Sports Most Infamous Curses
Sports fans are amongst the most superstitious people in the whole world. Whether it’s a lucky hat, a sacred shirt or a pre-game routine they need to go through, there is always an irrational fear that not completing a set routine could lead to the wrong result for their favourite team.
Despite the best efforts some fans still seem to experiences year-after-year of failure leading many to surmise that their team, franchise or even city are ‘cursed’. Whatever the reason for these ‘curses’ many go to great lengths to end them with differing levels of success. Here are a number of notable ‘curses’ that are attached to different sporting participants.....
Curse of the Bambino (Boston Red Sox)
Perhaps the most famous curse in all of North American sports, Boston’s Red Sox spent 86-years trying to end a superstition which had been haunting baseball fans in New England since 1918. The curse is said to have begun after the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth (“The Bambino”) to the New York Yankees before the 1919-20 season.
Before the most revered baseball player of all-time departed Boston, the Sox has been the most successful franchise in the game’s early years and won five World Series Championships.
The Bambino’s departure coincided with a barren spell of success in baseball and adversely propelled the rival Yankees to become one of the most successful franchises in on the planet.
Talk of the curse began to build as Boston went for years without a title and were struck by bad luck in a number of years when they reached the latter stages of the pennant race. Fans of the Sox attempted various methods over the years to exorcise their famous curse including placing a Red Sox cap at the top of Mt. Everest, attempts to ‘purify’ the teams home, Fenway Park, and finding a piano that had supposedly been owned by Ruth and placing it in close proximity to the stadium.
Years of attempting to ‘Reverse the Curse’ eventually came to fruition when the Sox fought back from 0-3 down in a best-of-seven series to beat the Yankees in the AL Championship in 2004, and then went on to sweep the St Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series. The final out of the clinching game was confirmed against Edgar Renteria who wore Babe Ruth’s former jersey number, 3, as Boston finally ended their long wait for a championship.
1940 Curse (New York Rangers)
Also called Dutton’s Curse, the superstition is used as the primary reason why the New York Rangers were unable to win the Stanley Cup for 54 years.
There are two popular theories as to why the Rangers experienced such a baron period of success:
Theory One – Coming off the back of a Championship in 1939-40 after beating the Toronto Maple Leaves, the Rangers were also celebrating a huge milestone in the off-season as they had finally paid off the mortgage on their home arena at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers management decided to symbolise this moment by burning the mortgage in the bowl of the Stanley Cup which led fans to believe that committing such an act on an item which is considered ‘sacred’ had caused the “Hockey Gods” to condemn the Rangers for their desecration.
Theory Two – Coach and General Manager of the New York Americans, Red Dutton, saw his team hit very hard by World War One, and decided that with so many of his players committing to national service, his team should spend operations during the war. Dutton went on to become NHL president in 1943, but resigned just three years later after failing to revive the fortunes of the Americans who, despite encouragement by Madison Square Garden’s management and the Rangers, felt that adding another team in the New York area would have a negative effect on the two-time champions. When resigning a bitter Dutton claimed that the Rangers would never win the cup for as long as he lived.
The Rangers experienced a long period of barren years after the Second World War, and in the next seventeen seasons they only successfully made the playoffs six times. In 1972 they threatened to end their run without a Stanley Cup, but were beaten by the Boston Bruins. Twelve months later, the Rangers faced their biggest challenge as an expansion team playing on Long Island, the New York Islanders, became their closest rivals, and much to the annoyance of Ranger fans, knocked the franchise out of the playoffs in the 1974-75 season.
The Islanders became much more than near neighbours to the Rangers with a Championship victory for the first time in 1980 and then followed this with a streak of four consecutive titles. In their eleven year existence, the Islanders had won one more title than the Rangers had won in their entire history.
Determined to claim back the pride of their city, the Rangers finished with the best overall record in the NHL during 1991-92 but lost out to the defending champions Pittsburgh Penguins. In the 54 years since their last title win, the Rangers had watched sports franchises from all sports in the metro area claim glory whilst they had suffered spells of bad luck and being taunted by a “mystery” curse. Storming through the regular season, the Rangers once again finished with the NHL’s best record before sweeping aside the Islanders in the first round of the playoffs. The team then beat the Washington Capitals before facing off against another local foe in the New Jersey Devils.
The Rangers eventually won out in Game 7 after two overtimes, but all that mattered was that they were headed back to the Stanley Cup final. In a classic USA – Canada matchup, series went to seven games with the Rangers eventually winning out 3-2 at MSG to secure an end to their curse.
The Madden Curse
One of the quirkier curses in the sports world connects to EA Sports official NFL football franchise, Madden. First released in 1988, the box art for the video game on whichever console it was designed for featured legendary NFL Hall of famer John Madden up until 1999. Despite opposition from the game’s inspiration, EA decided to feature a current NFL player on the box of each edition from 1999 with Garrison Hearst becoming the first player honoured enough to become the game’s cover athlete.
Although many of the NFL’s leading lights have been flattered by the honour of gracing the Madden franchise, being on the cover doesn’t always equal a long, prosperous and successful career. The ‘Madden Curse’ developed after several of the players on the game’s exterior experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury. Here are some examples of the phenomenon...
Ø Eddie George (2001 Cover): The Tennessee Titans star bobbled the ball late in a divisional playoff game to condemn his team to defeat. Although he had averaged a career high 4.1 yards per carry the previous season, he averaged 3.1 for the rest of his career.
Ø Daunte Culpepper (2002): After leading the Vikings to the playoffs in 2000, Culpepper recorded 22 interceptions the following season as Minnesota finished 5-11. He broke the franchise record for the most fumbles in a single season and whilst he improved to have a career season in 2004, he blew out both knees in 2005 and 2006 and never resembled the same player.
