Atlanta’s sad sports history: One lousy title in 149 pro seasons
The initial response to the sight of Atlanta patrons leaving an NFL playoff game with a quarter still to play — this happened only last weekend — was to loose the boilerplate harrumph. “Nothing new here! These people are the fairest of fair-weather fans in all the land!”
That’s always the reaction from national voices, and there was a time when it was the belief of this correspondent. Atlanta’s the city that can’t sell out playoff games and then, when finally it does, the crowd goes home early when the scoreboard gets ugly, et cetera. But 26 years and 10 months of residency have had an erosive effect, and now this neutral-by-profession can say:
Folks, I feel your pain.
Since big-time professional sports arrived in 1966, teams sailing under the Atlanta flag have completed 149 seasons. (We won’t count baseball in 1994, when the World Series was canceled by a players’ strike, or the 2004-2005 NHL campaign, which was scrubbed due to a lockout.) Only one has yielded a championship. That’s a batting average of .007, which is nice if you’re James Bond, less nice if you’ve invested financial and emotional capital in any of those 148 misses.
(Just to clarify: I haven’t included the Atlanta Chiefs’ 1968 NASL title because soccer wasn’t a major American sport. Nor is the Knights’ 1994 International Hockey League championship factored, the Knights having been by definition minor-league.)
The history of major Atlanta pro sports is of the cosmic whiff. Our teams build us up to let us down. The Hawks have never won more than one playoff series in any season since moving from St. Louis. The NHL Flames, who left for Calgary in 1980, didn’t win a single series in six tries. The Thrashers, in operation since 1999, haven’t yet won a postseason game.
The Falcons have won six playoff games in 45 years of trying. The two times they held the No. 1 seed resulted in flops of wildly differing flavor. On Jan. 4, 1981, the Falcons led Dallas by two touchdowns after three quarters and lost. (See YouTube video below.) This January the Falcons led 14-7 only to watch with benign neglect as they were outscored 35-0 in a span of 18 minutes, 25 seconds.
The one time the Falcons graced a Super Bowl — this after the epic overtime victory in the Minneapolis Metrodome that stands as the greatest performance by any Atlanta team — they messed it up. On the eve of Super Bowl XXXIII, safety Eugene Robinson got himself arrested for solicitation hours after receiving the NFL’s Bart Starr Award for citizenship. Was it any wonder the game’s key play — an 80-yard touchdown pass from John Elway to Rod Smith — featured a late-arriving Robinson?
Andruw Jones chases the Leyritz blast -- to no avail, naturally. (AJC file photo)
The Braves, to their credit, reached the World Series five times in the ’90s. They lost four, the first three in excruciating fashion. Bobby Cox, manager of those teams, would later say, “We played better in three of the ones we lost than in the one we won,” and it was just Atlanta’s luck that its one professional title was achieved the year after the players’ strike of 1994, a debilitating event that served to sap some of passion from the moment of long-deferred (and never-repeated) moment of arrival.
We Atlantans know the drill: Whenever one of our teams gets close, Lucy snatches away the football and Charlie Brown goes flying. With a chance to take a 3-1 lead in a World Series, Mark Wohlers throws Jim Leyritz a slider. With a chance to close out the Boston Celtics at the old Omni, the Hawks’ final shot is taken not by Dominique Wilkins but by the sub Cliff Levingston, who offers up a running lefty hook. With a chance to take a 2-1 series lead on San Francisco, the reliever Craig Kimbrel is removed but the shaky emergency second baseman Brooks Conrad remains on the field in what will be the penultimate ninth inning of Cox’s managerial career.
One hundred forty-nine seasons, one victory parade. (Although the worst-to-first Braves of 1991, who lost the World Series when Lonnie Smith dallied at second base in Game 7, held a parade, too. And so, on a predictably rainy day, did the Falcons after their lost Super Bowl.) Over the same span, the modest city of Pittsburgh has won 11 championships — 12 if you count the ABA crown taken by the Pipers. Long-suffering Philadelphia has six titles since 1966. Denver has four, one at Atlanta’s expense.
Really, can anyone blame us if we’re jaded? Even if we don’t know what will go wrong this time, we’ve seen enough to know something will. We live in Atlanta, where something always does.
