At Virginia, it sometimes seems as if being miserable is a badge of honor. Respect is gained in the wee hours at Clemons -- war waged over who can outdo who in total assignments and impending tests.
Sports can be the same way at times: fans attempt to outdo each other for whose team is worse. No question, those fans would prefer to cheer on a winner, but just like a Commerce School group forced to meet at 3 a.m. on a Sunday night, if they're going to be miserable, they better at least be the best at it.
Red Sox devotees used to hold the title as the most tortured fan base in sports until last week's world championship. Some are calling the win one of the greatest sports stories ever, and looking at the way they won, it certainly has to be. Only the Red Sox could come back from three down and then sweep the best team from the regular season.
The bigger issue, however, is who will now accept the mantle of the most tortured fan base in sports. As I pointed out, I am in no way accusing these fan groups of wanting to be losers. They just want to be the best losers they can be.
Let's start with the obvious successor to the throne -- the Chicago Cubs. The Chicago franchise is almost as maligned as the Red Sox, and their title drought is actually longer, stretching back to 1908. People also believe, as they did with the Sox, that the Cubbies are cursed.
The Cubs have also experienced many lean years, years mocked in the timeless cinematic classic "Rookie of the Year," about a kid who helps pitch the Cubs to a World Series. Despite this movie's lack of plausibility, I'd be willing to bet that guys worse than Chet Steadman, played by Gary Busey, pitched for the Cubs since 1945.
In football, the Minnesota Vikings have to be considered part of the debate. The Vikings boast four Super Bowl losses and despite fielding several good teams since their run in the 1970s, haven't been back in the Super Bowl since 1977. The Vikings were founded in 1961, so their fans have suffered 43 years without a championship.
The Cubs and Vikings always come up in a discussion of the most torturous team to cheer on, so talking about them more would just be rehashing old arguments. To find a possibly more tortured fan base, I didn't have to look far. I simply glanced over at University Hall and thought of Virginia basketball fans.
Virginia fans have been cheering on the Cavaliers since 1905 when Henry Lannigan began his 24-season run at the Virginia helm. In the program's first 66 years, the Cavaliers only appeared in the postseason once. After the 1940-41 season the Cavaliers suffered a surprising (or for Virginia, unsurprising) early exit in the NIT against the City College of New York.
Even when Ralph Sampson played for Virginia in the early 1980s, and Terry Holland was setting the course for the Cavaliers, the team couldn't track down the elusive national championship. Holland led the team to two Final Fours in the 1980s, but Virginia students never got to light bonfires in homage to their team, as their ACC rivals to the South, North Carolina and Duke have done so many times. Other teams have suffered for as long as the Cavaliers, but few teams without a championship can boast a three-time national player of the year, as Virginia can with Sampson.
The Jeff Jones years were also championship-free, despite several strong teams during the mid-1990s. In 1998, Pete Gillen arrived, and Cavalier fans have been subjected to more disheartening problems despite Gillen's early promise. This time the problems are concentrated in player departures and poor team defense.
This program has gone almost 100 years without a championship, besides a single ACC crown in 1976, longer than the Cubs and Red Sox droughts, and twice as long as the Vikings have actually existed.
Virginia basketball fans are clearly one of the most tortured fan bases in the nation. I think it's time that the program takes its rightful place in the group of titles you don't want, along with "best player not to win a major" and "best quarterback not to win a Super Bowl." Virginia basketball fans seem primed for the mantle of most tortured fan base, even if the rest of the nation isn't paying attention.
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