Ø Marshall Faulk (2003): The running back suffered a severe decline in his own personal fortunes and those of the St Louis Rams after appearing on the Madden cover. He failed to register another 1,000 yard rushing season and in 2002-3 started only 21 out of a possible 32 games. He underwent re-constructive knee surgery in 2005 and retired the same year.
Ø Michael Vick (2004): Vick broke his fibula in a pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens as the Falcons went 5-11 without him. A year later it was discovered that he had participated in an illegal dog fighting ring and was sent to prison.
Ø Ray Lewis (2005): The middle linebacker had his season cut short in week fifteen as he broke his wrist. In the same season he featured on the cover of the NFL’s official game, he also registered his first campaign without an interception.
Ø Donovan McNabb (2006): The QB started the season badly when he suffered a hernia injury in the first game of the season. Luck was well and truly against McNabb as he later tore his ACL and meniscus in his right knee whilst jumping out of bounds for the ball, this ended his season.
Ø Shaun Alexander (2007): The league’s reigning MVP suffered a foot injury in pre-season which saw him miss the first six games of the season.
Ø Vince Young (2008): The starting QB for the Titans missed only one game in the season due to a minor injury, but after appearing on the Madden cover he suffered a severe downfall in his performances and career numbers. He suffered long term injuries in 2008, and despite bouncing back in 2009 he was at the centre of a coaching dispute the following season and left the Titans.
Ø Brett Favre (2009): The Green Bay QB retired just before the season, but returned to football with the New York Jets months later. He was plagued by inconsistency and poor on the field performances, but it was off the field where a sexual harassment scandal dogged his season.
Ø Troy Polamalu (2010): Larry Fitzgerald, WR from the Arizona Cardinals shared the cover with the safety from Pittburgh in 2010. Polamalu sprained his MCL in the first half of the season and missed four games, after returning for three games he suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury and missed the rest of the season. Fitzgerald became one of the few players to buck the trend of the Madden curse as he suffered a rib injury after the season which caused him to miss the pro-bowl but he started all sixteen regular season games recording 97 receptions (third in the league), 1092 yards (fourth in the league) and scored a career high thirteen TD’s.
Ø Drew Brees (2011): After winning the Superbowl and the MVP award, Brees suffered as the Saints attempted to defend their title. He threw twice as many interceptions (22) as the previous season and his QB rating dropped 20 points as New Orleans lost to the 7-9 Seahawks in the playoffs. Brees’s difficulties may have been due to a torn MCL that was later diagnosed that he has played on for six weeks during six weeks of the season.
Ø Payton Hillis (2012): Hillis missed five games of the NFL season with a hamstring injury, and was also forced out of one game by strep throat. His numbers declined continuously after the second week of the season and he ended up re-injuring his hamstring a few weeks later. His divisive behaviour in the Browns locker room did not go unnoticed by any outside the organisation either as a dispute rumbled on throughout the year over contract negotiations. He was released by Cleveland at the end of the season.
SI Curse
Sports Illustrated is an established part of American culture much like McDonalds and Microsoft. The sports magazine has been produced since 1954 and is read by 23 million adults each week. It features stories and interviews from the world’s top athletes and each week, an individual or team is picked as that week’s ‘cover athlete’.
Superstars like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods have been consistently featured on the cover of the magazine along with the nation’s best college and amateur athletes.
Due to its frequency and the nature of the sports which it covers, there is an urban legend which suggests that those featuring on the Sports Illustrated cover frequently suffer a jinx or experience bad luck.
Athletes generally featured on the cover are performing at the highest level, and so receive the honour of being a cover athlete. Their future performance is likely based on a regression towards the mean, but here are some examples of those who have suffered from the alleged SI Curse...
Ø In 1965 Indy 500 Winner Bob Sweikert was featured on the cover for his performances. Less than three weeks later he died in a sprint car crash.
Ø In a piece about the Oklahoma Sooner NCAA Division I record run, Clendon Thomas appeared on the cover, along with the headline “Why Oklahoma is Unbeaten”. The next game of that season the team lost to Notre Dame ending their 47 game winning streak.
Ø Pittshburgh Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert appeared on the cover in July 1984 with the headline “Man of Steel”. Lambert would miss most of the 1984 season with a turf toe injury and the following year selected to retire from the game.
Ø Cleveland Indians Joe Carter and Cory Snyder appeared prior to the 1987 season in a piece about the “Indian Uprising” as the Ohio-based team were predicted to be the best team in the AL. The team went on to suffer a dismal 61 – 101 season, the worst of any team that season.
Ø In September 2008, Tom Brady appeared on the cover as part of the NFL season preview issue. In the opening game of the season, the New England Patriot quarterback tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee.
Curse of the Billy Goat
Sports in Chicago have always been a popular past-time, but whilst the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks have all experienced their share of title success, both of the city’s baseball teams haven’t been able to share in the Windy City’s glory.
The Curse of the Billy Goat is believed to date back to 1945 when Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis was asked to leave Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, because his pet goat’s odour was bothering other fans. Sianis was so outraged at the decision that he declared “Them Cubs, they aren’t gonna win no more” which has been interpreted to mean that there would never be another World Series game won at Wrigley Field.
To date, the Cubs have not won a national league pennant since 1945, and as of 2012 they have never won a World Series – a title-less streak of 104 years.
The exact nature of the curse differs with various accounts of the incident. Some state that Sianis declared that no World Series games would ever again be played at Wrigley Field, while other believe that his ‘curse’ was on the Cubs appearing in the World Series, making no mention of a specific venue.
An attendee at a Cubs-Tigers game in 1945, Sianis sent a telegraph to team owner Philip K. Wrigley which read, “You are going to lose this World Series, and you are never going to win another World Series again.”
Whatever the truth, the Cubs were up 2-1 in a best-of-seven series in 1945 and ended up losing the series 4-3.
