Cleveland’s sad, decades-long run as America’s most forlorn sports city ended Sunday night when the Cavaliers finished off the Warriors in Game 7 of the NBA Finals.
Cleveland had last won a title in one of the major U.S. sports in 1964, when the Browns shut out the Colts for the pre-Super Bowl NFL championship. The city now passes the sadness-longevity title to the new sad champion: San Diego. According to Michael Gehlken, the Chargers beat writer for the San Diego Union-Tribune, the city gone 109 seasons without a major professional sport title.
(The Clippers spent six seasons in San Diego from 1978 to 1984; the Rockets were based in San Diego for the first four years of their existence, from 1967 to 1971.)
Buffalo (103 seasons) could soon get a chance to overtake San Diego, seeing as how the Chargers could be moving to Los Angeles if they don’t get a new stadium and the Padres have never done much of anything, making the playoffs only five times in their 47-year existence. The Bills last won a title – in the AFL – in 1965. The Sabres, meanwhile, were a consistent NHL playoff team until recently: They’ve missed the Stanley Cup playoffs in 10 of the last 14 seasons, including the last five.
Minneapolis (91 seasons) features all four of the major U.S. sports (though it went awhile without an NHL team) and also could surpass San Diego. It last held a victory parade in 1991, when the Twins won their second World Series title in five seasons.
Gehlken is not counting the Packers by listing Milwaukee (90 seasons), so that city has gone 45 years since its last title, by the Bucks in 1971.
