Professional sports have a colourful history in Missouri, although some of the games’ most glorious moments involve players, coaches, and teams that no longer call the state home. Missourians most remembered for the mark they made in professional sports include basketball player (and later U.S. senator and presidential candidate) Bill Bradley, Hall of Fame baseball players and managers Yogi Berra and Casey Stengel, golfer Tom Watson, and, in collegiate sports, pioneering basketball coach Phog Allen.

Some of the professional sports franchises that at one time made their home in Missouri include a pair of American League baseball teams: the Browns (perhaps best remembered for one-armed outfielder Pete Gray), who played in St. Louis from 1902 until 1953, when they moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles; and the Kansas City Athletics, who came from Philadelphia in 1955 and moved to Oakland after the 1967 season. The Athletics were replaced by the Kansas City Royals in 1969. Featuring a roster laden with future Hall of Famers such as Cool Papa Bell, Jackie Robinson, Satchel Paige, and Ernie Banks, the Kansas City Monarchs (1920–30, 1937–62) were the most stable franchise in the Negro leagues, which is commemorated with a museum in Kansas City. The Cardinals of the National League are as rooted in St. Louis as the statue of the team’s greatest player, Stan “the Man” Musial, which stands outside Busch Stadium. The people of St. Louis are famously devoted to the Cardinals, who have repaid them with a number of World Series championships.

Another team called the Cardinals, which plays football in the National Football League (NFL), relocated from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960 but moved again in 1988, that time to Phoenix, Arizona. The city was not long without a team, however, because the Rams left Los Angeles to begin playing in St. Louis in 1995. However, the team returned to Los Angeles in 2016, after having won one Super Bowl (2000) in St. Louis. After just three years in Dallas as the Texans, the professional football team that became the Chiefs moved in 1963 to Kansas City, where they have been an institution ever since.

The St. Louis Hawks were one of the strongest teams in the National Basketball Association (NBA) in the 1950s, and they played in several championship series; by 1968, however, the Hawks too had fled St. Louis—for Atlanta. Prior to their becoming the Sacramento Kings of the NBA, the Cincinnati Royals briefly split their home games between Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska. Even more transitory were the Spirits of St. Louis, the short-lived (1974–76) American Basketball Association (ABA) team, whose most important legacy may have been the broadcaster Bob Costas, who became one of sports’ most recognized television announcers in the late 20th century. In contrast to their counterparts in basketball, the Blues of the National Hockey League have long made St. Louis their home.

St. Louis also has enjoyed a reputation as a hotbed of football (soccer), a tradition that dates from the introduction of the game in Catholic schools and youth organizations in the late 19th and early 20th century; indeed, when the American team pulled off one of the greatest upsets in the history of the World Cup in 1950 by defeating the English team, half of the U.S. players were from St. Louis. Moreover, St. Louis University became one of collegiate soccer’s first great powers by winning 10 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men’s championships between 1959 and 1973. A member of the Atlantic 10 Conference, St. Louis University also has had its share of strong basketball teams over the years, as have Missouri State (of the Missouri Valley Conference) and the University of Missouri, which belongs to the highly competitive Big 12 Conference and has a roller-coaster history of prowess in gridiron football and athletics (track and field).

The natural environment of Missouri provides opportunities for a broad spectrum of outdoor recreational activity. The state has developed a superb system of parks that are attractive to residents and visitors alike. Numerous man-made lakes afford fishing and waterskiing, while dozens of clear rivers and creeks across the Ozarks are ideal for canoeing. Popular destinations include the Mark Twain National Forest, which is home to an abundance of songbirds and other wildlife; the Current and Jacks Fork rivers, both of which are protected and managed as wild and scenic waterways by the Ozark National Scenic Riverways; and Big Spring, one of the largest springs in the country. Many hikers and bikers travel the Katy Trail, a path of some 200 miles (320 km) developed on the former corridor of the Missouri-Kansas-Texas (“Katy”) Railroad. Spelunkers are drawn to the thousands of caves that have lent Missouri its unofficial moniker the Cave State. The National Fish and Wildlife Museum and Aquarium in Springfield also draws many enthusiasts of the outdoors. The institution features Ozark habitat and species galleries, exhibits of American aquatic and terrestrial flora and fauna, and historical collections of hunting and fishing equipment and practices.

Media and publishing

The Missouri Press Association, founded in 1867, has played an important role in the development of the press in the United States. It was responsible for establishing the country’s first school of journalism, at the University of Missouri, and for founding the State Historical Society of Missouri. There are numerous local newspapers and journals; newspapers of national distinction include the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, made famous by Joseph Pulitzer, and the Kansas City Star and Kansas City Times.