The ‘curse’ goes further as in 2003 (the Chinese Zodiac’s Year of the Goat), the Cubs won their division, and then came within five outs of playing in the World Series. They eventually lost to the Florida Marlins eight-run rally immediately following the Steve Bartman incident, which occurred the same day that Wrigley Field denied entry to a goat accompanying Sam Sianis, nephew of Billy Sianis.
Many believe that they only way to ‘reverse the curse’ is if the Chicago Cubs organisation shows a sincere fondness for goats; allowing them in to Wrigley Field because they generally want to and not for publicity reasons.
Curse of the Black Sox
Chicago’s White Sox were also haunted by a ‘curse’ between 1920 and 2005 as bad luck seemingly sought them out and prevented them from winning a World Series in 85 years.
The ‘curse’ started during the 1919 World Series when eight members of the Chicago-based franchise were banned for life from baseball for intentionally losing games.
Pitcher Eddie Cicotte, Center Fielder Oscar Felsch, First Baseman, Arnold Gandil, In-fielder Fred McMullin, Short-stop Charles Risberg, Third Baseman George Weaver and Pitcher Claude Williams were suspended after an investigation into corruption. Another member of the team, star outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, one of the best hitters in the game, confessed in sworn grand jury testimony to having accepted $5,000 in cash from gamblers. He later recanted his confession, and protested his innocence until his death in 1951.
The White Sox were dealt a severe blow by the scandal, and with several star players out of the game at a crucial time late in the 1920 season. Many believed before the year that the Sox were headed for another pennant and championship, but finishing in second place, they were left to watch as the Cleveland Indians went on to win in the World Series of that year.
It took four decades for them to reach the World Series again, but they lost the 1959 World Series to the Dodgers in six games and the search for victory went on.
After a long period of mediocrity, the Sox finally won their first pennant in 46 years and went to the 2005 World Series. They swept the Houston Astros, and for the first time in 88 years won the biggest prize in baseball. Chicago’s Sox ended their own ‘curse’ a year after the Boston Red Sox had ridded themselves of the ‘Curse of the Bambino’ the previous season.
Curse of Billy Penn
Some ‘curses’ seem to effect teams or players, but the Curse of Billy Penn allegedly affected all professional sports teams based in the city of Philadelphia if stories are to be believed.
Until March 1987, the tallest building in Philadelphia was the city hall. Affixed to the top of the building was a statue of William Penn, but in the late-1980’s Philadelphia sanctioned the construction of One Liberty Place, a skyscraper which then became the city’s tallest building.
Philadelphia sports teams had enjoyed a run of success throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. It started when Flyers had won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975, and their success was followed by Major League Baseball’s Phillies who won the 1980 World Series. Later that decade the Eagles appeared in the 1980 Superbowl, and the 76ers had swept to victory in the 1983 NBA Finals.
For years a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ stated that the Philadelphia Art Commission would approve no building in the city which would rise above the statue of William Penn, but One Liberty Place soon stood 121m taller than the city hall, and in 1990 when the city sanctioned the construction of a second skyscraper, Two Liberty Place, this also rose almost 100m higher than Penn’s statue.
After these structures took over the skyline of Philly, the city’s franchises began a pattern of failure to win Championships. The Flyers (twice), Phillies (once), 76ers (once) and Eagles (once) all suffered title game failures in their respective sports. Many believed that the construction of One Liberty Place and the fact it not towered about the city hall had placed a ‘curse’ on franchises on their Pennsylvanian home.
On June 18, 2007, the city of Philadelphia decided that the city’s current tallest building, the Comcast Center, should be topped by a small figurine of William Penn.
A year later the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series in five games against the Tampa Bay Rays and ended an alleged curse against the city.
Cleveland Sports Curses
Ranked by an ESPN pole in 2004 as ‘The Most Tortured Sports City in America’, Cleveland is perhaps best known to outsiders for not winning a championship in any major sport since 1964.
Whilst teams from other parts of the state have prospered, more than fifty years have passed since the Browns won the 1963 NFL Championship, and despite no real reason for the ‘curse’ there are several bad luck stories that seem to be hanging over the city.
In the 1950’s when the New York Yankees dominated the American League, their run of successive titles was only halted by the form of the Cleveland Indians in 1954. With 111 wins to their name throughout the season, the Indians made it to the World Series in place of the Bronx Bombers. Despite an opportunity at glory, Cleveland were defeated by the San Francisco Giants who won their first title at the expense of the Indians.
In 1959 as the Indians tried to repeat their success of five years earlier and they appeared to be World Series bound again. Mid-season they decided to trade Right Fielder Rocky Colavito allegedly at due to Indians’ Manager Frank Lane unhappyness with his player’s attitude.
After the trade the Indians failed to have a winning season until 1995, a 35 year slump.
Baseball fans in Cleveland are not exclusive to experiencing painful defeats.
Fans in Ohio were involved in perhaps one of the most famous moments in NFL History known simply as “The Drive”.
The Cleveland Browns were in the AFC Championship for the first time since 1970 as they faced off against the Denver Broncos and John Elway. Leading 20-13 with 5:32 left, Elway launched an attack from his own two-yard line which spanned 15 passes and sent the game into overtime. Needless to say, the Browns lost to Elway’s team and had to watch weeks later as the Broncos won the Superbowl.
This setback was followed by an even larger one when former owner Art Modell decided that the Browns Stadium was no longer suitable to host NFL games. Having played in front of packed crowds in their previous home for over thirty years, fans looked forward to being a new state of the art facility being opened. Despite receiving permission to renovate their current home, Modell decided to find the team a new one..... in Baltimore.
The Browns franchise remained dormant from 1996 until 1999 when Cleveland received permission from the NFL to become an expansion team.
Despite delight at their new franchises first season, a year later Cleveland had to watch as the newly formed Baltimore Ravens would win the Super Bowl.
