Cincinnati Bengals

The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football franchise based in Cincinnati, Ohio. They are currently members of the North Division of the American Football Conference (AFC) of the National Football League (NFL). Their home stadium is Paul Brown Stadium in downtown Cincinnati. Their current head coach is Marvin Lewis, who has held the position since 2003 and is currently the second-longest tenured head coach in the NFL, behind the New England Patriots' Bill Belichick. Their chief rivals are the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns, and Baltimore Ravens.

The Bengals were founded in 1966 as a member of the American Football League (AFL) by former Cleveland Browns head coach Paul Brown. Brown was the Bengals' head coach from their inception to 1975. After being dismissed as the Browns' head coach by Art Modell (who had purchased majority interest in the team in 1961) in January 1963, Brown had shown interest in establishing another NFL franchise in Ohio and looked at both Cincinnati and Columbus. He ultimately chose the former when a deal between the city, Hamilton County, and Major League Baseball's Cincinnati Reds (who were seeking a replacement for the obsolete Crosley Field) was struck that resulted in an agreement to build a multipurpose stadium which could host both baseball and football games. Due to the impending merger of the AFL and the NFL, which was scheduled to take full effect in the 1970 season, Brown agreed to join the AFL as its tenth and final franchise. The Bengals, like the other former AFL teams, were assigned to the AFC following the merger. Cincinnati was also selected because, like their neighbors the Reds, they could draw from several large neighboring cities (Louisville and Lexington, Kentucky; Columbus, Dayton, and Springfield, Ohio; and Indianapolis, Indiana) that are all no more than 110 miles (180 km) away from downtown Cincinnati.

Cincinnati Bengals (1937–41)

Cincinnati Bengals was the name of a short-lived professional football team that played in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is unrelated to the current Cincinnati Bengals. Originated by Hal Pennington (who was also the team's first head coach and general manager), the team was formed as a member of the second American Football League in the 1937 season. The Bengals finished with a 2–3–2 record in their first year, but the league folded after the season, and Pennington returned to his former team, the Cincinnati Models, which would change its name to the Cincinnati Blades for an ill-fated 1938 campaign. Pennington was replaced by new player-coach Dana King, who would guide the Bengals for the remainder of the team's existence.

The Bengals continued as an independent team in 1938 (rejecting overtures from the former Midwest Football League, first as the league renamed itself the American Football League and in October 1938 after the dissolution of the Cincinnati Blades). In 1939, the team joined the newly renamed American Professional Football Association after yet another overture, finishing in second place with a 6–2–0 record. The APFA folded as Cincinnati, the Columbus Bullies, and the newly formed Milwaukee Chiefs defected to a newly formed major league, yet another American Football League, for the 1940 season.

Cincinnati

Cincinnati (/sɪnsᵻˈnæti/ sin-si-NAT-ee) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio that serves as county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the north side of the confluence of the Licking with the Ohio River. The latter forms the border between the states of Ohio and Kentucky. Cincinnati is the third-largest city in Ohio and the 65th-largest city in the United States with a population of 296,945 people at the 2010 census. The larger Cincinnati metropolitan area had a population of 2,214,954 in 2010, making it the 28th-largest Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) in the United States and the largest centered in Ohio. The city is also part of the larger Cincinnati–Middletown–Wilmington Combined Statistical Area (CSA), which had a population of 2,172,191 in the 2010 census.

In the early 19th century, Cincinnati was an American boomtown in the heart of the country; it rivaled the larger coastal cities in size and wealth. Throughout much of the 19th century, it was listed among the top 10 U.S. cities by population, surpassed only by New Orleans and the older, established settlements of the Eastern Seaboard; at one point holding the position of sixth-largest city for a period spanning consecutive census reports from 1840 until 1860. It was by far the largest city in the west. Because it is the first major American city founded after the American Revolution as well as the first major inland city in the country, Cincinnati is sometimes thought of as the first purely "American" city.

Cincinnati (horse)

Cincinnati (ca. 1860–1878) was General Ulysses S. Grant's most famous horse during the American Civil War. He was the son of Lexington, the fastest four-mile Thoroughbred in the United States (time 7:19.75 minutes) and one of the greatest sires. Cincinnati was also the grandson of the great Boston, who sired Lexington.

At an early age, Grant emotionally bonded to horses. A shy, quiet child, he found joy in working with and riding them. Grant excelled in horsemanship at West Point, and at graduation, he put on an outstanding jumping display. Grant owned many horses in his lifetime, including one named Jeff Davis, so named because he acquired it during his Vicksburg Campaign from Jefferson Davis's Mississippi plantation.

Cincinnati was a gift from an admirer during the War. The horse was large (17 hands (68 inches, 173 cm)), handsome, and powerful, and he quickly became Grant's favorite. When Grant rode Cincinnati to negotiate Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, the animal became immortalized. Virtually all depictions of Grant in drawings, granite, and bronze, are astride Cincinnati including at the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial, located on the Mall in Washington, D.C., at the base of Capitol Hill.

Sports in Cincinnati

Cincinnati, Ohio is home to seven major sports venues, two major league teams, eleven minor league teams, as well as hosts five college institutions with their own sports teams.

Venues

Major league teams