OT: List of Teams in Major Four Sports That Have Never Won a Championship
Now that the Nuggets have won their first NBA title and the Vegas Golden Knights have FINALLY won their first Stanley Cup, the list of major sports league teams that have never won a championship has shrunk.
NOTE: This list does not take into account teams that won a championship after relocating.
Any of these names surprise you? I could have swore the Buffalo Sabres won a Stanley Cup at some point, but apparently not. The Vegas Golden Knights have, but the Sabres haven’t.
Here’s the list of teams that have never won a title:
WORLD SERIES
- Colorado Rockies
- Milwaukee Brewers
- San Diego Padres
- Seattle Mariners
- Tampa Bay Rays
- Texas Rangers
NBA CHAMPIONSHIP
- Brooklyn Nets
- Charlotte Hornets
- Indiana Pacers
- LA Clippers
- Memphis Grizzlies
- Minnesota Timberwolves
- New Orleans Pelicans
- Orlando Magic
- Phoenix Suns
- Utah Jazz
STANLEY CUP
- Buffalo Sabres
- Vancouver Canucks
- Florida Panthers
- Ottawa Senators
- San Jose Sharks
- Nashville Predators
- Seattle Kraken
- Winnipeg Jets
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Minnesota Wild
- Arizona Coyotes
SUPER BOWL
- Detroit Lions
- Arizona Cardinals
- Atlanta Falcons
- Buffalo Bills
- Carolina Panthers
- Cincinnati Bengals
- LA Chargers
- Minnesota Vikings
- Tennessee Titans
- Cleveland Browns
- Houston Texans
- Jacksonville Jaguars
TEAMS THAT HAVE NEVER WON A SUPER BOWL OR AN NFL/AFL CHAMPIONSHIP
The Lions, Vikings, Browns and Bills all won either an NFL or AFL championship before the Super Bowl era began, so the pro football teams that have never won ANY sort of championship are:
- Arizona Cardinals
- Atlanta Falcons
- Carolina Panthers
- Cincinnati Bengals
- LA Chargers
- Tennessee Titans
- Houston Texans
- Jacksonville Jaguars
Crazy that over 1/3 of the NFL has never won the Super Bowl- I thought the NBA would have the least parity since the Pistons are tied for 6th all time with 3.
Most of the non-winning NBA teams seem to be old ABA teams. The parity seen with baseball is remarkable considering the lack of a real salary cap.
This is a strange time to make this observation. Only four of the ABA teams were merged into the NBA, and one of them just won an NBA championship. San Antonio has won the NBA championship, of course. The Nets have always been a bit of a mess, while the Pacers of course are suffering from a curse I put on them at the end of their ABA days.
Wow, yeah. I did think more of those teams were old ABA teams.
And clearly the Flint Tropics were omitted from the list.
In 2023, I'd rather be a Lions fan, or a Bengals fan, than a Cowboys fan:
hilarious
So basically Nebraska too.
NY Giants fan here--the Cowboys are right up there with OSU on my personal sports hate-meter. I approve that weather man's message.
Don't like the Cowboys. That was a good one :D
Lions never even made it to the superbowl, most of the teams on the least have at least made it that far..... maybe in my lifetime, maybe
I think it's the Texans, Lions, Browns, and Jaguars are the only teams in the NFL to never play in a Super Bowl.
The Sabers and Canucks are the ones that stick out to me on the NHL list... Buffalo had multiple chances with the Scotty Bowman coached teams in their early history and then with the Hasek team that almost beat the Stars. The Canucks have to be one of the all-time mediocre teams in history considering their length in the league and that they're Canadian. But they honestly haven't had the star power that the Canadiens, Leafs, Flames, Oilers, or even Jets had over their history. Just a bunch of kind of OK guys that had some good teams but never really stood out for a period of time as consistent cup contenders.
Those '94 Canucks were so close. Then they totally biffed Game 7 at home in 2011.
Yes! That 2011 team was exceptional and just totally chocked away a cup
"I started to write that the LA Chargers won the Super Bowl two years ago -- then I realized it was the LA Rams. These teams changing cities really screws with my sense of what's right."
- Man, shouting at cloud
I swear, I can't tell about 25% of the teams in the NFL apart anymore.
I went on and on to a friend last year about the incredible running back for the Texans, how he was a force of nature at Alabama and I couldn't believe a guy his size was that fast and taking on that ridiculous workload etc...
Yeah, I mean Derrick Henry, and no, he doesn't play for the Texans and never has. At least the Chargers guy had the right city.
As a Buffalonian, it was hard to see Jack Eichel win a cup. The Pegulas really messed up letting a generational talent go despite the risk with his neck. Hindsight is 20/20 I guess. At least we got Owen Power.
yeah, i was hoping eichel would be the guy to heal the wounds of the brett hull game...the sabres are probably the team on the list that most 'deserves' to win one.
As a Buffalonian, I hear you. But Eichel was always a great player and not a great captain. He has a pretty strong me-first mentality. While I will admit that Buffalo has had some management and payroll issues ($79M payroll in 2023 vs. $110M for Vegas), Eichel handled it poorly. And frankly, Vegas wins the cup with or without Eichel. He can stack up the stats (especially in the blowouts), but on that team he was probably the 4th or 5th most important player. He got to ride a deep team and a hot goalie to get his name on the cup, and now I hope they choke on his salary.
