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List of winless seasons
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A winless season is a regular season in which a sports team fails to win any of their games. The antithesis of a perfect season, this ignominy has been suffered twelve times in professional American football, six times in arena football, three times in professional Canadian football, once each in American professional lacrosse and box lacrosse, more than twenty-five times in major Australian football leagues, thirteen times in top-level rugby league, at least twice in top-level rugby union, and twice in English county cricket.
Contents
[hide]
1 Gridiron football
1.1 National Football League
1.1.1 8 or more games
1.1.2 7 games or fewer
1.2 Arena Football League
1.3 United Football League
1.4 World League of American Football
1.5 Other American football leagues
1.6 Canadian Football League
1.6.1 CFL teams with no wins in a season (based on official CFL site)
2 National Pro Grid League
2.1 NPGL teams with no wins in a season (based on NPGL site)
3 Lacrosse
4 Other North American leagues
4.1 Major League Soccer
4.2 National Basketball Association
4.2.1 Women's National Basketball Association
4.2.2 United States Basketball League
4.2.3 British Basketball League
4.3 National Hockey League
4.4 Major League Baseball
5 Australian rules football
5.1 VFL/AFL
5.1.1 VFL/AFL teams with no wins in a season
5.2 SANFL
5.3 WAFL
5.4 VFA/VFL
5.4.1 1897-1995
5.4.2 1996-present
6 Rugby league
6.1 Great Britain
6.2 Australia
7 Rugby union
8 Cricket
8.1 County cricket
8.2 International first-class cricket
8.3 International one-day and Twenty20 cricket
9 Netball
10 Association football
11 Ice hockey
12 Notes
13 References
Gridiron football[edit]
Because of the relatively small number of games played in college and professional football seasons, there is a possibility that a particularly inept team will not manage to win any games. Before overtime was used consistently, teams might tie a game without winning one; these are generally counted in lists of winless seasons. This is because, during eras before overtime was introduced to American football, leagues generally ignored tied games when calculating winning percentage.
National Football League[edit]
8 or more games[edit]
Year
Team
Wins
Losses
Ties
Strength of Schedule
Remarks
2017 Cleveland Browns 0 16 0 0.520 Ties the 2008 Detroit Lions for most losses in a single season. Coincidentally, both had perfect 4–0 preseasons, and lost the final game of the regular season to a heated division rival on the road. First NFL franchise to have multiple seasons with 15 or more losses, going 1–31 over two seasons, with their only win in week 16 of the 2016 season. The only franchise to have a winless season and a perfect season (1948).
2008 Detroit Lions 0 16 0 0.559 Detroit was the first non-expansion team to lose every game in a full season since World War II. This was their second winless season in franchise history (1942, see below). With this season, The Lions became only the second NFL franchise with two full winless seasons (and the only one still in existence).
1982 Baltimore Colts 0 8 1 0.648 Strike-shortened season.
1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers 0 14 0 0.520 Debut season; went on to lose the first 12 games of the 1977 season as well, to start 0–26 as a franchise.
1960 Dallas Cowboys 0 11 1 0.540 Debut season.
1944 Brooklyn Tigers 0 10 0 0.645 Suspended operations after the season, and did not return to the league after World War II ended.
1944 Card-Pitt 0 10 0 0.650 Merger between Chicago Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers due to player shortages during World War II; the Steelers themselves merged with the Philadelphia Eagles the previous year for the same reasons. Also, the Steagles were the only team the Steelers had merged and won games with the Eagles.
1943 Chicago Cardinals 0 10 0 0.595 If one includes the 1944 Card-Pitt team (see above), the Cardinals are the only NFL team to have back-to-back full seasons without a victory. (The league, however, considers Card-Pitt and the Cardinals to be separate franchises.)
1942 Detroit Lions 0 11 0 0.541 This was the first NFL season during U.S. involvement in World War II, leading to a depletion of the player talent pool. There were talks of suspending play. However, it was ultimately decided to continue operations to boost morale on the home front.[1]
1934 Cincinnati Reds 0 8 0 0.608 Folded before the season was over.
1925 Columbus Tigers 0 9 0 0.649 First franchise with more than one full winless season (the Tigers folded after the 1926 campaign).
1922 Columbus Panhandles 0 8 0 0.531
The Rochester Jeffersons went a combined 0–21–2 from 1922 to 1925, but played only partial NFL schedules in those years (0–4–1, 0–4, 0–7 and 0–6–1, respectively). They also had another winless season in 1911 going 0–1–3 in the New York Pro Football League.