By Mark Bradley
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491 comments Add your comment
native
January 21st, 2011
6:28 pm
Don’t often agree with you Mark but your article is spot-on. I was a senior in high school in Atl at the time of that Falcons – Cowboys game. Watching that still leaves a sick feeling in my gut. To me, by far the bleakest moment in Atlanta sports history.
FACTS
January 21st, 2011
6:30 pm
When will everyone understand that until the Falcons stop the leak on D ( nothing against Abraham you earned your pay ) The Falcons are going nowhere, no matter how much the fans care.
FACTS
January 21st, 2011
6:34 pm
WAKE UP! Teams can be great for years without winning a ring, this is not the first team too fall short who were knocking on the door for a few years, get over it! When is the last time B-more Ravens won a rring with that defense?
Mark Bradley
January 21st, 2011
6:39 pm
The Knights don’t count: They were minor-league.
The Chiefs don’t count because soccer wasn’t a major American sport.
chas
January 21st, 2011
6:45 pm
Been watching the games in Atlanta for 35 years and it never gets an easier watching your team go down in flames. If the Braves had not snatched a World Championship in 1995 I would be with Chief in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. I only wonder what I could or would have done with all the time I have spent watching Atlanta sports.
FACTS
January 21st, 2011
6:51 pm
OK is this the twilight zone, have the fans gone mad ; Knights & Chiefs com’n man is this your argument in a bar in Boston?
FACTS
January 21st, 2011
6:53 pm
Ok Bradley is CBn!
JSS
January 21st, 2011
7:02 pm
@ T. Striker…
” The wins are still wonderful and the losses don’t have nearly the same sting they once did…it’s not life or death.”
As usual, well said! And how well we know (unfortunately)!
dawg4u
January 21st, 2011
7:06 pm
As a long time fan of all Atlanta sports teams I must say that that youtube video from 1981 brought back a lot of bad feelings about what could have been. I still remember the Falcon loss to Dallas more than the Braves WS win over Cleveland in ‘95. The 1980 Falcons were the only time in their history that I really thought they were the best team in football. They went from being an attacking aggresive offensive team in the first half to one that was just sitting on their lead in the late 3rd and 4th quarter and it cost them. We haven’t had a team that good since, not even our Super Bowl team from ‘98. You never know if you will have that chance again so you really have to take advantage of it. The 1981 Falcons were supposed to be the class of the NFL and a betting favorite for the Super Bowl and what was their record in ‘81 – 7-9 after winning their first three games in impressive fashion. Take advantage of the time you have to win it all because it may never come again!
native
January 21st, 2011
7:06 pm
BTW, I believe it was Too Tall Jones, he was offsides on the previous Falcons possession, IF the refs woulda called it the Falcons coulda run out the clock.
Jeez I can’t believe I’m reliving and going back down this dark dark road…….
JSS
January 21st, 2011
7:07 pm
Mark Bradley
January 21st, 2011
6:39 pm
“The Knights don’t count: They were minor-league.”
And the first three years of the Thrashers were “major league?” Man, I know I was going through some things then, but that was “water boarding!
And the Chiefs regularly outdrew the Falcons back in 1968… And they didn’t stink! The Dead Bird logo lives!
JSS
January 21st, 2011
7:09 pm
You must have your “blog filter” on triple naught sensitive?
Legend of Len Barker
January 21st, 2011
7:15 pm
My father has repeatedly apologized over the years for raising to me to be a Falcons fan. I tell him it’s OK as he also raised me to be a Berrien High fan. They’ve had even less gridiron success. At least the Falcons go to the playoffs every now and then. Berrien’s been to state once in 55+ seasons.
I saw this year’s team as another 1980 squad. I’ve been telling all those around me for weeks that Bartkowski … er Ryan was going to lose to the Cowboys … er whichever playoff team they would see first. Had the Eagles won, Atlanta likely would have lost to the Seahawks.
I also predicted that interception and score right before the half. When it happened I apologized to Dad for suggesting it was going to happen. Not that it mattered. Then, now and for eternity.
marko
January 21st, 2011
7:22 pm
Atlanta Chiefs 1968 north American Soccer League Champions. Also beat beat Manchester city twice in exihibition play. Not to shabby for a bunch of over the hill drunks. Buy them a couple of beers, and they’d play the Falcons and beat them too.
