Sports-related curses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page. It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since August 2007. Its neutrality is disputed. Tagged since May 2009. It may contain original research or unverifiable claims. Tagged since October 2008. Its factual accuracy is disputed. Tagged since May 2009. It may contain an unpublished synthesis of published material that conveys ideas not verifiable with the given sources. Please help add reliable sources about this topic. Tagged since May 2009. Its neutrality or factuality may be compromised by weasel words. Tagged since May 2009. Its tone or style may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Tagged since May 2009. It reads like a personal reflection or essay. Tagged since May 2009. It may contain inappropriate or misinterpreted citations which do not verify the text. Tagged since May 2009. It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since May 2009. Its introduction may need to be rewritten to comply with Wikipedia's lead section guidelines. Tagged since May 2009. It may contain improper references to self-published sources. Tagged since May 2009.

The examples and perspective in this article or section might have an extensive bias or disproportional coverage towards one or more specific regions. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

A sports-related curse is the effective action of some power or evil, that is used to explain the failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams, players, or even cities. Teams, players, and cities often cite a "curse" for many negative things, such as their inability to win a sports championship, or unexpected injuries.

Contents 1 # 1.1 Curse of 1940 2 A 2.1 Andretti Curse 3 B 3.1 Curse of the Bambino 3.2 Curse of Bill Barilko 3.3 Curse of Biddy Early 3.4 Buffalo Sports Curse 4 C 4.1 Cardinals football curse 4.2 Chicago baseball curses 4.3 Cleveland sports curse 4.4 Curse of the Colonel 4.5 Curse of Coogan's Bluff 5 H 5.1 Curse of Keith Hernandez 6 J 6.1 The Jets' Merger Curse 7 K 7.1 The "Krukow Kurse" 8 L 8.1 Curse O' Les Boulez 9 M 9.1 Madden Curse 9.2 Curse of Marty McSorley 10 N 10.1 Curse of NHL Expansion 11 P 11.1 Curse of Billy Penn 11.2 Curse of Denis Potvin 12 R 12.1 Reverse jinx 12.2 Curse of the Richard Riot 13 S 13.1 San Diego Sports Curse 13.2 Curse of Chief Sealth/Curse of the Kingdome 13.3 Curse of Norm Smith 13.4 Socceroos Witch Doctor Curse 13.5 Sports Illustrated Cover Curse 14 T 14.1 Tampa Bay Curse 14.2 Thirteenth Season Curse 14.3 Curse of Ben Tillman 15 See also 16 References

[edit] #

[edit] Curse of 1940

The Curse of 1940 was a mythical explanation for the failure of the NHL's New York Rangers to win the Stanley Cup since 1940. It was finally broken when the Rangers defeated the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 in 1994.

[edit] A

[edit] Andretti Curse

Since winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1969, auto racing legend Mario Andretti was plagued with unexplainable bad luck in his efforts to win the great race for a second time until his retirement in 1994. The misfortune at Indianapolis has notably extended to his sons Michael and Jeff, nephew John, as well as grandson Marco, and to an in-direct extent, to his twin brother Aldo, and former car owner Paul Newman, Carl Haas, and indirectly, Newman's successor Mike Lanigan in Newman Haas Lanigan Racing.

Twice, when Michael Andretti's team won the Indianapolis 500, the driver subsequently defected to rival Chip Ganassi Racing the following year.

[edit] B

[edit] Curse of the Bambino

Some allege that there was a curse placed on the Boston Red Sox, who failed to win a World Series after 1918, apparently due to the trading of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees. Before the trade, the Red Sox won 4 titles in 7 years (1912-1918). After the trade, the Yankees have gone on to win 26 World Series Championships. The "curse" was broken when the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 0 in the 2004 World Series (before the Series, the Sox had come back from a 3-games-to-0 deficit to defeat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium for the American League pennant). In 2007, the Red Sox came back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Cleveland Indians, 4 games to 3. They went on to sweep the Colorado Rockies to once again become world champions.

[edit] Curse of Bill Barilko

On April 21, 1951, Bill Barilko scored an overtime goal to win the Stanley Cup for the Toronto Maple Leafs. It was the Leafs' fourth Cup championship over the last five years, all with Barilko's services; a very successful period of time for the team.

