Why does Philadelphia not have a true sports dynasty? (York: 2014, receptions)
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Hello Philadelphians and Negadelphians alike! This post is being made to make some light at the fact that despite Phialdelphia's reputation as a tough sports town and it's raucous fans, the city of Brotherly Love never had a true sports dynasty and the only sports dynasty that I can come up with are the good old Philadelphia Wings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philad...s_(1987–2014)) of MILL (Major Indoor Lacrosse League) fame. It's a shame that the old league wasn't as supported as much, but the wings did win 6 MILL titles and are only tied with the Toronto Rock, who also have 6 MILL titles.
Between 1989 and 1998, the Wings won 5 MILL championships within a 10-year span, including 4 more championships in the 1990's, the most in that decade, than any other indoor lacrosse team during that decade (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...onship_history). The heated rivalry between the Wings and the Buffalo Bandits resulted in a MILL Championship rivalry, in which Buffalo beat the Wings in 1992, 1993, and 1996, the only championship losses in the Philadelphia Wings' history.
Other than the three losses to Buffalo, the 1990's were a great and exciting time for the Wings, as the Wings were able to beat the NY Saints in 1989, the Boston Blazers in 1990, Buffalo Bandits in 1994, Rochester Knighthawks in 1995, the Baltimore Thunder in 1998, and the Toronto Rock, in 2001. There have been support for the Wings, but the old franchise died in 2014, and the new Wings haven't exactly set the National Lacrosse League on fire like the old days.
The Birds, when they wore the good, old, and reliable kelly greens, were 3-0 in NFL Championship games in 1948, 1949, and 1960, with the only loss in 1980 to the Raiders. When the dreaded (in my honest opinion) midnight greens replaced the beautiful kelly greens, at first the new logo was an eyesore, but as Donovan McNabb was selected in the first round, and a younger Andy Reid became head coach, while the first year didn't give fans any hope, the second year saw the Eagles go to the playoffs, and in 2001, reach the NFC Championships, where the Birds lost to the Rams.
The Birds were heavily favored to go to the Super Bowl, until they were upset by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as Ronde barber intercepted the football from McNabb in the red zone and marched 92 yards to not only give the Bucs their first Super Bowl appearance (and eventual championship against the Oakland Raiders), but placed the stunned Eagle faithful in near silence and shock as the heavily favored Eagles had to watch the Bucs celebrate their victory on hostile ground as the very last sporting event in the old Veterans Stadium dashed what should've been a trip to San Diego.
The Eagles faced Carolina in the 2003 NFC Championship, only to be outclassed by the Panthers, and while everything seemed well when the Birds finally beat Michael Vick and the Atlanta Falcons, the performance in Super Bowl XXXIX was the most humiliating ever by a quarterback, as McNabb threw up almost at the end of the game. Terrell Owens, the controversial wide receiver, put up 122 receiving yards from 9 receptions, but despite playing with a bad ankle, had an MVP-calibre performance. But Tom Brady, Bill Belichick, and company, did enough to hold off the Birds, and claim yet another sports dynasty for Boston and New England. The Birds would eventually get even in Super Bowl LI, but once 2020 hit, the Pats would have 6 Super Bowl championships, while we have only one.
The Philadelphia Phillies, to this day, still have the most losses than any Major League Baseball team with 11,174 losses, the most by a franchise founded in the 19th century, and only the Baltimore Orioles have the same winning percentage as Philadelphia, with .473 as of this writing (BTW, the O's beat our team back in the 1983 World Series, and a young Cal Ripken, before he became MLB's Ironman, was a young star in the making).
The 1964 collapse may haunt a lot of older fans, but probably the best chance to become a dynasty was during the early 80's, when the Phillies, after winning the 1980 World Series and being the only Philadelphia sports team to win a major sports championship in that unlucky year (the Flyers, Sixers, and after the Phillies won the WS, the Eagles lost within a year). Here's more detail about how the Phillies were almost a dynasty in this link: https://www.historylive.net/almost-a-dynasty
The Flyers were this close to becoming the first Philadelphia sports team to not only be a dynasty, but a three-time consecutive championship, and it could've happened had Bernie Parent, the two-time Vezina & Conn Smythe winning goaltender, been healthy for the playoffs, which didn't happen, and while the Flyers, the Patrick Division champions for the 1975-76 season, made it all the way to the Stanley Cup Championship, they didn't have Parent behind the net, giving Montreal their first of four consecutive Stanley Cup Championships in the late 70's, and turning the Flyers into just another goon squad of the 1970's and replacing the Big Bad Bruins of the early 70's.