JSS
January 21st, 2011
7:24 pm
dawg4u
January 21st, 2011
7:06 pm
“The 1981 Falcons were supposed to be the class of the NFL and a betting favorite for the Super Bowl and what was their record in ‘81 – 7-9 after winning their first three games in impressive fashion. Take advantage of the time you have to win it all because it may never come again!”
I will never forget game no. 3 of the 1981 season. I was a freshman in college in Michigan. We had run a cross-country meet the day before. One of the guys on my floor father was a Browns season ticket holder. We drove all the way to Cleveland that night. I was wearing my 1980 NFC West Champs T-shirt. The Browns fans were giving me pure heck! They just straight dismantled the Falcons. 28-17, Falcons were up 10-0 and the Browns put a 21 pt. spot on them in the 2nd quarter. They were never the same! Sound familiar?
It was Billy Sims rookie year with the Lions, so that made it a little better because I got to see the beginning of his too short career. But that when I realized the Falcons were “fools gold.” “Trust, but verify!”
hbcuclassics
January 21st, 2011
7:40 pm
2010 HBCU NFL Draft Board (1-6)
1. Kenrick Ellis 6-5, 340 DT Hampton
AP/FCS All-American, All-MEAC, 34 solo, 15TFL, 2 sacks
2. Clifford Eugene 6’1, 198 CB Tenn State
FCS All-American, 3x All-OVC, 4 Ints, 14 PDs
3. Johnny Culbreath 6’5, 285 OT SC State
AP/FCS All-American, 2x All-MEAC
4. Derrin Nettles 6’6, 320 DT Morehouse
AFCA All-American, All-SIAC,37 solo, 23 TFL, 14.5 sacks
5. Ibrahim Abdulai 6’3, 282 DT Ark-PB
All-SWAC, 31 solo, 18 TFL, 7.5 sacks
6. Frank Warren 5’10, 195 RB Grambling
FCS All-American, 2010 SWAC Offensive POY,
1,592 yd rushing, 3rd in NCAA
http://www.hbcuclassics.com
CobbGOPer
January 21st, 2011
8:13 pm
I would like to point out that even my lowly alma mater, Kennesaw State University, has a national championship, several in fact (mens b-ball, Div.II, 2004, two or three mens baseball champs for DII as well)… Actually, it rather pays better dividends to be exclusively a college sports fan around here. At least UGA, Tech, KSU, Ga.Southern win championships every so often… Which is more than we can say for the pros in this state, obviously.
People call us “fairweather” fans, but as MB points out, what freakin good is it to support these pros when we already know the outcome.
Jack
January 21st, 2011
8:14 pm
Fortunately, others have noted that you omitted the Atlanta Knights as the first championship in Atlanta. As I recall, the AJC’s front page headline at the time called them Atlanta’s first professional sports championship. If the AJC’s news side is going to take that position, it’s a little hypocritical for a sports opinion columnist to take a different view.
That said, sure, Atlanta has not seen professional sports championships. The South is so focused on college sports that I can live with that.
sluggo
January 21st, 2011
8:15 pm
I was at that game. First Atlanta sports event that I attended after moving here. Little did I know it would be sign of things to come…
1962 DAWG
January 21st, 2011
8:24 pm
Mark
You left out Lavander Hollifield!!! Boxing is a Professional sport you know??
Not the most prestiegous but, it is however a Professional Sport.
1962 DAWG
January 21st, 2011
8:25 pm
Mark I mispelled Evander
UGASlobberknocker
January 21st, 2011
8:29 pm
I moved to Atlanta in the summer of 1966. I have witnessed all 148 seasons. Doesnt that qualify me for some kind of prize..like a free week of therapy or something?
Nathan Deal
January 21st, 2011
8:36 pm
Will you liberals stop mentioned that defunct soccer league?
Titles only count when the team and their league still exist!
Nathan Deal
January 21st, 2011
8:38 pm
Meant to say “mentioning.” I must have gone to a public school in this fine state.
Open Like Butt Cheeks
January 21st, 2011
8:40 pm
If minor league teams don’t count, then why are even talking about the Falcons??
skimart
January 21st, 2011
8:49 pm
Have the best of both worlds. grew up in Pittsburgh suburbs, watched Pirates win 3 Series, Steelers have 6 super bowls, Pens 3 Stanley cups. Steelers win or lose, I still wake up in Flowery Branch.
