Curse of the Colonel

The statue following its 2009 recovery from the river

The Curse of the Colonel (Japanese: カーネルサンダースの呪い, romanisation: Kāneru Sandāsu no Noroi) is a 1985 Japanese urban legend. According to the legend, a sports curse was placed on the Japanese Hanshin Tigers baseball team by the ghost of the KFC founder and mascot Colonel Sanders.

The curse was said to be placed on the team because of the Colonel's anger over treatment of one of his store-front statues,[1] which was thrown into the Dōtonbori River by Hanshin fans before their team's 1985 Central League pennant.[2] As is common with sports curses, the Curse of the Colonel was used to explain the team's lack of success in subsequent years.[2] Some fans believed the team would never win another Japan Series until the statue was recovered.[3] They appeared in the Japan Series three more times and lost in 2003, 2005 and 2014 before winning in 2023.[4]

Comparisons are often made between the Hanshin Tigers and the Boston Red Sox, who were said to be under the Curse of the Bambino until they won the World Series in 2004.[2] The Curse of the Colonel has also been used as a bogeyman threat to those who would divulge the KFC recipe.[5]

  1. ^ Davisson, Zack (2006). Osaka InfoGuide. Japan: Carter Witt Media. pp. 20–23.
  2. ^ a b c White, Paul (2003-08-21). "The Colonel's curse runs deep". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-05-28.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference global-post was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Coskrey, Jason (5 November 2023). "Tigers beat Buffaloes in Game 7 to end 38-year Japan Series drought". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2023-11-05.
  5. ^ "Keeping a secret secret for the Colonel". Taipei Times. 2003-07-31. Archived from the original on January 13, 2006. Retrieved 2009-05-28.