7 Canadian sports facts newcomers may not know
Sports fan? Here are seven facts you may not have known about athletics in Canada.
- Hockey is Canada’s national winter sport, but lacrosse is the country’s national summer sport.
- Lacrosse has Indigenous roots. Different First Nations played it across Canada more than 500 years ago.
- The Royal Montreal Golf Club, founded in 1873, is the oldest golf club in North America.
- A Canadian, James Naismith, invented the game of basketball in 1891.
- Basketball player Steve Nash is the only Canadian to win the NBA MVP award. He is also a 2013 RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant winner (he immigrated to Canada from South Africa).
- The Toronto Blue Jays baseball team was the fastest American League expansion team to win the World Series in 1992, only 16 years after being founded. They won again in 1993.
- The Toronto Raptors basketball team was founded in 1995, but did you know that Vancouver also got a team the same year as part of the NBA’s expansion to Canada? Unfortunately, the Grizzlies relocated to Memphis in 2000.