Detroit's 10 Greatest Teams
Honorable Mention to the 1887 Detroit Wolverines. The National League team was the 1st Detroit-based squad to win a league title, but financial concerns forced them out of business after just 1 more season.
Honorable Mention to the 1907-09 Detroit Tigers. 3 straight Pennants, but lost all 3 World Series. They hung on to finish 3rd and 2nd the next 2 years, then fell apart.
Honorable Mention to the 1934-38 Detroit Lions. After moving from Portsmouth, Ohio, they debuted in 1934 with a 10-3 record, then won the NFL Championship in 1935. They were strong for the next 3 seasons.
Honorable Mention to the 1941-45 Detroit Red Wings. 4 trips to the Finals, but only won 1, in 1943.
Honorable Mention to the 1983 Michigan Panthers, winners of the 1st United States Football League Championship.
Honorable Mention to the 1991-99 Detroit Lions. The teams was a joke in the 2000s, but not in the 1990s, the years of Barry Sanders. They made the Playoffs 6 times, and reached the 1991 NFC Championship Game, but their Divisional Playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys at the Silverdome remains, to this day, the only Playoff game that the Detroit Lions have won since 1957. That's right: One postseason game won in sixty years.
Honorable Mention to the 2006-09 Detroit Tigers. Just 3 years after losing an American League record 119 games, they won a Pennant. They finished 2nd the next season, but couldn't sustain it, though they did reach a Playoff for the 2009 AL Central Division title. They were a bit of a different team when they reach the Playoffs again 2 years later.
Honorable Mention to the 2007-09 Detroit Red Wings. 3 straight Conference Finals, and fell 1 game short of back-to-back Stanley Cups.
Honorable Mention to the 2011-16 Detroit Tigers. 4 straight AL Central titles, 3 straight trips to the AL Championship Series, and a Pennant in 2012. After a down year in 2015, they finished 2nd again in 2016, before collapsing last season.
Honorable Mention to the University of Michigan. Their football team won the National Championship in 1947, 1948 and 1997, and was retroactively awarded it for 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1918, 1923, 1932 and 1933. They've also won 42 Big Ten Conference Championships.
Their basketball team won the National Championship in 1989, and also reached the Final Four in 1964, 1965, 1976, 1992, 1993 (the last 2 were stripped), 2013 and 2018. Their women's team has never reached the Final Four.
Their hockey team has won the most National Championships, 9: 1948, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1996 and 1998. And their baseball team won the National Championship in 1953 and 1962.
Honorable Mention to Michigan State University. Their football team won the National Championship in 1952 and 1965, and the Big Ten title 11 times. Their basketball team won the National Championship in 1979 and 2000, and also reached the Final Four in 1957, 1999, 2001, 2005, 2009, 2010 and 2015. Their women's basketball team also made the Final Four in 2005. Their hockey team won National Championships in 1966, 1986 and 2007.
Now, the Top 10:
10. 1934-37 Detroit Red Wings. Reached the Stanley Cup Finals, then missed the Playoffs, then won back-to-back Cups.
8. 1940-45 Detroit Tigers. They had retooled since their 1935 title. They won the 1940 American League Pennant, finished 2nd in 1944, and won the World Series in 1945. They won more games in 1946 (92) than in '44 or '45 (88 both times), but were well into 2nd place.
7. 1934-37 Detroit Tigers. Back-to-back Pennants, and won the 1935 World Series. They finished 2nd the next 2 seasons.
6. 1983-88 Detroit Tigers. A 92-win season was followed by a 104-win World Championship season, then 2 strong 3rd places, a Division title, and a close 2nd.
5. 2002-08 Detroit Pistons. This team didn't have much star power, so it doesn't get nearly the credit it should. They won 6 Central Division titles in 7 years. Oddly, the year they didn't win it was the year they won the whole thing.
They shocked the heavily favored Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals to win the 2004 NBA Championship, then took a more experienced San Antonio Spurs team to 7 games before falling in the 2005 Finals. They also reached the Conference Finals in 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008.
4. 1984-91 Detroit Pistons. After winning only 3 Playoff series in their 1st 27 seasons after moving from Fort Wayne, they won 16 in the next 7. The "Motor City Bad Boys" reached the Eastern Conference Finals in 1987, won the Eastern Conference in 1988, and then won back-to-back NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990. They were finally dethroned by the Chicago Bulls in the 1991 Conference Finals.
3. 1951-57 Detroit Lions. Except for 1955, they finished 1st or 2nd every year, winning the NFL Championship Game in 1952, 1953 and 1957, and losing it in 1954. That 1957 title remains the Lions' last.
They went 8-5-1 in 1961, 11-3 in 1962, 9-4-1 in 1969, and 8-5-1 in 1972, but none of those was good enough to make the Playoffs. Going 10-4 in 1970 was only good enough to get the 1st-ever NFC Wild Card. It was their only Playoff berth between 1957 and 1982, a quarter-century stretch. And 1983 was their only Division title between 1957 and 1991, over 1/3rd of a century.
2. 1994-98 Detroit Red Wings. They reached the 1995 Stanley Cup Finals, then set a single-season NHL record for points but only made the Conference Finals, and then won back-to-back Cups to end a 42-year drought.
They tailed off a little bit, still making the Playoffs for 3 years but not reaching the Conference Finals, then retooled, and the 2001-02 Red Wings won the Cup with perhaps the most statistic-laden team in NHL history: Goalie Dominik Hasek; defensemen Chris Chelios and Nicklas Lidstrom; wingers Brett Hull, Luc Robitaille and Brendan Shanahan; and centers Steve Yzerman, Sergei Fedorov, Igor Larionov and Pavel Datsyuk.
1. 1947-56 Detroit Red Wings. This team could start Hall-of-Famers at every position: Goaltender Terry Sawchuk, defensemen Red Kelly and Jack Stewart (replaced by Marcel Pronovost), and the "Production Line" of left wing Ted Lindsay, center Sid Abel (replaced by Alex Delvecchio), and, of course, right wing Gordie Howe.
Over 9 seasons, they had 7 straight 1st-place regular-season finishes (which would, under today's setup, have earned them 7 President's Trophies), made 7 Stanley Cup Finals, and won the Cup in 1950, 1952, 1954 and 1955.
That 1952 title was the source of the octopus tradition. In those "Original Six" days, 4 teams made the Playoffs, and you had to win 8 Playoff games to win the Cup, as in 8 legs on an octopus.
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