Home · Learn · Official State Sports (All 50 States)
Every state official sport (Maryland picked jousting)
State sports are the weirdest category of state symbols. Almost every state has an official flower and an official bird, but only about 30 states have gotten around to naming an official sport. And the ones they picked are almost never football or basketball. Maryland was the first state to designate one, choosing jousting in 1962. Texas picked rodeo, Hawaii picked surfing, and Colorado picked pack burro racing. Below is the complete list, plus the states that have never bothered to legislate one.
Complete list of official state sports
Some states list both an "official state sport" and separate individual, team, or winter sport categories. The table below shows the primary designation.
| State | Official sport | Year adopted |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | none | — |
| Alaska | Dog mushing | 1972 |
| Arizona | none | — |
| Arkansas | none | — |
| California | Surfing | 2018 |
| Colorado | Pack burro racing | 2012 |
| Connecticut | none | — |
| Delaware | Bicycling | 2014 |
| Florida | none | — |
| Georgia | none | — |
| Hawaii | Surfing (he'e nalu) | 1998 |
| Idaho | none | — |
| Illinois | none | — |
| Indiana | none | — |
| Iowa | none | — |
| Kansas | none | — |
| Kentucky | none (Thoroughbred racing widely associated) | — |
| Louisiana | none | — |
| Maine | none | — |
| Maryland | Jousting (team: lacrosse) | 1962 |
| Massachusetts | Basketball | 2006 |
| Michigan | none | — |
| Minnesota | Ice hockey | 2009 |
| Mississippi | none | — |
| Missouri | none | — |
| Montana | none | — |
| Nebraska | none | — |
| Nevada | none | — |
| New Hampshire | Skiing | 2018 |
| New Jersey | none | — |
| New Mexico | none | — |
| New York | none | — |
| North Carolina | Stock car racing (NASCAR) | 2011 |
| North Dakota | none | — |
| Ohio | none | — |
| Oklahoma | none | — |
| Oregon | none | — |
| Pennsylvania | none | — |
| Rhode Island | none | — |
| South Carolina | none | — |
| South Dakota | Rodeo | 2003 |
| Tennessee | none | — |
| Texas | Rodeo | 1997 |
| Utah | Skiing | 1990 |
| Vermont | Snowboarding (Skiing also) | 2019 |
| Virginia | none | — |
| Washington | none | — |
| West Virginia | none | — |
| Wisconsin | none | — |
| Wyoming | Rodeo (state symbol on license plate) | 2003 |
Why Maryland picked jousting
Maryland became the first state to adopt an official sport in 1962. The choice was not medieval combat jousting, but ring jousting, a tournament tradition brought to Maryland by English settlers in the 1600s. Riders gallop full speed down a track and try to spear small metal rings dangling from crossbars. Rings can be as small as a quarter of an inch.
The oldest continuous jousting tournament in America is held every August at the Calvert County fair, dating to 1868. The Maryland Jousting Tournament Association still hosts state championships each fall. The state added lacrosse as its official team sport in 2004 to recognize the sport's long history at Johns Hopkins and the University of Maryland.
The five rodeo states
Rodeo is the most-picked official sport in the country. Five states have made it an official symbol:
- Texas (1997): the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo draws over 2 million people each spring, the largest rodeo in the world by attendance.
- Wyoming: the Cheyenne Frontier Days rodeo, running since 1897, appears on the state license plate.
- South Dakota (2003): home to the Days of '76 rodeo in Deadwood.
- Colorado: designated pack burro racing instead of rodeo, unique to old mining camps.
- Oklahoma: did not formally adopt but the state legislature designated Guthrie as the official rodeo capital.
Winter sports states
Cold-weather states lean into skiing, hockey, or snowboarding. Utah picked skiing in 1990 with an eye on the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. New Hampshire followed in 2018. Vermont went further, naming snowboarding in 2019 to honor Jake Burton Carpenter and the Burton Snowboards company founded in Londonderry, Vermont in 1977. Minnesota picked ice hockey in 2009, a fitting choice for the state that produced more NHL players than any other US state.
Water sports and coastal picks
Hawaii and California both officially picked surfing, and both have legitimate claims. Hawaii adopted surfing (he'e nalu) in 1998 because Native Hawaiians invented the sport centuries before European contact. Duke Kahanamoku, born in Honolulu in 1890, popularized it globally. California adopted surfing in 2018 to recognize its role in commercializing the sport, from the 1950s Malibu scene to the modern World Surf League. Alaska picked dog mushing in 1972, tied to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race that runs each March from Anchorage to Nome.
The states that picked nothing
Roughly 20 states have never designated an official sport. Football and basketball are almost never picked because state legislatures do not want to appear to favor one college's rivalry over another. Alabama has never made football official, though it plays for the SEC championship most years. Ohio has never designated basketball, football, or baseball despite hosting three professional franchises in Cleveland alone. Kentucky is closely associated with Thoroughbred racing but has never made it official at the state level, only naming the horse race the "Kentucky Derby" as the official state horse race.
Test yourself on state symbols
Can you match every state to its official bird, tree, and flower without a hint?
Play a symbols quiz →