If the 1970's Flyers were the team that Almost Had a Dynasty, then the 1990's Flyers were the team that Never Had a Dynasty. Despite drafting Lindros in the 1992-93 season in a heavy bidding war with the hated New York Rangers after the young 19-year old rookie refused to be drafted by the Quebec Nordiques due to Quebec owner (Marcel Aubut) insulting Lindros' mother, the 6'4'', 240 lbs centerman never wore the Nordiques' jersey and instead refused to play a game in Quebec.
The Nordiques were forced to deal Lindros to one of the two bidding teams, and when Philadelphia was chosen, the Flyers gave up a lot of talent, including fan favorites Ron Hextall and Mike Ricci, and a Hall of Fame prospect named Peter Forsberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Lindros_trade) for Lindros. He would make an impact in the NHL, with his combination of not only strength, but speed and endurance.
He'd make the 1992-93 All Star team as a rookie, and in the 1993-94 season, would continue to endure as a major ice hockey force, but in 1994, when John LeClair was brought to the Flyers along with defenseman Eric Desjardins from the Montreal Canadiens, the combination of Lindros, Mikael Renberg, and Leclair, would form to make the trio the Legion of Doom, named because of their height (over 6 ft. tall) and their weight (over 200 lbs.).
It seemed like the physical Lindros, the skilled Renberg, and the enthusiastic Leclair would be a match made made in heaven, until a 6-game upset in the 1995 ECF upended their quest for a cup against the hated New Jersey Devils. The Devils would win their very first cup in the strike shortened 1994 season, their first of three Stanley Cups won in 1994, 2000, and 2003, within a ten-year span.
The next season, the #1 seed Fleyrs would be upset by the Florida Panthers in the EC semifinals, and the following season, the Flyers were heavily favored to beat Detroit in the 1997 Stanley Cup Finals, only to be swept. As a Flyers fan who never even lived when Clarke, Barber, Macleish, and company skated around the opposition while Schultz, Kelly, Dupont, and Crisp pounded away at those who wanted to exact revenge, the 1990's was practically the most painstaking as a fan, and after the 4-game drubbing of the Flyers by the Red Wings, before the TO-McNabb divided a fan base, the Clarke-Lindros saga was a never-ending soap opera of despair and tragedy. That saga alone, as well as seeing the Buffalo Sabres get literally cheated out of a cup against the Dallas Stars in 1999 were the sole reason why I don't watch hockey like I used to back in the 1990's.
I can only hope that people share their thoughts about their disappointments and I can only hope that this post does serve as some sort of therapy, considering that even though we're a sports city, the fact that we've never had a sports dynasty to claim as one of our own is a little upsetting and unnerving for some.
Philadelphia has had a sports dynasty:
The most successful franchise (of the major four) Philadelphia has ever had hasn't been here since 1954 - the soon-to-be Las Vegas A's (currently in Oakland, where they've been since 1968 and won four WS, with a thirteen year stop (1955-67) in Kansas City, where they were mostly second-division).
They won five World Series titles and nine American League Pennants in their time spent here between 1901 and 1954.
They were Philadelphia's only dynasty by winning three World Series (1910, 1911, 1913) and one Pennant (1914) in a five year span.
They also won back-to-back World Series titles in 1929 and 1930, with a Pennant in 1931.
The big disappointment for many Phillies fans is that the team should have won more then one World Series (2008) between 2007 - 2011. What talent that team had ...
Philadelphia has had a sports dynasty:
The most successful franchise (of the major four) Philadelphia has ever had hasn't been here since 1954 - the soon-to-be Las Vegas A's (currently in Oakland, where they've been since 1968 and won four WS, with a thirteen year stop (1955-67) in Kansas City, where they were mostly second-division).
They won five World Series titles and nine American League Pennants in their time spent here between 1901 and 1954.
They were Philadelphia's only dynasty by winning three World Series (1910, 1911, 1913) and one Pennant (1914) in a five year span.
They also won back-to-back World Series titles in 1929 and 1930, with a Pennant in 1931.
The big disappointment for many Phillies fans is that the team should have won more then one World Series (2008) between 2007 - 2011. What talent that team had ...
I forget about the Philadelphia Athletics! I guess I was looking at recent history than the early 20th century. Nowadays, the A's are in Oakland, and in recent history, the A's won three in a row from 1972 to 1974, the only other pro baseball franchise to win three or more consecutive World Series titles other than the Yankees. And the A's are planning on moving to Las Vegas, so go figure!
But other than the A's, the other remaining Philadelphia sports teams have either been close to achieving a dynasty like the 1970's Flyers, potential to being sort of dynasty like the early 1980's and the late 2000's Phillies, or had a lot of hype, but never came close to winning anything like the 1990's Flyers.
