Sports-related curses

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.

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Curse of 1940

Main article: 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.

1969 Curse

The Chicago Cubs led the National League East for the first five months of the 1969 baseball season. Their lead over the New York Mets reached 10 games on August 13. That lead eroded steadily as the Mets overtook the Cubs to win the division title. New York then went on to capture the National League pennant and World Championship for the season that would serve as a black mark for Chicago.

Fifteen years later, the bad memories of 1969 seemed to be on their way out of the Windy City. In 1984, the Cubs got revenge by overtaking the Mets to clinch the National League East Division title on September 24, the same date as the Mets' clincher in 1969. This time, it appeared to be the Cubs who were destined to be in the World Series.

However, the legacy of 1969 would haunt Chicago in the end. That year, the San Diego Padres and the League Championship Series entered Major League Baseball. The Padres defeated the Cubs in the 1984 NLCS to win the pennant and enter the World Series themselves. San Diego's Steve Garvey, whose major league career began in 1969, was named Most Valuable Player of the Series. Furthermore, if there had not been a League Championship Series, the Cubs would have been in the World Series in 1984. Their won-lost record that season (96-66) was four games better than that of the Padres (92-70).

1993 Runner-Up Curse

In all the major American team sports, the runner-up from the 1993 season has suffered various misfortunes since. These teams included the Los Angeles Kings, Phoenix Suns, Philadelphia Phillies, Buffalo Bills (playoffs in January 1994), and University of Notre Dame football. In the ensuing years, Notre Dame did not win any postseason games between the 1994 and 2007 seasons, and Buffalo has not won any playoff game beyond a lone wildcard contest in 1995.

The curse was partially broken in 2008, when the Phillies won the World Series in five games over the Tampa Bay Rays, and Notre Dame snapped their NCAA-record 9-game losing streak in the postseason by winning the 2008 Hawaii Bowl. However, it can be argued that the first weakening of the curse was in 1996, when the University of Kentucky Wildcats, who "finished" second (upon advancement of Michigan's disqualification; they had lost to Michigan in the national semifinals), won the NCAA Men's Basketball title.

It appears that some of the 1993 champions are affected as well by the curse, but to a lesser extent. These teams include the Montreal Canadiens, Chicago Bulls, Toronto Blue Jays and Dallas Cowboys. The Montreal Canadiens only won four postseason series and have not passed the second round since their 24th Stanley Cup and missed the playoffs six times. The Chicago Bulls, despite winning three championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998, have missed the playoffs for six straight years after winning their last NBA Championship. The Toronto Blue Jays have not qualified for the playoffs since their World Series title in 1993 and the Dallas Cowboys, despite winning Super Bowl XXX, have not won a single playoff game after their last playoff victory in 1996 over the Minnesota Vikings.

A

Andretti Curse

Main article: 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.

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

Curse of Mike Accursi

The Rochester Knighthawks are a team in the National Lacrosse League and have a history of being very successful. Through the 2007 season, the Knighthawks, who entered the Major Indoor Lacrosse League (the forerunner of the NLL) in 1995, had never missed the playoffs during their entire 13-season existence. While the Knighthawks won the MILL championship in 1997, the 2007 team was arguably the greatest Knighthawks team. That team went 14-2 in the regular season tying an NLL record established by the Albany Attack and went 3-0 in the playoffs winning their second championship.

A key player on the Knighthawks team who was pivotal to the success of the Knighthawks was Mike Accursi. During the off-season before the 2008 season, the Knighthawks traded Accursi to the Edmonton Rush. While Accursi was the leading scorer with Edmonton during his time there in the 2008 season, it is believed that he was considerably unhappy because he was far from his family in Welland Ontario.

Accursi was traded during the 2008 season to the Buffalo Bandits who won the NLL championship that season with Accursi being a fan-favorite and a pivotal player in the Bandits' success.

However, in 2008, the Rochester Knighthawks for the first time in their 14-season history, failed to make the NLL playoffs finishing 5th out of 7 teams in the NLL East Division. Furthermore, the Knighthawks have had additional considerable misfortune since 2007 including: 1. Change in ownership 2. Season ending injury of star player John Grant Jr. and injury of star goalie Pat O'Toole. 3. Two coaching changes and a GM change. 4. So far in the 2009 season, Rochester is the last ranked team in the NLL.

Coincidentally or not, this sudden drastic downturn in the Knighthawks' success began with the unceremonious departure of Mike Accursi from the Knighthawks.

B

Curse of the Balboni

This alleged curse was first brought up by ESPN.com columnist Rany Jazayerli. Named after New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals slugger Steve Balboni, the curse alleges that any team that employs a player hitting 36 or more home runs for the season will not win the World Series. In 1985, Balboni hit 36 home runs for the Kansas City Royals while winning their first and to date, only World Championship. At that point, the last team to win a World Series with a player hitting at least 36 home runs was the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies, with Mike Schmidt hitting 48. The "Curse of the Balboni" was broken in 2001, when the Arizona Diamondbacks won the World Series despite employing Luis Gonzalez, who hit 57 home runs that season. Five more players have won the World Series with at least 36 home runs since: the 2004 Boston Red Sox had Manny Ramirez (43 home runs) and David Ortiz (41), the 2005 Chicago White Sox had Paul Konerko (40), the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals had Albert Pujols (49), and the 2008 Philadelphia Phillies had Ryan Howard (48).

