A history of the Empire State Games
From a single 1978 weekend in Syracuse to a thirty-two-year run, and the editions that outlived it.
Origin (1978)
The first Empire State Games were held in 1978 at Syracuse University. They were the first state games in the United States — a state-level analogue of the Olympic movement, conceived as a way to give New York’s amateur athletes a competition worth training for, and a stage where regional talent could be recognised statewide.
Governor Hugh Carey’s administration championed the idea. The state’s Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation administered the Games for most of their life, and the State Archives still holds the director’s files, the raw results, and the medal books.
How the Games were organised
The Summer Games used a region versus region format. Athletes qualified through trial meets across six regions:
- Adirondack — the North Country and Capital District periphery.
- Central — the Syracuse / Mohawk Valley belt.
- Hudson Valley — Westchester, Rockland, the mid-Hudson.
- Long Island — Nassau and Suffolk.
- New York City — the five boroughs (sometimes listed as “Metropolitan”).
- Western — Buffalo, Rochester, the Niagara Frontier.
Within each sport, three divisions ran in parallel:
- Open — age 18 and over.
- Scholastic — New York residents 17 or younger as of August 31 of the Games year.
- Masters — age 30 and over in selected sports.
The Senior Games (50 and over) and the Games for the Physically Challenged (adapted sports, ages 5–21) ran as separate editions, on their own calendars.
Expansion (1980s and 1990s)
Through the 1980s the Summer Games grew steadily. Syracuse hosted twelve of the first sixteen editions; Buffalo took over in 1985 and 1986 after a Western New York delegation — Herb Mols, Bob Rich, Bob Bedell, Carl Roesch Sr., Marc Grosso, Gardner Debo, Mark Sternin, and Ed Rutkowski — made the case for sharing the host duty. By the late 1980s the Games had a Winter edition in Lake Placid, a Senior edition in Cortland, and a Physically Challenged edition rotating through the SUNY system.
At their peak, the Summer Games drew more than 6,000 athletes a year and ran nearly thirty sports.
The end of state funding (2009–2010)
The 2009 Summer Games were cancelled outright when the state budget collapsed. A scaled-down 2010 edition went ahead in the Mohawk Valley with private support — and proved to be the last. The Summer Games were cancelled in 2011, 2012, and 2013 in succession. The Empire State Sports Foundation, the non-profit set up to take the Games private, announced its intention to disband in April 2014, citing insolvency.
The Summer Games have not been held since.
Community revival of the other editions
The Winter Games survived the cuts. The Lake Placid community absorbed the event, kept the Olympic Center as the host venue, and has run it every February since. The 46th edition is set for 5–8 February 2026.
The Games for the Physically Challenged were taken over by Camp Smile, Inc. in 2010, in partnership with The College at Brockport, after state funding ended. The event continues annually each October.
The Senior Games are run by the Cortland Regional Sports Council, with the event held in Cortland each June.
Further reading
- The six regions — what each region covered.
- Divisions — Open, Scholastic, Masters explained.
- Summer host cities — every edition, every host.
- Archive & primary sources — NY State Archives, the original esg site, press materials.