America, and that number is likely to rise over the next few years. Major League Soccer has plans to add teams in Miami, Nashville and Austin by 2021, the NHL will add a Seattle team in 2021, the NBA wants to create a franchise in Mexico City and the NFL has held games in London since 2007, but as of 2019, all NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL and MLS teams are in the U.S. or Canada.Â
The National Hockey League has the most Canadian teams with seven, and Major League Baseball is the oldest pro sports league, being founded in 1869. There are only 10 cities that have at least one team in all five leagues and they're all in America. Miami will join the list in 2020. Los Angeles has 10 pro sports teams, and if that's not enough, the U.S. also employs athletes to play on international teams in soccer, baseball, basketball, hockey, basketball and more. North America has a lot of pro sports teams. With all those sports teams come a lot of athletes, stories, legends, curses, nicknames, miracles, upsets, underdogs, win, losses and rivalries. What do you know about North American pro sports teams?
The Dallas Cowboys play out of Dallas, TX and were first called America's Team in 1978. They won two Super Bowls that decade and another three in the '90s. They are still known as America's Team although they haven't made it to a Super Bowl in decades.
The New York Yankees (aka the Bronx Bombers) have appeared in the most MLB World Series contests (40) and have won the most World Series titles (27). Baseball legends Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Derek Jeter and Lou Gehrig all played for the Yankees.
According to Gallup, the NFL has been the most watched sports league since 1972 and regularly sets viewership records every Super Bowl. The MLB was the most watched league before '72 and the NBA never held the top spot.
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Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to two separate three-peats in the 1990s and may have led the team to eight championships in a row had he not played a season of baseball. He's considered the greatest basketball player of all time.
The NHL began with six teams but today has 31. The newest team--the Las Vegas Knights--was added in 2016 and the league has plans to have 32 teams by the year 2021. Seven of the league's teams are based in Canada.
The Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 for the Stanley Cup in 1993. Although the NHL is home to seven Canadian teams, more than any other American league, no Canadian team has hoisted the trophy since.
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The Baltimore oriole is the official bird of Maryland and is also the name of the state's Major League Baseball team. The Boston Orioles is not a professional sports franchise in North America, and Boston's MLB team is named the Red Sox.
Dan Marino was drafted at the end of the first round in the 1983 NFL draft and played for the Miami Dolphins until 1999. He made nine Pro Bowls during his career and is considered one of the greatest NFL players to never have won a Super Bowl.
After winning the World Series, the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for next to nothing. The Red Sox went the next 86 years without winning a World Series until the curse was finally broken in 2004.
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The NFL was founded in 1920 but the first Super Bowl wasn't played until 1967. The Green Bay Packers won that game. The New England Patriots have appeared in more Super Bowls (11) than any other team. They've won six and lost five.
The Boston Celtics have won more NBA championships than any team with 17 championships. Bill Russell has 11 rings himself. Larry Bird has three to go along with three league MVP awards and Paul Pierce has one championship ring.
The Brooklyn Dodgers are most known for starting Jackie Robinson at first base in 1947, making him the first African-American in the MLB. Ten years later it was voted that the Dodgers would move to Los Angeles and they have been there ever since.
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The NHL was founded in 1917 in Montreal, Canada and the Montreal Canadiens (aka the Habs) have been in the league ever since. They actually predate the founding of the NHL and are the oldest professional ice hockey team in the world.
LeBron James is from Akron, Ohio and he was drafted No. 1 overall directly from high school by the Cleveland Cavaliers. He then joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami before returning to Cleveland for a few years only to leave again to Los Angeles.
Wayne Gretzky played in the NHL from 1978 to 1999 and won four Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers, the last coming in 1988 when he scored the winning goal to sweep the Boston Bruins. Gretzky is commonly considered the greatest hockey player of all time.
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The 1919 World Series scandal (aka the Black Sox scandal) concerned players, including Shoeless Joe Jackson, from the Chicago White Sox who were paid to purposely lose the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds.
Don Shula coached the '72 Dolphins to a perfect regular season and a 14-7 Super Bowl victory over the Washington Redskins to complete a perfect 17-0 record. The 2007 Patriots went 19-1, losing to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl.
