Texas is home of several national sports league franchises among other professional sports, being the second most populated U.S. state. Since the state is located in the South Central United States, most teams are part of the Central / South or West league divisions, with the notable exception of the NFL Dallas Cowboys, which is an NFC East franchise.
Major league professional teams
Texas is home to 12 major league sports teams and three major women's teams.
Club Sport Founded League Venue (capacity) Championships Austin FC Soccer 2018 Major League Soccer Q2 Stadium (20,500) 0 Dallas Cowboys Football 1960 National Football League AT&T Stadium (80,000) 5 Dallas Mavericks Basketball 1980 National Basketball Association American Airlines Center (19,200) 1 Dallas Stars Ice hockey 1993 National Hockey League American Airlines Center (18,532) 1 Dallas Trinity FC Soccer 2024 USL Super League Cotton Bowl (92,100) 0 Dallas Wings Basketball 2016 Women's National Basketball Association College Park Center (7,000) 3 FC Dallas Soccer 1995 Major League Soccer Toyota Stadium (20,500) 0 Houston Astros Baseball 1962 Major League Baseball Daikin Park (41,168) 2 Houston Dash Soccer 2014 National Women's Soccer League Shell Energy Stadium (7,000) 0 Houston Dynamo FC Soccer 2006 Major League Soccer Shell Energy Stadium (22,039) 2 Houston Rockets Basketball 1971 National Basketball Association Toyota Center (18,055) 2 Houston Texans Football 2002 National Football League Reliant Stadium (71,795) 0 San Antonio Spurs Basketball 1967 National Basketball Association Frost Bank Center (18,418) 5 Texas Rangers Baseball 1972 Major League Baseball Globe Life Field (40,000) 1 Texas Super Kings Cricket 2023 Major League Cricket Grand Prairie Stadium (7,000) 0
American football
Many Texans are passionate about American football and intensely follow high school and college football teams, which often dominate social and leisure activity. Professional football is also intensely popular in Texas, and the state is home to two National Football League (NFL) franchises, the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans. In addition to the Cowboys and Texans, two current NFL teams previously played in the state, and one now-defunct NFL team also called the state home.
The Dallas Cowboys, founded in 1960, are one of the most popular teams in the league and have fans in many parts of the United States, leading to the nickname "America's Team". They are also one of the most successful, having reached eight Super Bowls and won five (tied with the San Francisco 49ers for second all-time). The Cowboys play their home games at AT&T Stadium in nearby Arlington, into which they moved in 2009 after having spent 38 years at Texas Stadium in Irving.
The first major-league sports team in Texas was also an NFL franchise—the Dallas Texans, which joined the league in 1952. The team's first game, however, proved to be a harbinger for the season—a 24–6 loss in front of fewer than 18,000 fans in the then-75,000-seat Cotton Bowl. Home attendance continued to slump, dropping to 10,000 for a loss that left the team 0–7. The team owners, unable to make payroll, returned the Texans to the league, and the team played the rest of the 1952 season as a traveling team, never returning to Texas. After the season, the NFL folded the Texans, making them the last NFL team to permanently cease operations.
In the same year that the Cowboys entered the NFL, the American Football League (AFL) began operations with two teams in the state—the Dallas Texans and Houston Oilers. The new Texans shared the Cotton Bowl with the Cowboys, while the Oilers played at Jeppesen Stadium (now the site of the University of Houston's TDECU Stadium). The Texans and Cowboys shared the city and stadium through the 1962 season; while the Texans enjoyed more on-field success, including an AFL title in 1962, the team's owner Lamar Hunt concluded that Dallas could not support two professional football teams and moved the Texans to Kansas City, Missouri, where they play to this day as the Kansas City Chiefs. The Oilers moved from Jeppesen Stadium to the larger Rice Stadium after the 1964 season, and then joined baseball's Houston Astros at the Astrodome in 1968. Two years later, the merger that the AFL and NFL had agreed to in 1966 took effect, with all AFL franchises being incorporated into the NFL. The Oilers remained at the Astrodome into the 1990s, but the failure of team owner Bud Adams to reach an agreement with the city on a new stadium led to his moving the franchise to Nashville, Tennessee, where it was renamed the Tennessee Titans.
The NFL returned to Houston in 2002 with the debut of the current Texans, who play their home games at Reliant Stadium, the first NFL stadium with a retractable roof.
In 2020, the Dallas Renegades and Houston Roughnecks launched as inaugural teams in the new XFL. The XFL's first season was cut short by COVID-19, and the league did not resume play until 2023, with both teams returning. Shortly before play resumed, the Renegades changed their geographic identifier to Arlington. In the meantime, the second USFL started play in 2022, with the Houston Gamblers as one of its eight original teams. After both leagues' 2023 seasons, the USFL and XFL merged to form the current United Football League. The Renegades were one of the four XFL teams brought into the new league, while the Gamblers and Roughnecks merged, maintaining the Roughnecks branding but retaining the player rights and coaching staff of the Gamblers. After the 2025 season, the Renegades changed their geographic identifier back to Dallas, and the Roughnecks rebranded as the Gamblers.
