Aside from sports, one of my favorite things is a good road trip! And there is no greater road trip than the Mother Road itself, Route 66!
It is a bucket list item of mine to drive down the main street of America from Chicago to L.A. So, as I was pondering what to do for my next column, I remembered that this year is the 100th anniversary of Route 66. Not only that, but you can find several great sports towns along the route, so here is A Sports Fan’s Guide to Route 66!
Route 66 runs from Chicago to Los Angeles through different states, so I’m gonna go state by state and talk about some of the best sports offerings along the route! Disclaimer: Two states along Route 66, Kansas and Arizona, do have sports offerings, of course, but I couldn’t find anything directly connected to the route, so we’ll be skipping both.
ILLINOIS: The Mother Road begins in one of the great sports towns in America, Chicago, Illinois. Chi-Town has a great variety of sports offerings, including teams in each of America’s Big Four leagues. If football is your thing, the NFL’s Chicago Bears play their home games at Soldier Field, at least for the time being. The Bears began play in 1920, and the 1985 team is considered one of the greatest in football history.
United Center (photo from Reddit)
If football isn’t your thing, then Chicago’s United Center is home to both one of the most historic teams in the NHL and the NBA. The NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks were founded in 1926, the same year as Route 66, and have won six Stanley Cup Championships! The Chicago Bulls were founded in 1966. The Bulls saw their greatest success during the 1990s when Michael Jordan came to town. From 1991 to 1998, Jordan and the Bulls won six NBA championships.
Meanwhile, if you’re looking for a good baseball game along Route 66, Chicago has you covered two-fold! The Chicago White Sox play their home games at Guaranteed Rate Field on Chicago’s South Side and have brought three World Series titles to the city, including the 1919 “Black Sox” team. Or, if you want to visit a historic ballpark, Wrigley Field on Chicago’s North Side is home to the Chicago Cubs. The Cubs have also won three World Series titles, including their 2016 title, which ended a 108-year drought for the franchise.
Finally heading out of Chicago, Route 66 will take you to the town of Joliet, Illinois. In Joliet, you’ll find the Frontier League baseball team, the Joliet Slammers. The Slammers are partially owned by Hollywood legend Bill Murray. To celebrate the centennial birthday of Route 66, the Slammers participated in the “Big House Ballgame” at the historic Joliet Prison. Also in Joliet, you’ll find Dirt Oval 66. This 3/8-mile dirt track is located right off Route 66 and hosts a variety of motorsport events, from monster truck rallies to demolition derbies.
MISSOURI: The next state you’ll enter on your journey is Missouri, and right on the other side of the state line is the city of St. Louis. In St. Louis, we’ll find the NHL’s St. Louis Blues! The Blues play their home games at the Enterprise Center, and in the 2018-2019 season, they won the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. In St. Louis, you’ll also find the MLB’s St. Louis Cardinals, who have won 11 World Series championships.
Further down the road, you’ll find the town of Springfield, Missouri. Springfield is officially recognized as the birthplace of Route 66, and it also has its own minor league baseball team, the Springfield Cardinals, which are, of course, the Double-A affiliate of the St. Louis Cardinals.
Their home stadium bears the name of the mother road, Route 66 Stadium!
OKLAHOMA: Skipping Kansas, Oklahoma is the next state along the mother road you’ll drive through on this journey. First, I want to talk about the town of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The city is home to the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL. This team often celebrates its connection to the Mother Road by rebranding itself as the Route 66 Blue Whales, a reference to the famous Route 66 landmark, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, in Oklahoma.
Further down the route in Oklahoma is Oklahoma City, where we’ll find the second NBA team of our journey so far, the Oklahoma City Thunder! The team relocated from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008 and won the NBA Championship in 2025!
TEXAS: The next state on our journey is the great state of Texas! Most of the sports offerings along Route 66 in Texas can be found in and around the town of Amarillo. The Amarillo Sod Poodles are a Minor League Baseball team in the city and are the Double-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks. Amarillo is also home to the Route 66 Motor Speedway, which hosts weekly racing events throughout the summer season. Amarillo was also the longtime home of professional wrestling legend Terry Funk. Funk’s former home, the legendary Double Cross Ranch, can be found just south of Amarillo in the town of Canyon, Texas.
UNM’s University Stadium is getting modernized (graphic courtesy UNM Newsroom)
NEW MEXICO: One of the most famous towns on the New Mexico portion of Route 66 is Tucumcari. Tucumcari is home to Mesalands Community College, which hosts The Mesalands Stampede. This is a highly competitive and nationally recognized collegiate rodeo team. Further up the road along Route 66 in New Mexico is the city of Albuquerque. Here you can find the Albuquerque Isotopes, a Triple-A minor league baseball team affiliated with the Colorado Rockies. The city is also home to the University of New Mexico, where you can find all of the school’s NCAA athletic programs.
CALIFORNIA: Skipping Arizona, we have reached the final state in our Route 66 Sports journey! Most of what we have to talk about in this state comes at the end of the road in Los Angeles, but we do need to make a stop before we get there in the Route 66 town of San Bernardino, California! This classic stop on the Mother Road is home to the Inland Empire 66ers! A minor league baseball team that is obviously named after the route itself. The 66ers are a Low-A team and are affiliated with the Seattle Mariners.
Then the end of the road in Los Angeles is an absolute hotbed for sports fans! The city has two NBA teams! First off, it is one of the most iconic brands in sports, the Los Angeles Lakers! Then, in the other corner, you have the Los Angeles Clippers, who play their home games in the brand new Inuit Dome. There are also two MLB teams in the city! In Los Angeles proper, you have the defending World Series champions, the Los Angeles Dodgers! Then, if you head south to Anaheim, you’ll find the Los Angeles Angels. You’ll also find two NHL teams in the city of Angels. You’ll find the Los Angeles Kings in the middle of downtown L.A., and if you head south again, you’ll find the mighty Ducks of Anaheim! The city also hosts two NFL football teams. The Los Angeles Chargers and the Los Angeles Rams share a home field at SoFi Stadium.
The Rams have an even deeper connection to the Mother Road, having called two different Route 66 cities home in the team’s history, Los Angeles and St. Louis. Also in the Los Angeles metro area is the world’s most famous football stadium: the Rose Bowl!
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So yes, from Chicago to L.A., more than two thousand miles all the way, there are plenty of ways for everyone to get their kicks on Route 66, even sports fans!