Lots of Minnesota on that list.
[Says tortured fan of Minnesota sports teams.]
At least we got Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek at the rest of the ‘87 and ‘91 Twins.
To hell with your '87 Twins.
/s
kinda
The biggest surprise in all of those names, to me, is the Tampa Bay Rays. They've been such a consistently competetive franchise, yet never managed to make it to the top.
i'm about 99% sure that the chargers won an AFL championship...one of the tobin rote / lance alworth teams, i think?
and the titans franchise won at least two AFL championships when they were the oilers.
EDIT: my apologies, didn't notice the "not after relocation" reference in the OP.
Yes, the Chargers won the 1963 AFL title. And at the risk of being really picky to the OP, the Vikings' NFL title wasn't before the Super Bowl era, it was during it - right before they got blown out in SB IV by Stram, Dawson, et al. - the last game before the merger. So they were the last NFL champs not to win the SB. Still waiting...
The Chargers' first season was in 1960 in LA, but they relocated to San Diego for their second season in '61.
The Chargers were one of the dominant franchises in the early years of the AFL, playing in five of the first six AFL championship games.
Almost all of the teams I root for have won a title in my lifetime.
It's now down to the NY Jets, Predators, Padres, and Lions.
It's very nice to not see any Philly teams on this list.
Thank you Nick Foles.
Don't forget Seattle's curse on the Thunder! They ain't won shit yet!!
For some reason the NBA list sticks out to me the most. Perhaps that's beacuse I was all about the bball in the 90's as a kid. The teams that stick out to me on that list are the Suns (Barkley era), Pacers (Reggie/Jermaine era) and the Jazz (Malone/Stockon era).
Also, the Magic with early Shaq and Penny Hardaway. I still remember calculating the chance of Nick Anderson missing 4 FT's in a row in G1 of the 95 Finals. He was around a 70% shooter at the time. 30% chance to miss each one, sequentially (.3 x .3 x .3 x.3) = .0081 (.8%) chance that occurs. Obviously less pressure on other ones in the season but still. Hard to watch that to this day and I don't even care about the Magic.
Perhaps that's beacuse I was all about the bball in the 90's as a kid. The teams that stick out to me on that list are the Suns (Barkley era), Pacers (Reggie/Jermaine era) and the Jazz (Malone/Stockon era).
Uh, there was this guy playing in the '90s in the NBA, he was pretty good, his name was Mick Juergen or something like that....
Yeah wasn't he in a sports drink commercial or something? Shoes? I dunno....
The Rays and the Rangers are both looking like serious MLB contenders this season. I'll go out on.a limb right now and predict it'll be one of those two teams that breaks a drought this October.
Meanwhile, Pizza Boy Jr needs to sell the Tigers. Haven't won the World Series since 1984 and right now it looks very unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Only five games out of first!
Why should you discount relocation? The only city that got to keep their team name when a franchise moved was Cleveland, and that was after they agreed not to sue both the NFL, Model, and Baltimore for the Browns leaving.
Also you said won a championship after relocation. In that case the Titans need to be removed. They won them Before they moved and the team still claims the win 2 AFL Championships, that were won as the Oilers back in 1960 and 1961.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Football_League_playoffs
I think he just awkwardly worded it. I believe what he meant to say is that he is including championships won by a franchise before relocating to their current city.
This is why the Atlanta Hawks aren't on the list, despite having never won a championship in ATL. They did win one as the St Louis Hawks in the 50s.
"The only city that got to keep their team name when a franchise moved was Cleveland"
Different sport, but the MLB Philadelphia Athletics kept their team name when they moved to Kansas City in 1954, and owner Charlie Finley kept the team name when he moved the franchise to Oakland in 1967.
No read what I said. The team name stayed with the city. If that had been the case with the Athletics the name would have stayed in Phily.
God help me if I see the Browns or the Lions win the Super Bowl before I see the Dolphins.
Glad Vegas finally got their Cup, those fans have suffered.
What's great is that the Vegas owner said at a press conference in year one that Vegas was going to win the Cup in six years, and they did.
Glad Vegas finally got their Cup, those fans have suffered.
Is this some kind of joke?
Toronto has gone 56 years without a Cup. Vancouver and Buffalo are on year 53. The Flyers are at 48 years and the NY Islanders are at 40 years.
Hell, the Red Wings went 42 years without a Cup and suffered years of brutal playoff disappointments before breaking through in '97.
Yet, somehow, after only 6 or 7 years, Vegas is somehow, "suffering?"
Give me a break....as much as, or maybe even more so than Colorado Vegas is the epitome of everything that is wrong with big time pro sports now.
Is this some kind of joke?
I have a feeling that's exactly what it is.
I saw a tweet that said “it’s been 10,000 days since Dallas won a Super Bowl”. It was accompanied by several pics of what I assume are embarrassing moments in their losing streak. I smiled…
LOL It's been approximately 23,725 days since the Detroit Lions last won an NFL championship.
10,000 days, great Tool album
5 hundred 25 thousand 600 minutes, how do you measure, measure a year?
The Ottawa Senators have won the Stanley Cup 11 times: 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1920, 1921, 1923, and 1927