Curse of the Bambino

Main article: 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.

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."

Curse of Len Bias

There was an alleged curse that had kept the Boston Celtics from winning the NBA championship from 1986 to 2008. In the 1985-1986 NBA season, the Celtics won the NBA title with one of the best regular season home records in NBA history, and star-player Larry Bird was putting-up career numbers in several categories. In the off-season, due to a trade with the Seattle SuperSonics two years earlier, Boston held the #2 overall pick in the NBA Draft and selected Maryland Terrapins star Len Bias. But less than 48 hours after selection, Bias died from a heart attack due to a cocaine overdose. Since Bias' death, Boston advanced to the NBA Finals only once (until 2008), the ensuing season, where the Los Angeles Lakers won the series, 4 games to 2. This series was especially memorable for Magic Johnson's "Jr. sky hook" to win Game 4 in Boston.

However, the 2007 offseason was a big one for the Celtics, as they acquired Ray Allen with that draft pick trade with Seattle and eventually got Kevin Garnett from the Timberwolves. The Celtics entered the 2008 playoffs as the number 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, possessing the best record in the NBA for the 2007-08 season.

The Celtics finally broke the curse in the 2008 NBA Finals, beating the Lakers 4 games to 2.

There were some strange coincidences involving the date that the Celtics snapped this curse.

• Boston won the 2008 Championship on June 17, or 6/17. The telephone area code for downtown Boston is 617.
• 2008 was the Celtics' 17th championship. It took them six games to win it. (6/17)
• Celtics legend Bill Russell wore #6. Celtics legend John Havlicek wore #17. Both were in attendance on 6/17, the night the Celtics clinched the Championship.
• Len Bias died at the age of 22. After his death, the Celtics took 22 years to win another championship.
• Finally -- in perhaps the eeriest coincidence of them all -- the Celtics drafted Len Bias on June 17, 1986.

Curse of the Billy Goat

Main article: Curse of the Billy Goat

The Curse of the Billy Goat is used to explain the failures of the Chicago Cubs baseball team, who have not won a World Series championship since 1908, and a National League pennant since 1945. As the story goes, Billy Sianis, a Greek immigrant who owned a nearby tavern (the now-famous Billy Goat Tavern), had two $7.20 box seat tickets to Game 4 of the 1945 World Series between the Chicago Cubs and the Detroit Tigers, and decided to bring along his pet goat, Murphy (or Sinovia according to some references). Despite making it into the field, they were eventually ejected. Sianis was outraged at the ejection and allegedly placed a curse upon the Cubs that they would never win another pennant or play in a World Series at Wrigley Field again because the Cubs organization had insulted his goat.

Curse of the Black Sox

Main article: Curse of the Black Sox

There was an alleged curse on the Chicago White Sox, who failed to win a World Series after 1917, apparently due to the Black Sox scandal. The curse apparently ended in 2005, when the White Sox swept the Houston Astros in the 2005 World Series.

Curse of the Boston Red Sox

(Not to be confused with the Curse of the Bambino)

This alleged curse was used to account for two consecutive instances where the Stanley Cup was never awarded. The year after the Boston Red Sox won the 1918 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, the Spanish flu epidemic cancelled the 1919 Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans. With the series tied 2-2-1, it was never made up, thereby leaving the Stanley Cup unawarded to either team that year. The next instance where the Stanley Cup was never awarded occurred 86 years later in 2005 when the 2004–05 NHL lockout cancelled the entire NHL season. This occured the year after the Boston Red Sox swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games to win the 2004 World Series, their first championship in 86 years. This curse was snapped when, following the Red Sox sweep of the Colorado Rockies in four games to win the 2007 World Series, the Detroit Red Wings were awarded the Stanley Cup after defeating the Pittsburgh Penguins to win the 2008 Stanley Cup Finals.

Buffalo Bills' Comeback Curse

The Buffalo Bills rebounded from a 32-point deficit to defeat the Houston Oilers in a National Football League playoff game on January 3, 1993. Since then, teams based in New York State have lost all championship finals in which they have faced teams from Texas. These include:

• The Bills' losses to the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XXVII and Super Bowl XXVIII.
• The New York Knicks' losses in the NBA Finals to the Houston Rockets in 1994 and San Antonio Spurs in 1999.
• The New York Liberty's losses to the Houston Comets in the WNBA Championship Game in 1997 and WNBA Finals in 1999 and 2000.
• The Buffalo Sabres' loss to the Dallas Stars in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1999.

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. Those who believe in the Buffalo Curse 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. 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, he 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). 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 Western New York region (Niagara Purple Eagles and Canisius Golden Griffins) have qualified for the NCAA basketball tournament, but neither of those teams have ever gone on to win the tournament.

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.

C

California Curse

In 1965, the Los Angeles Angels changed their name to the California Angels. During the time with California in its name, the team suffered many tragic and heartbreaking occurrences both on and off the field.