Josh
January 21st, 2011
9:01 pm
Mark, you’re not counting the since-moved Atlanta Knights, who won the Turner Cup! (I know, it’s a reach, but whaddya gonna do?)
1962 DAWG
January 21st, 2011
9:04 pm
Mark
One other thing, You’re word “LOUSY” in your headline, kinda describes your outlook on Georgia’s sport’s scene. Not only professional but Collegiate, and as a fan of several of Georgia’s sports teams I take offence by this term of yours.
You seem to live pretty well from the sports that goes on around you so, don’t bite the hand that feeds you!!!
MitchC
January 21st, 2011
9:05 pm
Mark, have you watched the 1991 Braves highlight video? Former Braves broadcaster Pete Van Weiren introduced the city of Atlanta as “Losersville”. Of course, this was before the Braves run of 14 straight division titles.
I dont follow the NFL or hockey.. but.. of the Braves and Hawks.
The Braves easily could have won three World Series. If Jeff Reardon doesn’t give up Ed Sprague’s homer in 1992, the Braves go up 2-0 in that series, and maybe the outcome is very different.
Although 1991 was heartbreaking, I think the most difficult World Series to swallow was 1996. We absolutely humilated the Yankees in the first two games in the Bronx. There was no excuse for the Braves losing three in a row on their home field. If Wohlers doesn’t give up Lerityz’s homer, I think the Braves win that series in five games, and we have back to back titles then.
As for the Hawks: After a decade of losing, it seems to me that they are now good.. but not good enough. I dont see them getting by a team like Boston in the playoffs. They will probably do what they usually do.. win 50 odd games, get to the semis, and lose.
I don’t see the Braves winning a World Series anytime soon. We should hopefully get the wild card, but.. unless the Phillies have a lot of injuries, or underachieve, they should be the best team in the NL, if not all of baseball.
Unfortunately, Atlanta does not have a great sports history, and that may not change anytime soon.
AFDawg
January 21st, 2011
9:54 pm
Mark, Why lose sleep over this? Pro sports are controlled by the bookies. You describe Atlanta as Loserville — move to Valdosta, it is always described as Winnersville. You’ll have an optimistic outlook on life if you move down there.
supa
January 21st, 2011
9:55 pm
At least we’re not Cleveland. Been there. That place is terrible. And 90% of the people who live there hate it there.
Braves-Falcons-Hawks fan forever! Victory will be sweeter after all the years of agony. Just wait and see.
Tim
January 21st, 2011
9:58 pm
All of the Atlanta pro sports franchises suck. Always have. Always will. End of story.
Legend of Len Barker
January 21st, 2011
9:58 pm
“Losersville” was in reference to a 1977 Sports Illustrated article. Hard to believe that things got worse after that was written. Uncle Ted wasn’t funny back then, either.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1092193/index.htm
No, NOTHING is harder to swallow than 1991. I can’t watch beyond game five on either of the highlight films (the Turner-issued one and the one with John Goodman that aired on TBS). Nearly 20 years and I still can’t do it.
I wonder if Pirates fans still can’t talk about 1992. That didn’t just cost a trip to the Series, that broke them. They haven’t had a winning season since.
.Christopher.Chance
January 21st, 2011
10:15 pm
Danny White was always a underrated quarterback. If Dallas had been able to win one of those 3 straight NFC Championship games that they lost from 80-82 (we lost to Philly, San Francisco and the Redskins)….then maybe he’d get more props.
Most people forget that he was also Dallas’ punter for a number of years. I remember White executing a number of fake punts during his playing days in Dallas.
AFDawg
January 21st, 2011
10:20 pm
GTBob, Don’t include UGA or Athens in this Loserville talk. UGA has 38 national championships — and that isn’t counting the obscure football polls of old (those would add at least three more). Even if you count every football poll there ever was, Tech has six football championships and the lone women’s tennis championship — ouch! Maybe Atlanta is bad luck for sports. Tech should move their campus to Roswell or Sandy Springs for better luck.
Angie O'Plasty
January 21st, 2011
10:31 pm
Atlanta will always choke. I saw the Packers debacle coming a 100 miles away. Like an earlier post said, it’s almost comical in which ways ATL teams can script a meltdown in the playoffs.
Doggoneit
January 21st, 2011
10:45 pm
If you dont like it move away Mark. Come to think of it Savannah is in the same boat!
