Have Any Cities Had a Team in the Championship Game for the Four Major Professional Sports?
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are set to play in (and host!) the Super Bowl becoming the third professional sports team from the City of Tampa to go to a championship game within a year. Tampa does not currently have an NBA team so they cannot be represented in all four championship games of the major professional sports leagues. However, Miami does have an NBA team and also played in the 2020 NBA finals so a pretty good year for professional sports in the State of Florida. Naturally, this made me wonder if any state has ever had a team in all four championship games in a calendar year. In 1980 Pennysylvania accomplished exactly this:
| League | Team | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| NFL | Pittsburgh Steelers | Defeated LA Rams 31-19 |
| MLB | Philadelphia Phillies | Defeated KC Royals 4-2 |
| NBA | Philadelphia 76ers | Lost to LA Lakers 4-2 |
| NHL | Philadelphia Flyers | Lost to NY Islanders 4-2 |
1980 must have been a great year to live in the Keystone State!
Obviously not every state has a team in all four of the major sports leagues but when did each state last have a team play in a championship game? Here are all states with a championship game drought lasting longer than ten years:
| Year | State |
|---|---|
| 1991 | Minnesota |
| 1992 | Oregon |
| 1998 | Utah |
| 2009 | Arizona |
| 2010 | Indiana |
| 2010 | Louisiana |
| 2011 | Wisconsin |
I wrote all my analysis code and put it in a repo here. Finally all of this talk of 1980s sports made me think of one of the greatest music videos ever: