The Minnesota Sports Curse is an alleged curse on the Minnesota pro sports teams. Since the Minnesota Twins won the 1991 World series, no pro sports team in the state of Minnesota has won a championship, nor have they been able to get to one since. The closest they've been to one was in the conference/league finals. As of 2009, Minnesota teams have been 0-5 in the conference/league finals games. Minneapolis/St. Paul is number 1 on the championship drought cities with teams in the NFL, MLB, NBA, or NHL. 1991 was a great year to be a Minnesota sports fan. To refresh your memory, it was the year the Twins won that classic seven-game World Series, the North Stars reached the Stanley Cup Finals and the new NBA team, the Timberwolves, completed their second season. Things were looking up for Minnesota sports.Nobody could have fathomed that through the next 18 years, loyal Minnesota fans would be forced to endure one of the great professional sports droughts in history.From 1992 to present, Minnesota sports teams have left their fans feeling betrayed, sad, confused and bewildered.ESPN.com recently conducted a poll that asked it’s readers to select the worst sports city. Minneapolis was among the five options.Take this statistic for example—Of the four major professional sports leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL), there are 21 cities home to teams from at least three of the leagues (see chart on top right). Out of the 21 cities, 20 have had at least one team make it to the championship since 1992. Minnesota is the only city in the group that has failed to see one of their teams reach the final game in the last 18 years.The Twins, Vikings, Timberwolves and Wild have combined to go an incredible 0-5 in their conference/league finals appearances since 1992. Of the 21 cities, this mark ranks dead last.There have been moments where our teams were on the verge of something great, but every time they have come up short. The 1998 Vikings for example, who were one overtime from the super bowl and lost to the Atlanta Falcons. Speaking of the Vikings, it’s got to be any season now before ESPN tags this franchise with some kind of curse. The Cubs have their curse of the Billy Goat and the Red Sox had their curse of the Bambino, give the Vikes a few more years and they will be ready.The Vikings are quietly climbing their way towards the top of the “we’ve broken countless hearts, we can’t win the big game, we deserve a curse of our own” list.Consider—The Minnesota Vikings joined the NFL in 1961. Since then, they have won 17 division titles, they’ve made 25 playoff appearances and they were the first team to appear in four Super Bowls. Of course, they were also the first team to lose four Super Bowls. The Vikings just completed their 48th season and every one has ended with a loss.If this isn’t a curse-deserving resume, tell me what is.The Timberwolves and Twins haven’t done much better in recent years. Both teams have had lots of talent and been able to put together multiple winning seasons, but when confronted with a chance to play for the championship, they fell one series short (Twins in 2002 and Timberwolves in 2004).The Wild are Minnesota’s most recent addition to the Minnesota sports world and saw some early success. In 2003, the Wild made a great postseason run as the seventh seed in the Western Conference, making it to the conference finals, but fell short at the hands of the then Anaheim Mighty Ducks.
Make that 0-6, since the minnesota vikings lost to the new orleans saints in overtime of the 2009 NFC Championship last season.
Guest
2. 07-02-2011 18:25
This could be attributed to two concurrent "curses" I like to call "The Curse of The Minneapolis Laker" and "The Curse of the Minnesota North Star"
I noticed that no team originally from Minnesota has won a championship in the big 5 sports leagues in North America plus College Basketball and Football, and struggle in other minor national sports leagues too. Native or raised Minnesotans also struggle in individual sports too. No Minnesota Born or raised athlete has ever gained the gold medal in the summer Olympics nor has held a UFC or Boxing heavyweight belt since 1960. It also extends to politics and entertainment. No politician originally from Minnesota has ever become president, nor has any politician with Minnesota connections been the Majority Whip or Speaker since 1993. In entertainment, no singer or band has ever won "Album of the Year" or "Artist of the Year", "Actor/actress of the Year" or "Television Actor of the Year". No movie directed or written by a Minnesotan has won "Movie of the Year" Since 1993.
