The Curse of the Colonel

Japanese baseball fans threw a life-sized KFC statue of Colonel Sanders into a river in 1985 to celebrate a championship — and the team then didn't win another title for 18 years, a drought many fans directly blamed on the missing statue.

The Curse of the Colonel is a popular Japanese sports legend attributing the Hanshin Tigers baseball team's long championship drought to a 1985 incident in which celebrating fans threw a life-sized statue of KFC mascot Colonel Sanders into Osaka's Dotonbori River. The Tigers did not win another Japan Series championship for 18 years, and much of the original statue remained missing for over two decades before parts were eventually recovered.

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Quick facts

→In 1985, celebrating Hanshin Tigers fans threw a life-sized statue of KFC mascot Colonel Sanders, taken from a nearby restaurant, into Osaka's Dotonbori River following the team's Japan Series championship win.
→The Tigers subsequently experienced a long championship drought, not winning another Japan Series title for 18 years, which some fans specifically attributed to a curse from the missing statue.
→Portions of the original statue were unexpectedly recovered from the river in 2009, though famously missing its glasses, left hand, and legs at the time of recovery.
→The Tigers have continued experiencing a relatively long championship drought even after the statue's partial recovery, with fans and media periodically revisiting the curse narrative.

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Curse of the Colonel (event)

Japanese sports legend blaming the Hanshin Tigers' championship drought on a Colonel Sanders statue thrown into Osaka's Dotonbori River in 1985.

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