 | This articlepossibly containsoriginal research. Pleaseimprove it byverifying the claims made and addinginline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed.(November 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheCurse of Billy Penn (1987–2008) was asports-related curse,urban legend, andpopular explanation for the failure of majorPhiladelphia professional sports teams to win championships following the March 1987 construction of theOne Liberty Place skyscraper, which exceeded the height ofWilliam Penn's statue atopPhiladelphia City Hall.[1] For decades prior to the construction of One Liberty Place, there had been agentlemen's agreement in place to ensure that no building inPhiladelphia would be permitted to be higher than theWilliam Penn statue atopPhiladelphia City Hall.[2]
The curse ended on October 29, 2008, when thePhiladelphia Phillies won the2008 World Series, a year and four months after a statuette of the William Penn figure atop City Hall was affixed to the final beam during the June 2007 topping-off of theComcast Center, which made it the highest building structure in the city at the time.[3]
AtopPhiladelphia City Hall stands a statue ofWilliam Penn, the city founder and original proprietor of the colonial-eraProvince of Pennsylvania.[4] For decades, a "gentlemen's agreement" stated that the Philadelphia Art Commission would approve no building in the city which would rise above this statue.[5] This ended in March 1987, when a modern steel-and-glassskyscraper,One Liberty Place, opened three blocks away. One Liberty Place is taller than City Hall by 397 feet (121 m), rising 945 feet (288 m) in height compared to the height of Penn's hat on City Hall, 547 feet (167 m). Its sister skyscraper,Two Liberty Place, at 848 ft (258 m), followed in 1990.
Philadelphia sports teams had previously enjoyed a run of success in the years prior to the construction and opening of One Liberty Place.Major League Baseball'sPhillies won the1980 World Series and the1983 National League pennant; theNational Hockey League'sFlyers won back-to-backStanley Cups in1974 and1975, and appeared in the finals in1976,1980,1985, and1987; theNational Football League'sEagles appeared inSuper Bowl XV following the 1980 season, losing to theOakland Raiders; and theNational Basketball Association's76ers swept the1983 NBA Finals, as well as making the finals in1977,1980, and1982. Before 1980, the Phillies had appeared in only two other World Series, in1915 and1950, and the Eagles had won noNFC conference championships since the 1966 agreement that had created the Super Bowl, while the 76ers won NBA titles in both Philadelphia and in their previous incarnation, theSyracuse Nationals. TheVillanova Wildcats won the1985 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament in one of the most famous upsets in sports history.
Construction on One Liberty Place began in 1985, two years after the last championship season in Philadelphia.
After One Liberty Place opened, Philadelphia's franchises began a pattern of failures to win a world championship. TheFlyers lost theStanley Cup Finals twice, in1987 to theEdmonton Oilers in seven games (although the Oilers were heavily favored), two months after One Liberty Place opened, and in1997, in a four-game sweep by theDetroit Red Wings which was considered a collapse as the Flyers had home-ice advantage and had dominated the previous three playoff series en route to meeting the Red Wings. ThePhillies upset theAtlanta Braves to win the NLCS, but then lost the1993 World Series in six games to theToronto Blue Jays, with the Series ending onJoe Carter'swalk-off 3-run home run. The76ers lost the2001 NBA Finals to theLos Angeles Lakers in five games, although the defending champion Lakers were favored despite the Sixers having league MVPAllen Iverson. TheEagles lost three straight NFC Championship games from the 2001 through 2003 seasons, before reachingSuper Bowl XXXIX after the 2004 season, only to lose to theNew England Patriots by three points.
In fact, the only years that Philadelphia's franchises reached their league's championship round after One Liberty Place opened were years ofpresidential inaugurations, except for the Flyers in 1987,[6] and losses during such years date back to the 76ers loss in1977.[6] When theFlyers played for the2010 Stanley Cup,The Ottawa Citizen reported that the main reason for that lengthy championship drought was because the only years the city's teams played for championships during that time were yearspresidents were inaugurated.[6] The city's teams had lost championships during such years, beginning with the 76ers themselves in1977.[6] The exceptions during this period were the Phillies in1983 and the Flyers in1987.[6]
In addition, losses in semifinal rounds had occurred ten times since the opening of One Liberty Place. Five of these semifinal eliminations were by the Flyers, in1989,1995,2000,2004 and2008. The 2000 team was one win away from aStanley Cup Finals appearance, after leading the eventual championNew Jersey Devils 3–1 before losing three straight (including Games 5 and 7 at home), the 2004 team lost Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual championTampa Bay Lightning, and the 2008 team lost to their cross-state rivalPittsburgh Penguins in five games. The Eagles accounted for the other three conference-final losses; they lost theNFC Championship Game (the winner of which meets the winner of theAFC's corresponding game in theSuper Bowl) three years in a row from2001 to2003, thus becoming the first NFL team to do this in either conference since theDallas Cowboys of1980–1982, losing the last two at home after posting the best record in the NFC. No other team in NFL history had lost back-to-back conference title games at home since the NFL began its practice in 1975 of awarding home-field advantage in postseason play based on regular-season record. The Eagles lost the 2001 NFC Championship game on the road to the St. Louis Rams 29–24, the 2002 NFC Championship game at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 27–10, and the 2003 NFC Championship game to the Carolina Panthers 14–3. The Rams and Panthers would both lose to the New England Patriots inSuper Bowl XXXVI andSuper Bowl XXXVIII, while the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII over the Oakland Raiders.
