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
vuduchld
January 21st, 2011
11:33 pm
Atlanta sports is like the city itself, a worn out tired floozy whose act was old long ago. As long as the city tries to make itself more than it is not, then the sorry state will continue with the “city” fielding medicore (at best) sports teams. For those who think I protest too much, all I say is look at the sorry history of sports in this city. When most of the populace cheeers for teams they grew up with, then that is more than enough evidence that I’m right. Heck, growing up in Charleston SC we never followed Atlanta sports teams. In Football it was first the Baltimore Colts, then either the Redskins, Steelers or Cowboys. Now, most people there follow the Panthers. In Baseball it was the Reds, Yanks or Red Sox. In Basketball it was the Lakers, Celtics or some tem other than the Hawks. In essence, we followed winners, not losers.
JR1967
January 21st, 2011
11:34 pm
Legend of Len Barker: Your analysis of Pirate Fans was right on as far as their 1992 heartbreak, but it also has helped that the Pittsburgh Fans have had a great back up with the Steelers winning two Super Bowl titles since and the Penguins three Stanley Cup titles since 1992.
Dr. Warren
January 21st, 2011
11:52 pm
MB is simply telling the truth, folks.
arrowhead1959
January 21st, 2011
11:59 pm
Mark I wrote a month or so ago about the “fiscal sweep” (hey if Tiger can have one…) of all 4 Atl sports teams reaching the playoffs from July 1 2010-July 1 2011, but doubted any team reaching a real milestone in the playoffs; braves and falcons gone-hawks, thrashers soon to follow; Even though it was over 4 hours away I was at the last game of the 95 series, but a drunk guy fell on my mother from the upper deck just as Wohlers was recording the last out; she ended up with 40 stitches at 4 in the morning, and Atlanta playoffs have been cursed for me since; I am also a Ga graduate, don’t get me started……
P Rose
January 22nd, 2011
12:01 am
God, I hate the Dallas Cowboys. I went to every home game in 1980. That was a magical season until that wretched moment.
P Rose
January 22nd, 2011
12:04 am
The moment when Sid slid was the single greatest moment in Atlanta sports history, including the 1995 World Series win, which was tainted by the strike in 94.
icedawg
January 22nd, 2011
12:06 am
Negativity? What do you think the record indicates? The art of losing refined. But it makes a lot of money for someone doesn’t it? You can make money at losing.
NYfalcon
January 22nd, 2011
12:08 am
i am going to print this article out to keep for the next person to speak negative about an Atlanta sports fan not being real and slap the @!%$ out of them with the print out. thx MB for feelin my pain
The Chiefs Baby!
January 22nd, 2011
12:10 am
Mark. I know you like to leave out soccer but soccer was and is a professional sport. And the Atlanta Chiefs won the 1968 NASL championship that season so that is technically 2 professional titles in 148 + 11 soccer seasons = 2 titles in 159 pro seasons. Still dreadful but I disagree with your thought of leaving early. I’ve sat through my share of Hawks, Braves, Falcons and even some Thrasher losses that mattered. And if you are a fan then you still have to support your team. Afterall fan is short for fanatic.
One sports team that is good right now but could be great are the Hawks. They have such a strong and young nucleus that if their owners actually gave a flip and invested just a little more in them then they would have a real good shot of adding to that total. They are really just lacking that one perennial type player that will cost you money but would instantly vault them to the elite of the NBA. Imagine if they had gotten Amare Stoudemire or a quality center this past off season. They would easily be at the top of the east.
t_height
January 22nd, 2011
12:38 am
Well there is luck with the women’s teams in the state and Georgia Southern also. GS and Valdosta State have a few championships in football. UGA gymnastics. Other than that the state is pitiful.
P Rose
January 22nd, 2011
12:42 am
Top 10 reasons why pro sports suck in Atlanta:
1. History. You have to go back to the beginning: Sherman burned it down, the yankees won the war, and the feds gave the town to carpetbaggers and sharecroppers, who ruined it. And still they keep coming, and coming… And most of them wear the opposing team’s colors, which doesn’t help the local teams’ psyches very much.
2. Geography. Atlanta and Phoenix are the only major U.S. cities not located on a major body of water (an ocean, a Great Lake or a major river). Not sure why this matters, but it does. Phoenix is a lousy sports town, too.