The most example of the ‘cursed’ nature of the city came in 2010 when their highest profile superstar athlete also decided that relocation would benefit him.
In 2003, Ohio native and high-school phenom Lebron James was drafted by the Cavs as the number one pick in the draft. Lebron immediately helped the Cavs to become a force, and even took them to the NBA Finals in 2007. Although they were swept by the Spurs, many believed that James would finally help to end the Cleveland curse.
Instead things spiralled out of control and after failing to return to the Finals in the remaining years of his contract Lebron made a very public decision to take ‘his talents to South Beach’ and a year later won his first NBA Championship.
Curse of the Colonel
A rather more perplexing curse is said to affect the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team.
Urban legends suggest that deceased KFC founder and mascot Colonel Harland Sanders cursed the team because of his anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues near the team’s home.
The Hanshin Tigers are considered the eternal underdogs of Nippon baseball, with Yomiuri Giants from Tokyo considered the ‘kings’ of the sport in Japan. Hanshin, based in Kansai, have some of the most ardent fans who attend matches throughout the season no matter how badly the team is playing.
A ‘curse’ is believed to have hit the team in 1985 after some fans, over-excited at winning the 1985 Championship Series, tossed a statue of Colonel Sanders into the Dotonbori River. Since then the fans have never seen their team win another championship, and many believe that this is due to the KFC founder’s disappointment at the treatment of his statue.
In 1985 to many people’s surprise, the Hanshin Tigers took their first and only victory in the Japanese World series. Their star slugger, Randy Bass, was an American player and earned the fans adulation for helping to win the championship.
The fans went wild after the game and a celebration gathered on the Ebisubashi Bridge in Dotonbori, Osaka. There, the supporters yelled the players’ names, and with every name, a fan resembling a member of the victorious team leaped from the bridge and into the canal. Lacking someone to imitate MVP Randy Bass, the crowd seized a plastic statue of Colonel Sanders (like Bass, the Colonel has a beard and isn’t from Japan) and hurled him off the bridge as an effigy.
According to urban legend, the impulsive manoeuvre cost the team greatly as it suggests that the Tigers will not win the Championship until the statue is recovered.
After their successes in 1985, the Tigers began a losing streak in which they placed last, or next to last in the league in numerous consecutive seasons. During this time attempts were made to recover the statue, including sending divers down and dredging the river, but they all failed. Fans apologised to the store manager in the hope this would ‘reverse the curse’ but the statue remained in the canal and the Tigers continue to be ‘cursed’.
In 2003 the Tigers returned to the Japan Series final, but were defeated by the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, and to date that is their only appearance since 1985.
The Colonel was finally discovered in the Dotonbori River on March 10, 2009. Divers recovered the statue, but it was still missing its glasses and left hand and these remain unfound to date.
Curse of Bobby Layne
American Footballer Bobby Layne was more than a little disappointed after being traded from the Detroit Lions to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1958.
It is alleged that the player when asked about the trade responded by saying that the Lions would “not win for 50 years” after trading away his services.
Although the Lions didn’t endure a nightmarish streak as Layne had predicted, the Detroit-based franchise accumulated the worst winning percentage of any team in the NFL over the next half decade. To date they remain one of the only two franchises that have been in the league since 1970, and not played in a Superbowl.
Their post season record in the fifty years after the Layne trade was 1 – 10, with their lone win coming in 1991. In the last year of their former players ‘curse’ the Lions went 0-16, and became the first team to lose every game of a sixteen game season.
Socceroos Witch Doctor Curse
The story behind the ‘curse’ of Australia’s national football team was told by Jonny Warren in a 2002 autobiography.
During a trip to play against Rhodesia in a 1970 World Cup qualifier, members of the Australian national team, including Warren, consulted a witch doctor.
The spiritualist worker buried bones near the goal posts and ‘cursed’ their opposition allowing Australia to go on and beat Rhodesia 3-1.
For his work, the Witch Doctor demanded a fee of $1000, and as the Socceroos could not come up with the fee, the team was subsequently ‘cursed’. In the following match, the Aussies failed to beat Israel and did not qualify for the World Cup of that year.
Although the team did qualify for the 1974 World Cup, they failed to score a goal in any of their opening three matches, and were eliminated from the competition at the earliest possible stage.
The Witch Doctor’s curse continued to last through the years, and in 1994, 1998 and 2002, the Australians were beaten in a sudden-death playoff which prevented them from qualifying for the Finals on each occasion.
After reading Warren’s story, a man named John Safran set out to break the ‘curse’ during a 2004 TV Series. Safran travelled to Mozambique where the original curse had been placed, and hired a new witch doctor to channel the original curse and reverse it.
The following year the Socceroos not only qualified for the 2006 World Cup, but in Germany twelve months later they reached the second round of the competition, and only fell to eventual winners Italy.
McSorley Curse
In 1993 the Stanley Cup Finals were played between the LA Kings and the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens, down 2-1 in the opening game, suspected Kings player Marty McSorley’s stick to be too curved.
They informed the officials, and after inspection, McSorley was penalized two minutes for having illegal equipment. This ‘lucky’ break meant Montreal were able to tie the game on the ensuing power-play, and it is suggested that momentum swung towards the Canadian team in the entire series because of this moment.
Carried by the ‘curse-establishing’ goal, Montreal won the 1993 Stanley Cup, but since then no Canadian hockey team has won the Stanley Cup. Six teams have tried and failed, all of which have been beaten by their American counterparts.
Oddly, the Quebec Nordiques who moved from Canada to the US to become the Colorado Avalanche won the cup in 1996 and again in 2001 whilst a team from ‘north of the border’ are still waiting for their first success in almost twenty years.
