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Sports & Recreation


Houston's professional teams include: Astros: www.houston.astros.mlb.com (Baseball); Texans: www.houstontexans.com (Football); Rockets: www.nba.com/rockets/index_main.html (Basketball); Dynamo: houston.mlsnet.com (Soccer); Aeros: www.aeros.com (Hockey); Energy (Independent Women's Football League); Team Texas (All American Football League); H'Town Texas Cyclones (National Women's Football Association); Wranglers (World Team Tennis); Houston Takers and Texas City Rangers (American Basketball Assn.); and the Bay Area Toros (Continental Baseball League).

Other Sports Highlights:

  • Houston collegiate teams compete in most major sports — in football, Rice and University of Houston in Conference USA, Texas Southern in the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and Houston Baptist University in the Great West Conference. Rice won the baseball College World Series in 2003 and the C-USA baseball championship in 2006-2009. University of Houston was 2006 C-USA football champion.
  • The Shell Houston Open, the lead-in tournament for the Masters Golf Tournament, has been hosted at Redstone Golf Club since 2003. The Houston Golf Association (HGA) has conducted PGA Tour events since 1946, making Houston's tournament the 10th oldest on the schedule. In 2009, HGA's cumulative charitable contributions for child-related charities since 1974 surpassed $51.6 million, of which $45.6 million has been raised since Shell Oil assumed the title sponsorship in 1992.
  • Racing facilities include Sam Houston Race Park (Class 1 thoroughbred/quarterhorse racing), opened April 1994, and Gulf Greyhound Park, opened November 1992.
  • Spread over 500 square miles, the City of Houston Bikeway Program is a 345-mile interconnected bikeway network of on-street and off-road paths that includes bike lanes, bike routes, shared lanes and bayou trails, and other urban multi-use paths. More than 300 miles have been completed; 45 miles of trails are in development. City parks offer an additional 80 miles of hike and bike and natural trails.


The Houston GIS map features golf courses and other recreational attractions.



Parks & Recreation

  • The Houston MSA contains two of the 10 largest urban public parks in the U.S. — Cullen Park (7th) and George Bush Park (9th).
  • The City of Houston contains 52,739 acres of parks managed by seven different entities. Parks represent 14.2% of the city's land area—well above the median 8.6% for 77 cities that the Trust for Public Land monitors.
  • Houston Parks and Recreation Department manages the City's 350 developed municipal parks and more than 200 open spaces, which together encompass approximately 38,959 acres.


Other parks and recreation highlights include:

  • Sam Houston National Forest, one of four national forests in Texas, is 50 miles north of Houston. The forest contains 163,037 acres including the 128-mile Lone Star Hiking Trail and the 1,420-acre Big Creek Scenic Area, noted for its scenic beauty and diversity of plant life.
  • W.G. Jones State Forest, a largely native loblolly pine forest covering 1,725 acres 40 miles north of Houston near The Woodlands in Montgomery County, is managed as a “demonstration forest.”
  • Texas National Wildlife Refuges in the Houston MSA include the Anahuac and Moody National Wildlife Refuges in Chambers County; the Brazoria, San Bernard and Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuges in Brazoria County; and the 23,000-acre Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge in Liberty County. More than 620 plant species and 400 vertebrate species have been observed in the Trinity River National Wildlife Refuge.
  • Recognized by the editors of Parents magazine as one of the nation's Ten Best Zoos for Kids, the nonprofit Houston Zoo (www.houstonzoo.org) is a unique educational and conservation resource serving more than 1.6 million visitors annually, ranking in the top 10 nationwide in attendance. It is home to more than 4,500 exotic animals representing more than 800 species.


Parks are also included in the Houston GIS.

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