Some places hog all the glory in sports. Between the Patriots and Red Sox, New England is up to its ears in trophies this past decade. Between USC and the Lakers, southern California has more championships than it knows what to do with. The University of Florida alone has experienced a ridiculous amount of success having won two championships apiece in football and basketball. Even downtrodden Pittsburgh has won two Super Bowls and the Stanley Cup within a few years.
After the Saints‘ win in Super Bowl XLIV New Orleans can be struck (at least temporarily) from the list of cities known for sports futility. Which brings us to the main thrust of this blog (essay, treatise, whatever). What are some places renowned for sports ineptitude? After intensely reviewing other peoples’ research online, I came up with the following list:
1. Seattle
- Super Bowl Wins/Appearances: 0/1
- World Series Wins/Appearances: 0/0
- NBA Finals Wins/Appearances: 1/3
- Stanley Cup Wins/Appearances: 1/1
Seattle is something of the poster boy for sports futility. The Seahawks were established in 1976 and to date have one Super Bowl appearance -a loss- in Super Bowl XL (40). The Mariners tied the MLB record for most wins in a season with 116 in 2001 yet failed to reach the World Series. The SuperSonics won an NBA championship in 1979 yet have now relocated to Oklahoma City. The Seattle Metropolitans won a Stanley Cup a mere 92 years ago in 1917; the team folded in 1924.
2. Cleveland
- Super Bowl Wins/Appearances: 0/0
- World Series Wins/Appearances: 2/5
- NBA Finals Wins/Appearances: 0/1
- Stanley Cup Wins/Appearances: 0/0
There was a time when putting Cleveland on a list like this would have been heretical. No longer though, since it’s been many moons since one of Cleveland’s teams has won a championship. The Browns -once the paragon of excellence in football- has seen more failure than success since the AFL-NFL merger. The Cavaliers were swept in their one and only appearance in the NBA Finals. Cleveland even had an NHL team for two seasons called the Barons. They were terrible and eventually folded with the equally unremarkable Minnesota North Stars in 1978.
3. Cincinnati
- Super Bowl Wins/Appearances: 0/2
- World Series Wins/Appearances: 5/9
- NBA Finals Wins/Appearances: 0/0
- Stanley Cup Wins/Appearances: Not applicable
During the 1980s the Bengals lost two close Super Bowls to the 49ers, one by the score of 26-21, the other by a score of 20-16. The Reds really don’t count as much as the franchise has won five out of nine World Series it has appeared in. Recently, though the Reds haven’t been up to the standard of its earlier teams. The Cincinnati Royals featured some of the best talent in the NBA including Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas but never made it to the Finals. The franchise moved to Kansas City and became the Kings in 1972.
4. Kansas City
- Super Bowl Wins/Appearances: 1/2
- World Series Wins/Appearances: 1/2
- NBA Finals Wins/Appearances: 0/0
- Stanley Cup Wins/Appearances: 0/0
Throughout much of the 1990s during the tenure of head coach Marty Schottenheimer, the Chiefs seemed good enough to win it all. Once the playoffs came around they could never quite get over the hump. The club’s only Super Bowl appearances came back in the 60s; the Chiefs lost Super Bowl II to the Green Bay Packers but came back the next year and defeated the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl III. Since the mid-1990s the Kansas City Royals have been at or near the bottom of the standings. Between 1955 and 1967 Kansas City also hosted an anemic version of the legendary Athletics franchise before they moved to Oakland. The city received and NBA franchise in 1972 when the Royals moved from Cincinnati to Kansas City and became the Kings. By 1985 the Kings had relocated to Sacramento. The New Jersey Devils organization started life in 1974 as the Kansas City Scouts. After two suitably horrid seasons the team moved to Denver and became the Colorado Rockies. They then moved to New Jersey and went on to become one of the best teams of the 1990s and 2000s.
5. Milwaukee
- Super Bowl Wins/Appearances: 0/0
- World Series Wins/Appearances: 0/1
- NBA Finals Wins/Appearances: 1/2
- Stanley Cups Wins/Appearances: Not applicable
Once upon a time the NFL conceived the idea of putting two teams into Wisconsin, one in Green Bay and the other in Milwaukee. The Green Bay franchise worked out pretty well, while the one in Milwaukee -called the Badgers- lasted only five seasons from 1922 to 1926. In 1970 MLB brought a team to Milwaukee called the Brewers. Despite a promising decade during the 1980s, most of the Brewers’ time since then has been spent losing. The Bucks were the quickest expansion team to win an NBA Finals, doing so in only three seasons (1971) behind Kareem-Abdul Jabaar and Oscar Robertson. Since 1974 the Bucks haven’t returned to the Finals.
Honorable mention: Buffalo, Washington, D.C., the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
Raider Nation.. Who Dat Nation.. Niners played good, but they can suck one.