Despite the best efforts some fans still seem to experiences year-after-year of failure leading many to surmise that their team, franchise or even city are ‘cursed’. Whatever the reason for these ‘curses’ many go to great lengths to end them with differing levels of success. Here are a number of notable ‘curses’ that are attached to different sporting participants.....
Curse of the Bambino (Boston Red Sox)
Perhaps the most famous curse in all of North American sports, Boston’s Red Sox spent 86-years trying to end a superstition which had been haunting baseball fans in New England since 1918. The curse is said to have begun after the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth (“The Bambino”) to the New York Yankees before the 1919-20 season.
Before the most revered baseball player of all-time departed Boston, the Sox has been the most successful franchise in the game’s early years and won five World Series Championships.
The Bambino’s departure coincided with a barren spell of success in baseball and adversely propelled the rival Yankees to become one of the most successful franchises in on the planet.
Talk of the curse began to build as Boston went for years without a title and were struck by bad luck in a number of years when they reached the latter stages of the pennant race. Fans of the Sox attempted various methods over the years to exorcise their famous curse including placing a Red Sox cap at the top of Mt. Everest, attempts to ‘purify’ the teams home, Fenway Park, and finding a piano that had supposedly been owned by Ruth and placing it in close proximity to the stadium.
Years of attempting to ‘Reverse the Curse’ eventually came to fruition when the Sox fought back from 0-3 down in a best-of-seven series to beat the Yankees in the AL Championship in 2004, and then went on to sweep the St Louis Cardinals to win the 2004 World Series. The final out of the clinching game was confirmed against Edgar Renteria who wore Babe Ruth’s former jersey number, 3, as Boston finally ended their long wait for a championship.
1940 Curse (New York Rangers)
Also called Dutton’s Curse, the superstition is used as the primary reason why the New York Rangers were unable to win the Stanley Cup for 54 years.
There are two popular theories as to why the Rangers experienced such a baron period of success:
Theory One – Coming off the back of a Championship in 1939-40 after beating the Toronto Maple Leaves, the Rangers were also celebrating a huge milestone in the off-season as they had finally paid off the mortgage on their home arena at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers management decided to symbolise this moment by burning the mortgage in the bowl of the Stanley Cup which led fans to believe that committing such an act on an item which is considered ‘sacred’ had caused the “Hockey Gods” to condemn the Rangers for their desecration.
Theory Two – Coach and General Manager of the New York Americans, Red Dutton, saw his team hit very hard by World War One, and decided that with so many of his players committing to national service, his team should spend operations during the war. Dutton went on to become NHL president in 1943, but resigned just three years later after failing to revive the fortunes of the Americans who, despite encouragement by Madison Square Garden’s management and the Rangers, felt that adding another team in the New York area would have a negative effect on the two-time champions. When resigning a bitter Dutton claimed that the Rangers would never win the cup for as long as he lived.
The Rangers experienced a long period of barren years after the Second World War, and in the next seventeen seasons they only successfully made the playoffs six times. In 1972 they threatened to end their run without a Stanley Cup, but were beaten by the Boston Bruins. Twelve months later, the Rangers faced their biggest challenge as an expansion team playing on Long Island, the New York Islanders, became their closest rivals, and much to the annoyance of Ranger fans, knocked the franchise out of the playoffs in the 1974-75 season.
The Islanders became much more than near neighbours to the Rangers with a Championship victory for the first time in 1980 and then followed this with a streak of four consecutive titles. In their eleven year existence, the Islanders had won one more title than the Rangers had won in their entire history.
Determined to claim back the pride of their city, the Rangers finished with the best overall record in the NHL during 1991-92 but lost out to the defending champions Pittsburgh Penguins. In the 54 years since their last title win, the Rangers had watched sports franchises from all sports in the metro area claim glory whilst they had suffered spells of bad luck and being taunted by a “mystery” curse. Storming through the regular season, the Rangers once again finished with the NHL’s best record before sweeping aside the Islanders in the first round of the playoffs. The team then beat the Washington Capitals before facing off against another local foe in the New Jersey Devils.
The Rangers eventually won out in Game 7 after two overtimes, but all that mattered was that they were headed back to the Stanley Cup final. In a classic USA – Canada matchup, series went to seven games with the Rangers eventually winning out 3-2 at MSG to secure an end to their curse.
The Madden Curse
One of the quirkier curses in the sports world connects to EA Sports official NFL football franchise, Madden. First released in 1988, the box art for the video game on whichever console it was designed for featured legendary NFL Hall of famer John Madden up until 1999. Despite opposition from the game’s inspiration, EA decided to feature a current NFL player on the box of each edition from 1999 with Garrison Hearst becoming the first player honoured enough to become the game’s cover athlete.
Although many of the NFL’s leading lights have been flattered by the honour of gracing the Madden franchise, being on the cover doesn’t always equal a long, prosperous and successful career. The ‘Madden Curse’ developed after several of the players on the game’s exterior experienced a decline in performance, usually due to an injury. Here are some examples of the phenomenon...
Ø Eddie George (2001 Cover): The Tennessee Titans star bobbled the ball late in a divisional playoff game to condemn his team to defeat. Although he had averaged a career high 4.1 yards per carry the previous season, he averaged 3.1 for the rest of his career.
Ø Daunte Culpepper (2002): After leading the Vikings to the playoffs in 2000, Culpepper recorded 22 interceptions the following season as Minnesota finished 5-11. He broke the franchise record for the most fumbles in a single season and whilst he improved to have a career season in 2004, he blew out both knees in 2005 and 2006 and never resembled the same player.
Ø Marshall Faulk (2003): The running back suffered a severe decline in his own personal fortunes and those of the St Louis Rams after appearing on the Madden cover. He failed to register another 1,000 yard rushing season and in 2002-3 started only 21 out of a possible 32 games. He underwent re-constructive knee surgery in 2005 and retired the same year.
