Growing up as a sports fan in America during the 60’s and 70’s, victories by American teams in certain events were a given.  I took pride in knowing that when these contests came around, I could count on victories.   In the Ryder Cup, the America’s Cup, and Olympic basketball, US victories were foregone conclusions.

Just like Russian figure skaters winning the pairs competitions at the Winter Olympics, American wins at these three events were facts of life that never changed.  Over the last twenty years however, these cornerstones of my American sporting pride have crumbled and my sports world has been thrown into chaos.

    For the first 129 years of the America’s Cup sailing competition, the United States pitched a shutout;  24 competitions, 24 American wins.  Every four years, the captain of the American boat bore the burden of keeping the winning streak alive. 
 
In 1983, the impossible finally happened.  The team from Australia shocked the Americans by winning the seventh and deciding race.  Once the veneer of invincibility was cracked, it was only a matter of time until the Americans lost again, which they did in 1995. American sailing prowess has since hit rock bottom. Over the last two events in 2000 and 2003, the American entry has failed to even win the right to challenge for the Cup. Currently, the America’s Cup doesn’t reside in America, but in Switzerland. For the geography majors scoring at home, yes, Switzerland is a land-locked country.

In Ryder Cup Competition from 1959 through 1983, my formative sports fan years, the American team went 12-0-1 against their European counterparts.  Since the defending team retains the Ryder Cup in the event of a tie, the trophy resided in America for those 26 years.

Up through 1977, the Ryder Cup was contested between teams from America and the United Kingdom.  In an effort to make the event more widely marketable, the UK team was expanded in 1979 to include players from all of Europe.  Everything changed in 1985 as Europe won for the first time in a generation.  Since then, the European side has won six of the last ten events including four out the last five.  The last two haven’t even been close as the European side routed their American competitors, 18 ½- 9 ½ both times.