Four months after his Cup-winning goal, Barilko took a trip on an airplane that was reported missing. The whereabouts of Bill and all passengers on board were unknown. Over the next 11 years, the Leafs failed to win another Cup. Finally, in 1962, the wreckage of Barilko's crashed flight (of which there were no survivors) was located in northern Canada.

Ironically, the Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1962, the year the plane was found. It was their first of three consecutive Cup titles, which they also accomplished in Barilko's first three seasons with them. The curse had been lifted.

It may be unreasonable to think that the finding of Bill's airplane itself ended the curse. It was discovered on June 7, six weeks after the Leafs won the Cup. Still, with both the championship and locating of the wreckage, it was exorcised in 1962.

This curse was a subject of The Tragically Hip's 1992 song "Fifty Mission Cap."

[edit] Curse of Biddy Early

Biddy Early was a nineteenth-century healer from Feakle in County Clare remembered as a witch. Her curse or prophecy was said variously to afflict two hurling teams which endured long droughts in the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship: Clare^[1][2][3] (1914–1995) and/or Galway^[4][5][6][7] (1923–1980). The two counties played a famous semi-final in the 1932 Championship:^[7] Clare won, but lost the final to Kilkenny.^[6] After Clare's "curse" was broken in 1995, Billy Loughnane from Ennis wrote to The Irish Times:^[8]

Biddy Early is fondly remembered in Co Clare as an extraordinary woman who devoted her time to comforting and healing the sick. She is not known ever to have cursed anyone. She experienced some difficulty with one local clergyman of the day who, for reasons of his own, would have her labelled a "witch". This clergyman's malicious intentions have been greatly assisted recently by those journalists and commentators (outside of Clare) who have been busily referring to the "Curse of Biddy Early". Who started this silly rubbish? ... Some of these people would try to tell us that Biddy decreed that Clare would win no All-Ireland until after all the 1914 team had passed away. Biddy Early died in 1875 before the foundation of the GAA and long before there was any inter-county competition!

[edit] Buffalo Sports Curse

The Buffalo Curse is a mythical explanation for Buffalo’s inability to win a Super Bowl, Stanley Cup, or, during the residency of the Buffalo Braves, an NBA Championship.^[9] Those who believe in the Buffalo Curse ^[10] cite as examples the four consecutive Super Bowl losses by the Buffalo Bills from 1990-1993 (and their failure to even reach the playoffs since 1999), as well as the failure of the Buffalo Sabres to ever win the Stanley Cup (despite winning the Presidents' Trophy for most regular-season points in 2006–07). The Bills, however, successfully won two American Football League titles (1964 and 1965), the latter occurring just months before an agreement was reached to merge the AFL and the NFL (Bills owner Ralph Wilson initiated the talks to merge the two leagues, according to the Pro Football Hall of Fame). In spite of that, it has been argued that this was achieved when the AFL was in its infancy as an upstart league, garnering little, if any, national attention before merging with the established NFL.^[11] On top of that, arguably the greatest athlete to play for a Buffalo team, O. J. Simpson, was tried for murder in 1994-95 and, although he was acquitted of criminal charges, he was found liable for the deaths in a civil trial and has been shunned from society ever since (he has since been found guilty of robbery in Las Vegas and is now serving a 9 to 33 year sentence)^[12]. The earliest reference to the curse traces to 1921, when the city's first NFL team, the Buffalo All-Americans, lost the NFL championship that year to what is now the Chicago Bears on a tiebreaker.

It could also be argued that the curse extends to the Buffalo Bulls, the athletic teams representing the University at Buffalo in intercollegiate athletics. Their football teams have never won a bowl game, but out of two opportunities to participate in a bowl game, the Bulls have only played in one. In 1958, the Bulls boycotted their invite to the Tangerine Bowl in support of their two African-American players who were forbidden from participating due to southern segregation laws. Their first bowl game appearance came in 2009, when they participated in the 2009 International Bowl only to lose to the Connecticut Huskies. Their men's basketball teams have never qualified for the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship, but as a college in a mid-major conference, the team is at a significant disadvantage in these regards. It should be noted that other colleges in the Buffalo-Niagara region (Niagara Purple Eagles and Canisius Golden Griffins) have qualified for the NCAA basketball tournament, though neither of those teams have ever gone on to win the tournament. The closest any Western New York team has ever come to winning the NCAA Tournament is when St. Bonaventure University, 70 miles southeast of Buffalo, made it to the Final Four in 1970.