Deion Sanders is the only player to play in a Super Bowl and a World Series, and he's the only pro player to hit a home run and score a touchdown in a seven-day period. How won one Super Bowl with the 49ers and one with the Cowboys. He never won a World Series.
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One of the biggest rivalries in all of sports is the Celtics vs. the Lakers, and it is only fitting that the two teams are the teams with the most NBA championships. The Celtics have 17 championships and the Lakers have 16. The Lakers beat the Celtics in seven games in the 2010 NBA Championship.
Three of the greatest hockey players to ever play the game all played for the Boston Bruins. Neely scored his first 50 goals within 44 games, only Wayne Gretzky did it faster. Borque led the Bruins to two Stanley Cup appearances although they lost both. And Orr has two Stanley Cup wins, 18 individual awards and an iconic statue in Boston.
Several universities have changed the names of sports teams because of insensitivity to Native Americans. The Stanford Indians, for example, are now the Cardinals and the St. Johns Redmen are now the Redstorm. The Indians, Redskins and Blackhawks have controversial names but haven't yet been forced to change.
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Wilt Chamberlain became the only player to score 100 points in a game in 1962 as a member of the San Francisco Warriors. He played for the Harlem Globetrotters before joining the NBA, where he also played for the LA Lakers.
Ken Griffey Jr. was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 1989 and played most of his 22 seasons with the organization. His father also played for the Mariners from 1990 - 1991. Jr. hit the seventh-most home runs in MLB history and won 10 Gold Glove Awards during his career.
In 1996, the Chicago Bulls went 72-10 en route to their fourth championship of the decade. In 2015-16, the Golden State Warriors went 73-9 but lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Championship in seven games.
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The oldest teams in NFL history are the Chicago Cardinals (now Arizona Cardinals) and the Decatur Staleys (now Chicago Bears) but the team that has remained in its original city the longest is the Green Bay Packers. The team joined the NFL in 1921 and hasn't moved since.
The NHL is home to seven Canadian teams, which is more than any other pro sports league in America. The Canadiens have won 24 Cups and the Toronto Maple Leafs have won 13. The American team with the most Cups is the Detroit Red Wings with 11.
Archie Manning played for the New Orleans Saints from 1971 to 1982. Both of his sons were No. 1 overall draft picks and both won multiple NFL Super Bowls, a feat that Archie never accomplished. He wore No. 8 and also played for the Vikings and Oilers.
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The Seattle Sounders is Seattle's Major League Soccer team and is partly owned by Paul Allen's estate. The Microsoft co-founder was an avid sports fan and a major figure in the state of Washington. He also owned the NBA's Portland Trailblazers and the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.
David Beckham is one of the world's most famous footballers and is known for playing for Manchester United and Real Madrid from 1992 to 2007. In 2007 he joined the LA Galaxy of the MLS and in 2013 he began forming the MLS expansion team, Inter Miami FC, which will begin play in 2020.
Barry Bonds played 22 seasons in the MLB and most of them were with the San Francisco Giants. He has the record for career home runs with 762 and is the only player in history with 500 home runs and 500 stolen bases.
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The Celtics and Knicks are the only NBA teams that haven't relocated cities. The New Orleans Pelicans was the newest team to join the NBA when it entered the league as the New Orleans Hornets in 2002. The organization became the Pelicans in 2013.
The Vegas Golden Knights was founded in 2017 and made it to the Stanley Cup Finals that same year. The team lost to the Washington Capitals, but became the third team to make it to the finals in its inaugural season.
The Buffalo Bills have only been to four Super Bowls and they all came consecutively from 1991 to 1994. The team lost all four Super Bowls to become the only team to appear in four Super Bowls in a row. They lost to the Giants and Redskins, and to the Cowboys twice.
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New York City and Los Angeles have 10 pro sports teams each. They have two professional teams in each of the five leagues. Some lists consider the New Jersey Devils to be an NYC team, giving NYC 11 pro sports teams. There are seven pro teams in the Bay Area, six in Chicago and five in Dallas.