Menu

The Philadelphia Story: The 1980 Phillies & Flyers, Sixers, Eagles

No city has ever won the Grand Slam of Professional Sports—that is to win the Stanley Cup, NBA Finals, and World Series & Super Bowl in the same year. But the city of Philadelphia made a spirited run at it in 1980, putting a team into the championship round in all four sports, and for none was the success longer in coming than for the 1980 Phillies.

GREAT 1980s SPORTS MOMENTS
Start reading today. 


The Flyers were the most recent champion, having won consecutive Stanley Cups in 1974-75 and they made it back to the Finals before losing to the New York Islanders. Hockey was just part of the excitement of spring in Philly—the 76ers made the NBA Finals for the second time in four years, though they too came up short of a title.
Fortunately, by the time that game was played, the good people of Philadelphia knew they would have at least one championship in the bag. The Phillies had not won the World Series since 1915 and had recent frustration, in the form of National League Championship Series each year from 1976-78.

The 1980 Phils didn’t always make it look easy—in fact they never did—but they only added to the charm and the legend as they won arguably greatest League Championship Series ever played against the Houston Astros and then dispatched the Kansas City Royals to finally get the long-sought World Series ring and ensure that 1980 in Philadelphia sports wouldn’t be remembered for an 0-for-4 in championship rounds, but for being one of the great displays any city has ever put on.
Read more about the 1980 Philadelphia Phillies
Read more about the 1980 Philadelphia Flyers
Read more about the 1980 Philadelphia 76ers
Read more about the 1980 Philadelphia Eagles

logosnb

SportsNotebook Featured Products

View Our Complete Catalog

Shop our Catalog

The Sports Notebook Newsletter

TheSportsNotebook.com is home to an extensive archive of sports history articles along with blog posts on contemporary sports.

History of the Final Four

NCAA Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Super Bowl Past

NFL

NFL

History of the Final Four

NCAA Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Super Bowl Past

NFL

NFL

History of the Final Four

NCAA Basketball

NCAA Basketball

Super Bowl Past

NFL

NFL

SportsNoteBook Articles

UFL Notebook: Playoff Recap

The D.C. Defenders lifted their game and rolled through two weeks of postseason play and secured a championshp. Here’s our concise recap.

Roaring Forward: The 1997 Jacksonville Jaguars Prove They Belong

The 1997 Jacksonville Jaguars came into the season on a high. As a second-year franchise in 1996, they shocked the world with a late-season run to squeak into the playoffs and then reached the AFC Championship Game. Was that real or was it a fluke? In ’97, the Jags enjoyed a stronger regular season, got […]

1997 Dallas Cowboys: The End Of An Era

The Dallas Cowboys were the NFL’s gold standard in the first half of the 1990s. From 1991 through 1996, they made the playoffs every year, won five NFC East titles and captured three Super Bowl trophies. But all runs come to an end eventually and 1997 was the year the Cowboys fell out of the […]

UFL Notebook: Playoff Preview

America’s spring football league is down to St. Louis, Birmingham, Michigan, and D.C. We assess each team and the storylines coming in.

1997 San Francisco 49ers: New Coach, Same Outcome

1997 was a year of change for the San Francisco 49ers, with Steve Mariucci taking over as head coach. For almost two decades the franchise had been the gold standard in the NFL—winning Super Bowl titles under Bill Walsh in 1981, 1984 and 1988, and then doing it twice more under George Seifert in 1989 […]