• 1965: Rookie pitcher Dick Wantz dies of a brain tumor one month after his only major league game.
• 1968: Pitcher Minnie Rojas is paralyzed in a car accident that kills his two daughters.
• 1972: Infielder Chico Ruiz is killed in a car accident in San Diego, California.
• 1974: Bruce Heinbechner, a relief pitcher just about to start his major league career, dies in a car accident during spring training in Palm Springs, California.
• 1975: Former pitcher Jim McGlothlin dies of leukemia at the age of 32.
• 1977: Shortstop Mike Miley is killed in a car accident in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
• 1978: Outfielder Lyman Bostock is shot and killed in Gary, Indiana, even though he was not the intended victim.
• 1981: Former catcher Ed Kirkpatrick is paralyzed in a car accident.
• 1982: After winning the first two games of the best-of-5 ALCS, the Angels lose the final three games, and the series, to the Milwaukee Brewers.
• 1986: One inning away from clinching the best-of-7 ALCS against the Boston Red Sox in five games, the Angels' three-run lead vanishes when Boston's Don Baylor (a former Angel) and Dave Henderson each hit two-run homers. The Red Sox go on the win the game and, eventually, the series.
• 1989: Pitcher Donnie Moore, who gave up Henderson's home run in '86 with two outs and two strikes on him, shoots his wife, then commits suicide in front of the couple's son.
• 1992: Coach Deron Johnson dies of cancer. One month later, a team bus crashes during a road trip. Several members of the team entourage are injured, and manager Buck Rodgers is hospitalized.
• 1995: After leading the American League West Division by 11 games on August 9, the Angels slump badly and finish the regular season tied with the Seattle Mariners for first place. Seattle then wins the tie-breaker playoff game, 9-1.
• 1996: Hall of Fame player and team coach Rod Carew's daughter, Michelle, dies of leukemia.

For the 1997 season, the Angels changed their location name from California to Anaheim, which seems to have ended the curse. The team has not had any devastating losses or human tragedies to endure and even won the World Series (in 2002) since dumping California from its name.

Cardinals football curse

Main article: 1925 NFL Championship controversy

The Cardinals NFL franchise is allegedly suffering a curse 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.

Chicago baseball curse

Further information: Curse of the Billy Goat, Curse of the Black Sox, and Curse of Fred Merkle

Cleveland sports curse

Main article: Curse of Rocky Colavito

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. Less famous outside of Cleveland, Game 7 of the 1997 World Series is commonly referred to as The Error (briefly known as The Mesa).

Red Right 88 does not share the nomenclature, but the heartache is the same.

The Cavaliers' recent loss to the San Antonio Spurs was not due to a single play or misplay but simply a superior opponent, yet the sting of the loss still resonates in a city searching for its first major championship since 1964.

Only time will tell if the 2007 American League Championship Series will be reduced to either "The Collapse" (for the series loss to the Boston Red Sox, despite being up three games to one) or "The Stop Sign" (due to Kenny Lofton being held up by third base coach Joel Skinner, as he likely would have scored the tying run in the late innings of Game 7) in Cleveland folklore.

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.

To add insult to injury, the original Browns went on to win a Super Bowl as the Baltimore Ravens by defeating the New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV. As previously stated, the newer, current Browns franchise has yet to appear in a Super Bowl.

Cleveland's misery is so detailed, that in 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city. That same year, being 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.

The cause for Cleveland's misery is not 100% agreed upon, although some trace it to either Rocky Colavito's departure to the Detroit Tigers in 1960, or Jim Brown's stunning retirement from the NFL in 1965 to produce the World War II film The Dirty Dozen.

Curse of Chick Hearn

There is an alleged curse on the Los Angeles Lakers, who have not won an NBA Championship since the death of longtime popular broadcaster Chick Hearn, following the 2001-2002 NBA season.

Prior to Hearn's death in 2002, the Lakers had won three straight NBA championships, and were one of the league's elite teams. But since his death, the Los Angeles Lakers have lost in some of the league's most recent big games, and have been involved in some of the league's biggest off-court scandals:

