For me, this is the most hilarious sports curse ever. We’ve all heard about the curse of the Bambino (Boston Red Sox, broken in 2004) and the curse of the Billy Goat (Chicago Cubs, still stands) but few have heard about the Hanshin Tigers and the Curse of the Colonel.

In 1985 the Hanshin Tigers faced the Seibu Lions in the Japan Championship Series (that’s baseball, by the way.) The Tigers ended up winning the series, due mostly to strong hitting by American Randy Bass who had joined the team after a string of lackluster seasons in the American major leagues.

Following the series victory a throng of jubilant fans gathered at Ebisubashi Bridge in Dotonbori. It was there that the Tigers’ “victory leap” was carried out with happy fans shouting each players’ name while fans resembling the various players would one by one leap off the bridge into the water below. The only problem was that the series MVP and hero of the season, Randy Bass, was a gaijin and there were no westerners in the crowd who resembled him. Luckily, a plastic statue of a famous bearded western icon was close at hand for the crowd to seize and cast off of the bridge in effigy. It was a statue of yep, you guessed it-Colonel Harland Sanders, of Kentucky Fried Chicken.

The Tigers haven’t won a championship since.

Legend has it that the ghost of Col. Sanders has placed a curse on the team. In 2003 the Tigers made it to the Series again. In response, KFC outlets in Kobe and Osaka bolted down or moved indoors their Colonel statues to prevent a possible repeat of the events of 1985. That year over 5000 fans jumped off the bridge in celebration of the Series appearance (one died.)

The Tigers lost the series in 2003 and the curse remains intact. A new Ebisubashi Bridge has since been constructed that’s much more difficult to jump off of.