In spite of the championship ineptitude listed above, the Buffalo Bandits of the National Lacrosse League have been immune from the curse, winning four championships, three of them (1992, 1993, & 1996) when the league was known as the Major Indoor Lacrosse League, and a Champion's Cup in 2008. Their first championship was achieved during their inaugural season. Their immunity to this curse is believed to be because, according to critics, lacrosse "doesn't count" as a major league sport. The Buffalo Gladiators, a semi-pro football team, has won the national championship. The International League's Buffalo Bisons have also won numerous championships but neither team is part of a major sports league.

It is often said that the curse continues to haunt teams even if they relocate out of Buffalo. For instance, the Los Angeles Clippers, formerly the Buffalo Braves, have never won an NBA title even after moving out of the city. Similarly, an early incarnation of the baseball Bisons was said to have been removed from the Western League in favor of the Boston Red Sox, historically one of the most cursed teams in baseball (see "Curse of the Bambino" below), when it became the American League in 1901.

[edit] C

[edit] Cardinals football curse

The Cardinals NFL franchise is allegedly suffering a curse ^[13] by the citizens of Pottsville, Pennsylvania for undeservedly claiming the 1925 NFL championship from the Pottsville Maroons who were stripped of their title by the NFL in one of the greatest controversies in sports history. The curse will supposedly only be lifted when the championship is returned to Pottsville and to the correct shade of red team. The Cardinals team holds the NFL record for the longest championship drought which ended in the 2008-2009 season by hosting the Philadelphia Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. However, Arizona did lose Super Bowl XLIII to another Pennsylvania team: the Pittsburgh Steelers. The franchise also leads the NFL in the total number of losses.

[edit] Chicago baseball curses

[edit] Cleveland sports curse

There is an alleged curse on the city of Cleveland, Ohio that prevents them from winning a major sports championship. To this date, it has been arguably the biggest sports championship drought in any U.S. city. The last Cleveland title came in 1964 when the Browns won the NFL Championship. The Cleveland Indians last won the World Series in 1948 and the Cleveland Cavaliers have never won the NBA Finals, losing in their first appearance in 2007 to the San Antonio Spurs. Some of their most infamous failures have been dubbed with a title, often with a single word preceded by an ominous "The." Amongst locals and even sports fans in general, The Catch, Red Right 88, The Drive, The Fumble, and The Shot all evoke images of Cleveland sports futility.^{[citation needed]} Less famous outside of Cleveland, Game 7 of the 1997 World Series is commonly referred to as The Error (briefly known as The Mesa).

Cleveland has also had two franchises cease operations. In 1978, the Cleveland Barons of the National Hockey League vanished after two unsuccessful seasons by merging with the Minnesota North Stars. The Cleveland Rockers of the WNBA shut down in 2003 after seven seasons of existence.

In 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city.^[14] That same year,the 40th anniversary of the last championship, the local newspaper The Plain Dealer produced a special section documenting the losing seasons of the three major teams since 1964.^[15]

[edit] Curse of the Colonel

This curse was supposedly cast on the Hanshin Tigers by Colonel Harland Sanders after fans of said team threw his statue into a canal while celebrating the Tigers' 1985 Japan Championship Series.

[edit] Curse of Coogan's Bluff

The San Francisco Giants have two curses that attempt to explain their failure to win the World Series. The first, known as the Curse of Coogan's Bluff, originated when the Giants left New York City for San Francisco at the end of the 1957 season. Fans at the Giants' home ballpark, the Polo Grounds (located at a site in Harlem called Coogan's Bluff), professed that the Giants would never win a World Series away from New York.

Indeed, starting with the 1958 season, the Giants have not been able to win the Fall Classic, despite National League pennant victories in 1962, 1989, and 2002.^[16] Furthermore, two Series games in San Francisco had very long delays. In the '62 Series, Game 6 was postponed three days because of heavy rain and Game 3 of the '89 Series was put on hold for ten days due to a massive earthquake.