Since the Minneapolis Lakers left in 1960, no team originally from Minnesota has ever won a championship in the Big 4 or even in minor sports leagues such as the WNBA, Major League Lacrosse. This includes any college sport with a big time, coast to coast, national following (Which excludes college hockey and college baseball and perhaps women's college basketball). Even in MMA and Boxing, which are individual sports, no athlete who was raised in Minnesota has ever held a championship in any of those major sports scenes since 1960. Brock Lesnar does not count since he is originally from North Dakota and spent his childhood there.
What adds more sting to this curse is every team that moves from Minnesota is destined to win a championship. The Dallas Stars and the LA Lakers both won championships when they left.
The Minnesota Twins, who were originally the Washington Senators, do not fall under the Laker "curse", but they fall under another curse, a curse I like to call "The Curse of the Minnesota North Star".
Since the Stars left in 1993, no team from Minnesota has ever advanced to the championship round, originally from MN or not.
The only way I suppose the curse can be absolved is if they defeat a team from Southern California and Dallas-Ft. Worth as well as their arch rivals in the same playoff series and a team from the same area of the team that eliminated them the last time in the playoffs, as well as a victory over the arch rivals of the former Minnesota teams.
For the Vikings, a playoff series will have to include a victory or mathematical elimination defeat of the Green Bay Packers, a victory or mathematical elimination of the Dallas Cowboys, and a victory over the New Orleans Saints and a defeat or a mathematical elimination of the San Diego Chargers. The Vikings have the easiest or most difficult route to defeat the curse because of the everchanging dynamics of good teams and bad teams in the NFL. However, they will have to make sure that the Chargers, Saints and Cowboys are on the regular season schedule and eliminate them or they have to hope that they're all on the schedule.
The Timberwolves would need victories over the Denver Nuggets, Dallas Mavericks, the LA Lakers and the Sacramento Kings (Formerly the Omaha Royals) before breaking the curse However, seeing the economics of the NBA favors large market teams, this is highly improbable. But if they do defeat the Lakers, Kings, Mavericks and Nuggets in the same series, they will destroy both curses in one fell swoop, and lead to a blessing.
The Twins have the easiest route to break the North Stars curse will need to beat or eliminate the Rangers, White Sox and Yankees/Mets in the same playoff series. But the Laker curse would still remain, so don't get your hopes up, MN sports fans.
The Wild have somewhat of a rougher road than the Twins and Vikings because of the amount of teams they have to defeat to get to the championship game. They have to defeat both their archrivals, the archrivals of the North Stars, and the last team that eliminated both the Nstars and the Wild in the playoffs But seeing that they play in the same league that the North Stars play in, this could be a major reversal of the curse and could turn into a blessing. The Wild will need to defeat the Chicago Blackhawks, Dallas Stars, Vancouver Canucks, the LA Kings and or the Anaheim Ducks and the Detroit Red Wings (The last team to eliminate the North Stars in the playoffs) in their playoff run before breaking the curse. They can also beat or eliminate the Phoenix Coyotes, whilst as the Winnipeg Jets, were the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA's Archrivals. If they defeat the Coyotes instead of the Blackhawks, then the curse is relegated teams based in Minneapolis, since the Fighting Saints and the Wild both play in Saint Paul. (Ahem, build that Vikings stadium in Arden Hills, dangit!)
For the Gopher basketball team to win a championship, they will have to defeat the Wisconsin Badgers in the Big 10 tournament, defeat Xavier then beat TCU, USC or UCLA in the tournament before winning a Final Four and breaking the curse. A tough task considering odds against facing any 4 of those teams in the tournament.
For the Gopher football team to advance to a national championship, it would take the Gophers knocking the Badgers out of contention for the Rose Bowl and defeating either UCLA, USC or TCU for the National Championship, thereby breaking both concurrent curses.
This curse cannot be broken in the WNBA, NLL or other college sports. The curse has to be broken in front of a captive audience and against regional rivals and the team that bounced them out of the playoffs the previous year in a stable league to shatter the curse. The WNBA isn't stable, neither is the NLL. UCLA, TCU, nor USC fields a team in hockey, and the Gophers have multiple archrivals in hockey.