Source: Worst NFL Teams of all time (ESPN)[2]
7 games or fewer[edit]
Year
Team
Wins
Losses
Ties
Strength of schedule
Remarks
1929 Dayton Triangles 0 6 0 0.656 Dayton's final season. The third and consecutive winless seasons for Dayton. Their final win was in 1927 then consecutively went 0–18–1 losing every game in their final two seasons.
1928 Dayton Triangles 0 7 0 0.625 The second winless season for Dayton.
1927 Buffalo Bisons 0 5 0 0.456 The Bisons consecutively went 0–13–2 through a three-season span.
1926 Hammond Pros 0 4 0 0.537 The second winless season for Hammond.
1926 Louisville Colonels 0 4 0 0.546 Louisville changed their name from the Brecks to the Colonels making this the franchise's third winless season and going 1-12–0 in their four seasons.
1925 Rochester Jeffersons 0 6 1 0.609 The fourth consecutive winless season for the Jeffersons. They went 0–21–2 through this span.
1925 Dayton Triangles 0 7 1 0.663
1925 Duluth Kelleys 0 3 0 0.621
1925 Milwaukee Badgers 0 6 0 0.708
1924 Kenosha Maroons 0 4 1 0.612 Only season.
1924 Minneapolis Marines 0 6 0 0.650 Consecutively went 0-9-2 through a three-season span.
1924 Rochester Jeffersons 0 6 0 0.594 The third consecutive winless season for the Jeffersons.
1923 Louisville Brecks 0 3 0 0.544 The second winless season for Louisville in their third season, and only having one win in the previous season.
1923 Rochester Jeffersons 0 4 0 0.550 The second consecutive winless season for the Jeffersons.
1922 Evansville Crimson Giants 0 3 0 0.567
1922 Rochester Jeffersons 0 4 1 0.590
1922 Hammond Pros 0 4 1 0.526
1921 Tonawanda Kardex 0 1 0 0.400 Only NFL season.
1921 Muncie Flyers 0 2 0 0.444 The second winless season in a row. The Flyers finished their NFL franchise record as 0–3.
1921 Louisville Brecks 0 2 0 0.285
1921 New York Brickley Giants 0 2 0 0.650 Only Season.
1920 Muncie Flyers 0 1 0 0.700
Arena Football League[edit]
The previously shorter length of seasons in arena football made imperfect seasons quite possible. The following teams went through an Arena Football League season without winning a game:
Year
Team
Played
Remarks
1989 Maryland Commandos 4 Only year branded as the Maryland Commandos.
1991 Columbus Thunderbolts 10 Moved to Cleveland the following year.
1992 New Orleans Night 10 Team ceased operations after season.
1994 Milwaukee Mustangs 12 First winless team to remain in same city during following season. Went to 10–4 in 1996. Folded in 2001.
1996 Memphis Pharaohs 14 Relocated twice, firstly as the Portland Forest Dragons from 1997 and then as the Oklahoma Wranglers. Folded in 2001.
2003 Carolina Cobras 16 Went to 6–10 the following season. Folded in 2004.
In 2001, the Columbus Wardogs of AF2, the minor league of the AFL, made history becoming the first American football team to go 0–16.
United Football League[edit]
The United Football League had one winless season. In their inaugural season, the 2009 New York Sentinels lost all six of their games. The team, which was a traveling team that played games in Hartford, Long Island and New Jersey (and had intended to play a game in New York City but backed out), fired its head coach and settled permanently in Hartford to become the Hartford Colonials. Under the UFL's double round robin format, only one team could finish any particular season entirely with losses, since every team played each other at least twice.
World League of American Football[edit]
The 1991 inaugural season of the World League of American Football saw the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks fold after losing all ten of their regular-season games. The following year, the WLAF replaced that franchise with the Ohio Glory who almost met the same fate but managed one win in their lone season.
Other American football leagues[edit]
Since non-professional, semi-professional and minor league teams are inherently unstable in their membership, it is far easier for seasons in which a team wins no games to occur. In the case of non-professional teams, neither mechanisms to force a team to shut down against its will, nor effective drafts or revenue sharing mechanisms to distribute talent evenly among teams typically exist, leading to poor teams accumulating multiple winless seasons. Four teams in football history have both lost all their games and failed to score a single point in an entire season; all played eight games or less. The 1938 Clintonville Four Wheel Drive Truckers failed to score a point in a nine-game season, but managed two 0–0 ties.[3] There are at least twelve teams who have accumulated losing streaks of 20 games or more; there are also four teams who have accumulated seasons of all losses with at least 13 games.[4] In the case of minor professional football, particularly in indoor football leagues, winless seasons often result from an owner's abandonment or other financial hardship. The American Indoor Football Association had at least one winless team in five out of six seasons. The National Indoor Football League went its first three seasons without a winless season, but beginning in 2004, at least one team went winless every year until the league's collapse in 2007. Though the Spring Football League had two teams with winless seasons (the Los Angeles Dragons and the Miami Tropics), and the Stars Football League had one such team (the traveling 2011 Michigan Coyotes), they are almost never mentioned in discussions of perfect and perfectly bad seasons, since those teams only played two games each before the seasons were cut short.