[edit] H

[edit] Curse of Keith Hernandez

[edit] J

[edit] The Jets' Merger Curse

At the conclusion of the 1968 football season in January 1969, the New York Jets defeated the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. This was the first time that a team from the American Football League (AFL) defeated a team from the National Football League (NFL) for a championship. The outcome of the game damaged the pride of the NFL. The Jets won a second straight AFL Eastern Division title in the 1969 season, but failed to reach the Super Bowl.

For 1970, the AFL and NFL merged, bringing the Jets and the other nine AFL teams into the NFL. These teams (along with the Baltimore Colts, Cleveland Browns, and Pittsburgh Steelers) were merged into the new American Football Conference (AFC) of the NFL.

In their first NFL season, the Jets won only four games and lost ten. From 1970 to 2008, the Jets lost 336 regular season games, the most among AFC teams during that period. In addition, they were the last of the 26 NFL teams existent in '70 to win its first division title (finally doing so in 1998) under the AFC-NFC format. The Jets have never reached the Super Bowl as an AFC team in the NFL.

[edit] K

[edit] The "Krukow Kurse"

The "Krukow Kurse" is a hex upon the San Francisco Giants used to explain their more than fifty year failure to win the World Series. The alleged source of the curse is Mike Krukow (a former pitcher and current broadcaster for the Giants). Prior to the beginning of each season, Krukow states in one of his preseason radio appearances his usual optimistic opinion that the Giants have a chance to win the World Series. Once Krukow stops making such predictions, says the legend, the Giants will actually win the World Series. Part of the lore of the Krukow Kurse arises from the fact that Krukow was originally drafted by and played for the Chicago Cubs (a team that is itself hexed by the Curse of the Billy Goat). The Curse of the Billy Goat indicates that former Cubs players who move on to other teams inevitably curse the new team (the Ex-Cubs Factor).

The Krukow Kurse allegedly pertains not only to the Giants' World Series prospects (the Giants came close to winning the 2002 World Series, but lost in seven games to the Anaheim Angels), but to individual players' performance in specific games. For example, in a June 8, 2007 inter-league game between the Giants and the Oakland A's, Krukow remarked that the performance of Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum (who had not yet allowed a hit in the game) was one that could result in a no-hitter. Almost immediately after the comment, an A's batter "broke up" the no-hit bid by hitting a single.

[edit] L

[edit] Curse O' Les Boulez

While writing for the Washington Post writer Tony Kornheiser blamed "The Curse O' Les Boulez" for the futility of the Washington Wizards franchise. This term continues to be used today by the media^[17][18] and in Wizards lore.^[19][20]

[edit] M

[edit] Madden Curse

Players who appear alone on the covers of the Madden NFL video games have tended to suffer setbacks or injuries immediately after appearing on the cover.

[edit] Curse of Marty McSorley

There is an alleged curse that has prevented all NHL teams in Canada from winning the Stanley Cup since 1993. In Game 2 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals, the Los Angeles Kings, already ahead in the series 1-0 over the Montreal Canadiens, were leading 2-1 in the third period with 1:38 remaining. Montreal head coach Jacques Demers, however, felt suspicious about the curvature of the stick blade of Kings defenseman Marty McSorley, and asked for it to be measured.

Referees inspected and measured the stick, and determined that it was "too curved." McSorley was penalized for two minutes for playing with illegal equipment, and Montreal's Éric Desjardins scored on the ensuing one-man advantage, sending the game into overtime. In the extra period, Desjardins again scored, winning the game for Montreal and tying the series at a game apiece. The Canadiens, having taken momentum away from the Kings, went on to win the Stanley Cup in five games, the last time a team from Canada has done so. Since 1993, four Canadian NHL teams have reached the Stanley Cup Finals, but all have lost to their American opponent: the Vancouver Canucks lost to the New York Rangers in 1994, the Calgary Flames were defeated by the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004, the Edmonton Oilers fell to the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006, and the Ottawa Senators lost to the Anaheim Ducks in 2007. Also, the Quebec Nordiques moved to Denver in 1995 and became the Colorado Avalanche, winning two Stanley Cups in 1996 and 2001. However, since the franchise was no longer based in Canada, the curse was left intact.

