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 - eg. making the playoffs, winning a championship, etc. 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. Prime examples of this are the Curse of the Bambino, which some fans of the Boston Red Sox believe was responsible for their 86-year World Series drought, and the Curse of the Billy Goat, which is apparently responsible for the longest drought in North American professional sports, that of the Chicago Cubs, who have not won a World Series in 97 years and have not appeared in one in 1945, and the Curse of Billy Penn and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Each professional sport has its long-suffering losers.

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 have 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 National Football League franchise post-season droughts." Notable among NFL droughts is that of the New York Jets, who haven't even 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.

Similarly, there are several NBA teams who have never won a championship. No famous long-standing "droughts" exist currently in the league, although a few notable current drought-type streaks exist, including Minnesota Timberwolves guard Kevin Garnett's apparent inability to lead his team through the playoffs.

There are a few cities which are believed to have championship droughts: Chicago, Cleveland, Ohio; Philadelphia and Houston.

Chicago seems to be a somewhat drought-prone city, sportswise. Its two baseball teams (the other being the Chicago White Sox) have won a grand total of 1 championship since 1917 (the White Sox won the 2005 World Series); its football team, the Chicago Bears, has only ever appeared in one Super Bowl, Super Bowl XX, (which it won); its hockey team, as mentioned above, has the longest Stanley Cup drought in the NHL. Only in basketball do its Chicago Bulls have any degree of respectability in their recent past, winning six championships in the 1990s under Michael Jordan. However, the Bulls are currently a somewhat mediocre team.

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 the NBA Championship. In 2004, ESPN named Cleveland the most tortured sports city over the past 25 years.

Philadelphia itself has been a drought of a championship title since 1983, some of the fans cite the Curse of Billy Penn to be the reason. Houston has also a similar drought of a championship title. Only its basketball team the Houston Rockets have won 2 championships in 1994 and 1995, while their football team the Houston Texans has never won one (they have only been in the NFL since 2002. In addition, the Houston Astros, the city's baseball team, only has came close in many games to the World Series; they only appeared in the 2005 World Series, in which it lost.

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 losing 3-0 to Celtic F.C. in 2001.

Drought (sport)

See also