Ø Michael Vick (2004): Vick broke his fibula in a pre-season game against the Baltimore Ravens as the Falcons went 5-11 without him. A year later it was discovered that he had participated in an illegal dog fighting ring and was sent to prison.
Ø Ray Lewis (2005): The middle linebacker had his season cut short in week fifteen as he broke his wrist. In the same season he featured on the cover of the NFL’s official game, he also registered his first campaign without an interception.
Ø Donovan McNabb (2006): The QB started the season badly when he suffered a hernia injury in the first game of the season. Luck was well and truly against McNabb as he later tore his ACL and meniscus in his right knee whilst jumping out of bounds for the ball, this ended his season.
Ø Shaun Alexander (2007): The league’s reigning MVP suffered a foot injury in pre-season which saw him miss the first six games of the season.
Ø Vince Young (2008): The starting QB for the Titans missed only one game in the season due to a minor injury, but after appearing on the Madden cover he suffered a severe downfall in his performances and career numbers. He suffered long term injuries in 2008, and despite bouncing back in 2009 he was at the centre of a coaching dispute the following season and left the Titans.
Ø Brett Favre (2009): The Green Bay QB retired just before the season, but returned to football with the New York Jets months later. He was plagued by inconsistency and poor on the field performances, but it was off the field where a sexual harassment scandal dogged his season.
Ø Troy Polamalu (2010): Larry Fitzgerald, WR from the Arizona Cardinals shared the cover with the safety from Pittburgh in 2010. Polamalu sprained his MCL in the first half of the season and missed four games, after returning for three games he suffered a posterior cruciate ligament injury and missed the rest of the season. Fitzgerald became one of the few players to buck the trend of the Madden curse as he suffered a rib injury after the season which caused him to miss the pro-bowl but he started all sixteen regular season games recording 97 receptions (third in the league), 1092 yards (fourth in the league) and scored a career high thirteen TD’s.
Ø Drew Brees (2011): After winning the Superbowl and the MVP award, Brees suffered as the Saints attempted to defend their title. He threw twice as many interceptions (22) as the previous season and his QB rating dropped 20 points as New Orleans lost to the 7-9 Seahawks in the playoffs. Brees’s difficulties may have been due to a torn MCL that was later diagnosed that he has played on for six weeks during six weeks of the season.
Ø Payton Hillis (2012): Hillis missed five games of the NFL season with a hamstring injury, and was also forced out of one game by strep throat. His numbers declined continuously after the second week of the season and he ended up re-injuring his hamstring a few weeks later. His divisive behaviour in the Browns locker room did not go unnoticed by any outside the organisation either as a dispute rumbled on throughout the year over contract negotiations. He was released by Cleveland at the end of the season.
SI Curse
Sports Illustrated is an established part of American culture much like McDonalds and Microsoft. The sports magazine has been produced since 1954 and is read by 23 million adults each week. It features stories and interviews from the world’s top athletes and each week, an individual or team is picked as that week’s ‘cover athlete’.
Superstars like Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods have been consistently featured on the cover of the magazine along with the nation’s best college and amateur athletes.
Due to its frequency and the nature of the sports which it covers, there is an urban legend which suggests that those featuring on the Sports Illustrated cover frequently suffer a jinx or experience bad luck.
Athletes generally featured on the cover are performing at the highest level, and so receive the honour of being a cover athlete. Their future performance is likely based on a regression towards the mean, but here are some examples of those who have suffered from the alleged SI Curse...
Ø In 1965 Indy 500 Winner Bob Sweikert was featured on the cover for his performances. Less than three weeks later he died in a sprint car crash.
Ø In a piece about the Oklahoma Sooner NCAA Division I record run, Clendon Thomas appeared on the cover, along with the headline “Why Oklahoma is Unbeaten”. The next game of that season the team lost to Notre Dame ending their 47 game winning streak.
Ø Pittshburgh Steelers linebacker Jack Lambert appeared on the cover in July 1984 with the headline “Man of Steel”. Lambert would miss most of the 1984 season with a turf toe injury and the following year selected to retire from the game.
Ø Cleveland Indians Joe Carter and Cory Snyder appeared prior to the 1987 season in a piece about the “Indian Uprising” as the Ohio-based team were predicted to be the best team in the AL. The team went on to suffer a dismal 61 – 101 season, the worst of any team that season.
Ø In September 2008, Tom Brady appeared on the cover as part of the NFL season preview issue. In the opening game of the season, the New England Patriot quarterback tore the ACL and MCL in his left knee.
Curse of the Billy Goat
Sports in Chicago have always been a popular past-time, but whilst the Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks have all experienced their share of title success, both of the city’s baseball teams haven’t been able to share in the Windy City’s glory.
The Curse of the Billy Goat is believed to date back to 1945 when Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis was asked to leave Wrigley Field, home of the Chicago Cubs, because his pet goat’s odour was bothering other fans. Sianis was so outraged at the decision that he declared “Them Cubs, they aren’t gonna win no more” which has been interpreted to mean that there would never be another World Series game won at Wrigley Field.
To date, the Cubs have not won a national league pennant since 1945, and as of 2012 they have never won a World Series – a title-less streak of 104 years.
The exact nature of the curse differs with various accounts of the incident. Some state that Sianis declared that no World Series games would ever again be played at Wrigley Field, while other believe that his ‘curse’ was on the Cubs appearing in the World Series, making no mention of a specific venue.
An attendee at a Cubs-Tigers game in 1945, Sianis sent a telegraph to team owner Philip K. Wrigley which read, “You are going to lose this World Series, and you are never going to win another World Series again.”
Whatever the truth, the Cubs were up 2-1 in a best-of-seven series in 1945 and ended up losing the series 4-3.
