Drought (sport)

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In sports, a drought refers to instances in which a team has gone a lengthy period of time without accomplishing some goal (e.g. making the playoffs or winning a championship). Droughts occur for a variety of reasons, from chronic mismanagement to bad luck. Some fans believe that their team's drought is the result of a curse. The Curse of the Bambino, which some fans of the Boston Red Sox believed was responsible for their 86-year World Series drought, is a well-known example. Some Chicago Cubs fans believe a Curse of the Billy Goat is responsible for the current 98-year championship drought of their team. The Chicago Cubs also are notorious for not having even appeared in a World Series since 1945, which is the longest drought in North American professional sports.

1 United States
- 1.1 Droughts by sport
- 1.2 Drought prone cities
2 Outside USA
- 2.1 Droughts by Sport
3 See also
4 References

[edit] United States

[edit] Droughts by sport

In the NHL, the longest current drought title belongs to the Chicago Blackhawks, who have failed to win the Stanley Cup since 1961. Following closely behind is the Toronto Maple Leafs, who has failed to win the Cup since 1967.
In the NFL, there are several teams who have never won a Super Bowl. For a full list, see List of Current NFL franchise post-season droughts. Notable among NFL droughts is that of the New York Jets, who have not been to a Super Bowl since Super Bowl III in which Joe Namath famously guaranteed and delivered a victory for the underdog Jets over the Baltimore Colts.
There are several NBA teams who have never won a championship. For a full list, see List of NBA franchise post-season droughts. No famous long-standing droughts exist currently in the league.

[edit] Drought prone cities

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

Cleveland has waited longer than any other city with three major sports franchises to win a title. The last Cleveland title was in 1964 when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship (pre-Super Bowl era). The Cleveland Indians last won the World Series in 1948 (2nd longest drought in MLB) and the Cleveland Cavaliers have never won (or played in) the NBA Finals. In 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city.^[1]

Seattle has not won a major sports championship in any sport other than basketball and hockey. The Seattle Metropolitans won the Stanley cup in 1917 (the first American team to do so), the Seattle Super Sonics (NBA) won a title in 1979, and the Seattle Storm (WNBA) won in 2003. Neither the Seahawks nor the Mariners have ever won a championship. Seattle nearly won a championship when the Seahawks represented the city in Super Bowl XL in 2006. They fell by a score of 21-10 to the champion Pittsburgh Steelers.

Sports wise, Chicago seems to be a somewhat drought-prone city. Its two baseball teams have won only one championship since 1917 (the White Sox won the 2005 World Series). Its football team, the Chicago Bears, won the only Super Bowl it has appeared in (Super Bowl XX) to date. Its hockey team, the Chicago Blackhawks, as mentioned above, has the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL. However, Chicago's basketball team, the Chicago Bulls, won six championships in the 1990s with the legendary Michael Jordan.

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

Houston has a similar drought of championship titles. The city's baseball team, the Houston Astros, has appeared to date in only one World Series in 2005 and lost. Their football team (the Houston Texans) has never won a title; however, it should be noted that they have only been in the NFL since 2002. Its basketball team, the Houston Rockets, have won 2 championships: in 1994 and 1995.

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 conference playoffs in subsequent years as well as the failure of the Buffalo Sabres to ever win the Stanley Cup. Hearts were broken once again in 2006, when the Sabres lost to the Carolina Hurricanes in game 7 of the conference finals.

[edit] Outside USA

[edit] Droughts by Sport

In Scottish soccer, a notable drought is that of Hibernian F.C. of Edinburgh who have not won the Scottish Cup since 1902 despite appearing in the final 8 times; since then, most recently they lost 3-0 to Celtic F.C. in 2001.