Curses, Jinxes, & Hexes

Hello sports fans! How many of you believe in sports curses? I mean stuff such as “The Curse of the Bambino” of Boston Red Sox lore. I am not so sure that I do but if I did I would certainly say that the University of Alabama is Ole Miss’ unicorn. I'm not saying that Alabama isn’t a better team and didn’t deserve to win last Saturday. What I am saying is that the Rebels play Bama so tight year in and year out but never cross over that hump. I’ve been an Ole Miss fan my entire life (39) and I can only remember 4 Rebel victories and they are very spread out. This got me to thinking and have decided to write this week’s article on jinxes or curses.

In the movie “Bull Durham”, Kevin Costner’s character: Crash Davis tells Susan Sarandon (Annie Savoy): “I told him a player on a streak has to respect the streak”….”If you believe you’re playing well because you’re getting L@1D, or because you’re not getting L@1D, or because you wear women’s underwear, then you ARE!”.

This is what I am talking about. College football is no different than baseball. Players, Coaches, and even fans have all kinds of superstitions. Do you remember John Madden when he was coaching the Oakland Raiders? He never removed the price tag from his slacks. As I have mentioned Ole Miss’ curse is Alabama. The Rebels have only beaten the Tide once in the state of Alabama. That was in 1988 on Bama’s homecoming. Although that was a sweet victory it didn’t make up for all the other times we have had our hats handed to us in T-Town, including this years 24 – 20 loss this past weekend. In fact, as a fan I would rather be blown out than to get my hopes up of a victory just to have it snatched away as you watch the final seconds tick off the clock.

I didn’t have to go looking very far for more instances to support the jinx theory. Growing up in Tuscaloosa I was able to learn a lot of history about Alabama’s football program. The Tide isn’t immune to curses either. In fact they have two.

Surprisingly Alabama’s unicorns are not SEC teams, one independent and one Big 12 school. Not until 1986 had Alabama beaten Notre Dame. The Tide finally got that monkey off their back with a 28 – 10 victory over the Irish in Birmingham. Ironically due to the current AP poll, Alabama’s second jinx team is The University of Texas. Bama has never beaten the Longhorns. NEVER! This fact kind of makes the current AP poll a little more interesting to me. If everything stays like it is now, wouldn’t it be great to have Alabama versus Texas for the National Championship?

Well I'm still not sure there is such a thing as jinxes or curses in athletics but some of this stuff makes me wonder. I would like to hear from anyone else in the SEC nation about their schools curse. I will continue to do some research on the subject, unless it causes bad luck.

Come back on Friday for the weekend’s previews and picks. Until then…..Hotty Toddy

Darryle “Speedy” Clark