The ‘curse’ goes further as in 2003 (the Chinese Zodiac’s Year of the Goat), the Cubs won their division, and then came within five outs of playing in the World Series. They eventually lost to the Florida Marlins eight-run rally immediately following the Steve Bartman incident, which occurred the same day that Wrigley Field denied entry to a goat accompanying Sam Sianis, nephew of Billy Sianis.
Many believe that they only way to ‘reverse the curse’ is if the Chicago Cubs organisation shows a sincere fondness for goats; allowing them in to Wrigley Field because they generally want to and not for publicity reasons.
Curse of the Black Sox
Chicago’s White Sox were also haunted by a ‘curse’ between 1920 and 2005 as bad luck seemingly sought them out and prevented them from winning a World Series in 85 years.
The ‘curse’ started during the 1919 World Series when eight members of the Chicago-based franchise were banned for life from baseball for intentionally losing games.
Pitcher Eddie Cicotte, Center Fielder Oscar Felsch, First Baseman, Arnold Gandil, In-fielder Fred McMullin, Short-stop Charles Risberg, Third Baseman George Weaver and Pitcher Claude Williams were suspended after an investigation into corruption. Another member of the team, star outfielder “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, one of the best hitters in the game, confessed in sworn grand jury testimony to having accepted $5,000 in cash from gamblers. He later recanted his confession, and protested his innocence until his death in 1951.
The White Sox were dealt a severe blow by the scandal, and with several star players out of the game at a crucial time late in the 1920 season. Many believed before the year that the Sox were headed for another pennant and championship, but finishing in second place, they were left to watch as the Cleveland Indians went on to win in the World Series of that year.
It took four decades for them to reach the World Series again, but they lost the 1959 World Series to the Dodgers in six games and the search for victory went on.
After a long period of mediocrity, the Sox finally won their first pennant in 46 years and went to the 2005 World Series. They swept the Houston Astros, and for the first time in 88 years won the biggest prize in baseball. Chicago’s Sox ended their own ‘curse’ a year after the Boston Red Sox had ridded themselves of the ‘Curse of the Bambino’ the previous season.
Curse of Billy Penn
Some ‘curses’ seem to effect teams or players, but the Curse of Billy Penn allegedly affected all professional sports teams based in the city of Philadelphia if stories are to be believed.
Until March 1987, the tallest building in Philadelphia was the city hall. Affixed to the top of the building was a statue of William Penn, but in the late-1980’s Philadelphia sanctioned the construction of One Liberty Place, a skyscraper which then became the city’s tallest building.
Philadelphia sports teams had enjoyed a run of success throughout the 1970’s and 1980’s. It started when Flyers had won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 1974 and 1975, and their success was followed by Major League Baseball’s Phillies who won the 1980 World Series. Later that decade the Eagles appeared in the 1980 Superbowl, and the 76ers had swept to victory in the 1983 NBA Finals.
For years a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ stated that the Philadelphia Art Commission would approve no building in the city which would rise above the statue of William Penn, but One Liberty Place soon stood 121m taller than the city hall, and in 1990 when the city sanctioned the construction of a second skyscraper, Two Liberty Place, this also rose almost 100m higher than Penn’s statue.
After these structures took over the skyline of Philly, the city’s franchises began a pattern of failure to win Championships. The Flyers (twice), Phillies (once), 76ers (once) and Eagles (once) all suffered title game failures in their respective sports. Many believed that the construction of One Liberty Place and the fact it not towered about the city hall had placed a ‘curse’ on franchises on their Pennsylvanian home.
On June 18, 2007, the city of Philadelphia decided that the city’s current tallest building, the Comcast Center, should be topped by a small figurine of William Penn.
A year later the Philadelphia Phillies won the 2008 World Series in five games against the Tampa Bay Rays and ended an alleged curse against the city.
Cleveland Sports Curses
Ranked by an ESPN pole in 2004 as ‘The Most Tortured Sports City in America’, Cleveland is perhaps best known to outsiders for not winning a championship in any major sport since 1964.
Whilst teams from other parts of the state have prospered, more than fifty years have passed since the Browns won the 1963 NFL Championship, and despite no real reason for the ‘curse’ there are several bad luck stories that seem to be hanging over the city.
In the 1950’s when the New York Yankees dominated the American League, their run of successive titles was only halted by the form of the Cleveland Indians in 1954. With 111 wins to their name throughout the season, the Indians made it to the World Series in place of the Bronx Bombers. Despite an opportunity at glory, Cleveland were defeated by the San Francisco Giants who won their first title at the expense of the Indians.
In 1959 as the Indians tried to repeat their success of five years earlier and they appeared to be World Series bound again. Mid-season they decided to trade Right Fielder Rocky Colavito allegedly at due to Indians’ Manager Frank Lane unhappyness with his player’s attitude.
After the trade the Indians failed to have a winning season until 1995, a 35 year slump.
Baseball fans in Cleveland are not exclusive to experiencing painful defeats.
Fans in Ohio were involved in perhaps one of the most famous moments in NFL History known simply as “The Drive”.
The Cleveland Browns were in the AFC Championship for the first time since 1970 as they faced off against the Denver Broncos and John Elway. Leading 20-13 with 5:32 left, Elway launched an attack from his own two-yard line which spanned 15 passes and sent the game into overtime. Needless to say, the Browns lost to Elway’s team and had to watch weeks later as the Broncos won the Superbowl.
This setback was followed by an even larger one when former owner Art Modell decided that the Browns Stadium was no longer suitable to host NFL games. Having played in front of packed crowds in their previous home for over thirty years, fans looked forward to being a new state of the art facility being opened. Despite receiving permission to renovate their current home, Modell decided to find the team a new one..... in Baltimore.
The Browns franchise remained dormant from 1996 until 1999 when Cleveland received permission from the NFL to become an expansion team.
Despite delight at their new franchises first season, a year later Cleveland had to watch as the newly formed Baltimore Ravens would win the Super Bowl.