[edit] N

[edit] Curse of NHL Expansion

Some believe that several teams have been cursed since the NHL expanded from only six teams to 12 in 1967. Most notably, the Toronto Maple Leafs have not even reached the Stanley Cup Finals since their last Stanley Cup championship in 1967. Two of the six new expansion teams of that year, the Los Angeles Kings and the St. Louis Blues, have not won a single Stanley Cup, although the Kings reached the Finals in 1993 and the Blues made the Finals for the first three seasons of their existence (1968-1970). Furthermore, another 1967 expansion team, the Minnesota North Stars, failed to win the Stanley Cup for their entire tenure in Minnesota; although it made the Finals in 1981 and 1991, the franchise would not win a championship until 1999, by which time it had relocated to Dallas.

In addition, it can be argued that some teams that were founded in the early-to-mid 1970s are cursed as well. The Buffalo Sabres and Vancouver Canucks both entered the league in 1970 and both have yet to win a Stanley Cup, despite each team losing in the Cup Finals twice. The Washington Capitals, who joined the NHL in 1974, have also not won the Cup, although they reached the Finals in 1998.

Ironically, however, the league's expansion of the early 1990s has not resulted in a similar curse. The four NHL franchises added between the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons all have made a Stanley Cup Final: the Florida Panthers in 1996, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in 2003, the eventual Stanley Cup Champion Tampa Bay Lightning in 2004, and the Ottawa Senators in 2007, who lost that series to the re-named Anaheim Ducks. However, some attribute the Senators' loss to the Curse of Marty McSorley (see above).

[edit] P

[edit] Curse of Billy Penn

There was an alleged curse on the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania^[21], which has prevented the city's sports teams from winning any titles since the Philadelphia 76ers swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1983 NBA Finals. Some fans believe that the city's breaking a gentlemen's agreement in 1987 that no skyscraper could be higher than the statue of William Penn on the top of the spire of City Hall is the reason for all their misery. Although Philadelphia has since added several super-tall skyscrapers, the "insult" to the city's founder is what many fans believe to be the source of the curse.

However, this can be disputed, with some saying the curse only applies to the four major sports leagues (MLB, NHL, NFL, NBA) and has no effect on any other teams based in Philadelphia. This is because the Philadelphia Wings have won six National Lacrosse League titles since the 1987 inception of the 'Curse'. Some also report that the alleged curse was broken in 2005, when the Philadelphia Phantoms won the Calder Cup in the American Hockey League; because of the NHL lockout, it was regarded as the highest level of professional hockey in North America that season. Others also report that the curse was broken in 2008 when the Philadelphia Soul won the ArenaBowl in the Arena Football League.

When the final beam in the construction of the Comcast Center (Philadelphia's tallest structure to date) was raised on June 18,2007, iron workers of Local Union 401 attached a small figurine of William Penn to the beam in an attempt to break the curse. It appears to have worked, as the curse was broken by the Philadelphia Phillies, winning their second World Series title, 4 games to 1, over the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008.

[edit] Curse of Denis Potvin

Denis Potvin was the team captain of the NHL's New York Islanders in the 1980s. This was a very successful period of time for the team, highlighted by four consecutive Stanley Cup championships from 1980 to 1983.

At the conclusion of the 1988 season, in which the Islanders won their sixth division title in franchise history, Potvin retired as a player. Since his retirement, the team has failed to win another division championship and made only seven playoff appearances, six of which saw them being eliminated in the first round. The Islanders have also had to endure numerous changes in ownership and management since 1988.

[edit] R

[edit] Reverse jinx

In the sporting world, a reverse jinx is a prediction which is the opposite of the outcome desired by the person making it.

[edit] Curse of the Richard Riot

On March 17, 1955, the Montreal Canadiens' game against the Detroit Red Wings was marred by fan violence. Unhappy patrons at the Forum were reacting to the suspension of Canadiens' star Maurice Richard for the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs. Their actions spread to the streets of Montreal and resulted in a great deal of damage in the city. This became known as the Richard Riot.

