What Is a "Dynasty," In Sports?

The official 1990-91 record book for the NHL, published at the start of the season, had a special section on "dynasties." They defined "dynasty" as follows: 3 straight Stanley Cups, or 4 out of 5, or, to cover the one then just completed, that of the Edmonton Oilers, 5 out of 7.

That definition was good enough for me then. I'll extend it a little now, and say that 4 out of 6 qualifes.

Tomorrow, the Kansas City Chiefs will attempt to become only the 4th team to win 3 straight NFL Championships, the 2nd to win 3 straight NFL Championship Games under any name, and the 1st to do so since the name "Super Bowl" began to be used. The Philadelphia Eagles stand in their way.

Here goes:

Baseball

1. 1872-78 Boston Red Stockings: 6 out of 8 World Championships, as that was then defined. That's 4 straight Pennants in the National Association, 1872-75; missing 1876; then 2 straight in the National League, 1877-78. This is the franchise now known as the Atlanta Braves.

2. 1880-82 Chicago White Stockings, 3 straight World Championships. This is the franchise now known as the Chicago Cubs.

Just missed: 1885-88 St. Louis Browns: 4 straight Pennants in the American Association, but won the World Championship only in the 1st 2, losing in the last 2. This is the franchise now known as the St. Louis Cardinals.

3. 1891-93 Boston Beaneaters: 3 straight World Championships. Same team as 1, now the Braves.

4. 1894-96 Baltimore Orioles: 3 straight World Championships. Despise this success, they went out of business after the 1899 season, and have no connection to the current team of the same name.

Just missed: 1901-03 Pittsburgh Pirates. Losing the 1st World Series, in 1903, cost them.

Just missed: 1906-08, and 1906-10, Chicago Cubs. 3 straight Pennants, and 4 out of 5, but 2-2 in World Series play.

Just missed: 1910-14 Philadelphia Athletics. 4 Pennants in 5 years, but 3-1 in World Series play.

Just missed: 1912-18 Boston Red Sox: 4 out of 7 is close, but not quite there.

Just missed: 1921-23 New York Yankees: 3 straight Pennants, but 1-2 in World Series play.

Just missed: 1921-24 New York Giants: 4 straight Pennants, but 2-2 in World Series play.

Just missed: 1926-28 New York Yankees: 3 straight Pennants, but 2-1 in World Series play. It could be extended to 1921-28: 6 Pennants in 8 years, but 3-3 in World Series play.

Just missed: 1929-31 Philadelphia Athletics: 3 straight Pennants, but losing Game 7 of the 1931 World Series cost them.

5. 1936-39 New York Yankees: 4 straight World Series. If you want to extend it to 1936-43, that's 8 seasons, 7 Pennants, and 6 World Series.

Just missed: 1942-46 St. Louis Cardinals: 4 Pennants and 3 World Series wins in 5 seasons.

6. 1949-53 New York Yankees: 5 straight World Series. Never done before, never done since. If you want to extend it, 1947-64: 16 seasons, 13 Pennants, 10 World Series wins.

Just missed: 1959-66 Los Angeles Dodgers: 4 Pennants and 3 World Series wins in 8 seasons.

Just missed: 1966-71 Baltimore Orioles: 4 Pennants and 2 World Series wins in 6 seasons.

Just missed: 1970-76 Cincinnati Reds: 4 Pennants and 2 World Series wins in 7 seasons. This team often gets talked about as the greatest of all time, especially the back-to-back titles of 1975 and '76. But it wasn't as good as the Baltimore team that beat them in the 1970 World Series, must less the Oakland team that beat them in the 1972 edition.

7. 1972-74 Oakland Athletics: 3 straight World Series. They are the only franchise other than the Yankees ever to do it. If you want to extend it to 1971-75, that's 5 straight Division titles, but no other Pennants. Sadly, the franchise's owner has now abandoned Oakland.

Just missed: 1976-81 New York Yankees: 5 Division titles, 4 Pennants and 2 World Series wins in 6 seasons.

Not even close: 1984-90 New York Mets: 7 seasons, just 2 Division titles, 1 Pennant, 1 World Series win. As Michael Wilbon would say on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption, "Dynasty of One."

Just missed: 1988-92 Oakland Athletics: 4 Division titles, including 3 straight Pennants, in 5 seasons, but only 1 World Series win.

Just missed: 1991-93 Toronto Blue Jays: 3 straight Division titles, and 2 World Series wins. But they had already been broken up in 1994, before the strike hit.

Just missed: 1991-99 Atlanta Braves: 9 seasons, 8 Division titles, and 5 Pennants, but just 1 World Series win, in 1995.