• 2003 NBA Playoffs: In the conference semifinals, the Lakers battled the San Antonio Spurs, with the home team winning the first four games. On May 13 in San Antonio, Texas, the Lakers rallied from a 25-point deficit to cut the Spurs lead to 96-94 with 10 seconds left. But usual clutch-shooter Robert Horry's 3-pointer rattled in and out to secure the Spurs win. San Antonio won the series, 4 games to 2, eliminating the Lakers from the playoffs. In that off-season, the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case would surface, as a 19-year-old Eagle, Colorado hotel worker claimed that Bryant sexually assaulted and raped her. Claiming innocence, Kobe Bryant flew to Colorado to testify in his case during the 2003-2004 NBA season. All charges were dropped on September 1, 2004, after the hotel worker refused to testify in court, and a civil settlement was reached.
• 2004 NBA Finals: The Lakers came into the NBA Finals as the favorites against the Detroit Pistons. But when both teams split the first two games in Los Angeles, the series shifted to Detroit's Palace of Auburn Hills for games 3, 4 and 5, where the Pistons would dominate those three games. In Game 3, Los Angeles scored only 68 points, the fewest total amount by any Laker team in post-season history. After the clinching game for Detroit in Game 5, the Kobe-Shaq feud would begin, as both players parted ways from each other. Eventually, center Shaquille O'Neal would be traded to the Miami Heat, while shooting guard Kobe Bryant would remain with the team.
• 2006 NBA Playoffs: In the first round, the Lakers would take on their Pacific Division rivals, the Phoenix Suns. The Lakers would eventually jump to a 3 games to 1 lead, thanks in part to the heroics of Kobe Bryant in Game 4. In Game 5, the series intensified, with a clothesline to Bryant by Phoenix's Raja Bell. Although losing Game 5, there was still a sense of comfort for the Lakers, as, with a 3 games to 2 lead, they could still close the series at home. In Game 6, with the Lakers leading 105-102 with 28 seconds left, Phoenix grabbed several offensive rebounds, then, the Suns' Tim Thomas tied the game with a 3-pointer with 6.2 seconds left. The Suns won the game in overtime, 126-118, and would force a Game 7, which they won, 121-90. To make matters worse, Shaquille O'Neal won an NBA title with the Miami Heat in the 2006 NBA Finals, which was a bitter truth for Laker fans to swallow.
• 2007 NBA Playoffs: Once again, the first round would be the Lakers and the Phoenix Suns, but this time, the Suns would get the upper hand, as they won the series, 4 games to 1. Following the playoffs, on May 30, Bryant asked for a trade on Stephen A. Smith's radio program on ESPN, citing that he would only play if Memphis Grizzlies' General Manager Jerry West would return to the Lakers, that he was angered over the fact that a "Lakers insider" blamed Bryant over the split with O'Neal, and that the team did not want to move on with him. By the start of the following season, Bryant, with the sound of boos on opening night, would return to the Lakers.
• 2008 NBA Finals: For the fist time since 2004, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals, and would play their historical rival, the Boston Celtics. Boston won the first two games at TD Banknorth Garden; in Game 1, Boston won when Paul Pierce, who injured his knee in that game, scored two dramatic 3-pointers and finished with 22 points, while in Game 2, the Celtics won by 6 points, after a furious L.A. comeback down by 24 points in the 4th quarter. The Lakers won Game 3, but in Game 4 at Staples Center, Los Angeles would register the worst collapse by any team in NBA Finals history. The Lakers would blow a 24-point first-half lead, and lost Game 4, 97-91, adding to the suffering of Los Angeles sports fans. The Lakers won Game 5, shifting the series back to Boston, but the Celtics closed the Finals in Game 6 with the largest margin-of-victory in an NBA Finals closeout game, 131-92 (39 points). The Celtics led by as much as 42 points in that game. Paul Pierce, who ironically grew up hating the Celtics as an Angelino who went to Inglewood High School in Inglewood, CA, won Finals MVP honors, as the Celtics won their first title since 1986, and their 17th championship overall.

Curse of the Colonel

Main article: 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.

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. 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.

Further information: Sports-related curses § The "Krukow Kurse"

D

Curse of Detroit

The Curse of Detroit is a more recent Stanley Cup-related curse, penned by Hockey Night in Canada host Ron MacLean. In every NHL season (until 2006-07) since the Detroit Red Wings won the 2002 Stanley Cup championship, each team that has defeated Detroit in the playoffs has gone on to the Stanley Cup Finals, and on each occasion, has lost to the Eastern Conference team in seven games. In the 2003 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim seemed to create the curse when they won the Western Conference Quarterfinals series against Detroit 4-0 and eventually ended up in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing the series to the New Jersey Devils 4-3. In the 2004 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Calgary Flames won the Western Conference Semifinals series against Detroit 4-2 and eventually ended up in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing the series to the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3. Following the 2004-05 NHL lockout, in the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Edmonton Oilers won the Western Conference Quarterfinals series against Detroit 4-2 and eventually ended up in the Stanley Cup Finals, losing the series to the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3. However, during the 2007 Stanley Cup Playoffs, Detroit, the top seeded team in the Western Conference, lost in the Western Conference Final to the Anaheim Ducks 4-2, but Anaheim went on to defeat the Ottawa Senators to win the Stanley Cup. It appears as if Anaheim broke the curse they created in three seasons. In the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Red Wings won the Stanley Cup themselves, rendering the curse moot.

E

Ewing Theory

One of ESPN.com columnist Bill Simmons' most used Internet memes has been the Ewing Theory, which was conceived by reader Dave Cirilli and named after Patrick Ewing of the New York Knicks. In 1998-99, the Knicks made the NBA Finals after Ewing sustained an Achilles' tendon injury. Thus, the Ewing Theory claims that when a longtime superstar who has never won a championship leaves the team via injury, trade or free agency, and the media writes the team off, the team will play better. Other examples include:

• The 1994-95 UConn Huskies men's basketball team, who at one point were ranked No. 1 in the country a year after Donyell Marshall left for the NBA.
• The 2004 Boston Red Sox, who traded Nomar Garciaparra mid-season and went on to win their first World Series in 86 years.
• The 1972 Los Angeles Lakers, who won a championship the year Elgin Baylor, who was 0-for-8 in the Finals, retired after nine games. (They also won a record 33 consecutive games starting the day after his retirement.)
• The 1998 University of Tennessee football team, which won the national championship the year after Peyton Manning left for the NFL. Note that another sportswriter made the "Tee Martin Principle" long after Simmons popularized the Ewing Theory, causing Simmons to write "they're the exact same thing!"
• The 1999 St. Louis Rams won the Super Bowl after Trent Green was injured in the final preseason game that forced Kurt Warner into the quarterback role.
• The 2001 New England Patriots, who won Super Bowl XXXVI after an injury to Drew Bledsoe forced Tom Brady into the starting quarterback's role.
• In professional wrestling, when Bret Hart left the then-WWF after the Montreal Screwjob in 1997, the WWF went on to have record-setting success.
• The 2007 Chunichi Dragons of Japan's Central League lost star outfielder Kosuke Fukudome late in the season to elbow surgery. They then went on to win their first Japan Series championship in 54 years.
• The 2007 New York Giants, who lost star running back Tiki Barber to retirement before the season, defied all predictions and won the Super Bowl in 2008, defeating the previously unbeaten New England Patriots 17–14. To compound matters, Barber had also voiced his disdain of the Giants and head coach Tom Coughlin at various points during the 2007 season.