The fans' erratic behavior forced a stoppage of the game; Detroit was declared the winner by forfeit, a victory that allowed them to finish first overall in the league and thus receive home ice advantage for the Stanley Cup Finals. The Red Wings would defeat the Canadiens (without Richard) in those Finals in seven games to win the Stanley Cup.

The 1955 Cup win turned out to be Detroit's last Stanley Cup championship for 42 years, during which time they missed the playoffs 15 times in a 17-year span. When in playoff action, the Wings faced the Canadiens in four series without winning any of them. Meanwhile, Montreal won 17 Cup titles from 1956 (the year after the riot) to 1993.

The Canadiens also had an indirect impact on Detroit's Cup misfortunes. In 1995, the Red Wings had the NHL's best record, but were swept by the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup Finals. Devils' coach Jacques Lemaire, assistant coach Larry Robinson, and Conn Smythe Trophy winner Claude Lemieux were all former Montreal players. The next year, Detroit again compiled the NHL's best record, scoring 131 points, second in league history only to the Canadiens' 132 points in 1977. However, the Colorado Avalanche defeated the Wings in the playoffs en route to a Cup of their own. The Avalanche had three former Canadiens on their roster – Lemieux had joined them from New Jersey, and former Habs captain Mike Keane, along with ex-Canadien goaltender Patrick Roy had been traded to the Avs at mid-season.

In 1997, the Red Wings finally won the Stanley Cup. They repeated as champions in 1998 and added titles in 2002 and 2008. These triumphs have lessened the curse considerably, but have not eliminated it entirely; the Wings have not defeated the Canadiens in a playoff series since 1955, the year of the Richard Riot. In fact, the two teams have not faced each other in the playoffs since 1978.

[edit] S

[edit] San Diego Sports Curse

[edit] Curse of Chief Sealth/Curse of the Kingdome

The Curse of Chief Sealth is known to exist and affect all high-profile Seattle sports teams in painful, heartbreaking ways. Some would also consider it "The Curse of the Kingdome," considering that Seattle's three professional teams have never won a championship in their respective leagues since their stints at the Kingdome. The Mariners and Seahawks shared the venue from 1976-1999, while the Seattle SuperSonics moved into the facility after winning its only NBA Championship in 1979, only to move back to the Seattle Center Coliseum by 1985. The Kingdome closed in 1999 and was demolished a year later.

The city's only three major sports championships are the Metropolitans' Stanley Cup win in 1917 (the first U.S.-based Cup championship), the SuperSonics' NBA title in 1979, and the Storm's WNBA championship in 2004. The Mariners have never played in a World Series (despite tying a major league record with 116 wins in 2001) and the Seahawks lost the only Super Bowl in which they played.

In 2008, which became gradually known as "Misery Road", the curse affected all Seattle teams:

• The Sonics, who compiled a 20-62 record in the 2007–08 NBA season, relocated to Oklahoma City because of Clay Bennett's wishes to have a team in his hometown. This move came a year after the team drafted Kevin Durant.^{[citation needed]}
• The Seahawks, after winning four consecutive NFC West titles and one NFC Championship, suffered through a season in which they won only four games.
• The Mariners, expected to be in contention for the AL West title, lost 101 games to finish with the worst record in the American League, becoming the first team to spend an $100 million payroll and lose 100 games in a season.
• The WNBA's Storm was the only team in Seattle to finish with a winning record in 2008 (a franchise-best 22-10), but lost in the first round of the playoffs for the fourth straight year.
• The University of Washington Huskies football team lost all twelve of its games and coach Tyrone Willingham was relieved of his duties.

[edit] Curse of Norm Smith

A curse on the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League, used to explain why Melbourne has failed to win a premiership since it sacked Norm Smith in the middle of the 1965 season. Smith had coached fourteen years and won six premierships (including during the previous season), but his relationship with the club grew strained. He attacked the club in the media following his dismissal, and claimed they would not recover, which has remained true thus far.