Baseball
Baseball has a strong presence in Texas, with two Major League Baseball (MLB) teams. The Houston Astros (originally the "Colt .45s") started playing in 1962. The Texas Rangers debuted in 1972 after relocating from Washington, D.C. In 2005, the Astros became the first team in Texas to make it to the World Series. The Rangers followed the Astros in 2010 to their first World Series and the following year as well. In 2017, the Astros became the first team in Texas to win the World Series. In 2023, the Rangers also won their first World Series title.
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is also closely followed in Texas—especially in the smaller metropolitan areas. As of the 2026 season, three teams play in the Triple-A Pacific Coast League: the El Paso Chihuahuas, Round Rock Express, and Sugar Land Space Cowboys. Five teams play in the Double-A Texas League: the Amarillo Sod Poodles, Corpus Christi Hooks, Frisco RoughRiders, Midland RockHounds, and San Antonio Missions. The Fort Worth Cats were a team in Fort Worth that won three-straight championships in independent leagues, one in the Central Baseball League and the last two in the American Association.
College baseball is also quite popular, as Texas A&M University, Rice University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, Baylor University, Texas Tech University, and Texas Christian University have all made multiple Men's College World Series appearances.
Basketball
Basketball is also popular, and Texas hosts three NBA teams: the San Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets, and the Dallas Mavericks. All three have won championships, with the Rockets winning back-to-back championships in 1994 and 1995 with the help of NBA MVP Hakeem Olajuwon. Following this, the Spurs enjoyed a period of consistent success, winning 5 championships between 1999 and 2014 with the help of Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, and Manu Ginóbili. The Dallas Mavericks enjoyed a similarly successful period after trading the Milwaukee Bucks for Dirk Nowitzki. They managed to break through and win a championship in 2011.
Texas is home to one WNBA team, the Dallas Wings, which relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma after the 2015 season. The state had two other WNBA teams, the Houston Comets and San Antonio Stars. The Comets, a founding member of the WNBA, won the league's first four championships (1997–2000) but folded after the 2008 season. The Stars were also a founding member of the WNBA as the Salt Lake City-based Utah Starzz, and moved to San Antonio when the team was bought by the Spurs' parent company, Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SSE), before the 2003 season. The team then took the identity of San Antonio Silver Stars, dropping the word "Silver" after the 2013 season. After the 2017 season, SSE sold the Stars to MGM Resorts International, which moved the team to Las Vegas as the Las Vegas Aces.
At the collegiate level, the state is home to two NCAA Division I Men's Championship teams: the Texas Western Miners (now UTEP Miners) team, who won the 1966 NCAA University Division basketball tournament (the historic predecessor to today's Division I men's tournament), and the Baylor Bears, who won the 2021 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. In women's collegiate basketball, several teams have won championships, including the Texas Tech Lady Raiders, Texas Longhorns, Texas A&M Aggies, and Baylor Bears.
Texas also has a statewide championship recreational basketball league, Shamrock Basketball Association.
Horse racing From 1905 to 1915, people in Dallas and Fort Worth turned out by the thousands for horse racing, which was usually tied to the state fair schedule. Dallas established a Jockey Club early on. The Fort Worth Driving Club (for owners of Standardbred trotters and pacers) had 101 members when it opened in 1905. Trotters raced at a park in Fort Worth, but both cities attracted thousands of people for each style of racing.Fort Worth Driving Club Records: A Guide, University of Texas at Arlington, accessed March 29, 2008
Lone Star Park, in the Dallas–Fort Worth suburb of Grand Prairie, hosted the Breeders' Cup, the climax to the American Thoroughbred racing season, in 2004.
Ice hockey
Ice hockey has been a growing participatory sport in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL) became the Dallas Stars in 1993. The Stars made the Stanley Cup playoffs their first year in Dallas and remained competitive through the rest of decade, culminating in a Stanley Cup championship in 1999. The team returned to the Stanley Cup Final the next year, only to lose to the New Jersey Devils. In addition to the 1999 Stanley Cup and 2000 Western Conference championship, the team has also won two Presidents' Trophies as the NHL's regular-season points champion and seven division titles.
Prior to the advent of the Stars, top-tier professional ice hockey existed in Texas in the form of the Houston Aeros, who played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) from 1973 to 1978. The team was notable for featuring hockey legend Gordie Howe, who was lured out of retirement by the prospect of playing alongside his sons, Mark and Marty. Led by the Howes, the Aeros won back-to-back Avco World Trophies as the WHA champions in 1974 and 1975. The Aeros folded after they failed to gain admission into the NHL, first as part of a merger between the WHA and NHL and then as an expansion team.