Fall in Love with Houston Sports

Houston sports + love Graphic by Running Game Clothing

It’s Time to Fall in LOVE with Houston Sports

All of us should strive to learn, embrace and love everything about our city – it’s our city! Learn to love the arts, the food, the businesses, the taco trucks, and you guessed it – the teams.

Houston is one of about 15 cities to boast four pro sports teams. It’s an honor actually. Whether you love football, basketball, baseball or soccer, we’ve got it all. If you grew up here, you probably love the teams because of your roots. You likely grew up watching the greats and have memories to support your unwavering love, but our city is filled with so many transplants, sometimes it’s hard to be a homer.

In honor of the month of love, here are some reasons to fall in love with Houston sports:

• JJ Watt. This needn’t explanation.
• Our stadiums have convertible status. Both Minute Maid Park (1 of only 6 MLB) and NRG Stadium (1 of only 4 NFL) have retractable roofs, making weather excuses a non-issue.
• The 34’s: Campbell, Ryan and Olajuwon.
• The Rockets 1994 – 1995 back-to-back championships.
• Orbit, the Astros mascot, was named 2014 Best Mascot by com. He is from outer space, and if that’s not reason enough, he doesn’t wear pants. And if you need another reason, how about he trolls, antagonizes and imitates the opposing players in a hilarious fashion. Orbit is great.
• The Dynamo set a MLS record with a 36-game unbeaten streak at home that lasted parts of three seasons and two calendar years (June 2011-May 2013).
• The Astros are a team on the rise having finished the 2014 season 70-92 – a 19-win improvement over their 2013 record. The 19-win improvement was second-best in the Majors and second-best turnaround in franchise history.
• Nolan Ryan’s back. Many know the impact #34 had on the Astros for nine seasons, so fans are eager to see if he can bring it back.
• The Dynamo have been successful in their first nine years, reaching the playoffs 7 of 9 years and advancing to the MLS Cup Final four times and the Conference Championship six times.
• Texans Tailgating – consistently top 5 in the NFL.
• Astros outfielder George Springer, who appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated (June 30 issue), joining Joe Morgan, Sonny Jackson, J.R. Richard, Randy Johnson, Roger Clemens and Brad Lidge as Astros SI cover boys since the ‘60’s.
• The Rockets have two superstars in Dwight Howard and James Harden. Harden is constantly improving, has a killer beard (Fear the Beard!) and the healthy Howard has been sticking it to Laker fans for two years.

 This article originally ran in the February 2015 print issue of Local Houston Magazine (formerly 002), which is a free magazine all around Houston for the past two decades. Click here to see it online.