3. Climate and economy. Southern cities didn’t develop before the invention of air conditioning because it was too hot, and also because they were slow to recover from post-war depression. So Atlanta wasn’t a big-league city until the middle of the 20th century. Northern cities got a head start — pro sports were born up north, generations passed the traditions on, and dynasties were built while Atlanta was still just a Podunk little town. Ah, but now, thanks to modern technology, Atlanta is a nice town in which to live — much like San Diego, Tampa, and Phoenix — all much nicer than the northeastern cities, from which the carpetbaggers now come in even greater numbers.
4. This is college football country. Always has been, always will be. College football means nothing in the northeast, where pro sports rule. Pro sports don’t matter much to most sports fans down here. You want to talk about passion? Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee and Auburn fans all have more passion than all the northern pro sports fans combined.
5. Rankin Smith was a lousy owner. His sons had no business making football decisions. Losing begat more losing, and a losing mentality took hold.
6. Chief Nockahoma mocked the Native American gods, who took revenge on the Braves.
7. Danny White completed a touchdown pass with less than a minute to play, the Falcons blew a big lead in a pivotal game, and the Dallas Cowboys became the dynasty the Falcons were supposed to be.
8. Mark Wohlers hung a slider, the Braves blew a big lead in a pivotal game, and the New York Yankees became the dynasty the Braves were supposed to be.
9. Eugene Robinson solicited a hooker, and the Falcons lost their mojo and their only Super Bowl.
10. Matt Ryan threw a terrible interception at a terrible time, the Falcons pass rush forgot how to tackle a quarterback, and… well, here we are, still wondering why we still suck.
Oldatl
January 22nd, 2011
1:04 am
I remember that Falcon and Cowboys game because my father lost 20 bucks on them. I remember crying about that game and that probably why I never get my hopes up high for them at all. I have seen the entire Atlanta sports franchise to be disappointing from all angles. The Falcons are a sad story team. The Hawks were always average but at least we had a mega-star like Wilkins for excitement. That probably explain why so many was attach to Mike Vick. We can only get amaze by the players instead of the team. Primetime, the human highlight film, Spud Webb, Jamal Anderson (RB), Billy whiteshoe Johnson, Michael Turner, Steve Smith, Dale Murphy, all the Braves pitchers from the 90’s, you get my point. Just admire the player not the team.
gcs
January 22nd, 2011
1:06 am
You already mentioned it but the bad thing about that “one lousy title” was it came after the strike.
I have been a longtime Braves fan, way before Tom Glavine showed up in Atlanta.
Like many fans, I did not watch many games in 1995 because I was still angry about the strike. My sister stopped watching baseball all together and never came back to it.
I did not follow the Braves’ path to the World Series and when they won, it felt hollow. It’s almost as if it never happened.
.
JR1967
January 22nd, 2011
1:14 am
Speaking of 1995, even as great as the Braves WS Title was, that was also overshadowed that year, not only by the aftermath of the Strike, but Cal Ripken’s streak, which was also evidenced by him being honored during Game 1 of the World Series, including throwing out the first pitch.
Vick Supporter
January 22nd, 2011
2:21 am
Yep, Loserville.
Eric C.
January 22nd, 2011
5:00 am
Ironic that one of the best Atlanta sports moments (NFC Championship game) took place after one of the worst (Game 7 1991 World Series) in the same metrodome.
Eric C.
January 22nd, 2011
5:05 am
Yes, Eugene Robinson screwed up…but who was going to shutdown Bill Romanowski that night who was high on Rx ephedrine?
Eric C.
January 22nd, 2011
5:07 am
Yes, Eugene Robinson messed up…but who was going to stop Bill Romanowski who was high on Rx ephedrine?
Eric C.
January 22nd, 2011
5:09 am
One of the greatest Hawks teams ever assembled in 1986-87 unfortunately had to go up against one of the best Celtics teams ever.
McGarrett
January 22nd, 2011
6:28 am
snakebit
book em danno
Ben
January 22nd, 2011
6:40 am
If you count soccer, the Atlanta Chiefs won the NASL in 1968 I believe. Haven’t trolled through all these comments to see if someone pointed that out.
Sports Writing is a Vacation!
January 22nd, 2011
7:05 am
Forbes has Seattle as the worst and Atlanta second worst. So we have that going for us….which is nice!
On the negative side such miserable cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland and Kansas City are behind our great city!
