Is Texas a big-time sports state? Historically speaking, the blue bloods of the sports world have operated on the coasts: the New York Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers; the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers; the New York Giants and the San Francisco 49ers. Just don’t tell that to Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Tim Duncan, Sheryl Swoopes, Patrick Mahomes, Emmitt Smith, Nolan Ryan, or the hundreds of other world-class athletes who grew up in Texas, won multiple titles here, or both.

Even the first professional sports team to dip its toes into Texas in 1952, the NFL’s Dallas Texans, were originally a failed squad called the New York Yanks. Though that team flopped, it was a proof of concept for pro sports in the state. By 1960, Dallas had two pro football teams: a second shot at the Dallas Texans (now the Kansas City Chiefs) and Jerry Jones’ once-and-future powerhouse, the Dallas Cowboys. 

Today, among the Big Four major sports leagues, Texas boasts eight teams. Add in Major League Soccer and the Women’s National Basketball Association, and that number stretches to 12. Texas also has a whopping 13 programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the highest level of NCAA football. 

And it doesn’t stop there.

The first pick in the most recent NFL Draft was Cam Ward, the former University of Miami quarterback who made his bones in West Columbia before starting his record-setting college career at University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. The highest Name, Image, Likeness valuation in college football is Texas quarterback Arch Manning, at a massive $6.5 million. And some of the most accomplished athletes at the 2024 Summer Olympics—from sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson to gymnast Simone Biles—are from the Lone Star State.

Bigger, better, and yes, gaudier, Texas has changed the game.

9.5 feet

Diameter of UT Austin’s Big Bertha II, the largest bass drum in the world, which makes an appearance before Longhorn football games

22,692 SQUARE FEET AND
8,236,800 PIXELS

Size of Big Hoss, the video board at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, one of the largest LED screens in the country

11

Olympic medals won by Simone Biles (so far), the most ever for a U.S. gymnast

1952

Year Texas got its first professional sports team, the Dallas Texans

5,174

Strikeouts by Refugio native pitcher Nolan Ryan, almost a full 1,000 more than second place and an MLB record unlikely to ever be broken

105,121

People at Arling­ton’s AT&T Stadium on Sept. 20, 2009, the largest-ever crowd at a regular season NFL game

400

MEMBERS OF THE FIGHTIN’ TEXAS AGGIE BAND, THE LARGEST MILITARY MARCHING BAND IN THE NATION