page_title: Louisville, Kentucky
section_title: Sports
hierarchical_section_title: Louisville, Kentucky / Culture / Sports
caption_attribution_description: 19:38, 27 August 2005 . . Rdikeman . . 700×467 (270,902 bytes) (Louisville Slugger Field, home of the Louisville Bats of the International League, 2002, by Rick Dikeman {{GFDL}})
context_page_description: Louisville is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 29th most-populous city in the United States. It is one of two cities in Kentucky designated as first-class, the other being Lexington, the state's second-largest city. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
  Named after King Louis XVI of France, Louisville was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians. With nearby Falls of the Ohio as the only major obstruction to river traffic between the upper Ohio River and the Gulf of Mexico, the settlement first grew as a portage site. It was the founding city of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, which grew into a 6,000-mile system across 13 states.
  Today, the city is known as the home of legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, the Kentucky Derby, Kentucky Fried Chicken, the University of Louisville and its Cardinals, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, and three of Kentucky's six Fortune 500 companies: Humana, Kindred Healthcare, and Yum! Brands. Muhammad Ali International Airport, Louisville's main commercial airport, hosts UPS's worldwide hub.
context_section_description: College sports are popular in the Louisville area. The Louisville Cardinals have competed as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), since joining that league in July 2014.
  College basketball is particularly popular. The Louisville Cardinals's Freedom Hall averaged sellouts for 10 straight years and the downtown KFC Yum! Center following suit with regular sellouts. The Cardinals ranked third nationally in attendance in 2012–13, the most recent of the program's three national championship seasons. The Cardinals also hold the Big East conference women's basketball paid attendance record with nearly 17,000 attending the game against the Kentucky Wildcats in 2008.
  The Louisville market has ranked first in ratings for the NCAA men's basketball tournament every year since 1999. The Kentucky Wildcats used to play an annual game in Freedom Hall.
  The Louisville Cardinals football team has produced successful NFL players such as Johnny Unitas, Deion Branch, Sam Madison, David Akers, Joe Jacoby and Ray Buchanan. The Cardinals won the 1991 Fiesta Bowl, the 2007 Orange Bowl, and the 2013 Sugar Bowl. In 2016, sophomore quarterback Lamar Jackson took the football team to new heights. Lamar was the school's first Heisman Trophy winner, which is awarded to the most outstanding college football player nationwide during that season. He was also one of the youngest players to ever receive the award. The team also matched their highest ranking in school history at No. 3. The University of Louisville baseball team advanced to the College World Series in Omaha in 2007, 2013, and 2014, as one of the final eight teams to compete for the national championship.
  Horse racing is also a major attraction. Churchill Downs is home to the Kentucky Derby, the largest sporting event in the state, as well as the Kentucky Oaks which together cap the two-week-long Kentucky Derby Festival. Churchill Downs has also hosted the renowned Breeders' Cup on eight occasions, most recently in 2011.
  Louisville is also the home of Valhalla Golf Club which hosted the 1996, 2000 and 2014 PGA Championships, the 2004 Senior PGA Championship and the 2008 Ryder Cup. It is also home to David Armstrong Extreme Park (formerly Louisville Extreme Park), which skateboarder Tony Hawk has called one of his top five skate parks.
  Louisville has seven professional and semi-professional sports teams, but no major league teams. It is the fourth largest U.S. city without one, with only Austin, Texas, Fort Worth, Texas and El Paso, Texas larger. The Louisville Bats are a baseball team playing in the International League as the Class AAA affiliate of the nearby Cincinnati Reds. The team plays at Louisville Slugger Field at the edge of the city's downtown. Louisville City FC, a professional soccer team in the second-division USL Championship, began play in 2015 at Slugger Field and is planned to move into their own stadium, Lynn Family Stadium, in 2020. The team was originally the reserve side for Orlando City SC of Major League Soccer, but the two organizations were separated in 2016. Racing Louisville FC, an expansion team in the National Women's Soccer League will begin play in 2021 at Lynn Family Stadium.
  Louisville had two professional American football teams in the National Football League: the Louisville Breckenridges (or Brecks for short) from 1921 to 1924 and the Louisville Colonels in 1926.
  Between 1967 and 1976, Louisville was home to the Kentucky Colonels of the American Basketball Association. The Colonels was one of the ABA's most successful teams during its existence, winning four division titles and the 1975 ABA Championship, but was not invited to join the NBA when the two leagues merged in 1976, and subsequently folded.
  Louisville has the added distinction of being the only city in the world that is the birthplace of four heavyweight boxing champions: Marvin Hart, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Ellis and Greg Page.
caption: Louisville Slugger Field, where the Louisville Bats play
exif: {}