Sports
Jacksonville is home to a number of professional sports teams, the most famous of which is the Jacksonville Jaguars of the National Football League. The Jacksonville Suns are a minor league baseball affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers. There is an ABA expansion team, the Jacksonville Jam, that began playing in November of 2006. There is a Women's Football League team, the Jacksonville Dixie Blues. The ice hockey team is the Jacksonville Barracudas, which brought the city its only professional hockey championship with the WHA2 President's Cup in 2004. The Jacksonville name is also given to a National Indoor Football League expansion franchise, which actually plays in nearby Green Cove Springs, Florida In 2007 the city is set to host a women's soccer team in the Women's Amateur Development Soccer League. In rugby league, the Jacksonville Axemen play in the American National Rugby League.
Jacksonville was host city for Super Bowl XXXIX, becoming the third city in the state of Florida (Miami and Tampa being the others) to hold the event. Jacksonville's metropolitan area was notably smaller than the previous hosts and lacked adequate hotel space for such an event, so the city chartered several cruise ships to act as "floating hotels" in the St. John's River. The game was held on February 6, 2005 and featured halftime entertainment by former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney.
Jacksonville's history with professional football goes back to the 1960s. In 1967 and 1968 the city hosted the American Football League (AFL) All Star Game at the Gator Bowl. Jacksonville was the only non-AFL city to host the game. It was presumed at the time that this was a prelude to Jacksonville getting an AFL expansion team, but the AFL merged with the rival National Football League in 1970 and expansion plans were scrapped. Jacksonville had its first professional football teams with the Jacksonville Sharks (1974) and Jacksonville Express (1975) of the World Football League (WFL), which folded in 1975. The first regular-season professional football game held in Jacksonville took place on July 11, 1974 as the Sharks defeated the New York Stars 14-7 in front of just over 59,000 fans at the Gator Bowl. The Sharks' Alvin Wyatt scored the first touchdown in Jacksonville pro football history on a punt return. In 1984 football returned for two seasons with the Jacksonville Bulls of the United States Football League (USFL). The 1984 Bulls were an expansion team but were only one year behind the rest of the league. The USFL ceased operations after the 1985 season.
Several NFL teams flirted with moving to the city over the years. The Baltimore Colts and Houston Oilers were said to have been the most serious, while several other teams used the threat of relocation to Jacksonville as leverage in getting new stadiums in their own cities. The awarding of an NFL franchise to the city in 1995, which most pundits said was highly unlikely, was said to have been in part a reward for the city having been a "friend" to several NFL owners. Jacksonville native and then-Tampa Bay Buccaneers' owner Hugh Culverhouse is also said to have played a role in Jacksonville landing the Jaguars franchise.
The Gator Bowl college football bowl game has been played in the city since 1946.
The Jacksonville area also boasts many highly rated golf courses. In Ponte Vedra lies the Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass, one of the most famous golf courses in the world and home to the annual PGA tour, TPC (THE PLAYERS Championship) tournament (considered by the Media as Golf's unofficial 5th Major. St. Johns County is home to the World Golf Village and World Golf Hall of Fame. The PGA tour also has it's headquarters located in Ponte Vedra Beach.
Professional tennis is in town each year when the WTA holds the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island Plantation near Fernandina Beach, just north of Jacksonville. Other sports events include the annual Kingfish Tournament held in July, the Florida-Georgia football game, commonly known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" held every October, the ACC Championship football and baseball, and the Gator Bowl held in early January. The University of North Florida, Jacksonville University and Edward Waters College also field athletic teams in a number of sports. On March 2006, Jacksonville held the first round of the NCAA 68th Annual Division I Basketball Championship with Jacksonville University as host.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
