Downtown Tulsa Sports

    The new BOK Center is the home of Tulsa's two major league sports teams including the Tulsa Talons of the AFL and the WNBA's Tulsa Shock.  The BOK Center is also the home of the Tulsa Oilers of the Central Hockey League.

     And, Tulsa's new ONEOK FIELD is home to the AA Tulsa Drillers of the storied Texas League and a development team for the Colorado Rockies. 

Tulsa Talons

     The Tulsa Talons are a professional arena football franchise participating in the major Arena Football League. The Talons began in 2000 as a charter member of the now defunct minor league Arena Football 2, also known as af2. In 2009 the Talons moved from their original home field at Tulsa Convention Center to the new 18,041 seat BOK Center.

     In terms of victories and championships, the Talons were very successful in the old af2. In fact, the Talons have more wins than any other team in af2 history and were the first af2 franchise to reach 100 overall franchise victories.  In the af2, the Talons never had a losing season and appeared in all ten af2 playoffs and won two af2 championships. The Talons are also the team with the longest streak of consecutive seasons in the "new" Arena Football League.

Tulsa Oilers

     The Tulsa Oilers are a professional ice hockey team in the Central Hockey League. In 2008 the Oilers moved from the Tulsa Convention Center to the new BOK Arena.  For many years, the Tulsa Oilers name was shared with Tulsa's former minor-league baseball team that pre-dated the Tulsa Drillers. To reduce confusion in local news reporting, the hockey team was often called the "Ice Oilers", a moniker that continues to this day among many Tulsans.

     The Oilers have a long and storied history which started when they joined the American Hockey Association as an expansion team in 1929 and they won the championship that year and again in 1930-31 season.  The original Central Hockey League was founded in the 1963-64 season, and the Tulsa Oilers joined that league the next year.

     The Oilers are one of only four teams that have played each season in the CHL since its rebirth in 1992 where they established a winning tradition, making the playoffs in nine of their first 13 seasons.

Tulsa Shock
 

     In October of 2009, WNBA President Donna Orender announced that the Detroit Shock would relocate to Tulsa for the 2010 season.  The team brought a winning tradition, including three WNBA championships, four conference championships and seven consecutive playoff appearances.  Tulsa had been mentioned as a possible future city for WNBA expansion, but efforts did not come together until an organizing committee of Tulsa businessmen and politicians began the effort to attract a team.

     The team was founded in 1998 as one of the league’s first expansion franchises. They were also the first WNBA expansion team to win a championship.   With much of the roster overturned and only a few players making the move from Detroit to Tulsa for the first season, the new team resembled an expansion team and struggled with lineup changes and saw few victories.

     Coached by Nolan Richardson, former coach at both the University of Tulsa and the University of Arkansas where he won a national championship, the Shock is sure to rebound and regain their championship ways. 

Tulsa Drillers

     The Tulsa Drillers are a Double-A affiliate of the Colorado Rockies and play at the newly completed ONEOK FIELD in downtown Tulsa’s Greenwood District. The Drillers transferred from Lafayette, LA in 1977 to continue Tulsa’s rich professional baseball history and tradition.

     Prior to that year, the Oilers had been the city's Triple A minor league club, but owner A. Ray Smith moved that team to New Orleans, Louisiana due to concerns over the dilapidated condition of Oiler Park, located at the Tulsa County Fairgrounds.  A new 8,000 seat Drillers Stadium was completed at the fairgrounds in 1981 and the team played there until the new stadium was completed in 2010. 

     From 1976 to 2002, the Drillers were the Double-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers.  And before that, the Oilers had a long affiliation with the St. Louis Cardinals and both of those teams still enjoy wide support in the Tulsa area.