Given the time since the name Ewing Theory was coined and the Giants' Super Bowl XLII victory, a number of readers have suggested the name be updated to the "Tiki Theory" and Simmons agreed.

H

Curse of Keith Hernandez

This curse (first brought to light by Dan O'Neill of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) held that the St. Louis Cardinals were incapable of winning the World Series from 1983 to 2005. Until 2006, the last time that the Cardinals won the World Series was in 1982, when Keith Hernandez was their starting first baseman. Hernandez, who was the National League batting champion and co-MVP in 1979 (sharing the honours with the Pittsburgh Pirates' Willie Stargell), was traded to the New York Mets for Neil Allen (who, after three seasons with St. Louis and a 20-16 record, was sold to the Yankees) and Rick Ownbey on June 15, 1983. Shortly after arriving in New York, Hernandez set a major league record for game-winning runs batted in (24) in 1985. The following season, Hernandez helped guide the Mets to a World Championship against the Boston Red Sox.

The Cardinals appeared in the World Series three more times (1985, 1987 and 2004) before finally winning in 2006 against the Detroit Tigers. In 1985, the Cardinals lost their base-stealing catalyst, Vince Coleman, to a freak injury when he got his leg caught under the mechanized tarp at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis. As a result, he was unable to participate in the World Series against the Kansas City Royals. In Game 6 of the Series, the Cardinals were holding a 1-0 led going into the bottom of the ninth, and needed just three more outs in order to win the World Championship. St. Louis closer Todd Worrell faced Royals leadoff man Jorge Orta. Orta hit a slow roller to first baseman Jack Clark, who tossed to Worrell covering first base. However, first-base umpire Don Denkinger called Orta safe, even though instant replays and photographs clearly showed that he was out by half a step. In the next at-bat, Clark misplayed an easy foul pop-up by batter Steve Balboni. Instead of popping out, Balboni singled on the next pitch, and Onix Concepcion came in to pinch-run. With runners on first and second, Jim Sundberg then bunted into a force play at third. Catcher Darrell Porter then allowed a passed ball, allowing the runners to advance to second and third. Pinch-hitter Hal McRae was intentionally walked to load the bases, and then Dane Iorg knocked a bloop single to right that scored Concepcion and Sundberg, who avoided Porter's tag at the plate to score the winning run. In Game 7, the frustrated Cardinals (who had to cope with Don Denkinger now working at home plate) got blown out by the Royals 11-0.

When Hernandez and his Mets participated in the Game 6 of the 1986 World Series, the Boston Red Sox were on the verge of a World Series title in the 10th inning with two outs and nobody on. However, the Mets eventually rallied for a 6-5 victory, ending with Mookie Wilson's routine groundball eluding first baseman Bill Buckner. They later rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Red Sox 8-5 in Game 7. While being interviewed by NBC's Bob Costas following Game 7, Hernandez revealed that during Game 6, he had already retreated to the Mets' clubhouse to drink a beer (a Budweiser, which had been manufactured by long time Cardinals owner Gussie Busch and his family) when the improbable uprising occurred.

The Cardinals returned to the World Series in 1987, facing the Minnesota Twins. The Cardinals had to deal with the absence of an injured Jack Clark, who was their main source of power. They also had to cope with the fact that four out of the seven games were at Minnesota's loud and boisterous Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome which, naturally, gave the Twins a psychological advantage. Still, the Cards managed to win three in a row at home and came back to Minnesota with a 3 games to 2 series led. However, the Twins won Game 6 behind a grand slam by Kent Hrbek, who just happened to be a first baseman with the initials "K.H." The Cardinals ultimately lost Game 7 with the save going to Keith Hernandez' ex-Mets teammate, Jeff Reardon. The 1987 Minnesota Twins' 85-77 regular season record was, up until 2006, the worst winning percentage for an eventual World Series victor since the introduction of the 162-game schedule. That record stood until 2006, when the St. Louis Cardinals broke the Keith Hernandez curse and won the World Series after winning just 83 games in the regular season.

In 1996, the Cardinals blew a 3 games to 1 lead against the Atlanta Braves in the National League Championship Series. Game 7 involved the Cards getting destroyed by Atlanta, 15-0. 1996, by the way, was the beginning of Tony La Russa's tenure as manager of the Cardinals. In practically all of the Cards' subsequent postseason appearances, they lost a key player to injury (i.e. Mark McGwire, Mike Matheny, Scott Rolen, and Chris Carpenter). For instance, in 2002, the team lost Scott Rolen during a sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks (who defeated the Cardinals in the Division Series the year before) in the division series before losing in the NLCS in five games to the wild-card San Francisco Giants. Keith Hernandez, incidentally, was born in San Francisco (although the Cardinals did beat the Giants in the 1987 NLCS in seven games).

