Whatever happened to the “Sports Dynasty”? - Walter Rigobon

What do the Montreal Canadiens, New York Yankees, and Boston Celtics, all have in common?. Easy! All of them are considered among the greatest sports dynasties…ever! At one time the words “Dynasty” and “Sports” were paired in every, article, sentence, discussion and debate on or about football and hockey, from basketball, to baseball, from Soccer to Curling.. But, when was the last real sports dynasty? Think about it?As March madness approaches, I am reminded of perhaps the greatest sports dynasty of all time: The UCLA men's basketball teams of the 60’s and 70’s. From 1964 to 1975 the UCLA men’s basketball team won the NCAA national championship 10 out 12 years and an astonishing 7 years in row. Included in-between was an 88 game win streak. Four years of those championships were the culmination of undefeated 30-0 seasons. Some of the greatest legends of the game played at UCLA during this era: Lewis Alcindor, Gail Goodrich, Larry Farmer, Bill Walton, Keith Wilkes, Henry Bibby, Marques Johnson, Sydney Wicks, Curtis Rowe, Walt Hazard and Lucius Allen, to name a few!. Moreover, these incredible teams were coached by one of the greatest college basketball men ever, perhaps of all time! Non-other than “The Wizard of Westwood”, John Wooden.The Alcindor five and the Walton gang are arguably the greatest college basketball teams of all time. What is certain is that we will never again see a dynasty like the UCLA Bruins, of the sixties and seventies. Consider the best young basketball players of today’s game. For them, college basketball is now just a one year detour on the way to the NBA. Is this where sports is going? Short term brilliance, for profit? Short term brilliance for an indifferent fan?Is sports-team loyalties become ephemeral? Are Dynasties, in sport, a distant memory?

What a shame.