8. 1998-2000 New York Yankees: 3 straight World Series. If you extend it to 1996-2003, that's 8 seasons, 7 Division Titles, 6 Pennants and 4 World Series.

Just missed: 2010-14 San Francisco Giants: 3 World Series wins in 5 years.

Just missed: 2017-22 Houston Astros: 6 seasons, 4 Pennants, 2 World Series wins.

Just missed: 2017-24 Los Angeles Dodgers: 8 seasons, 4 Pennants, 2 World Series wins. They could add to this total.

Football

1. 1922-24 Canton/Cleveland Bulldogs: 3 straight NFL Championships. This was the original, single-division version of the NFL that ran from 1920 to 1932. This team moved from the smaller city of Canton to the nearby larger city of Cleveland for the 1924 season, then moved back to Canton for 1925, then were moved to become the Detroit Wolverines in 1929, and then went out of business.

2. 1929-31 Green Bay Packers: 3 straight NFL Championships. Unofficially, the 1st NFL Championship Game was played the next season; officially, the season after that.

Just missed: 1940-46 Chicago Bears: 4 NFL Championships in 7 years. I'm tempted to say this one counts, because the 1944 and '45 seasons were depleted due to the manpower drain of World War II, which would make it 4 out of 5, and nearly 5 straight as they were undefeated in 1942 before losing the NFL Championship Game to the Washington Redskins, having beaten the Redskins in the title game in 1940 (73-0!) and 1943. But, strictly speaking, the Monsters of the Midway just miss.

Just missed: 1947-49 Philadelphia Eagles: 3 straight NFL Championship Games, but lost the 1st of them.

Just missed: 1950-55 Cleveland Browns: 3 NFL Championships in 5 years. They won the title in all 4 seasons of the All-America Football Conference, 1946-49; and made 10 straight league championship games, 1946-55, winning 7. But the AAFC was not a major league. The Browns would make their point in the NFL, but fall a little short of dynasty status.

Just missed: 1952-57 Detroit Lions: 3 NFL Championships in 6 years, plus one other Championship Game appearance.

3. 1965-67 Green Bay Packers: 3 straight NFL Championships, including the 1st 2 Super Bowls. If you extend it to 1961-67, that's 5 World Championships in 7 seasons.

Just missed: 1971-73 Miami Dolphins: 3 Super Bowls, but won only 2.

4. 1974-79 Pittsburgh Steelers: 4 Super Bowl wins in 6 seasons.

Just missed: 1981-89 San Francisco 49ers: 4 Super Bowls in 9 seasons, including, 1984-89, 3 in 6.

A bit short of a "just missed," but I want to mention them, anyway: 1982-91 Washington Redskins, 3 Super Bowl wins and 1 other appearance in 10 seasons.

Not even close: 1984-90 Chicago Bears: 7 seasons, 6 Division titles, 3 NFC Championship Games, 1 trip to the Super Bowl, winning it. Wilbon, a Chicago native who loved that team, has to concede that, like the 1980s Mets, Da Bears of the 1980s were a "Dynasty of One."

Just missed: 1992-95 Dallas Cowboys: 3 Super Bowls in 4 seasons.

Just missed: 2001-04 New England Patriots: 3 Super Bowls in 4 seasons. Had they completed the 19-0 season for 2007, that would have been 4 out of 7, and still wouldn't have qualified under these parameters.

Just missed: 2015-19 New England Patriots: 3 Super Bowls in 5 seasons. Had they beaten the Philadelphia Eagles for the 2017 title, that would have been 3 straight, and 4 out of 5, and qualified. But they didn't.

Would qualify if they win tomorrow: 2022-24 Kansas City Chiefs: 3 straight Super Bowls. Extending it to 2019, and it would be 4 out of 6, plus 1 other Super Bowl that was lost.

If the Eagles win, that's 8 seasons, 3 appearances, 2 wins. Most teams would love to have it, but it wouldn't qualify as a dynasty.

Basketball

1. 1949-54 Minneapolis Lakers: 5 out of 6 NBA Championships. They won the National Basketball League title in 1948, but did not play the NBA Champion Baltimore Bullets for a "world championship." Then they joined the NBA, and won the title in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954.

2. 1957-69 Boston Celtics: 11 out of 13 NBA Championships. The dynasty of all dynasties in North American major league sports, and the only way to question that is to say that the reason the Celtics were so far ahead of the rest of the league is that the league wasn't getting the best possible athletes at the time. (For example: Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson both played college basketball, but are remembered as baseball pitchers.) The Boston run included 8 straight titled, 1959-66. Never done before, never done since.

Just missed: 1981-86 Boston Celtics: 3 out of 6 NBA Championships. If you extend it 1 more year, that's 3 titles and 5 Finals appearances in 7 seasons, but that doesn't get them over the top.

