5 sporting curses which have haunted teams over the years

Myths and legends have their own unique place in sporting folklore. Players, support staff and fans alike tend to hold on to superstitions and beliefs which may or not have a base or a factual background to it.It’s not uncommon thus that a lot of theories regarding dips in performance, however prolonged they might be, are attributed to such myths. In this list, we chronicle 5 such talked about and massively popular curses.

#1 Curse of the Bambino

Although now ‘uplifted’, the Curse of the Bambino was perhaps the most popular sporting curses. The story goes such that there was a curse placed on the Boston Red Sox, who failed to win a World Series after 1918, apparently due to the big money transfer of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

Before that, the fanchisee had won four titles in seven years (1912–1918).

After an excruciating wait of 86 years, that streak finally came to a halt when the Red Sox defeated the St. Louis Cardinals, 4 games to 0 in the 2004 World Series. What preceded the final was even more remarkable though; the Boston based team came back from a 3-games-to-0 deficit, a first in MLB history, to defeat the Yankees in their own den.

#2 Curse of Bela Guttman

Bela Guttman, with Benfica’s 2 European titles

Former Hungarian manager Béla Guttmann joined Portugese giants Benfica in 1959 and coached the team to two Portuguese Ligas, two European Cups and one Portuguese Cup title.

Legend is that in 1962, he asked for a pay rise but the club didn’t oblige. He apparently retorted by announcing “In the next 100 years no Portuguese team will win two European titles and Benfica will never be champions of Europe again without me.”

Quite in sync with this list thus, Benfica has since appeared in five European Cup finals and three UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League finals and lost all eight matches.

#3 Sports Illustrated Cover!

Michael Jordan seems to be the only exception to this curse!

With the exception of a few noted athletes, there exists this belief that athletes who grace the cover of this top magazine end up scaling a downward spiral with respect to their careers.

Starting with the very first edition which had Atlanta Braves third baseman Eddie Mathews who broke his hand days after appearing on the cover of the magazine, the curse apparently has engulfed more than 100 reputed sportspersons.

#4 Crucible Theatre & World Snooker Championship

This is a reference to the fact that no first-time winner of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield has successfully defended his title since the event there in 1977.

In fact, of the 15 first-time champions in this era, only two- Joe Johnson, in 1987, and Ken Doherty in 1998, have even made the final the following year.

Amongst other casualties, five previous champions were worst hit- as they were eliminated in their first match.

#5 Croatians can\'t get to the podium!

NBA legend Tony Kukoc was part of the team which walked out that day

The Croatian men's national basketball team stepped off the podium in protest at the 1995 FIBA European Championships.

Since then, they haven't set foot once on the medal podium in any major international competition. The theory is all the more important since the country had won a medal every year since it gained independence (Silver in the 1992 Olympics, Silver and Bronze in the 1993 and 1995 EuroBasket competitions respectfully, and Bronze in the 1994 FIBA World Championship).