Sports in Newark, New Jersey

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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.[1][2][3] Two venues in the northeastern New Jersey metro region, Prudential Center and Riverfront Stadium, 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.[4]

Professional sports

When built, the Prudential Center was the first new major sports venue to be built in the metro area in twenty five years.

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.[5] Part of the 2012 Stanley Cup Finals were played there.

The 2013 NHL Entry Draft (the 51st NHL Entry Draft) took place on June 30, 2013, at the Prudential Center[6][7][8]

Red Bull Arena is across the Passaic from Downtown Newark

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 Harrsion, with shuttle bus service running from downtown train stations.[9] PATH trains from Newark Penn Station are one stop to nearby Harrison station.[10]

Newark, particularly the Ironbound, and the adjacent West Hudson towns on the Passaic, Harrison and Kerany, have a long tradition of soccer.[11][12] 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.[13][14] The Newark Portuguese was one of many teams.[12]

Jersey Express S.C. plays at the NJIT. New Jersey Ironmen was an indoor soccer team of the Major Indoor Soccer League which played at Prudential Center from 2007 to 2009.

Baseball

Bears and Eagles Riverfront Stadium is named for the city's historic teams

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.[15] They played at Bears & Eagles Riverfront Stadium, a 6,200-seat ballpark that is also home to local college baseball teams.[16][17] Both the stadium and team have struggled financially.[18] In November 2013, the future of the team became uncertain as they were unable to commit to a 2014 season and folded shortly thereafter.[19]

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.[20] 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.[21][22][23] Newark had eight teams in the National Association of Base Ball Players, including the Newark Eurekas and the Newark Adriatics.[24] 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.[25]

The New Jersey Nets played two seasons (2010–2012) at the Prudential Center until moving to the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.[26] 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.[27]

Both the 2011 NBA Draft[28] and 2012 NBA Draft were held at the arena.

Football

Newark was a host city for Super Bowl XLVIII to be played at Met Life Stadium at the Meadowlands Sports Complex

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.[29][30][31] The game took place at Met Life 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.[4] 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.[32] Super Bowl Media Day, kicked off at the Prudential Center on January 28, 2014, with a series of events.[33][34] The original Vince Lombardi Trophy produced by Tiffany & Co. in Newark in 1967 is displaced at the Newark Museum.[35]

Newark had a team which competed in the first American Football League in 1926, the Newark Bears.[36] 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.

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.[37]

Mixed martial arts

EliteXC: Primetime was a mixed martial arts event promoted by Elite Xtreme Combat which took place on May 31, 2008, at the Prudential Center.[38] The main card aired live on CBS, marking the first time an MMA event aired in primetime on major American network television.[39]

The UFC held UFC 78 on November 17, 2007, one of the first events to take place at the new arena.[40] It also played host to UFC 111, which took place on March 27, 2010.[41] On March 19, 2011, it hosted UFC 128,[42] 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.[43][44]

Boxing and wrestling

Until the 1920s the Newark Armory was a major venue for boxing.[45][46][47] The Laurel Garden, in the Central Ward, operated as a sports venue from the 1920s until its closing, hosted numerous boxing and wrestling matches,[48] and was also important music venue.[49] Newark produced many fighters during the The Golden Age of the American Jewish Boxer.[50][51] 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.[52] 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.[53] 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.[54]

Gymnastics

The American Cup, a preview to the 2018 Summer Olympics, at Prudential Center March 2016.[55]

College sports

The Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball program is the NCAA Division I intercollegiate men's basketball program of Seton Hall University in South Orange. The team competes in the Big East Conference and plays their home games at the Prudential Center. In 2011, the GoNewarkHoopFest was hosted by Seton Hall University for the East Regional playoffs of the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament.[56][57][58][59]

File:Aerial view of Golden Dome Athletic Center 2006.jpg
Rutger's Golden Dome Athletic Center

The Rutgers–Newark Scarlet Raiders field teams for NCAA competition in 14 Division III sports (7 each for men and women): men's and women's basketball, men's and women's cross country, men's and women's soccer, men's and women's tennis, men's and women's track and field, men's and women's volleyball, baseball (men) and softball (women). The Scarlet Raiders are members of the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) and the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association. Built in 1977, the Golden Dome Athletic Center is the hub of Rutgers–Newark athletics, seating 2,000. Soccer and softball games are held on Alumni Field. Rutgers–Newark baseball team plays at Riverfront Stadium[60]

The New Jersey Institute of Technology's sports teams are called the NJIT Highlanders. NJIT's athletic teams compete in the NCAA Division I (full membership officially September 1, 2009[61]). They play in the Atlantic Sun Conference. The men's volleyball team plays in the Eastern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (EIVA) conference, the men's swimming team plays in the Coastal Collegiate Swimming Association. The club-level ice hockey team plays in the Great Northeast Collegiate Hockey Conference. The Fleisher Center is the school's athletic center.

