San Diego Sports Curse
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The San Diego Sports Curse or the Curse of San Diego is a mythical explanation for San Diego’s inability to win a Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, NBA Finals or any other major league sports championship in the United States, if not the entire world. This also makes San Diego the largest city to not have won a Major League Sports championship in all of the United States.[1]
Furthermore, San Diego has one of largest sports championship droughts in all of the United States, only winning the AFL championship in 1963.[2]
The San Diego Padres, the San Diego Chargers and any other major sports team that has resided in San Diego (such as the Clippers and the Rockets during their times in San Diego) to this day have never won a championship.
The cause of the curse is unknown although one explanation offered for the curse is the trade of wideout Lance Alworth to the Dallas Cowboys, similar to Boston's Curse of the Bambino, and thus can be called the Curse of Lance Alworth, although no official name has been established by anyone for all of San Diego's misery and heartbreak.[3]
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[edit] Signature Moments
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[edit] San Diego Padres
- In the Padres' two lone World Series appearances, their record is a dismal 1-8. They lost the 1984 World Series to the Detroit Tigers, 4 games to 1, and the 1998 World Series to the New York Yankees, 4 games to 0.
- San Diego has lost to the rivaled St. Louis Cardinals, 3 times in the National League Division Series (1996, 2005, and 2006). Their overall record against the Cardinals is only 1-9, in the playoffs. Following the 2006 series loss, the Cardinals went on to win the 2006 World Series.
- The Padres have the distinction of having the most World Series appearances of any team without a World Series championship.
[edit] San Diego Chargers
- The Chargers overall playoff record, as of 2007, stands at only 7-13, which calculates to a dismal .350 winning percentage.[4] The Chargers have not won a postseason game since their Super Bowl run in 1994.
- In the Chargers' only Super Bowl appearance to date (Super Bowl XXIX), San Diego lost to their regional rivals, the San Francisco 49ers, 49-26, for San Francisco's fifth Super Bowl win. The MVP was 49er quarterback Steve Young, who threw a Super Bowl record 6 touchdown passes, torching the Junior Seau-led Chargers.
- San Diego has appeared in only 3 AFC Championship games, two of which have ended in failure. One is the Freezer Bowl, on January 10, 1982, against the Cincinnati Bengals, at Riverfront Stadium, which they lost 27-7. The other was the '81 AFC title game, played on January 11, 1981, where they lost to their arch rivals, the Oakland Raiders, 34-27, who would later go on to win Super Bowl XV.
- Many former Charger players, such as Lance Alworth and Rodney Harrison, upon leaving San Diego to other teams, have went on to win the Super Bowl.
- The Chargers are the only team in the AFC West to have not yet hoisted up a Vince Lombardi Trophy.
- Former Chargers head coach Marty Schottenheimer has been known to choke in the playoffs, with all three teams that he has been head coach (Cleveland, Kansas City, and San Diego), and the Chargers are no exception. In the 2004 NFL Wildcard Playoffs, they lost to the New York Jets, 20-17 in overtime by a field goal. Two years later in the Divisional Playoffs, San Diego had the NFL's best regular season record, at 14-2. But they lost against the New England Patriots, 24-21, by a field goal during the last minutes of the game. Both losses, which were played in the rain, occurred in San Diego's own Qualcomm Stadium. Schottenheimer would later be abruptly fired 29 days later.
[edit] Other Moments/Trivia
- 22 years after the Rockets relocated to Houston, they won two consecutive NBA finals in 1994 and 1995.
- Every time San Diego has hosted the Super Bowl, one of the Chargers division rivals would represent the AFC division (The Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXII and XXXII and the Oakland Raiders in XXXVII).
