By Cyote Williams | Times Vedette
Halloween is one of my favorite holidays, and its spooky nature got me thinking, what are some of the scariest sports stories out there? For us Cyclone fans, the inherently scary thought of watching the Hawkeyes play tops the list. Outside of that, plenty of curses, hexes and legends exist in the sporting world that make our spines tingle.
Curses are the most famous piece of spooky sports lore. There was the Curse of the Bambino that was created when the Boston Red Sox traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees, which triggered an 86-year World Series drought. The Curse of the Billy Goat left the Chicago Cubs without a World Series for 71 years. There’s the Madden Curse, where the star player who dons the famous video game cover tends to fall to injury or poor performance the following season.
Then, there was the Curse of Ramsey, one that I was familiar with because it’s based around a former Arsenal player. It was said that after he scored a goal, a famous celebrity would die within 72 hours. Steve Jobs, Whitney Houston, Paul Walker and Robin Williams were all famous deaths that occurred near the timing of his goal-scoring efforts. This one is more coincidence than anything else, but it routinely made the rounds across the pond.
During this year’s World Cup, a Ghanaian spiritualist and self-proclaimed witch doctor, Nana Kwaku Bonsam, said he put a hex on England striker Harry Kane before England and Ghana’s World Cup game. The game ended 0-0, and Kane missed a chance to score in the 86th minute. Bonsam said he released Kane from the spell after the game, saying, “Harry, I will come and visit you. Don’t be offended. We are friends.” Was the hex real? All we know for sure is Kane didn’t score against Ghana but did score against Panama in the following game for the Brits. You can be the judge.
This ESPN article detailed some of the most haunted venues in sports. In my research, most stadiums carry some sort of haunted, eerie or spooky vibe to them, most likely because they are old. But this article summarized some of the more concrete stories and lore behind seven different venues.
Sometimes, players themselves can get scared. Unfortunately, for Sam Darnold, he was caught on a hot-mic saying he was “seeing ghosts” in a 33-0 blowout loss to the New England Patriots. It was a bit unfair to air this quote. Darnold had a tumultuous start to his career with the Jets, and this quote made the rounds in the media for weeks afterward. Darnold would eventually exercise those demons and turn his career around, winning a Super Bowl with the Seahawks last season.
Outside of seeing real or fake ghosts, curses or hexes, some athletes do strike real fear into their opponents. Mental or physical, an element of fear exists in all sports. Can you imagine being a running back and seeing Lawerence Taylor or Ray Lewis looking across from you? I’d be terrified.
Football players are easily the scariest, because those guys will really hit you. Other sports can be terrifying, too. In baseball, imagine standing at the plate with Randy Johnson just 90 feet away from you, ready to zip 102 mph right by your face. He exploded a bird with a pitch for crying out loud. Would you want to be in the box against that kind of power?
In basketball, Shaq would rip down backboards. Wilt Chamberlain would be an elite athlete even by today’s standards. Many former players have talked about the fear that Michael Jordon instilled in them during games. Recent players say the same of LeBron James. They are just so good at the sport, it’s scary.
Have any spooky sports stories or memories that I missed? Or players from your day that struck fear into you? I’d love to hear about them. Send me a note at cyote@dmcityview.com.