A Sacrifice to the Philly Sports God....William Penn
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by Bberg11
From my blog, The Lazy Athlete
1983 was a very good year. Hell, it was the year that I was brought onto the planet. But also, it was the last time a pro sports team from Philadelphia won a championship. That team was the 76ers, and they did it by sweeping the LA Lakers in four games. Shorty there after, a new skyscraper was announced who's height would top the hat of the William Penn statue atop City Hall. And in 1987, the building, known as One Liberty Place, opened; effectively ending the Gentleman's Agreement within the city to never build a building taller than that William Penn statue. No major sports team in the city has since won a championship, and in fact many have dramatically fallen just short a number of times since then. The reason "The Curse of William Penn" has been brought back into the news (besides continued failure by the sports teams, accentuated by the Phillies accumulating their 10,000th loss last week) is because there has been an attempt to break the curse. The new Comcast building in Philadelphia, scheduled to open late 2007, early 2008, will be the new tallest building in the city. And in an effort to appease the city's founder, William Penn, a miniature statue of Billy has been placed atop the new skyscraper; giving him the best view in town, once again.
An outsider would probably view the curse as silly superstition. But to those of us entrenched in sports lore, especially here in Philadelphia, this superstition is eerily believable. Let's take a look at the "coincidences."
- Right around the time the announcement was made to break the Gentleman's Agreement, Flyer's goaltender, Pelle Lindbergh, was tradegically killed in a car accident. The Flyers would go on to a number of successful seasons in following his death in the 1980's, but were never able to get over the hump. Would having a goalie as talented as Pelle have made the difference?
- Let's stick with the Flyers. A mere two months after One Liberty Place's opening, the Flyers went to the Stanley Cup Finals and ran into the Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers; perhaps one of the best teams assembled in the NHL. The Flyers fought valiantly but eventually fell to the Oilers in seven games. A similar situation happened again in 1997. After cruising through the Eastern Conference, they ran into a dynasty in the making; the Detroit Red Wings. The Wings went on to sweep the Flyers, followed by another championship the following year and yet another in 2001-2002.
- Still sticking with the Flyers, the 2000 and 2004 playoff runs stick out in memory. In 2000, the Flyers, leading three games to one in the Eastern Conference Finals, dropped three straight to the New Jersey Devils to lose the series. The Devils went on to beat a very beatable Dallas Stars team for the Stanley Cup. 2004 also saw the Flyers make it to the conference finals. But injuries proved to be the difference in a seven game series loss to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Instead of building on that success, the following season was canceled due to a labor dispute. Since the lockout ended, the Flyers have yet to regain that level of performance, winning just two playoff game total.
- The Philadelphia 76ers, as stated above, were the last team to win a championship. And since that moment, they have done very little. However, in 2001, they made it to the NBA Finals where, like the Flyers, they ran into a dynasty in the making. The LA Lakers took them out in five games.
- The Philadelphia Phillies are well known for their losing ways. But the late 70's and early 80's saw a team that won a World Series (1980) and won four other division titles and another pennant in 1983. Since that moment (which just happens to be in close proximity to the announcement of One Liberty Place), they have made the playoffs only once. That was 1993 when they came out of nowhere to win the NL pennant only to lose the World Series in six games on a heartbreaking walk-off homerun by Joe Carter.
- The Philadelphia Eagles first Super Bowl appearance was in 1980. The next 20 years saw very little success (except for a few teams led by one of the best, and most underrated, defenses ever). Once Andy Reid took over as coach in 1999, the team has had as many close calls and depressing losses as any team in sports over such a short period. Starting in 2001, the Eagles went to four straight NFC championship games, losing all but the last. The first appearance in 2001 was considered a pleasant surprise by many, as the team was young and on the upswing. But still, they came within five points of beating the "Greatest Show on Turf," the St. Louis Rams. The next year was perhaps the most depressing Eagles game in history. The Eagles were facing the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, a team they dominated in recent memory, at Veterans Stadium (which would be the final game they ever played there, as they moved to the "Link" across the street the following season). When all was said and done, the Eagles had lost a heartbreaker, and the Bucs went on beat a hopeless Oakland Raiders team in the Super Bowl. The 2003 Eagles got of to a slow start before eventually becoming one of the hottest teams in the league and winning home field advantage for the NFC championship game for the second straight year. This time they lost to the Carolina Panthers. They finally got over the hump in 2004, beating the Atlanta Falcons in the NFC championship game. But, like the Flyers and Sixers before them, they ran into another dynasty in the making. The New England Patriots had won the previous year as well as in 2001. The heavy underdog Eagles lost by only a field goal.
Philadelphia sports history is full of stories of about the agony of defeat, much like most cities. However, the concentration of those stories in the years following the construction of One Liberty Place, and the ending of William Penn's reign atop the city, is hard to fathom. The Curse of William Penn has taken such hold in this championship starved city, that even Comcast Spectacor (the owners of the new Comcast Building as well as the Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers) has given into superstition by giving William Penn a new throne, albeit a mini one, at the tallest point in the city. And if the curse shall be broken shortly after the opening of the Comcast building's opening, there will be those people who say it is all a coincidence. But, like the song "Grandma got run over by a reindeer," as for me and Grandpa, we believe.