Essex County College teams are represented in the Garden State Athletic Conference (GSAC) and Region 19 of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

High-school basketball and soccer

Saint Benedict's Preparatory School basketball team, coach by Dan Hurley between 2001 and 2010, consistently ranks as one of the top high-school basketball teams in the United States among USA Today High School Boys Basketball Super 25.[62][63] and is part of the "NBA Pipeline".[64]

St. Benedict’s had the top-ranked high school soccer team in the nation by ESPN/Rise in 1990, 1997–98, 2001, 2005–06 and 2011.[65][66] Numerous alumni of the soccer program at St. Benedict's have become world-renowned players.[67]

Statues

Statue of Althea Gibson adjacent to courts named in her honour

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.[68][69] A bronze statue, created by sculptor Thomas Jay Warren,[70] was dedicated to the memory of Althea Gibson in Branch Brook Park in March 2012[71][72] "I hope that I have accomplished just one thing," she once wrote, "that I have been a credit to tennis, and to my country."[73] "By all measures," reads the inscription "Althea Gibson certainly attained that goal."[74] In June 2012, a life-size bronze statue of Roberto Clemente was also unveiled.[75]

See also

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Further information: Category:Sportspeople from Newark, New Jersey

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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  13. ↑ Hernandez, Raymond. "World Cup Hits Home In Soccer Town, U.S.A." The New York Times June 26, 1994. Accessed September 12, 2013. "In a nation that has not yet shared the world's enthusiasm for soccer, Kearny (pronounced CAR-nee) is certainly an anomaly. The town has two local soccer historians. On Kearny Avenue, the main strip, a sign proclaims: 'Welcome to Kearny. Soccer Town, U.S.A.'"
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Home page, Atlantic League of Professional Baseball. Accessed June 26, 2012.
  16. ↑ Rutgers–Newark Athletic Facilities. Accessed 2009-08-14
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  23. ↑ Crawford, Aimee. "The first lady of black baseball: Manley was an innovator in the Negro Leagues", Major League Baseball. Accessed June 28, 2012.
  24. ↑ "History of the Eureka Base Ball Club of Newark", Riverbank Park, May 23, 2008. Accessed June 28, 2012.
  25. ↑ Kitchin, Mark. "Express take root at Drew", Daily Record (Morristown), July 12, 2007. Accessed June 26, 2012.
  26. ↑ Mazzeo, Mike. "Chris Christie: No love lost for Nets", ESPN New York, April 24, 2012. Accessed June 26, 2012. "The New Jersey Nets are playing their final game in New Jersey on Monday night and leaving for Brooklyn at the end of this season, but the governor of New Jersey isn't about to get all nostalgic over it."
  27. ↑ "New York Liberty Return to Madison Square Garden for 2012 Home Opener", Prudential Center, May 14, 2012. Accessed June 26, 2012. "The Liberty's 2012 season will mark the second of three seasons the team will call Prudential Center home court while Madison Square Garden continues a historic, top-to-bottom Transformation."
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  55. ↑ http://www.nj.com/essex/index.ssf/2016/03/pre-olympic_gymnastics_cup_to_be_held_in_nj_for_1s.html
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  60. ↑ Rutgers–Newark Athletic Facilities. Accessed 2013-12-12
  61. ↑ 'NJIT : NJIT Officially Gains Active NCAA Division I Membership'
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  65. ↑ Staff. "Pennington (1) at St. Benedict's (4), Prep A Tournament, Final Round - Boys Soccer", Trenton Times, November 6, 2011. Accessed December 5, 2011. "With the victory, St. Benedict’s completed a perfect 24-0 campaign and will finish as the No. 1 ranked team in the country for the seventh time in school history and first time since 2006. The title is the 23rd straight Prep A crown and 25th overall state title for St. Benedict’s, which will carry a 36-game winning streak into next year.... St. Benedict’s, which was guaranteed the ESPN/Rise No. 1 spot in the national rankings with a victory, also won national championships in 1990, '97, '98, 2001, '05 and '06."
  66. ↑ "Seventh Heaven! Gray Bees Pick up Their 7Th National Championship; Beat Pennington to cap perfection & earn 23rd straight state title", St. Benedict's Soccer, November 6, 2011. Accessed August 21, 2012. "The Gray Bees wrapped up a perfect season and claimed their 7th National Championship and 23rd successive state title with a 4-1 victory over Pennington Sunday in the Prep A Championship game before a boisterous crowd at NJIT."
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  70. ↑ Althea Gibson Statue, Newark, NJ. warrensculpture.com Retrieved May 7, 2013.
  71. ↑ Branch Brook Park Alliance. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
  72. ↑ Eunice Lee, "Statue of first black woman to win Wimbledon unveiled in Newark park", NJ.com, March 29, 2012.
  73. ↑ Gibson and Curtis 1968, p. 27.
  74. ↑ Bronze statue of civil rights pioneer Althea Gibson dedicated in Essex County (March 28, 2012). Independent Press archive. Retrieved May 7, 2013.
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External links

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