The curse was also said to have affectedracehorses from the Philadelphia area, such as theBensalem-Township-basedthoroughbred racehorseSmarty Jones, who saw his bid forhorse racing'sTriple Crown disappear when he finished second in the 2004Belmont Stakes behind 36-1 longshotBirdstone after victories in theKentucky Derby andPreakness Stakes. The curse has also been blamed for the death of the thoroughbred horseBarbaro, who was born and raised in the Philadelphia area and was owned and bred by a couple fromWest Grove, a borough right outside Philadelphia. Though Barbaro won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, his leg was dramatically shattered two weeks later during the 2006 Preakness Stake, leading to the horse's death.[7][8]
Although the curse was not generally considered as extending to college sports, two Philadelphia-area college basketball teams, theSt. Joseph's Hawks (in Philadelphia) and theVillanova Wildcats (inVillanova), which had successful seasons in 2004 and 2006, respectively, failed to reach theFinal Four of the NCAA basketball tournament. Both were eliminated in the fourth-roundElite Eight matches, with St. Joe's, first seed in the East Regional, losing in a close match toOklahoma State, and Villanova, first seed in the Minneapolis Regional, falling to eventual NCAA-championFlorida. Villanova won the national championship in1985, two years before the Liberty Place opening. A third Philadelphia-area team, theTemple Owls (in Philadelphia) has also lost five times in the Elite Eight (1988, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2001).
Villanova ended the college basketball drought for the Philadelphia teams with a national championship in2016 and 2018.
The curse, however, was apparently not extended to professional teams outside the four major sports. The then–Philadelphia Wings of theNLL (indoor lacrosse winter league) won six titles between 1989 and 2001, before moving in 2014, and the now-defunctPhiladelphia Barrage of theMLL, an outdoor summer lacrosse league, won three championships (2004, 2006, and 2007). TheAHL'sPhiladelphia Phantoms, the Flyers' top minor-league affiliate from 1996 to 2009, won theCalder Cup championship in 1998 and 2005. Additionally, thePhiladelphia KiXX of theMISL won their league's championship in 2002 and 2007. TheAFL'sPhiladelphia Soul wonArenaBowl XXII in 2008,ArenaBowl XXIX in 2016, andArenaBowl XXX in 2017 before the league folded in 2019. ThePhiladelphia Freedoms, a tennis team in theWorld Team Tennis league, also won titles in 2001 and 2006. One exception was thePhiladelphia Charge, a women's soccer team in the now-defunctWUSA, which did not win a championship during the three years the WUSA existed, from 2001 to 2003.
In spite of the Curse, when Philadelphia sports teams have reached their league's championship round, Penn's statue has sometimes been decorated to support that team's success. After the Phillies won the1993 National League pennant, for instance, Penn was fitted with an oversized red Phillies baseball cap; when the Flyers went to the1997 Stanley Cup Finals, the city adorned Penn with an orange-torso-with-white-shoulders Flyers jersey, representing the Flyers' road jersey.
When the Sixers faced theLakers in the2001 NBA Finals, Penn's statue was not decorated.Pat Croce, president and part-owner of the Sixers, said he would have "decked out" the statue had the Sixers won but not before.[9] Penn's statue was also left untouched when the Eagles went toSuper Bowl XXXIX in2005.
On June 18, 2007, ironworkers helped raise the final beam in the construction of theComcast Center at 17th Street andJohn F. Kennedy Boulevard inCenter City Philadelphia. In an attempt to end the curse, workers John Joyce and Dan Ginion attached a small figurine of William Penn to the beam, along with the traditional American flag and small evergreen tree.[10]
After the first William Penn figurine was stolen, it was replaced with a smaller 4-inch figure.[3]
On October 29, 2008, thePhiladelphia Phillies won the2008 World Series in five games against theTampa Bay Rays, ending the purported curse. It was the first major league professional sports title for the city of Philadelphia since the1983 NBA Championship. During the TV coverage of the parade which occurred two days later, Comcast aired an ad congratulating the Phillies which featured the small figurine of William Penn standing at the top of the Comcast Center.
On November 27, 2017, the day of the "topping out" of the newtallest building in Philadelphia, theComcast Technology Center, ironworkers once again placed a new William Penn figurine atop the building's highest beam in hopes of warding off the curse.[11][12]
On February 4, 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles defeated theNew England Patriots inSuper Bowl LII 41–33 to win their first Super Bowl in team history, and first championship since the1960 NFL Championship Game.[13] The Eagles would go on to win their second Super Bowl on February 9, 2025 when they defeated theKansas City Chiefs inSuper Bowl LIX, 40–22, avenging their loss to the Chiefs inSuper Bowl LVII two years prior and ending thePresidential Inauguration Curse.[14]