While not related to the World Series, in 2002, Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile died of a heart attack in his hotel room at the age of 33.

In 2004, the Cardinals lost the World Series in four games against the Boston Red Sox (who won their first World Championship since 1918). During the first two games of the World Series, the Cards walked 14 Red Sox batters and hit three others. Meanwhile, the Red Sox plated 17 base runners, while stranding 21 base runners. The closest the Cardinals ever came to possessing the lead in the Series was on two different occasions in Game 1. The Cardinals tied the game at 7 in the top of the 6th inning, but the Red Sox regained the lead with two runs in the bottom of the 7th. The Cardinals responded with two in the top of the 8th to tie the game at 9, but the Red Sox again replied with two in the bottom of the same inning. In Game 3, Cardinals threatened in the top of the 3rd inning, as starting pitcher Jeff Suppan beat out an infield single to third base and Edgar Rentería delivered a double to right-center field, putting Suppan on third. But Larry Walker grounded to first, and Suppan hesitated in his attempt to score. David Ortiz, making a rare appearance at first base (as there is no designated hitter in the National League), took the throw from second baseman Mark Bellhorn, retired Walker, and threw to third, where Bill Mueller tagged Suppan for a double play. What's significant about Jeff Suppan's base running blunder was that he wore number 37, the same number that Keith Hernandez wore during his time as a St. Louis Cardinal.

The Cardinals ended this curse in 2006. They defeated the Mets, the team to which Hernandez had been traded, in the NLCS. Suppan was named Most Valuable Player of the Series. They went on to defeat the Tigers in the World Series, four games to one.

J

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.

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Kansas City Curse of the Shuttlecocks

An outdoor art exhibit at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is cited as the source of a curse upon the city's two major league sports teams, the Kansas City Royals and the Kansas City Chiefs. In 1994, the museum commissioned a series of sculputures for the main lawns of the grounds: 18-foot-tall badminton shuttlecocks. Prior to 1994, the Chiefs & Royals enjoyed relative success on the field. Since then however, both teams have struggled.

The "Krukow Kurse"

Main article: Mike Krukow

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.

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Curse of Bobby Layne

The Detroit Lions have won 4 NFL championships, in 1935, 1952, 1953, and 1957, all (except for 1935) led by quarterback Bobby Layne. In 1958, the Lions traded him to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Rumor has it that when Layne was asked to comment on the trade, he said that the Lions would not win again for 50 years. Since then, the Lions have won only one playoff game (1991), and have never come close to playing in a Super Bowl. In the 50th anniversary of the trade, the Lions became the first NFL team to finish 0-16 (although not the first to have a winless season).

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 and in Wizards lore

M

Madden Curse

Main article: 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.

Curse of Don Mattingly

In the six seasons from 1976 to 1981, the New York Yankees won five division titles, four American League pennants, and two World Series championships. In 1982, first baseman and future team captain Don Mattingly began his 14-year career with the squad. During each of those 14 years, the Yankees failed to win the division, and played in the postseason only once as the American League's first wild-card team in 1995. The Yankees were in first place in the American League East in 1994 and appeared to win the division, but the strike ended those hopes, as it canceled the remainder of the season, the playoffs, and the World Series, which embarrassed the Yankees and their fans and left them shaken to their core.

In the first eight seasons following Mattingly's retirement after the 1995 season, a fallout for the Yankees as a result of the strike, the Yankees won the division seven times, the AL pennant six times, and the World Series four times.

In 2004, Mattingly joined the Yankees as their bench coach. That year, the team blew a 3-0 lead in the American League Championship Series to their arch-nemesis, the Boston Red Sox; the Red Sox went on to sweep the St. Louis Cardinals in the ensuing World Series, ending the Curse of the Bambino (see above). Since dropping the 2004 ALCS, the Yankees have not gotten past the American League Division Series, losing to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in 2005, the Detroit Tigers in 2006, and the Cleveland Indians in 2007.

For the 2008 season, Mattingly followed ousted Yankee manager Joe Torre west as the bench coach of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who went on to win the National League West division title, but lost the National League Championship Series.

Despite Mattingly's absence, however, the Yankees failed to qualify for the playoffs at all, the first time this has happened in a non-strike season since 1993.

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.

Curse of Fred Merkle

Main article: Curse of Fred Merkle

Since 1908, Fred Merkle has had a unique role in the Chicago Cubs' failure to win a World Championship. In a game on September 23 that year, the New York Giants' rookie ran from first base on Al Bridwell's game-winning single in the 9th inning. However, he did not touch second base. The Cubs' Johnny Evers managed to come up with a baseball amid a wild scene. Evers stepped on second base and Merkle was ruled out. The game was declared a tie.

The season ended with the Cubs and Giants tied for first place in the National League. The game had to be replayed to decide the pennant. The Cubs won, taking the championship by one game over New York.

The Cubs went on to win the World Series over the Detroit Tigers. They have yet to win another World Series since this one - which they reached after taking advantage of young Merkle's blunder.

