Fans of the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs know all about curses. Red Sox fans referred to it as the Curse of the Bambino when in 1920, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold star player Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in order to gain money to finance a Broadway musical. The Yankees would go onto win 27 world championships since that time thus the reason for the belief in the curse.
Luckily for members of Red Sox nation the curst was broken when the Red Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit by winning four games in a row against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS and then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the 2004 World Series to win their first World Championship since 1918.
Chicago Cubs fans have now been waiting 107 years since their last World Series Championship. I know the pain they feel as I am a true Cubs fan too. Their curse has been labeled the “Curse of the Billy Goat” as in 1945, Billy Goat Tavern owner Billy Sianis was asked to leave a World Series game agains the Detroit Tigers because his pets odor. Upon leaving the stadium, Sianis declared, “them cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.”
Fast forward to the 2003 National League Championship Series when the Cubs had their best chance to go to the World Series. They were up 3-2 in the series and had Mark Prior pitching. He was cruising until the eighth inning when the Steve Bartman incident occurred. The Cubs lost Game Six and then the Florida Marlins dominated Game Seven and advance to the World Series where they defeated the Yankees. The “Curse of the Billy Goat” continued and still goes on today.
In 2009, the BYU football team faced their rival from the north, the University of Utah. It was a game that will go down as one of the best in the rivalry as it was taken to overtime. In overtime, after the BYU defense held the Utah offense to a field goal, senior quarterback Max Hall completed a pass to tight end Andrew George in the middle of the field on second down. George eluded two tacklers and scampered into the end zone for the winning score.
In the postgame press conference, Hall had some powerful words to say about the Utes.
Since that time, Utah has won four straight in the rivalry including the 2011 thrashing they put on the Cougars, winning 54-10 at LaVell Edwards Stadium. One fan has raised the question on Twitter if Max Hall has cursed the program with that rant?
Just realized that #BYUfootball hasn't beaten #UofUfootball since 2009. Did Max Hall curse #BYU with his post-game rant?
— Mike (@HylianGaro) June 30, 2015
It really should make fans wonder if Max Hall has cursed the BYU football program when they face the Utes.
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All one has to do is look at the Red Sox and the Cubs. Four years might not seem like that long but considering that the Utes and Cougars are no longer playing every year it is quite a long streak.
We will have to wait until 2016 to see if this apparent curse can be lifted or if it will continue.