AF2 was the minor league of the Arena Football League. In 2001, the Columbus Wardogs made history becoming the first American football team to finish a season 0–16.
The Legends Football League (originally Lingerie Football League), whose seasons are only three to four games long for each team, has had eight teams with perfectly bad seasons in three years of play. One such team, the Toronto Triumph, did not win a game in either of their competing seasons in 2011 and 2012.
The Princeton Tigers sprint football squad, a team consisting of players under 172 pounds, sustained 16 consecutive winless seasons before Princeton University shut the team down in 2015, citing safety concerns in allowing players to play on a team so heavily outmatched.[5]
Canadian Football League[edit]
The Canadian Football League currently has a regular season of eighteen games; from 1952 to 1985 it was generally sixteen games as with the current NFL season, though those teams in the Eastern Division played only fourteen as late as 1973.[6] Also, the CFL did not adopt interdivisional regular season play until the early 1960s. Consequently, especially given the much smaller number of teams playing, there have been fewer imperfect seasons than in the National Football League, with the exception of the first decade or so when fewer games were played.
CFL teams with no wins in a season (based on official CFL site)[edit]
Year
Team
Games
Wins
Losses
Ties
Comments
1949 Hamilton Wildcats 12 0 12 0 Merged with the Hamilton Tigers for 1950 season
1946 Hamilton Wildcats 12 0 10 2
1941 Montreal Royals 6 0 6 0 Did not resume when Canadian football recommenced after World War II.
1939 Montreal Royals 6 0 5 1
1938 Edmonton Eskimos 8 0 8 0
1938 Montreal Royals 6 0 6 0
National Pro Grid League[edit]
The National Pro Grid League has a short season of 3 to 4 games per team plus a 4 to 8 team playoff. The Los Angeles Reign did not win one game during the first three seasons of the league.
NPGL teams with no wins in a season (based on NPGL site)[edit]
Season
Team
Games
Wins
Losses
Comments
2016 LA Reign 3 0 3
2015 LA Reign 3 0 3
2014 LA Reign 4 0 4 Including one playoff loss.
Lacrosse[edit]
Seasons in the National Lacrosse League and its predecessors Major Indoor Lacrosse League and Eagle Pro Box Lacrosse League have varied from eight games in the first years of competition to sixteen games today, with the extension having been gradual. The Charlotte Cobras, who played only one season before folding, are the only team in the history of the NLL to have not won a game in a season. In their sole 1996 season they played twelve games and lost them all, before folding.
In Major League Lacrosse, the season has consisted of either twelve or fourteen games since the league was formed in 2001. The only winless season in Major League Lacrosse has been by the 2006 Chicago Machine, who went 0–12 and lost an MLL record thirteen consecutive games.
Other North American leagues[edit]
In the other major professional sports leagues of North America it is virtually impossible that a team could lose all its games, for the simple reason that there are many more games in the regular season than in football or lacrosse.
Major League Soccer[edit]
The Major League Soccer schedule has consisted of between twenty-six and thirty-four games. No team in Major League Soccer has ever come close to losing all its games: the most losses in a MLS season is 24 from 32 games by the Kansas City Wizards in 1999, the year when the league used shootouts to decide all tied games. Shootouts were abandoned the following season. In 2013, D.C. United set new MLS records in futility. They won a league low three games, and lost a record 24 games, tying the aforementioned Wizards.
National Basketball Association[edit]
Since the 1967–68 season, the National Basketball Association's regular season schedule has been 82 games long (except 1998–99, 50 games and 2011–12, 66 games due to lockouts). It has been as few as 48 games long, but eventually expanded to an 82-game schedule.
The 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats hold the record for the lowest winning percentage of any team in an NBA season, winning only 7 out of 66 games in a lockout-shortened season, for a winning percentage of .106. This broke the record held by the 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers, who had a winning percentage of .110 in a full 82-game season. The 1947–48 Providence Steamrollers won an all-time NBA low of six games out of 48 (.125 winning percentage).
The 1953–54 Baltimore Bullets went 0–20 on the road. More recently, the 1990–91 Sacramento Kings managed a near-imperfect road season, winning only one of 41 away games.[7] Overall, the Kings lost 43 consecutive road games before beating the Orlando Magic 95–93 on November 23, 1991.
