Tuesday, June 05, 2018

Tuesday Top Ten: Teams With Four Championship Appearances in a Row

I feel like this is getting redundant.  The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers are meeting in the NBA finals for the fourth year in a row.  As far as I can tell -- based on my slapdash Wikipedia research -- this is the first time in the history of the four major North American sports leagues that the same two teams have played in the championship series or game four years in a row.

Since it's called Tuesday Top Ten and not Tuesday Top One, I had to expand my search to teams that have played in their league's championship game or series at least four years in a row.  The Warriors and Cavs are the 12th and 13th franchises in the four major sports leagues to have gone to a championship game or series four years in a row.  Some franchises have done it multiple times.  

In addition to the current four sports leagues, I looked at the ABA, AAFC, AFL, and WHA, since many of the teams in those leagues merged into or joined current leagues at various points in time.  One thing to note is that the NFL did not have a championship game until 1933.  Here are the teams that have done it.  I'm going from the most down to the least, and I'll include the team names (obviously), league, years, and how many titles each team won during the span:

1 (tie).  10 years in a row
-Cleveland Browns (AAFC/NFL), 1946-1955 (7-3)*
-Montreal Canadiens (NHL), 1951-1960 (6-4)
-Boston Celtics (NBA), 1957-1966 (9-1)

3 (tie).  5 years in a row
-New York Yankees (MLB), 1949-1953 (5-0)
-New York Yankees (MLB), 1960-1964 (2-3)
-Montreal Canadiens (NHL), 1965-1969 (4-1)
-New York Islanders (NHL), 1980-1984 (4-1)

8 (tie).  4 years in a row
-New York Giants (MLB), 1921-1924 (2-2)
-New York Yankees (MLB), 1936-1939 (4-0)
-Chicago Bears (NFL), 1940-1943 (3-1)
-New York Yankees (MLB), 1955-1958 (2-2)
-Montreal Canadiens (NHL), 1976-1979 (4-0)
-Winnipeg Jets (WHA), 1976-1979 (3-1)
-Los Angeles Lakers (NBA), 1982-1985 (2-2)
-Boston Celtics (NBA), 1984-1987 (2-2)
-Buffalo Bills (NFL), 1991-1994 (0-4)
-New York Yankees (MLB), 1998-2001 (3-1)
-Miami Heat (NBA), 2011-2014 (2-2)
-Cleveland Cavaliers (NBA), 2015-2018 (1-2)**
-Golden State Warriors (NBA), 2015-2018 (2-1)**

*The Browns won the AAFC Championship Game in 1946 through 1949, and then the Browns joined the NFL and went to the NFL Championship Game for six years in a row.
**Obviously, the NBA Finals are still being played, so the Warriors and Cavs haven't yet completed their fourth championship series in a row quite yet.

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