Your Titletown Finalists Have Been Named!
Wednesday, July 02, 2008
ESPN was trying to be tricky and drag out the process by only announcing five cities a every week or so, but I've finally got my hands on the full list. Here are your Titletown finalists and their resumes!
Green BayAgain, I have no idea how this works and how they got to these final cities, but there they are. Prepare for Sports Center trips to all of these towns with Green Bay up first on July 4th. Oh and the best part of that list.
·Has self-proclaimed moniker as ‘Title Town’
·Home of the three-time Super Bowl Champion Green Bay Packers (Super Bowl I, II and XXXI)
Louisville
·Home of the Kentucky Derby
·Birthplace of Muhammad Ali, a three-time World Heavyweight Champion and winner of the Olympic light
Gainesville
·University of Florida has won 21 team sport National Championships (2006 BCS Champions and 2006 and 2007 NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions); 174 SEC Championships in various sports and produced 203 Individual National Champions
Detroit
·Detroit Red Wings recently won their 11th Stanley Cup
·Detroit Pistons are three-time NBA Champions (1989, 1990, 2004)
·Detroit Tigers won the World Series in 1935, 1945, 1968 and 1984
Williamsport
·Home of the Little League World Series for 61 years, where the top youth baseball players – 13 and under – from all over the world have come to chase and live their championship dreams
Boston
·16 NBA titles and 19 conference titles (Celtics)
·Though the Patriots’ chase for a perfect NFL season was derailed by their Super Bowl XLII loss to the Giants, six AFC championships and three Super Bowl victories in four years reflect a dynasty
·Seven World Series titles by the Red Sox, including two in the last four years
Los Angeles
·Professional sports team titles: Lakers – 9; Dodgers – 5; L.A. Raiders – 1; L.A. Rams – 1; L.A. Galaxy – and L.A. Sparks – 2
·College team titles: UCLA – 122; USC – 107, plus seven Heisman Trophy winners
Columbus
·Ohio State football program has won seven national titles and over 30 Big Ten titles and feature more than 100 All-Americans
·Ohio State’s seven Heisman Trophy winners are tied with USC for most by any school
Chapel Hill
·University of North Carolina has won 33 NCAA team National championships in six different sports (ninth all-time) and 51 individual National Championships
·Women’s soccer program has won 18 National Championships since 1982 and the men’s program won in 2001
Ann Arbor
·University of Michigan has won 52 national titles in 12 different sports
·Michigan football program leads the Big Ten with 42 championships
·University of Michigan hockey team has won 10 NCAA titles
San Francisco/Bay Area
·San Francisco 49ers have won five Super Bowls
·Oakland Raiders have won nine AFC Championships, three AFC Championships and two Super Bowl Championships
Pittsburgh
·Steelers won five Super Bowls (1974, ’75, ’78, ’79, 2005)
·Pirates won five World Series (1909, ’25, ’60, ’71, ’79)
·Two Stanley Cups for the Penguins (1991 and ’92)
·University of Pittsburgh Panthers won five National Football Championships (1910, ’16, ’18, ’37, ’76)
Knoxville
·The Tennessee Volunteer football program has 47 bowl appearances (second among all schools), won six National Championships and has the highest winning percentage of any team in major college football
·Women’s basketball program has won eight National Championships including the last two
·Football program has ranked in top three in attendance for 32 consecutive seasons
Valdosta, Ga.
·The Valdosta Wildcats hold the record for most wins in high school football with 838
·Wildcats record includes 23 Georgia State Championships and six National Championships
Parkersburg, W.Va.
·Parkersburg High School has 21 state wrestling titles, 36 boys’ and girls’ state tennis titles, 11 state football titles, 11 volleyball titles, 11 state golf titles, and 14 basketball titles
Chicago
·Chicago Bulls won six NBA Championships led by one of the greatest players ever – Michael Jordan
·Chicago Bears have won nine NFL Championships and one Super Bowl
·Chicago White Sox have won three World Series and the Chicago Cubs have won two
·Chicago Blackhawks are three-time Stanley Cup winners
Update: ESPN cleverly hadn't updated the main list. Of course NYC is on there now. Sorry about the scare New Yorkers....
Lawrence
·James A. Naismith, inventor of basketball, coached at Kansas University (KU)
·Legendary men’s college basketball coaches – Dean Smith (University of North Carolina) and Adolph Rupp (Kentucky) – played on KU teams
·KU men’s basketball team has produced 36 20-win seasons, eight 35-win seasons, 15 first-team all-Americans, 142 first-team all-conference selections and 73 first round draft picks
Palo Alto
·Stanford University has won 13 consecutive Director’s Cup Trophies for the best overall athletic program in the nation
·Through 2007 winter sports season, Stanford has won 108 National Championships, 95 of which are team championships (58 men’s titles and 37 women’s titles)
·Stanford’s 37 women title’s are more than any other school
·Stanford has more than 400 individual NCAA titles
Massillon
·Massillon Washington High has 780 victories (3rd all-time in the nation), 22 Ohio State Championships, 20 undefeated seasons and 9 National Championships (more than any high school football program in the country)
·NFL Hall of Famer Paul Brown is from Massillon
New York
·New York Yankees have won 26 World Championships since 1923
·Eight Stanley Cup titles: four by the N.Y. Rangers and four by the N.Y. Islanders
·New York Knicks have won two NBA titles
·Defending Super Bowl champions, the New York Giants have won four NFL titles and three Super Bowl championships and the New York Jets have won one Super Bowl
Can Someone Explain This ESPN Title Town Business To Me? (Awful Announcing)
31 Comments:
This list makes no sense. I thought it was "Title-Town" not "division or conference champion" town. I didn't realize the whole Bay Area is considered as one town. Counting Football National championships is highly subjective especially when your going back to the 1900's. All those college towns(columbus, gainesville, ann arbor, chapel hill, knoxville) can immediatly be scratched. Those schools havent done anything that UCLA or USC havent done, if you were to add all those schools team championships together they would barely equal UCLA's let alone UCLA and USC combined. Are they serious with Green Bay. Come On.
