Sports
Photo Courtesy of https://www.facebook.com/RoryMcIlroy/
The famous Boston Athletic Association (BAA) was founded in the late19th century by an unlikely coalition of leading Boston Brahmins and a famous Irish rebel, John Boyle O’Reilly (1844-90). The BAA was created at a time when amateur sports were increasingly popular across the United States. There were many collegiate teams in greater Boston and numerous small associations, but the…
Fenway Park – home of the Boston Red Sox – is the nation’s enduring symbol of baseball, America’s favorite pastime. Officially opened on April 20, 1912, the park has outlasted all other major league baseball parks, becoming a shrine for baseball lovers everywhere. Writing in the New Yorker Magazine in 1960, John Updike described Fenway Park as…
Many people wonder why the Celtics wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why the team mascot is a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtic’s official web site, the…
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo gave an upbeat assessment on the State Department‘s ongoing efforts to strengthen its ability to issue visas to Americans and foreign visitors, in anticipation of a “mega decade” for sports tourism in the United States. As a result of these efforts, “more people are traveling to the…
The New England Free Jacks, based in Quincy, MA, made history on Sunday, August 4 by winning its second consecutive Major League Rugby (MLR) Championship with a hard-fought, 20-11, victory over the Seattle Seawolves in the MLR title game at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego. Read full press release. With the win, the Free Jacks join Seattle…
Many people wonder why the Boston Celtics wear shamrocks on their green uniforms and have a giant leprechaun smoking a cigar as their team logo. And why is the team mascot a guy named Lucky who looks like he stepped out of a box of Lucky Charms? According to the Boston Celtics official website, the name came…
On Monday, April 6, 1896, James Brendan Connolly of South Boston became the first medalist in the modern Olympic Games when he won the triple jump on the opening day of the Games in Athens, Greece. Connolly won the event – back then it was called the Hop, Skip and Jump – by jumping 44 ‘ 9…
New England is fortunate to have a vibrant sporting scene, ranging from our professional sports teams and collegiate programs to plenty of grass roots and seasonal sports. Let’s start with the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), which formed in Ireland in the late 19th century to perpetuate the country’s ancient games such as hurling, camogie and…
Boxing champion John L. Sullivan was born on October 12, 1858, on East Concord Street in Boston’s Roxbury/South End. His father, Mike Sullivan, emigrated from County Kerry around 1850 and married Katherine Kelly, whose family had immigrated from Athlone in 1853. They married on November 6, 1856. Most Irish boys during this time seemed to…
Fenway Park – it’s as American as apple pie and, well, baseball. The “lyrical little bandbox of a ballpark,” as local writer John Updike described it, is a national treasure, one of the few remaining ballparks to survive a century of wear and tear, heart ache and exultation. Fenway has a distinctive Irish tint over the…
If you saw Harold Connolly as a young boy you might not think he’d stand a chance to become one of the world’s most elite athletes and a legend in Boston sporting annals. But that’s exactly what Connolly became, overcoming an early physical disability, setting dozens of American and World records, and becoming an inspiration…
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