Chizzledawg
January 21st, 2011
10:52 pm
Mark, we would have an asterik for the strike-shortened season in 1995…..Still a championship though!
Marcus Valdes
January 21st, 2011
10:55 pm
Soon to be seen on an Atlanta bumpersticker: Professional Atlanta Sports Teams–Disappointing fans for over 40 years!
so should we stop
January 21st, 2011
10:56 pm
So at the end of the day or whatever Mark…. should we no longer be a fan of Atlanta sports teams???? get outta here man. I dont care if we never win a title in my lifetime but i plan on supporting atlanta teams through thick and thin.
Three Steps Mister
January 21st, 2011
11:10 pm
283!!!!!!!!!!
BosnianBaller
January 21st, 2011
11:13 pm
Best article ever Bradley!
Rick Grooms
January 21st, 2011
11:17 pm
Maybe thats why no one watches the games instead of talking or trying to start the red neck wave.
Tn Fan
January 21st, 2011
11:21 pm
This is great. Most talk about the Atalnta Chiefs in years. I actually went out on the field with all the other fans (25,000 I think) after the game.
Tn Fan
January 21st, 2011
11:21 pm
Er – Atlanta Chiefs, I mean.
PHILLY FAN IN TEMECULA CA
January 21st, 2011
11:22 pm
ALL IS NOT LOST ATLANTA TROLLS, THERE IS STILL TIME TO JUMP ON PHILLIES AND FLYERS BANDWAGONS, BUT YOU NEED TO HURRY
Thomas
January 21st, 2011
11:23 pm
Mark,
We all knew that and will remain like this for the next several years unless the Arthur Blank owned Falcons can reverse this trend. The reason for this are twofold.
1. The Media in this town
2. The Fans in this town and State.
As long as you and your cronies in the media continue to try and be best buddies with the management of the teams, thereby securing your invitations to the golf outing and black-tie events, and the apathy of the Atlanta sport fans who always seem to settle for mediocrity, things will remain as they are.
Case in point is Bobby Cox and the Braves. This is the only place where he would last as long after taking the team to the playoffs so often and not able to win the big prize except for one season. Yet the media and the Fans here think he is so great.
For years the Hawks had the worst GM in all the NBA, he took over from Kasten, fired Fratello, traded Doc Rivers fro Kenny Anderson, then traded Kenny to Houston for Lucas who never came but retired, and a stiff that was injured and could not play and the following year went to New York and then got released. he then traded Dominique for Danny Manning who bolted at season end, Hired Lenny Wilkins then fired him after the Franchise best years apart from the Mike Fratello years, then hired a college coach and a career assistant from Milwaukee.Signed John Koncak to the biggest contract in the NBA, drafted Adam Keefe, Edwards from FSU, and some others whose name I cannot remember but who were useless. Yet during this time what did you and the other media members do as a reporters? NOTHING. Paul Hewitt who took Tech to the NCAA Finals the farthest a team in these parts have gone, has gotten more heat from you than any, and so did Mike Woodson who I did not care for, but who restored some pride in Hawks Baskeball after more than a decade of futility following the firing of Lenny Wilkins. Until the media stop been so biased in their reporting and start putting the heat on the non performers, and the fans come to realize that management of the sport franchises only emphasis is on bleeding the atlanta sport fans of their hard earned dollar, and demand more things will remain as they are. The teams will always respond with a token emphasis on maintaing fan interest, but not putting a winning product on the field. I must say that the Falcons are the exception, since been acquired by Blank, who has hired very good management people who have a plan towards achieving greatness. If they were never to win a Superbowl it would not be due to a lack of effort on their part.
PHILLY FAN IN TEMECULA CA
January 21st, 2011
11:24 pm
YOU KNOW WHATS FUNNY WHEN FLYERS AND PHILLIES WIN THERE CHAMPIONSHIPS THIS YEAR, NO DOUBT, THATS DOUBLE THE CHAMPIONSHIPS ATLANTA HAS WON IN THERE HISTORY,,HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA LOL HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Greg Mendel
January 21st, 2011
11:28 pm
The Chiefs don’t count? Not a major league sport? Right.
JR1967
January 21st, 2011
11:30 pm
Tonight’s sports headline “Hawks score just 59, lose by 41″ only underscores Bradley’s column even more!