[edit] Socceroos Witch Doctor Curse

In a story told in Johnny Warren's 2002 autobiography, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters[2]; During a trip to play against Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the 1970 Mexico World Cup qualifiers in Mozambique, members of the Australian national soccer team (nicknamed the "Socceroos") including Warren consulted a witch doctor preceding their game. The witch doctor buried bones near the goal-posts and cursed the opposition, and Australia went on to beat Rhodesia 3-1 in the decider. However the move backfired when the players could not come up with the £1000 demanded by the witch doctor as payment and he subsequently cursed the team. Subsequently, the Socceroos failed to beat Israel and did not qualify.

Whilst the curse is used as an explanation for failing to qualify for the World Cup for 32 years, including in the last match in the 1994, 1998 and 2002 qualifications, the curse is used in particular reference to the failure to qualify for the 1998 World Cup by drawing on aggregate against Iran, despite leading 2-0 in the second half of the final match of qualification.

The curse was supposedly lifted by John Safran during his 2004 TV series John Safran vs God. After reading the story in Warren's book, Safran travelled to Mozambique and hired a new witch doctor to channel the original to reverse the curse. The following year, the Socceroos not only qualified for the 2006 World Cup, but were quite successful, reaching the second round before finally falling to Italy in Kaiserslautern.

It is worth noting that their appearance in the 1974 FIFA World Cup came after the supposed curse had been placed. However, they failed to score a goal in any of their three opening round matches, and were eliminated. [3]

[edit] Sports Illustrated Cover Curse

Players who appear on the cover of the Sports Illustrated magazine have tended to, coincidentally, suffer setbacks or injuries, immediately after appearing on the cover, or the team they play for will lose a very important game or series.

[edit] T

[edit] Tampa Bay Curse

The Tampa Bay Curse is a sports hex that affects NFL teams that lose to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. No team that has lost to Tampa Bay during the regular season has gone on to win the Super Bowl in the same season. Tampa Bay is one of only two NFL team to hold that distinction, and through 2008, it is still active. [This is also true for the Carolina Panthers, albeit they have existed 19 years fewer than Tampa Bay]. The curse may be related to the historical bad luck and poor performance of the franchise. Tampa Bay won Super Bowl XXXVII but there is no sign that the victory has relieved the effects of the curse.

The Buccaneer team lived through several perceived curses itself. For the better part of its existence, the team had not won a championship, had never won a road playoff game, never won a game under 40°F (4°C), had never returned a punt nor a kickoff for a touchdown, had a losing record at home,^[22] and had never come back from 21 points to win a game. As of 2008, all of those distinctions had been lifted.

In a related issue, some local residents believe that Tampa Bay franchises are cursed to endure years of futility, as has been the case for the area's three major sports teams^[23]. The 1976 Bucs had been the only NFL team after WWII to finish an entire season winless and tieless (0-14-0) until the 2008 Detroit Lions went 0-16-0. Those Buccaneers eventually set a league record for consecutive losses (26) over the 1976-1977 seasons. The Buccaneers also hold the league record with 12 consecutive seasons (1983-1994) with 10 or more losses.

In the years since Tampa Bay's Super Bowl victory, there has been somewhat an extension of the curse: all three teams that made their first Super Bowl appearance in the last six years have lost. Ironically, the most recent victim, the Arizona Cardinals, lost in the Buccanneers' home stadium.

The Tampa Bay Lightning are the only team in NHL history to lose 50 or more games in four consecutive seasons (1997-2001), though this was eliminated on a technicality resulting in a scoring change that added overtime losses to record scorekeeping being made retroactive to the prior year. They then won the Stanley Cup in 2004. The Tampa Bay Rays finished in last place in the American League East Division nine out of the first ten years of their existence, owning the worst record in all of Major League Baseball four times before winning the American League pennant in 2008. ^[24]

[edit] Thirteenth Season Curse

Sports franchises have relocated from one city to another many times. In some cases, the team moved again after exactly 13 seasons in town. Teams that spent a baker's dozen years in one city between shiftings include:

• Milwaukee Braves: Moved from Boston after the 1952 season. They stayed until 1965, then moved to Atlanta.
• Kansas City Athletics: Moved from Philadelphia following the 1954 season, stayed until 1967, after which they moved to Oakland.
• St. Louis Hawks: Moved from Milwaukee after the 1954-55 NBA season. Their final season in town was 1967-68 before moving to Atlanta.
• Kansas City Kings: Moved from Cincinnati following the 1971-72 NBA season, stayed until the 1984-85 season and then moved again to Sacramento.
• Los Angeles Raiders: Based in Oakland until 1981, they moved right after that NFL season. In 1994, they played their last season in town before returning to the city from which they came.