Should boil down to Boston, and L.A.
So they put in podunk Georgian and West Virginian high school towns but ignore the city that has the most sports championships among MLB, NBA, CFL/NFL and NHL teams New York? You're right AA, something's wrong here. 34 World Series titles between the Yanks and the NL squads, 2 Knicks titles, 7 football titles, and 8 hockey titles between the Knicks and Islanders (and that's ignoring the Devils' 3). I never want to hear about "East Coast Bias" again.
chowdville, but new york isn't even on the list?
i think this should put to rest once and for all where the four letter's loyalty lies.
hey bristol, tell me how my ass taste.
-dan
This thing is baloney. Green Bay has always been known as "Titletown".
Lawrence, Kan., is one of the finalists, too. they filmed a segment here on Friday for later in the month.
Green Bay also holds the titles in "Ugliest People on Earth" and the "Highest Obesity Rate".
Let's see, NY championships...
Yankees: 26
Mets: 2
Rangers: 4
Knicks: 2
Giants (football, before stadium move to NJ): 4
Giants (baseball, before SF move): 5
Dodgers (baseball, before LA move): 1
CCNY: 1 (basketball, 1950)
Total: 45
That's not even counting the Giants and Jets, who have 5 titles between them when playing at the Meadowlands in NJ.
ESPN is just plain awful.
And Ann Arbor's a whore.
Being a Chicago native, no way in hell does my hometown rate on this type of list. The Blackhawks have been a major embarassment for almost two decades, and the Bears have only won one SB in the same period of time. While the Bulls with Jordan were awesome, the other teams have a long way to go before anyone could call it "Titletown."
I'm sorry, but who cares? This is from the same network that takes up programming time to analyze the nominations for the meaningless awards they created themselves.
ESPN - The Worldwide Leader in Making Up BS Contests
Everyone, just went back to make sure there wasn't a mistake and in a separate press release NYC was on there. They just hadn't update the main list yet.
Hey, so they added another high school and still no Texas!
Not that I needed any further proof of ESPN's incompetence at even putting together stupid ideas like this, but...
Just because Green Bay calls itself Titletown, doesn't make it one. Their resume is garbage.
James, while your point is valid, as an Ohio resident, Massillon football is a really freaking big deal and brought us the great Chris Spielman!
Unless the name of the contest secretly got changed to "Runner-Up Ville", I don't see how Columbus makes the short list.
gmoney,
Considering the fact that they won 12 world championships, ya, I think they have the resume.
This list is some of that "Who's Now"-type of crap.
Do they realize that Stanford University is not in Palo Alto? It's in Stanford, CA. Palo Alto has no sports teams to their name.
wow, this is outrageous because there is no New York with the yankees and 23 championships. Give me a break I will take pro titles any day over highschool and college titles. I bet most people in valdosta dont know care about how many wins the high school has.
"I bet most people in valdosta dont know care about how many wins the high school has."
You don't have much experience with obsessed high school football towns, do you? I can't speak for Valdosta personally, but I can think of a number of Texas towns where thousands of people would say, "give me a break, I will take high school titles any day over pro titles." I know people who haven't missed a high school football game in years but refuse to watch pro football.
What is the winner actually going to receive anyway? The honor of being named "Titletown, USA" by ESPN? How special.
They forgot Who Gives a Shit, Kansas.
Philly?
Hey, if the Yankees get to count championships from the segregation era, Green Bay should get to count the 9 championships it won before the superbowl era. So on a championship per capita basis, Green Bay should still win.
Gotta love ESPN and their fake attempts to cheer for Boston even more... everyone in America knows that Boston is "TitleTown", having won what seems like 93749 championships in recent years (note: I HATE BOSTON, GO CLEVELAND), but there shouldn't even be a contest.
And MASSILLON, OH??????????
Seriously? Massillon? Seriously?
Graduating from Canton McKinley, you have got to be kidding me. Massillon hasn't won a title in any sport (especially and most importantly football) since the implementation of a playoff system in the State of Ohio, which was over 30 years ago. Call me crazy, but shouldn't a qualification for "TitleTown" be TITLES?
Go Cleveland. Go Canton.
Ugh ESPN has become even more of a joke (if thats even possible). What's next finding a new "Steel City"? How about finding a new Gateway to the West? No wait maybe a new "Big Apple".
Oh and since when do high school titles mean anything? Comparing high school wins to pro wins? Give me a break... Al Bundy 4 TDs in one game! Polk High!! BUNDY - BUNDY - BUNDY!
I also agree that there are some curious choices. Especially the towns picked for their high school success. By that basis, I agree that somewhere in Texas (Odessa?) should have been selected.
Does someone at ESPN hate Texas because of George W. Bush?:)LOL
I went to UNC, and I love Chapel Hill, but it is not "title town." No matter how many women's soccer championships we accumulate.
Stanford is actually built on Palo Alto's land DBAG. No teams.... How bout those PA VIKES?
ESPN: The World Wide Leader in creating filler material instead of covering women's sports.
Yeagh!
Several things immediately cross my mind:
1. No matter your feelings about the Yankees it seems bizarre to leave New York off the list.
2. I also think it's a little ridiculous to have two high schools on the list and neither one of them is a Texas high school football haven.
3. It's pretty sad that L.A.'s resume has to be boosted with MLS and WNBA successes.