The curse became evident in 1998. That season, the Cubs were in quest of the National League Wild Card. They had a game against the Milwaukee Brewers. In the bottom of the 9th inning, Chicago was one out away from victory when outfielder Brant Brown dropped a fly ball with the bases loaded. Three runs scored on the error, giving Milwaukee the win. This game was played on September 23, the 90th anniversary of the Merkle Boner.

The Cubs still got the 1998 Wild Card, but only after winning a one-game playoff against the San Francisco Giants, who had relocated from New York 40 years earlier. This was a similar scene to 1908.

In 2008, the 100th anniversary season of Merkle, the Cubs finished the regular season with the National League's best winning percentage. Still, they were swept in three games by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the Division Series. Eerily, their game on September 23 that year was in New York, the site of the boner. They lost to the Mets that night, 6-2.

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Curse of Rick Neuheisel

Some people believe that the Washington Huskies football program has been cursed ever since controversally firing coach Rick Neuheisel in June 2003. Prior to the 2003 season, the Huskies had 26 consecutive non-losing seasons (the lone non-winning season was 1998, where a bowl loss left them 6-6), which included 12 bowl wins (including 10 between 1978 and 1991), a split national title in the 1991 season, 7 Rose Bowl appearances, 8 seasons of 10 wins or more, and 8 Pacific-10 Conference titles (3 shared, 5 outright).

Neuheisel had a record of 33-16 in four seasons at Washington. But when he admitted to participating in a community pool for the 2003 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament (a violation of NCAA rules against gambling), Washington fired him, and a storm of legal action followed suit. His successor, Keith Gilbertson, started the 2003 season 3-1, but lost 5 of 8 afterwards, however they avoided a losing season, going 6-6 (their 27th non-losing season in a row). They did not get into a bowl game however (they had previously missed out in 1993 and 1994, due to probation). This was the beginning of trouble at the UW football program. In 2004, the Huskies posted a 1-10 record (including an 0-8 record in conference play). Not only was this Washington's first losing season since 1976, but, at the time, it was also their worst season ever. Gilbertson resigned after the season.

Gilbertson's successor, Tyrone Willingham, fared no better, despite having experience coaching in the Pac-10 (he was Stanford's coach from 1995-2001). The Huskies improved by only 1 win from 2004 in 2005 (finishing 2-9). Things seemed to get better in 2006, when the Huskies started 4-1, only 2 wins away from being bowl eligible. Then the Huskies lost 6 in a row to clinch an unprecedented third straight losing season (in the program's history), before winning their final game to finish 5-7 (their best finish in 3 years). Washington took another step backwards in 2007, falling to 4-9. Finally, in 2008, the Huskies went 0-12, which became the worst season in the program's history, their first winless season ever (in seasons of at least 8 games), and their fifth straight losing season overall. Furthermore, after losing to Willingham's previous school Notre Dame to fall to 0-7, Willingham was fired effective after the season - making him the first Washington football coach in years to be fired for lackluster performance (he was kept on for 2008 despite being the first coach in the program's history to have three consecutive losing seasons).

In short, some people view Washington's recent struggles as paying dearly for the firing of Neuheisel, who became UCLA's head coach in 2008. That season, Neuheisel made his first trip to the UW campus since his dismissal in 2003. UCLA won 27-7, thus some people view this as Neuheisel getting his ultimate revenge on the school that fired him 5 years ago.

Curse of NHL Expansion

Main article: 1967 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).

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Curse of Billy Penn

Main article: Curse of Billy Penn

There was an alleged curse on the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 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.

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.

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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 two former Canadiens on their roster – Lemieux had joined them from New Jersey, and their goaltender was ex-Canadien Patrick Roy.

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 not 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.

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San Diego Sports Curse

Main article: San Diego Sports Curse

There is an alleged curse on the city of San Diego, California, who has the dubious distinction of being the largest United States city to have not won a Super Bowl, World Series, NBA Finals, or Stanley Cup. The city’s two teams, the San Diego Padres and the San Diego Chargers, have never won a World Series or a Super Bowl. San Diego has also been home to two NBA teams (the Rockets and Clippers), neither of which ever won a championship in San Diego. Both NBA teams have moved to different cities; some might say this is part of the curse (for instance, the Clippers came from Buffalo, an accursed city in its own right). Some fans believe that the trading of Chargers wide receiver Lance Alworth to the Dallas Cowboys has been the cause of all the sports misery in America’s Finest City.

Curse of Chief Sealth

The Curse of Chief Sealth is known to exist and affect all high-profile Seattle sports teams in painful, heartbreaking ways. 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.
• 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.

Curse of Norm Smith

Main article: 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.

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]

Sports Illustrated Cover Curse

Main article: Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx

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.

Curse of the Stanley Cup Victory

In 1998 the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row. Since then, no defending Stanley Cup champion has won the Stanley Cup Championship for any two years back-to-back. In 2000, The New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup. The following year, they returned to the finals but lost to the Colorado Avalanche. Since then, no defending Stanley Cup champion has returned to the Stanley Cup Finals for the second year in a row. The following year, the Avalanche reached the Western Conference Finals where they were beaten by the Detroit Red Wings. Since then, no defending Stanley Cup champion has reached the second round of the playoffs.