The curse was apparently broken in 1995. That year, the New Jersey Devils played their 13th season after relocating from Denver, Colorado in 1982. The team threatened to move again (to Nashville, Tennessee), but stayed in New Jersey after winning their first Stanley Cup title. The Devils remain a New Jersey team to this day, while Nashville has its own NHL team, the Predators.

[edit] Curse of Ben Tillman

The Curse of Ben Tillman (sometimes called the "Chicken Curse" by Clemson fans) is said to have been caused by South Carolina's Governor Ben Tillman, who put the curse on the University of South Carolina at Columbia and also The Citadel. He put the curse on the schools because some members of the State congress disagreed with the need for more state schools. A farmer wanted to turn the state into an agricultural haven, and helped establish Clemson University, an agricultural school, and Winthrop College, a women's teacher college (since coeducational).

The Curse is more related to the South Carolina Gamecocks, who have won just one NCAA championship (women's track and field 2002), while the Clemson Tigers have won multiple NCAA titles.

Notable Curse of Ben Tillman moments include:

• A 21-game losing streak in football in 1998–99.
• From the first football game played in 1892, the team waited until January 2, 1995 to win its first postseason game (eight appearances); that record of futility (on games) has since been tied and broken by West Virginia and Notre Dame, respectively.
• The inability to beat Clemson in consecutive football games since the Gamecocks' only Atlantic Coast Conference championship (1969). Clemson has won more ACC titles.
• Three times in the 2000s the Gamecocks were within one win of making a postseason game (2002-03, 2007). The team failed to qualify for postseason in all three situations.
• The men's basketball team yet to win an NCAA tournament game since 1973, and no wins in the "open" era of the late 1970s. Rival Clemson made their first appearance in 1980 (has never won an automatic bid) but has had more tournament wins. (It should be noted that the 1971 team won an ACC Tournament championship, at the Bojangles Coliseum; the Tigers have made it twice to the championship game, but has never won.)
• The 1996–97 men's basketball team won the Southeastern Conference regular season championship, and gain a #2 seed, only to fall in the first round of the NCAA tournament at Mellon Arena to Coppin State. It was the first time a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference team has won a tournament game.
• The Gamecocks had made it to the College World Series Championship, only to lose three times (1975, 1977, 2002).
• The 2000 baseball team had been the #1 seed, only to fall in the Super Regionals to Louisiana-Lafayette. Rival Clemson qualified to Omaha (ironically, to fall to Louisiana-Lafayette; teams in Lafayette had beaten the state's teams in baseball and ECHL hockey that year – having defeated teams in Charleston and Greenville).
• The 2009 baseball team blew a six-run lead to East Carolina University in the NCAA Regional Finals, and lost in ten innings.
• The 2005 and 2006 basketball teams won the National Invitational Tournament title, and could not make postseason the next two years.
• The 2007 football team, 6-1 and #6 in the AP rankings, lost five games to miss postseason play; worse yet, the state High School League chose to move the state championship games to "Death Valley" starting in 2008.
• Kevin Joyce, a member of the 1971-72 Gamecock basketball team led by Frank McGuire, was a member of the 1972 US Olympic basketball team that lost to the Soviet Union in the championship game.
• In November of the 1984 "Black Magic" season, the Gamecocks were ranked #2 in the nation with a perfect 9-0 record only to be sunk by the Navy Midshipmen 38-21 in Annapolis, Maryland. Had the Gamecocks won, they would have been 10-0 and the #1 team in college football due to the #1 team falling earlier that day. The #2 ranking is the highest ranking achieved by the Gamecocks before, or since, 1984.
• The Citadel has never made an NCAA Basketball Tournament game, while Winthrop (also founded by Tillman) has successfully won games in the NCAA tournament.

[edit] See also

• Nelson (cricket)
• Crucible Curse
• Curse of LaBonte
• Curse of Muldoon
• Curse of the Colonel
• Ex-Cubs Factor
• Rainbow Jersey

[edit] References