The Longest Championship Droughts in Sports

The longest championship drought in major North American professional sports history is the Chicago Cubs’ 108-year wait, stretching from their 1908 World Series title to their next one in 2016. It is the number every other drought is measured against, and it stood as sports’ ultimate symbol of futility until the Cubs finally broke through.

Championship droughts are different from losing streaks or bad seasons. A team can be good for years, even great, and still not win it all, which is what makes these waits so agonizing. Here is a curated look at the longest and most famous title droughts in sports, both the ones that have ended and the ones still running, all figures through the 2025 season.

The record: the Cubs and 108 years

From 1909 to 2015, the Chicago Cubs did not win a World Series. Generations of fans lived and died without seeing a title, and the drought became folklore, complete with curses, black cats and a billy goat. When the Cubs finally won in 2016, beating Cleveland in a seven-game classic that went to extra innings in Game 7, they ended the longest championship drought in the history of the four major leagues.

That 108-year figure is unlikely to ever be matched, simply because no current franchise is old enough and title-less enough to approach it. It is the record that defines the category.

The leaderboard of famous droughts

The table below mixes the longest droughts that have ended with the longest still active. Active droughts are marked with an asterisk and counted through the 2025 season.

Team	Drought	Span	Status
Chicago Cubs (MLB)	108 years	1908-2016	Ended
Chicago White Sox (MLB)	88 years	1917-2005	Ended
Boston Red Sox (MLB)	86 years	1918-2004	Ended
Arizona Cardinals* (NFL)	78 years	Since 1947	Active
Cleveland Guardians* (MLB)	77 years	Since 1948	Active
Sacramento Kings* (NBA)	74 years	Since 1951	Active
Toronto Maple Leafs* (NHL)	58 years	Since 1967	Active
Detroit Lions* (NFL)	68 years	Since 1957	Active

The Cubs sit alone at the top. Below them, the White Sox and Red Sox anchor the list of famous droughts that ended in the 2000s, while a cluster of active waits led by the Arizona Cardinals keeps the category alive.

The longest active droughts

Through 2025, the longest active championship droughts are spread across the leagues. The Arizona Cardinals last won an NFL title in 1947, when the franchise was still in Chicago, giving them the NFL’s longest wait. In the NBA, the Sacramento Kings have not won since 1951, when they were the Rochester Royals, the longest active drought in that league. Baseball’s longest active drought belongs to the Cleveland Guardians, champions in 1948 and still searching.

Each of these franchises has come close at times without closing the deal, which is exactly how droughts grow to such lengths.

Droughts that ended and how

The most satisfying part of any drought is the ending. The Red Sox broke 86 years of frustration in 2004 with a sweep, the White Sox ended 88 years in 2005, and the city of Cleveland ended a 52-year, all-teams drought when the Cavaliers rallied from 3-1 down to win the 2016 NBA Finals.

Those breakthroughs share a pattern: a long, painful wait suddenly ends with a title that means far more than a normal championship because of everything that came before it. The bigger the drought, the bigger the release, which is why a comeback from the brink can feel historic. For the on-court version of that drama, see the biggest comeback in NBA history and the biggest comebacks in sports history.

Why droughts matter

A championship drought is a shared experience that binds a fan base across generations. It turns a single title into a citywide catharsis and gives sports some of its most powerful stories. Droughts also tend to overlap with long stretches of losing, the kind that show up in records like the worst record in NFL history, though plenty of drought-stricken teams have been competitive without ever finishing the job.

The short version: the Chicago Cubs’ 108-year drought is the longest in major North American sports history, ended in 2016, while the Arizona Cardinals, Sacramento Kings and Cleveland Guardians carry the longest active waits in their leagues through 2025.