Sports in Newark, New Jersey facts for kids
Sports in Newark, New Jersey, the second largest city in New York metropolitan area, are part of the regional professional sports and media markets. The city has hosted many teams and events, though much of its history is without an MLB, NBA, NHL, or NFL team in the city proper. Two venues in the northeastern New Jersey metro region, Prudential Center and Riverfront Stadium (closed), are in Downtown Newark. Red Bull Arena is just across the Passaic River in Harrison. The Meadowlands Sports Complex is less than 10 miles away from Downtown and reached with the Meadowlands Rail Line via Newark Penn Station or Broad Street Station.
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Statues
In 2009, a 22 ft (6.7 m) stainless steel sculpture of a hockey player, commonly called the Iron Man was installed at the plaza nearby Prudential Center. A bronze statue, created by sculptor Thomas Jay Warren, was dedicated to the memory of Althea Gibson in Branch Brook Park in March 2012 "I hope that I have accomplished just one thing," she once wrote, "that I have been a credit to tennis, and to my country." "By all measures," reads the inscription "Althea Gibson certainly attained that goal." In June 2012, a life-size bronze statue of Roberto Clemente was also unveiled.
Professional sports
Hockey
The New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League moved in 2007 from the Continental Airlines Arena in the Meadowlands to the Prudential Center, an arena jointly financed by the team and the city. Part of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals were played there.
Also making their home at the Prudential Center facilities are the Metropolitan Riveters of the National Women's Hockey League playing at the Devils' practice facility.
The 2013 NHL Entry Draft (the 51st NHL Entry Draft) took place on June 30, 2013, at the Prudential Center
Historically, Newark was home to the minor professional Newark Bulldogs, a Canadian-American Hockey League franchise which played one season in 1928-29.
Soccer
Newark is the transportation hub for the Red Bull Arena, home stadium of Major League Soccer's Red Bulls, across the Passaic River from Newark's Riverbank Park in Harrison, with shuttle bus service running from downtown train stations. PATH trains from Newark Penn Station are one stop to nearby Harrison station.
Newark, particularly the Ironbound, and the adjacent West Hudson towns on the Passaic, Harrison and Kearny, have a long tradition of soccer. Kearny's nickname, "Soccer Town USA" is inspired by the era that begin in the mid-1870s, when thousands of Scottish and Irish immigrants settled there after two Scottish companies, Clark Thread Company and Nairn Linoleum, opened. The Newark Portuguese was one of many teams.
Jersey Express S.C. plays at the New Jersey Institute of Technology. New Jersey Ironmen was an indoor soccer team of the Major Indoor Soccer League that played at Prudential Center from 2007 to 2009.
Baseball
The Newark Bears were a minor-league professional baseball franchise that were part of the independent Atlantic League (which also includes the Somerset Patriots and the Camden Riversharks). They played at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, a 6,200-seat ballpark that is also home to local college baseball teams. Both the stadium and team have struggled financially. In November 2013, the future of the team became uncertain as they were unable to commit to a 2014 season and folded shortly thereafter. In 2019, the stadium was demolished to make way for a new development called Riverfront Square.
Baseball in Newark began in the 1850s. The Newark Peppers of the Federal League, played the 1915 season across the river at Harrison Park. The original Newark Bears, a farm team for the New York Yankees played in the International League until the 1949 season playing at Rupert Stadium. They shared the stadium in the Ironbound with the Negro league's Newark Eagles, managed by Effa Manley. The Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium is named for the teams. Newark had eight teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players, including the Newark Eurekas and the Newark Adriatics. Newark was then home to the Newark Indians of the International League.
Basketball
A team in the American Basketball Association, the Newark Express was introduced to the city in 2005. The team formerly played their home at Essex County College and Drew University in Madison and now plays at East Orange Campus High School.
The New Jersey Nets played two seasons (2010–2012) at the Prudential Center until moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) also played there for three seasons (2011–2013) during renovations of Madison Square Garden in Manhattan, New York.
Both the 2011 NBA Draft and 2012 NBA Draft were held at the arena.
Football
The national headquarters of National Football League Alumni is located at One Washington Park in Downtown Newark.