If the MLS comes to the Twin Cities, SC/FC Minnesota Gemini (A proposed name for the soccer team) will have to defeat both the Chicago Fire or Colorado Rapids (Depending on which Conference they're put in) and the New York Red Bulls to win an MLS cup. The New York Red Bulls, a spiritual successor to the New York Metropolitans, were the team that bounced out the Minnesota Strikers, the spiritual predecessor to FC Minnesota MLS in the last major North American soccer league.
A harder, more painful resolution of this curse is to see the arch rivals, both current and former, win the championships in those leagues. So far, the Chicago Bears (When the Packers outright stank, the Vikings-Bears rivalry was the spiritual successor to the Vikings-Packers rivalry in Minnesota, and may be again if the Packers hit the doldrums), the Green Bay Packers, Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Stars and Chicago White Sox have all won championships in those leagues. The Wisconsin Badgers are a strong sports powerhourse and may win championships in both sports.
I don't know if it seems plausible, but no team originally from Minnesota in the big 5 leagues plus college BB and FB have won a league championship since 1960 when the Lakers left, and no big 5 plus CFB/CBB has won a championship since 1993.
For a presidential candidate from MN to become president, they would either have to be born and or raised in MN, defeat a Wisconsin politician in the primary and then beat a ticket that features a Texan and a Californian in the general or any combination of the 3.
Think about it if you will.
Oh,BTW, the Wild play in Saint Paul, not Minneapolis. Kind of like a Tampa Bay Rays thing. Always a pet peeve of mine. The reason why is Minneapolis has only one unified high school hockey team amongst 7 public schools, and that team is horrible, a testament to their lack of hockey interest hence why the Wild play in Saint Paul.
Guest
3. 03-08-2011 13:52
You do, however, have one fact wrong Lee. Joel and Ethan Coen won "Best Motion Picture" in 2007 with "No Country For Old Men." The Coen Bros are proud Minnesotans and have done a pretty good job representing our great state. But otherwise a very interesting look at Minnesota sports history...may the curses be broken soon...
Guest
4. 15-09-2011 07:31
I think I have an appropriate name for this Minnesota sports curse - The Curse of the North Stars! Ever since the North Stars left town, Minnesota sports have been mired in a wave of suckitude where no team can even qualify for a Championship while EVERY other city with 3 or more major league teams has at least gone to one Final while Minnesota looks on in envy since then...
For this reason, I believe the NHL team (the Wild) will have to WIN the Stanley Cup to help unravel and break it! Having that accomplished might lift the burden from the other teams and they can finally start winning it their Titles like crazy! Not sure if others would agree with me here, but those are my two cents regarding this!
I hope they pull it off soon! For the sake of Minnesota's sports fans' sanity at least (and because they are my favorite professional sports team of all time)!
Guest
5. 15-09-2011 07:51
LeeL, oops I forgot you got the "North Star" thing down but also had the "Laker" curse... Sorry bout that oversight but I did enjoy reading your post.
However, here's my little take on your theory, partly cuz I kinda beg to differ regarding the "Laker" one though! Why? Cuz at least Minnesota still made it to Major League championships with the Twins losing in 1965's World Series, and winning said event in 1987 and 1991! The Vikings going on their 4 Super Bowl runs in the 1970s and the North Stars made it to the Stanley Cup Finals only to lose in 1981 and 1991... Plus don't forget the homegrown Golden Gophers Football team won the Rose Bowl in 1962, 2 years after the Lakers left!
Compared to today's quagmire that began when the North Stars left, it was way better times indeed for Minnesota sports! While there may be some credence to the "Minneapolis Lakers Curse" or at least some vestiges of that may be left in some form or fashion, the worse (and main) culprit of today's misery BY FAR is the "Minnesota North Stars" curse! And this is the reason why I believe the Wild will have to WIN the Stanley Cup to really jumpstart the tearing down of this sports curse affecting most of Minnesota's sports scene!