• • The Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup for the second year in a row in 1998. They were eliminated in the Conference Semifinals the following year by the Colorado Avalanche.
  • The Dallas Stars won the Stanley Cup in 1999. They were defeated by the New Jersey Devils in the Finals the following year.
  • The Devils won the Stanley Cup in 2000. The following year they were defeated by the Colorado Avalanche in the Finals
  • The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup in 2001. The following year they were eliminated in the Conference Finals by the Detroit Red Wings
  • The Red Wings won the Stanley Cup in 2002. They were swept in the first round the following year by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
  • The New Jersey Devils won the Stanley Cup in 2003. They went out in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers in 2004.
  • In 2004, The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup. Following a cancelled 2004-2005 NHL season due to a lockout, they lost to the Ottawa Senators in the first round of the playoffs in 2006.
  • In 2006, the Carolina Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup. The following season, neither they nor the Edmonton Oilers (their opponent in the Finals) even made the playoffs.
  • The Anaheim Ducks won the Stanley Cup in 2007, only to be eliminated by the Dallas Stars in the first round of the 2008 playoffs in 6 games.

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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 less 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, 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. 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 appearnce 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.

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.

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; 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 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.
• The Citadel has never made an NCAA Basketball Tournament game, while Winthrop (also founded by Tillman) has successfully won games in the NCAA tournament.

U

Utah Sports Runner-up Jinx

The Utah sports runner-up jinx (or Rodman Curse) is an alleged curse on the city of Salt Lake City and the state of Utah that keeps their pro, college and minor league sports teams (mostly basketball) from winning major national or league championships. Limiting them to only second place at the highest. This hex has been shown strongly with the NBA Utah Jazz since the early 1990s, where the Jazz lack success in the NBA playoffs, despite posting winning seasons. Others feel that the jinx started in the years of 1997 and 1998, where two Utah teams lost three major basketball championships: The Jazz losing back-to-back NBA finals, and the University of Utah's men's basketball team falling in the NCAA Championship Game in 1998.

Some fans claim that the jinx has something to do with Karl Malone's failure to win an NBA championship or Coach Jerry Sloan's failure to do the same, while others feel it was Dennis Rodman of the Bulls who hexed the team when he stated that "Utah will never win a championship." (Rodman was known to dislike Utah.) And since then the Jazz, and all Utah sports, has not won a championship.

Some argue that the origin of the curse started earlier than Rodman's comments in 1998 and could also be related to a non-sports curse. The film series Poltergeist was filmed mostly in Utah; one of the scenes was shot in the parking lot of the Salt Palace, the home court of the Utah Jazz during the time of the filming. The film series itself is said to be heavily cursed.

Mother nature seems to be against Utah sports. On August 11, 1999, a rare tornado ripped through the Delta Center (the Jazz's home arena), taking out windows and even parts of the roof, although tornadoes are very rare in Utah.

In college sports, the University of Utah lost the NCAA championship game in men's basketball in 1998 to Kentucky. They ran out of gas in the final minutes and blew a 12-point lead. There is also a hex with the Runnin' Utes against the University of Kentucky: they fell to the Wildcats not only in the 1998 title game, but six other times in the NCAA Tournament: 1993, 1995, 1996, 2003, and 2005 (Despite having soon-to-be number one draft pick Andrew Bogut) and the 2000 Pre-season NIT. The College teams -- BYU and Utah -- and other teams such as the Jazz, have dominated their respective conferences and divisions, yet struggle nationally in their biggest and most loved sports (mostly basketball).

The last successful championships for Utah for basketball, was back in 1971 with the ABA Utah Stars. In Hockey, it was the 1996 Utah Grizzlies, whom won the Turner Cup (Two years before Rodman's comment). The last major college championship was when BYU won the football title in 1984, although BYU's '84 title remains a scource of sour grapes to several teams. Other non-winning teams include the Utah Sun Dogs of Roller Hockey International in 1999, Real Salt Lake of Major League Soccer, and the Utah Blaze of the Arena Football League.

Moments from the curse:

• 1997: Utah Jazz losing 4-2 to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA finals
• 1998: The University of Utah Men's Basketball losing the NCAA Championship game to Kentucky, 78-69, blowing a second half lead of 12. This also goes along with Utah's unlucky losing streak with Kentucky in the NCAA Tournament since 1993.
• 1998: Utah Jazz losing again 4-2 to the Chicago Bulls in the NBA finals
• The Salt Lake Bees have lost the Pacific Coast League championship series in 1994, 2000 and 2003.
• 2005: Utah Snowbears ABA Basketball team had a great chance to win the title, after a 27-1 season. However, the team folded right before entering the championship, due to its financial problems. Ironically, this happened right after beating Dennis Rodman's team in the ABA playoffs.
• 2006-2008: The University of Utah Women's Gymnastics team finishes second to the University of Georgia in the Super Six three years in a row.
• 2008: Snow College Football team and the SLCC Men's basketball teams getting beat in their own National championship games.
• 2008: Real Salt Lake loses the Major League Soccer Western Conference Final to the New York Red Bulls 1-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium after multiple RSL shots hit the post.
• 2008: The University of Utah football team finished the 2008 bowl season ranked second, despite being the only FBS team without a loss, while the Florida Gators were ranked first, despite having lost to Mississppi.
• BYU and most Utah colleges' struggles in Conference championship games and first rounds in NCAA Basketball tournaments in March.

See also

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