Newark was a host city and its airport a gateway for Super Bowl XLVIII which was played on February 2, 2014. The game took place at MetLife Stadium, home of the hosting teams New York Giants and New York Jets, at the nearby Meadowlands Sports Complex, accessible with the Meadowlands Rail Line via Newark Penn Station or Broad Street Station. In anticipation of the convergence of thousands for the events, New Jersey Transit had created a weekly pass for travel throughout the region as well as game-day express bus from the airport. Super Bowl Media Day, kicked off at the Prudential Center on January 28, 2014, with a series of events. The original Vince Lombardi Trophy produced by Tiffany & Co. in Newark in 1967 is displaced at the Newark Museum.
Newark had a team which competed in the first American Football League in 1926, the Newark Bears. The Tornadoes were a long-lived professional American football franchise that existed in some form from 1887 to 1971, having played in the National Football League from 1929 to 1930, the American Association from 1936 to 1941, the Atlantic Coast Football League from 1963 to 1964 and 1970 to 1971, and the Continental Football League from 1965 to 1969. Established in 1946, the Newark Bombers in 1947 moved to Bloomfield and became the Bloomfield Cardinals.
In the modern football era, the Meadowlands was home to the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League from 1983-85. The USFL was a challenger to the NFL, and featured many of the top professional football players and several future Pro Football Hall of Famers. The Generals roster included Heisman Trophy winners Herschel Walker and Doug Flutie. Despite a disappointing 6-12 inaugural season in 1983, the Generals finished 11-7 and 14-4 the following two seasons, losing in the playoffs to the eventual champion Philadelphia/Baltimore Stars both years. Giants Stadium hosted the 1985 USFL Championship Game, which became the final USFL game ever when the league folded before the start of the 1986 season.
The New York/New Jersey Knights were the metro area's entry in the World League of American Football, a developmental league introduced by the NFL in 1991. The league featured ten teams in five countries, including three in Europe. The team drew respectable crowds in their two-year stay in New Jersey, including a Giants Stadium crowd of 41,219 against the London Monarchs in 1992. The league took a hiatus in 1993, and when it returned its six franchises were all located in Europe.
The Meadowlands also hosted a trio of short-lived teams in other nationwide professional leagues since, including the New York/New Jersey Hitmen of the original XFL (2001), the New York Sentinels of the United Football League (2009), and the New York Guardians of the second incarnation of the XFL (2020). The original XFL folded after one season, and its successor shut down due to COVID and has yet to return.
The New Jersey Titans of the Women's Spring Football League Women's Spring Football League#11-woman division play at Belleville Municipal Stadium in adjacent Belleville.
Mixed martial arts
EliteXC: Primetime was a mixed martial arts event promoted by Elite Xtreme Combat that took place on May 31, 2008, at the Prudential Center. The main card aired live on CBS, marking the first time an MMA event aired in primetime on major American network television.
The UFC held UFC 78 on November 17, 2007, one of the first events to take place at the new arena. It also played host to UFC 111, which took place on March 27, 2010. On March 19, 2011, it hosted UFC 128, and hosted UFC 159 on April 27, 2013.
Ultimate Fighting Championship's UFC 169: Cruz vs. Barao, mixed martial arts event will also be in at the Prudential Center during Super Bowl week on February 1.
Boxing and wrestling
Until the 1920s the Newark Armory was a major venue for boxing. The Laurel Garden, in the Central Ward, operated as a sports venue from the 1920s until its closing, hosted numerous boxing and wrestling matches, and was also important music venue. Newark produced many fighters during The Golden Age of the American Jewish Boxer. In the 1930s many Jewish prizefighters once in the employ of crime boss Longie Zwillman became part of the Minuteman, a group dedicated to preventing Nazi activities in the city. Day of the Fight, the first picture directed by Stanley Kubrick, shows Irish-American middleweight Walter Cartier during the height of his career, on the day of a fight with Bobby James, which took place on April 17, 1950, at Laurel Garden. One of the last bouts in Laurel Garden-era was on May 30, 1953, in which Joey Giardello defeated middleweight Hurley Sandler in a nationally televised event.
Gymnastics
The AT&T American Cup, an annual elite senior level international gymnastics competition, was held at Prudential Center in 2016 and 2017.