And what bugs me about the 2000's Phillies was that we should've really beat the Yankees, but a lot of foul and funny stuff was going on, especially when A-Rod hit the camera and that's counted as a home run!
The Eagles in the 2000's during the Andy Reid/McNaab era had a chance to be a dynasty but they kept choking in the big games and losing to teams they should've easily beaten with the exception of the 2001 Rams team in the NFC Championship.
Interesting enough the Eagles recently lost the Super Bowl against the very same coach that couldn't when the big game for them when he coached in Philly.
The Eagles in the 2000's during the Andy Reid/McNaab era had a chance to be a dynasty but they kept choking in the big games and losing to teams they should've easily beaten with the exception of the 2001 Rams team in the NFC Championship.
Interesting enough the Eagles recently lost the Super Bowl against the very same coach that couldn't when the big game for them when he coached in Philly.
I am always amused that the Flyers got rid of Carter and Richards because they weren't serious enough. They immediately went out and won 2 Cups together in LA while the Flyers have been pretty close to irrelevant ever since.
The Eagles in the 2000's during the Andy Reid/McNaab era had a chance to be a dynasty but they kept choking in the big games and losing to teams they should've easily beaten with the exception of the 2001 Rams team in the NFC Championship.
Interesting enough the Eagles recently lost the Super Bowl against the very same coach that couldn't when the big game for them when he coached in Philly.
The funny thing here is, between the A's and the two Philadelphia Eagles coaches who went on to coach the Kansas City Chiefs (Dick Vermeil being the first), the sports histories of my forever and adopted hometowns are strangely intertwined.
In the mid- to late 1970s, the expansion team granted to Kansas City after the A's moved to Oakland — Kansas Citians generally despised team owner Charles "Charley O" Finley because they believed he deliberately made the A's awful in order to move them out of the city — owned the American League West. I spent several years watching the New York Yankees mow down the Kansas City Royals in the AL playoffs. Then, when they finally made it to the World Series for the first time in 1980, they lost to the Phillies. (The consolation came five years later, when the Royals picked up their first Series pennant by beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the "I-70 Series.")
Then we have Super Bowl LIV. Iggles Nation was actually rooting for the Chiefs because most of its members believed Andy Reid deserved a Super Bowl ring. I watched the game from the bar that Big Charlie's Saloon set up in McKean Street.
My original game plan for Supe LVII was: I was going to watch it from Big Charlie's and write about it for Phillymag readers from the perspective of a KC fan watching it in deep Eagles country. Then Big Charlie's canceled the watch party after some 200 people called asking for wristbands to enter. My suspicion is that most of those who called were Eagles fans bent on disrupting the party in some fashion. I also heard through the grapevine that the owners also feared actual physical harm or damage to Philly's only Emmy Award-winning bar. (I also heard from someone that the proprietors did hold a very quiet watch party for the regulars anyway. Not being one of them, I couldn't go but would have loved to. I ended up watching the game from the only place I could do so safely: My own home.)
I'm not a rabid sports fan to begin with, but when people ask, I tell them I'm an Eagles fan unless they're playing the Chiefs.
The funny thing here is, between the A's and the two Philadelphia Eagles coaches who went on to coach the Kansas City Chiefs (Dick Vermeil being the first), the sports histories of my forever and adopted hometowns are strangely intertwined.
In the mid- to late 1970s, the expansion team granted to Kansas City after the A's moved to Oakland — Kansas Citians generally despised team owner Charles "Charley O" Finley because they believed he deliberately made the A's awful in order to move them out of the city — owned the American League West. I spent several years watching the New York Yankees mow down the Kansas City Royals in the AL playoffs. Then, when they finally made it to the World Series for the first time in 1980, they lost to the Phillies. (The consolation came five years later, when the Royals picked up their first Series pennant by beating the St. Louis Cardinals in the "I-70 Series.")
I really wish The A's would've stayed in Philly and kept the city a "2 baseball team town" like NYC, LA, and Chicago. I think having the 2nd MLB team remain in the city would've put more pressure on the Phillies to be championship contenders more often since the 1950's. While I doubt the Phillies would've had a dynasty, I think they would've definitely won their 1st World Series before 1980.
Ironically the A's are planning on relocating from Oakland to Las Vegas. As much as I would love for them to comeback to Philly we all know that the Phillies would fight tooth & nail and do everything within their power to keep the A's or any other MLB franchise from relocating to Philly because they want to be the only MLB team in town despite Philadelphia being the 4th largest sports market in the country
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