Sports
Tulsa supports wide array of sports at the professional and collegiate levels. Currently, the city hosts two NCAA Division I colleges and five professional, minor league sports teams, playing in basketball, arena football, baseball, hockey, and soccer. The city also contains one of the nation's top rated golf courses, Southern Hills Country Club, which is among only two courses to host six majors: three PGA Championships and three U.S. Opens, the most recent in 2001. The course has held five amateur championships and will host its fourth PGA Championship and seventh major overall in 2007, while the LPGA plays a regular tour stop for the SemGroup Championship at Cedar Ridge Country Club. The 18,000-seat BOK Center, set for completion in 2008, is intended to be a home for the city's minor league hockey and arena football teams. Until its last season in 1984, the city hosted the Tulsa Roughnecks, which played in the now-defunct North American Soccer League. Also in 1984, the city co-hosted the Oklahoma Outlaws with Oklahoma City for a single season, which belonged to the now-defunct United States Football League.
Tulsa has two universities that compete at the NCAA Division I level: the University of Tulsa Golden Hurricane, and the Oral Roberts University Golden Eagles. The University of Tulsa's basketball program has reached the Sweet Sixteen three times, won the NIT championship in 1981 and 2001, and made an appearance in the Elite Eight in 2000. Thirteen bowl games have been played by the school in football. Oral Roberts University's basketball team reached the Elite Eight in 1974 and won the Mid-Continent Conference title three straight years, from 2005 to 2007. At the secondary level, the Tulsa area is home to several high school athletic programs that are frequently ranked among the best nationally.
The city's running and cycling communities support events such as the Tulsa Tough cycling race and the Tulsa Run, which features over 8000 participants annually. Gambling is supported by a community of Indian gaming venues that have been allowed to expand gambling options. In 2005, compacts between the state and various tribes allowed facilities to offer table card games and slot machines. Another popular gambling draw, Horse racing events are housed by the Fair Meadows race track and Will Rogers Downs in nearby Claremore.
(Source: Wikipedia.org)