3. 1982-88 Los Angeles Lakers: 5 out of 7 NBA Championships. If you extend it to 1980-88, that's 6 out of 9. If you extend it to 1980-91, that's 6 titles and 9 Finals appearances in 12 seasons.

Just missed: 1988-90 Detroit Pistons: 3 straight Finals appearances, but 2-1 in Finals.

4. 1991-93 Chicago Bulls: 3 straight NBA Championships.

5. 1996-98 Chicago Bulls: 3 straight NBA Championships. If you combine this into a single "dynasty," that's 6 out of 8.

Just missed: 1999-2007 San Antonio Spurs: 4 titles in 9 seasons. If you truncate it to 2002-07, that's 3 out of 5, but that doesn't quite make it, either.

6. 2000-02 Los Angeles Lakers: 3 straight NBA Championships. They also had a "just missed" from 2008 to 2010: 3 straight Finals appearances, going 2-1. If you extend it to 2000-10, that's 11 seasons with 7 Finals appearances, winning 5 titles.

Just missed: 2011-14 Miami Heat: 4 straight Finals appearances, but went 2-2.

Just missed: 2015-18 Cleveland Cavaliers: 4 straight finals appearances, but went 1-3.

Just missed: 2015-22 Golden State Warriors: 4 NBA Championships, and 1 other trip to the Finals, in 8 seasons.

Hockey

Being a "challenge trophy" up until 1914, the list of winners of the Stanley Cup is a bit complicated. Teams could win it, then have it taken from them literally within days, and win in multiple times within, say, 3 years. So I'm only going to count who had it at the end of each season.

Just missed: 1895-98 Montreal Victorias: 3 out of 4. Won it for 1894-95, lost it for 1895-96, won it for 1896-97, won it for 1897-98, then lost it for 1898-99.

1. Ottawa Hockey Club: 3 straight Stanley Cups. Won it for 1902-03, won it for 1903-04, won it for 1904-05, then dethroned. This team was nicknamed the Ottawa Silver Seven, and would become the 1st team named the Ottawa Senators, but moved to St. Louis in 1934, and went out of business after just 1 season there.

Just missed: 1906-10 Montreal Wanderers: 4 out of 6 Stanley Cups. Won it for 1905-06, lost it but quickly regained it for 1906-07, won it for 1907-08, lost it for 1908-09, won it for 1909-10.

Just missed: 1920-27 Ottawa Senators: 4 out of 8 Stanley Cups. Won it in 1920, 1921, 1923 and 1927.

2. 1947-49 Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 straight Stanley Cups. This can be extended to 1945-51, and 5 Cups in 7 seasons; or even 1942-51, and 6 Cups in 10 seasons.

Just missed: 1950-55 Detroit Red Wings: 4 Stanley Cups in 6 seasons. If extended to 1948-56, they appeared in 3 more Finals, but lost them all.

3. 1956-60 Montreal Canadiens: 5 straight Stanley Cups. Never done before, never done since. It could be extended back to 1953, making it 6 out of 9.

4. 1962-64 Toronto Maple Leafs: 3 straight Stanley Cups. If extended to 1967, that's 4 out of 7.

5. 1965-69 Montreal Canadiens: 4 Stanley Cups in 5 seasons. It could be extended to 1973, and then it's 6 out of 9.

6. 1976-79 Montreal Canadiens: 4 straight Stanley Cups. If you want to combine the last 2, into 1965-79, that's 10 Cups in 15 seasons.

7. 1980-83 New York Islanders: 4 straight Stanley Cups. They made it 5 straight Finals, but the next great team ended "The Drive for Five.

8. 1984-90 Edmonton Oilers: 5 Stanley Cups in 7 seasons. And for the last one, Wayne Gretzky was already gone. So was Jari Kurri. So was Paul Coffey. And Andy Moog, not Grant Fuhr, was now the starting goalie.

A bit short of a "just missed," but I want to mention them, anyway: 1995-2003 New Jersey Devils: 3 Cups and a 4th Finals in 9 seasons.

Just missed: 1997-2002 Detroit Red Wings: 3 Cups in 6 seasons.

Just missed: 2010-15 Chicago Blackhawks: 3 Cups in 6 seasons.

TOTAL: MLB 8, NFL 6, NBA 6. NHL 8. All told, 28.

New York 4, Boston 3, Chicago 3, Montreal 3, Green Bay 2, Los Angeles 2, Toronto 2, Baltimore 1, San Francisco Bay Area 1, Cleveland 1, Pittsburgh 1, Minneapolis 1, Ottawa 1, Edmonton 1.