9,276 days have passed since Sixers won Philly's last title
9,276 days have passed since Sixers won Philly's last title
12004 EAGLES
The underdog Birds (+7) hung close with the defending champions until well into the second half, when the Patriots sandwiched back-to-back scoring drives around an Eagles' three-and-out. The Birds ate up a lot of clock pulling to within three, and got the ball back at their 4 with 46 seconds left. But, alas, too much ground to cover in too little time.
21986-87 FLYERS
The only other Philadelphia team in 25 years to have gotten as close as one win from a title. The Flyers had battled back from a 3-1 deficit in the Stanley Cup finals with a 4-3 win at Edmonton in Game 5 and a 3-2 victory at the Spectrum to force Game 7. Murray Craven's goal less than 2 minutes in gave the Flyers a lead, but Mark Messier tied it 6 minutes later and Jari Kurri scored at 14:59 of the second to break a 1-1 tie. The Oilers owned the third period, outshooting the Flyers, 12-2, en route to a 3-1 Cup-clinching victory.
31993 PHILLIES
Shaking off the devastation of losing a five-run, eighth-inning lead the night before, Curt Schilling shut out the Blue Jays in Game 5 to take the World Series back to Toronto. There, the Phillies overcame a 5-1 deficit with a five-run seventh inning (capped by Lenny Dykstra's three-run homer). When Larry Andersen escaped a bases-loaded jam in the eighth, the Phils seemed poised to force a Game 7 . . . until all Mitch broke loose in the ninth. Walk (on four pitches), flyout, single and . . . well, you really don't want to read it all over again, do you? . . .
4,5,6 2001-03 EAGLES
. . . And we're fairly certain you don't want to go over the NFC title game gruesome threesome put up by the Eagles before they finally broke through with a trip to the big game.
72000-01 SIXERS
Allen Iverson owned the extra period in the Finals' Game 1 in Los Angeles and the Sixers' 107-101 victory ended the Lakers' 19-game winning streak. From there, LA used Shaquille O'Neal and a ton of three-pointers to win the next four, including three in a row at whatever the Wachovia Center was called back then.
81983 PHILLIES
Less than 5 months after the Sixers' title, the Wheeze Kids did all they could to make it back-to-back parades in Philly. Joe Morgan and Garry Maddox stole Game 1 of the World Series against the Orioles with solo home runs, but the Phils lost four straight despite holding leads in Games 2, 3 and 4. Game 5 was a 5-0 shutout at Veterans Stadium.
