Drought (sport)

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In sports, a drought refers to instances in which a team has gone a lengthy period of time without accomplishing some goal (e.g. making the playoffs or winning a championship). Droughts occur for a variety of reasons, from chronic mismanagement to bad luck. Some fans believe that their team's drought is the result of a curse. The Curse of the Bambino, which some fans of the Boston Red Sox believed was responsible for their 86-year World Series drought, is a well-known example. Some Chicago Cubs fans believe a Curse of the Billy Goat is responsible for the current 100-year championship drought of their team. The Chicago Cubs also are notorious for not having even appeared in a World Series since 1945, which is the longest drought in North American professional sports.

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[edit] United States

[edit] Droughts by sport

  • In the NHL, the longest current title drought belongs to the Chicago Blackhawks, who have failed to win the Stanley Cup since 1961. Following closely behind are the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have failed to win the Cup since 1967.
  • In the NFL, there are several teams who have never won a Super Bowl. For a full list, see List of Current NFL franchise post-season droughts. The longest title drought is that of the Arizona Cardinals franchise, which last won the pre-Super Bowl NFL championship in 1947.
  • There are several NBA teams who have never won a championship. For a full list, see List of NBA franchise post-season droughts. The longest drought in the NBA belongs to the Sacramento Kings who haven't been to the NBA Finals since 1951, when they known as the Rochester Royals. Sacramento is the fourth different city to host the team since it last won a title—the team first moved to Cincinnati; then to Kansas City and Omaha, eventually ceasing Omaha operations; and finally to Sacramento.
  • In MLB the Chicago Cubs haven't won the World Series since 1908. Some cite the Curse of the Billy Goat.

[edit] Drought prone cities

There are a few US cities which are believed to have championship droughts:

Cleveland has waited longer than any other city with three major sports franchises to win a title. The last time a Cleveland professional sports team won a championship was in 1964 when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship (pre-Super Bowl era). The Cleveland Indians last won the World Series in 1948 (second longest drought in MLB) and the Cleveland Cavaliers have also never won an NBA championship. The city even had a short lived hockey team in the NHL called The Barons, which never won a championship either. In 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city in America.[1]

Seattle has not won a major sports championship in any sport other than basketball and hockey. The Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley Cup in 1917 (the first American team to do so), the Seattle SuperSonics (NBA) won a title in 1979, and the Seattle Storm (WNBA) won in 2003. Neither the Seahawks nor the Mariners have ever won a championship (the Mariners have never even been in the World Series}. Seattle nearly won a championship when the Seahawks represented the city in Super Bowl XL in 2006. They fell by a score of 21-10 to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Philadelphia has seen a drought of a championship titles since 1983. Some of the fans cite the Curse of Billy Penn to be the reason. Indeed, of the U.S. cities with teams from four major sports, Philadelphia's period without championships is the longest.

Houston has a similar drought of championship titles. The city's baseball team, the Houston Astros, has appeared to date in only one World Series in 2005 and lost. Their football team (the Houston Texans) has never won a title; however, it should be noted that they have only been in the NFL since 2002. Its basketball team, the Houston Rockets, have won 2 championships: in 1994 and 1995, but have not won since then.In the WNBA the [Houston Comets won 4 championships in 1997,1998,1999,2000 becoming the first and still the only dynasty of the WNBA.

Those who believe in the Buffalo Curse[1] cite as examples the four consecutive Super Bowl losses by the Buffalo Bills from 1990-1993, and their failure to even reach the conference playoffs in subsequent years as well as the failure of the Buffalo Sabres to ever win the Stanley Cup. Hearts were broken once again in 2006, when the Sabres lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in game seven of the conference finals. Even though the Sabres made it back to the conference finals the next year, they lost again. It is notable that the Buffalo Bills won the AFL championship in 1964 and 1965.

San Diego's two teams the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Chargers have never won a World Series or Super Bowl, which their failures are known to be from the San Diego Sports Curse. The Padres have the most World Series appearances of the eight teams without a World Series championship. The Chargers won the 1963 AFL championship and have only appeared in one Super Bowl.

[edit] Outside USA

[edit] Football (Soccer)

In Scottish football, a notable drought is that of Edinburgh club Hibernian, who have not won the Scottish Cup since 1902. Hibs have appeared in the final eight times since then, most recently in a 3-0 loss to Celtic in 2001. Long droughts are not uncommon for Scottish clubs given the dominance of the Old Firm, but Hibs' drought in the Scottish Cup is most widely noted.

[edit] Australian Rules Football

In the AFL, the longest drought between premierships was that of the South Melbourne/Sydney Swans, for whom 72 seasons elapsed between their third premiership in 1933 and the fourth premiership in 2005. In that time, there was also a 51 season drought between their Grand Final losses in 1945 and 1996.

The second-longest drought was that of the St Kilda Football Club, who did not win its first, and to date only, senior premiership until 1966, after 68 seasons in the VFL, an additional 13 seasons in the VFA prior to the VFL's inception, and 93 years after the club's foundation in 1873.

Melbourne has not won a premiership since 1964, supposedly affected by the Curse of Norm Smith. While the Western Bulldogs have a longer current drought, Melbourne is the only team to which a curse is associated.

[edit] Rugby League

The North Sydney Bears hold the longest premiership drought in the NSWRL/NRL, winning their final premiership in 1922 for an eighty-year drought, up until the end of their short-lived merge with Manly-Warringah.

[edit] Cricket

Queensland did not win the Sheffield Shield until its 63rd season of competition. Such a long drought was particularly astounding given that, over those 63 years, an average of only five teams competed for the shield.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Darcy, Kieran (July 13, 2004). Mistakes by the lake. ESPN.