Sport in Texas

Texas is known for its love of American football and is noted for the intensity with which people follow high school and college football teams—often dominating over all else for the purposes of socializing and leisure. The Dallas Cowboys are often referred to as "America's Team." Dallas was previously home to two different pro teams known as the Dallas Texans. The first was a team that played in the NFL for one season in 1952, Dallas Texans (NFL). The team was the remnants of the New York Yanks franchise. The Texans folded after one season and most of the team and players were sold to a new group that formed the Baltimore Colts in 1953. The second Dallas Texans team played in the AFL from 1960-1962, Dallas Texans (AFL), before moving to Kansas City, Missouri to become the Kansas City Chiefs. The Houston Oilers left to become the Tennessee Titans, but the Houston Texans took their place. For one season, in 1995, Texas was also host to a Canadian Football League team, the San Antonio Texans.

Baseball has a strong presence in Texas, with Major League Baseball teams the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are both equally popular, geographically, in the state. North Texas, West Texas, and Panhandle residents are predominantly Texas Rangers fans. Houston Astros fans tend to be in the more populated areas of Texas, which include: Southeast Texas, Central Texas, and South Texas. Minor league baseball is also closely followed in Texas, especially in the smaller metro areas.

Basketball is also popular, and Texas hosts three NBA teams: the Houston Rockets, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Dallas Mavericks. All three of those NBA teams have reached the NBA Finals. The Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs though, are the only ones to have won a championship. Additionally, Texas is home to two WNBA teams, the Houston Comets and the San Antonio Silver Stars. The Comets were the winners of the first four WNBA Championships in league history, in the 1997-2000 seasons.

Many Texas universities have rich athletic traditions. Originally, most Texas Division I schools were part of the Southwest Athletic Conference until it dissolved in 1996. Four of the largest programs in Texas are now part of the Big 12 Conference: the Baylor Bears, Texas A&M Aggies, Texas Longhorns, and Texas Tech Red Raiders. Fierce sports rivalries exist between the schools such as the Lone Star Showdown between the University of Texas and Texas A&M University, and the Battle of the Brazos between Texas A&M University and Baylor University. The University of Texas also has a long standing rivalry with the University of Oklahoma called the Red River Shootout. In addition to the four Big 12 schools, Texas is home to six other Division I (Bowl Sub-Division) teams: the TCU Horned Frogs of the Mountain West Conference; the SMU Mustangs, the Houston Cougars, the Rice Owls and the UTEP Miners, all of Conference USA; and the North Texas Mean Green of the Sun Belt Conference. Texas' total of ten Division I-FBS schools is greater than that of any other state.

Other popular sports in Texas include golf (which can be played year-round because of the South's mild climate), fishing, and auto racing. Lacrosse, originally played by some of the indigenous tribes, is a visible sport and growing. Soccer is a popular participatory sport, especially among children, but as a spectator sport it does not yet have a large following despite two Texan teams in Major League Soccer. Hockey has been a growing participatory sport in the Dallas/Fort Worth area since the Minnesota North Stars became the Dallas Stars in 1993. Minor league professional hockey has become quite popular in the last decade; Texas is home to seven of the Central Hockey League's seventeen teams.