I vote we all jump on the Atlanta Dream bandwagon!
MrDan
January 22nd, 2011
7:21 am
Hey, what about the Chiefs??
Hot and cold
January 22nd, 2011
7:29 am
Like I always said– Atlanta Falcons can only shoot for a winning season. They are NOT a post season team. They do well all year,they make the post season and then they are shocked to be there. It’s like they feel they don’t belong in the play offs because it is unfamiliar territory,so they come unglued.
Hot and cold
January 22nd, 2011
7:30 am
become unglued*
Angus
January 22nd, 2011
7:33 am
Folks leaving a game early doesn’t mean squat.
Look at the supposed, great fans of KC at the end of the KC-Baltimore game.
Or, oh-my-goodness, did the Pats fans not bail early in Gillette down by only two scores to the Jets? That just can’t be, huh?
Mr. White
January 22nd, 2011
7:40 am
We don’t count soccer in ATL!!!!!!
Jeff Roach
January 22nd, 2011
7:46 am
Wow, Mark! Once again you are so spot on with you refections. As a 53-year old native Georgian, I had no idea! I’ll tell you what’s even more sad than Atlanta’s sports history and that is the fact that a journalist with your insight and talent is being waisted in such a crappy sports town. I think maybe it’s time for you to find a city with a better sports history to share your amazing journalistic talents and where they can be appreciated. To quote another great Georgia native, Mr. Lewis Girzzard; “Delta is ready when you are.”
Oh yeah, has money changed you?
Kevin
January 22nd, 2011
7:47 am
One reason everyone left at 3rd quarter so Fox could see are pretty red seats empty to remind us of the old USFL then.also it sad that we let atlanta falcon fans so called till get in playoff come dress as there old team take Green bay 15,000 so there were there Fans…How they get any tickets when accordin tv news we sold out all here.This is not college where we have split for vistors here.If been eagles here at dome be 24,000 left to cheer Vick again as we would lose bad as did we to packers…Oh and bears will whip smart ass aaron rodgers down for count too..and thrashers will stay here till 2012 i afraid we be in quebec than.
Gordon
January 22nd, 2011
8:13 am
Right on cue, the Hawks score the fewest points in their Atlanta history.
Drill sargeant
January 22nd, 2011
8:41 am
Well why don’t all of us Atlanta sports fans just chug on back to mamby pamby land and gain some selfconfidence? Ya bunch of jackwagons!!
MM
January 22nd, 2011
8:44 am
Sherman did more than burn Atlanta, he put a curse on all sports franchises. Loserville’s motto, “EXPECT TO LOSE.” By the way Sherman never made it to Valdosta.
Keith
January 22nd, 2011
9:09 am
Man, as if winter wasn’t depressing enough, you had to remind us of THIS?
gt
January 22nd, 2011
9:23 am
It is not as much we have developed a generational fan base for college sports, as it is we are damn good at that level and there is a reason. Pro sports is so random. It is a pick up game in the back yard, with strangers. They have more and more taken the college element out of the pros. One and done players that pollute college sports and the campus. Pros have lost the name recognition marketing value, a great college player, who has developed a name in a community for 4 years, brings. I was more interested in Bill Walton’s pro career than I am a Josh Smith today. I felt I had an investment in Bill Walton. Pro scouts in the backwaters of high school basketball, brought a seedy shadow even at the high school level, college scouts are not much better since the kid is only there one or two years, who cares about character or entry requirements. The Las Vegas atmosphere delights a certain kind of person but being a father of two daughters I never felt these public displays of drunkenness and language was a good atmosphere for my kids, still don’t. Tech was the last venue outside a church I felt a large group of nice people gathered for an event. Pro sports started tacky and have gotten more classless as the years go by. The Braves have managed to keep it family oriented, don’t go to hockey games but the one I went to was a nice crowd, just the sport is a new language I can’t get into. We accept cheap entertainment as a norm now, and when the south refuses it the Bowery boys of the north act like we are the jackasses. There is a saying I don’t use often but will here. You came here we didn’t go there, must have been something that made you leave a community, but stop eating your apples in our garden and if you don’t like it the road goes both ways.
gabugman
January 22nd, 2011
9:25 am
I know it’s minor league but I was there and thoroughly enjoyed the Knights’ Turner Cup win. In hindsight, what a shame they were moved to make room for the Thrashers.