The most example of the ‘cursed’ nature of the city came in 2010 when their highest profile superstar athlete also decided that relocation would benefit him.
In 2003, Ohio native and high-school phenom Lebron James was drafted by the Cavs as the number one pick in the draft. Lebron immediately helped the Cavs to become a force, and even took them to the NBA Finals in 2007. Although they were swept by the Spurs, many believed that James would finally help to end the Cleveland curse.
Instead things spiralled out of control and after failing to return to the Finals in the remaining years of his contract Lebron made a very public decision to take ‘his talents to South Beach’ and a year later won his first NBA Championship.
Curse of the Colonel
A rather more perplexing curse is said to affect the Hanshin Tigers, a Japanese baseball team.
Urban legends suggest that deceased KFC founder and mascot Colonel Harland Sanders cursed the team because of his anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues near the team’s home.
The Hanshin Tigers are considered the eternal underdogs of Nippon baseball, with Yomiuri Giants from Tokyo considered the ‘kings’ of the sport in Japan. Hanshin, based in Kansai, have some of the most ardent fans who attend matches throughout the season no matter how badly the team is playing.
A ‘curse’ is believed to have hit the team in 1985 after some fans, over-excited at winning the 1985 Championship Series, tossed a statue of Colonel Sanders into the Dotonbori River. Since then the fans have never seen their team win another championship, and many believe that this is due to the KFC founder’s disappointment at the treatment of his statue.
In 1985 to many people’s surprise, the Hanshin Tigers took their first and only victory in the Japanese World series. Their star slugger, Randy Bass, was an American player and earned the fans adulation for helping to win the championship.
The fans went wild after the game and a celebration gathered on the Ebisubashi Bridge in Dotonbori, Osaka. There, the supporters yelled the players’ names, and with every name, a fan resembling a member of the victorious team leaped from the bridge and into the canal. Lacking someone to imitate MVP Randy Bass, the crowd seized a plastic statue of Colonel Sanders (like Bass, the Colonel has a beard and isn’t from Japan) and hurled him off the bridge as an effigy.
According to urban legend, the impulsive manoeuvre cost the team greatly as it suggests that the Tigers will not win the Championship until the statue is recovered.
After their successes in 1985, the Tigers began a losing streak in which they placed last, or next to last in the league in numerous consecutive seasons. During this time attempts were made to recover the statue, including sending divers down and dredging the river, but they all failed. Fans apologised to the store manager in the hope this would ‘reverse the curse’ but the statue remained in the canal and the Tigers continue to be ‘cursed’.
In 2003 the Tigers returned to the Japan Series final, but were defeated by the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, and to date that is their only appearance since 1985.
The Colonel was finally discovered in the Dotonbori River on March 10, 2009. Divers recovered the statue, but it was still missing its glasses and left hand and these remain unfound to date.
Curse of Bobby Layne
American Footballer Bobby Layne was more than a little disappointed after being traded from the Detroit Lions to the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1958.
It is alleged that the player when asked about the trade responded by saying that the Lions would “not win for 50 years” after trading away his services.
Although the Lions didn’t endure a nightmarish streak as Layne had predicted, the Detroit-based franchise accumulated the worst winning percentage of any team in the NFL over the next half decade. To date they remain one of the only two franchises that have been in the league since 1970, and not played in a Superbowl.
Their post season record in the fifty years after the Layne trade was 1 – 10, with their lone win coming in 1991. In the last year of their former players ‘curse’ the Lions went 0-16, and became the first team to lose every game of a sixteen game season.
Socceroos Witch Doctor Curse
The story behind the ‘curse’ of Australia’s national football team was told by Jonny Warren in a 2002 autobiography.
During a trip to play against Rhodesia in a 1970 World Cup qualifier, members of the Australian national team, including Warren, consulted a witch doctor.
The spiritualist worker buried bones near the goal posts and ‘cursed’ their opposition allowing Australia to go on and beat Rhodesia 3-1.
For his work, the Witch Doctor demanded a fee of $1000, and as the Socceroos could not come up with the fee, the team was subsequently ‘cursed’. In the following match, the Aussies failed to beat Israel and did not qualify for the World Cup of that year.
Although the team did qualify for the 1974 World Cup, they failed to score a goal in any of their opening three matches, and were eliminated from the competition at the earliest possible stage.
The Witch Doctor’s curse continued to last through the years, and in 1994, 1998 and 2002, the Australians were beaten in a sudden-death playoff which prevented them from qualifying for the Finals on each occasion.
After reading Warren’s story, a man named John Safran set out to break the ‘curse’ during a 2004 TV Series. Safran travelled to Mozambique where the original curse had been placed, and hired a new witch doctor to channel the original curse and reverse it.
The following year the Socceroos not only qualified for the 2006 World Cup, but in Germany twelve months later they reached the second round of the competition, and only fell to eventual winners Italy.
McSorley Curse
In 1993 the Stanley Cup Finals were played between the LA Kings and the Montreal Canadiens. The Canadiens, down 2-1 in the opening game, suspected Kings player Marty McSorley’s stick to be too curved.
They informed the officials, and after inspection, McSorley was penalized two minutes for having illegal equipment. This ‘lucky’ break meant Montreal were able to tie the game on the ensuing power-play, and it is suggested that momentum swung towards the Canadian team in the entire series because of this moment.
Carried by the ‘curse-establishing’ goal, Montreal won the 1993 Stanley Cup, but since then no Canadian hockey team has won the Stanley Cup. Six teams have tried and failed, all of which have been beaten by their American counterparts.
Oddly, the Quebec Nordiques who moved from Canada to the US to become the Colorado Avalanche won the cup in 1996 and again in 2001 whilst a team from ‘north of the border’ are still waiting for their first success in almost twenty years.