The rankings.
Here’s how things stand for the teams that meet the criteria whose first championship came after 1980 and had one before 1990:
Los Angeles Lakers 1980-1988 61
San Francisco 49ers 1981-1994 60
Edmonton Oilers 1985-1990 59
New York Islanders 1980-1983 59
Boston Celtics 1981-1986 55
Oakland/LA Raiders 1977-1984 48
Detroit Pistons 1989-1990
Minnesota Twins 1987-1991 28
At this point, it’s probably worth repeating that this based on cut-offs I defined, a scale I made up, and points I assigned somewhat arbitrarily. Still, I think this a a reasonable snapshot of the teams that mattered in the 1980s.
Honorable Mentions
Some dominant teams that didn’t make this list:
The Whiteyball St. Louis Cardinals would have been on the list with better umpiring, or video replay in place for their 1985 World Series loss to the Royals. They also lost the 1987 World Series to the Twins. Either would pair with their 1982 World Series win to qualify, and they were an interesting, innovative team.
The Bash Brothers Oakland Athletics surrounded their 1989 earthquake-interrupted World Series wins with upset World Series losses to the Dodgers and Reds. Either they, or the Cardinals, or maybe even the Mets or the late 1970’s/early 1980’s Phillies would probably be a better representative here than the Twins.
The Dodgers won two World Series in the decade, but 1981 and 1988 were too far apart to qualify, and that probably makes sense.
The 1983 76ers had one of the more dominant seasons after losing in the Finals to the Lakers two of the previous three seasons. But they could not mount a great defense.
The 1985 Bears were also perhaps the most dominant NFL team of the decade, but never put it all together in any other year.
The 1984 Detroit Tigers may have been the best all around baseball team, but never matched this excellence in any other year.
Other Sports
Louisville and Indiana both won two NCAA championships, but those were two distinct teams. It took a historic upset to prevent Georgetown from winning consecutive championships. But there was, in general, parity in college basketball, particularly compared to UCLA’s dominance in the previous decades.
The NCAA women’s tournament did not being until 1982, and Cheryl Miller led USC to winning the second and third editions.
Miami finished #1 in the AP Poll for college football in 1983, 1987, and 1989. Penn St. finished #1 in 1982 and 1986. Miami may have come close to being a dynasty.
Larry Holmes held the heavyweight title from 1978 through 1985 when that mean something. Mike Tyson was the champion from 1987 to 1990. Marvin Hagler was the middleweight champion from 1980 to 1987. Julio Cesar Chavez held a variety of championships from 1984 to 1991.
Darrell Waltrip won 3 Winston Cups; Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace each won two. Rick Mears won two Indy 500s.
If we want to stretch the idea of “sports", Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair had extended title reigns.
Observations
Two of the four top spots are taken by NHL teams, who won eight of the decade’s championships. While these teams, particularly the Oilers, had a definite concentration of talent, I think this may be more a product of the league’s immaturity than anything else. The NHL had six teams as recently as 1967, and absorbed four of the WHA’s teams (including the Oilers) in 1979. Those Islanders teams are not talked about in a manner one would expect for the last team to win four consecutive championships.
NBA teams take three of the seven top spots. This does track with my intuition that basketball is more amenable to dynasties, since one or two superstars gets you close to a championship. We’ll continue to observe this as we move forward.
Only one baseball team makes the list, and that one doesn’t really belong. I’d be inclined to blame this on the inherit randomness of short series in baseball, but only the Athletics were really victims of that — there weren’t really dominant teams. The American League East, for example, had six different champions in one six year stretch. The only teams that didn’t win a division title during the decade are the Mariners, Rangers, Indians, Pirates (who won the 1979 World Series) and Reds (who would win the 1990 World Series). It was just an even time for the leagues.
The 49ers are in the #2 spot, in part because the criteria brought in the 1994 team, which I don’t think had any players in common with the 1981 team. Success in football is usually more about organizations putting a team in a position where they can win than a team that dominates year after year. This is evidenced by no team ever having won three consecutive Super Bowls.
On to the 90s!