Double Zero Eight
January 22nd, 2011
9:29 am
The truth hurts.
Falcons Fan
January 22nd, 2011
9:31 am
So what Mark? You fit right in because you are a loser too!
bill
January 22nd, 2011
9:35 am
might have two if Tom Glavine and those greedy bast******* had not screwed us out of the 1994 series. Glavine and Joe Simpson said some ugly things about fans and for that they can both kiss my ***.
bobby
January 22nd, 2011
9:39 am
Mark, I have been reading your articles in the paper for a while now and have realized something. You are in the wrong profession my man! Yep that’s right. Instead of being a writer you should have been one of the following, a football coach, baseball manager or a Indian chief. You are one of those guys who has all the answers but not enough guts to coach anything or probably play anything but you are very quick to criticize those that do. Well your writing sucks and I will hound you until eternity.
bill
January 22nd, 2011
9:41 am
p rose. DENVER? another no water city that kicked our butt
Stopped Clock
January 22nd, 2011
9:41 am
Mark you remind of a stopped clock. A stopped clock is right twice a day.
brad
January 22nd, 2011
9:42 am
change cities M.B…….. your always negative! i love my atl teams! i will ride with them. we will get one soon.
AFDawg
January 22nd, 2011
9:48 am
P Rose, Regarding your second point — you forgot about the mighty Catahochee River, featured in country music and on the cover of National Geopgraphic for the world’s largest raft race. True statement — point number four. Regarding Pete Rose, I was at the game where Gene Garber ended his hitting streak. So, we’ve got that going for us. I passed on going to the game with a friend the night Hank broke Babe Ruth’s record in lieu of a Boy Scout meeting. Biggest regret of my life, but Atlanta will always be the home of the Homerun King. Regarding your fifth point, the only time I personally met Rankin Smith was walking back from a fishing trip on Wieuca Road, he was drunk and hit a curb and had a flat tire. You wouldn’t believe the rest of the story so I’ll just leave at that.
Gritz
January 22nd, 2011
9:55 am
Mark, I see you liked the Charlie Brown-Lucy cartoon I emailed you last Sunday after the Falcons blew it.
Billyboy
January 22nd, 2011
9:55 am
1 winner for Atlanta sports, but, still zero good articles by Mark Bradley. What should Mark do?
Tim
January 22nd, 2011
9:55 am
Less than a month ago, one of you guys ( I think it was Schultz) did an article about how all the Atlanta sports teams were on the verge of major success. C’mon man! Anybody that’s lived here 20+ years knew better than that.
Doc
January 22nd, 2011
10:00 am
I got everybody beat. Grew up in Philly where there hadn’t been a championship in generations, moved to Atlanta in 1973, felt things couldn’t get any worse by changing my allegiances to the Atlanta teams. Flyers win the cup the next year. Phillies win 2 world series. Eagles been to 2 Super bowls. Sixers win a championship.
Billyboy
January 22nd, 2011
10:02 am
To Doc: You moving anytime soon!
Navigator
January 22nd, 2011
10:05 am
The simple answer for all of the ineptitude, ownerships that had no knowledge of running a sports franchise successfully, and the other small pockets to pay for the best players and have the best facilities.
Falcon 34
January 22nd, 2011
10:11 am
So disappointing, yet so predictable, Mark.
You boom out one of your best articles ever with “5 things to Get Falcons a Super Surge” and then you come back with this trash. Smashing and belittling a city, their fans, and their franchises is just so typical, and frankly you come off as lazy and lame. Nothing like being the “pile on” king, eh?
What makes us true fans of Atlanta sports teams is that we DO continue to follow and support them in the face of such garbage from you and all the rest. Most just simply has to do with the fact that the previous owners could give a crap less about winning and just wanted to make money. Throw all the franchises in that bucket. That changed with the Braves when Ted Turner took over and its changing now that Arthur Blank took over. The Hawks and Thrashers are actually doing pretty good in the face of really terrible ownership.
We all could just jump to a franchise with tradition and previous championships, but that wouldn’t be considered a fan now would it? Or it might in your Benedict Arnold world. You must be taking the role of “Bad Cop” this week, while Schultz takes on “Good Cop.”
So very disappointed in this absurd writing, because you’ve proven you’re one of the best when you don’t go dumpster-diving like this.