Women's National Basketball Association[edit]
Since its formation in 1997, the WNBA regular season has been gradually increased from 30 to the current 34-game schedule.
No team has gone through a WNBA season without winning a game; the fewest wins in a WNBA season has been three by the 1998 Washington Mystics in their first season, and the 2011 Tulsa Shock. Two other expansion WNBA teams, the 2008 Atlanta Dream at 4–30 and the 2006 Chicago Sky at 5–29 have come closest to this record.
United States Basketball League[edit]
The Atlantic City Seagulls of the (now defunct) summertime, minor league USBL finished the 2001 season with an 0–28 record. It was quite a turnaround for the franchise, as they were dominant in the USBL just a few years earlier; the Seagulls were USBL runners-up in 1996, then swept to three straight titles in 1997–99. In 2000, the Seagulls slipped to 12–18, fourth place, and were beaten in the first round of the playoffs; after their winless 2001 campaign, the Seagulls folded.
British Basketball League[edit]
In 2013, Mersey Tigers became the first top-flight British basketball team to go a whole season winless.
This record of 0–33 in the regular season of the 2012–13 BBL Championship, was completed with a 90–57 loss away to Glasgow Rocks, but can also be extended to include their complete season of 0–35 (defeats in the first round of the BBL Cup and BBL Trophy).
The defeat in the BBL Trophy was also significant because they fell at this stage to EBL Division One side, Worthing Thunder, and in doing so, it was the first time a BBL side had been knocked out from a competition by an EBL team.
They also currently hold the longest losing streak of 34 consecutive defeats in the BBL Championship.
National Hockey League[edit]
The National Hockey League's schedule, like that of the NBA, consists of 82 games. Since the 2004–05 lockout, teams receive two points for a win, one point for a loss in overtime or a shootout, and zero points for a loss in regulation time. From 1997 until 2004, teams received two points for a win, one point for a tie or overtime loss, and zero points for a regulation loss. Prior to 1997, teams received two points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a loss. From 1997 to 2004, NHL standings tables had four columns: W–L–T–OTL. From 2005 to 2010, it was reduced to three, W–L–OTL; in 2011, a "regulation/overtime win" column (ROW) was added, which excludes shootout wins; it does not change the point totals, but does serve as the second tiebreaker (after games played; since all teams play 82 games by the season's end barring any unreschedulable cancellations, it becomes the first tiebreaker at season's end).
No team has ever come close to losing every game in an NHL season; the worst record is by the 1974–75 Washington Capitals who went 8–67–5 (8 wins, 67 losses, 5 ties). The 1974–75 Capitals and 1992–93 Ottawa Senators hold the record for fewest wins on the road with one. The NHL played an 80-game season in 1974–75, whereas in 1992–93 the schedule consisted of 84 games, thus giving the Senators the percentage record for worst road record. The Senators also set a record by losing their first 38 consecutive road games (the Senators' road statistics include a neutral site game played in Hamilton, Ontario, in which the Senators were considered the road team).
Major League Baseball[edit]
Since the early 1960s, the schedule of both leagues of Major League Baseball has been 162 games long, and before that it was 154 games long. With such a schedule, it is practically impossible for a team to finish with a winless season. The sabermetric baseball statistic Wins Above Replacement is calculated on the premise that even a team consisting entirely of replacement-level players is expected to win a baseline minimum number of games (typically 40-50 depending primarily on the caliber of the team's division) per 162 game season.
The closest to a perfectly imperfect season in the National League was the infamous 1899 Cleveland Spiders season, who finished with a record of 20-134 after its roster was looted by the owners of the team, who then stacked the best players onto the St. Louis Perfectos.
With a win percentage of .130, the Spiders are (as of 2016) the last of three major league teams to have finished a season below the Mendoza line (.200) in win percentage; the others were the 1889 Louisville Colonels (.196), and the 1890 Pittsburgh Alleghenys (.169), whose best players had jumped to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the newly formed Player's League.
Since the establishment of the American League in 1901, the teams to have come closest to imperfection are the 1916 Philadelphia Athletics (36–117), the 1935 Boston Braves (38–115), the 1962 New York Mets (40–120) and the 2003 Detroit Tigers (43–119).
Australian rules football[edit]
VFL/AFL[edit]
In the Australian Football League (until 1990 called the Victorian Football League), seasons have ranged from twelve games per team (in 1916, when only four teams competed due to World War I) to 22 games (since 1970, except for 1993 when 20 games were played), with most seasons being of 18 or 22 games duration.
VFL/AFL teams with no wins in a season[edit]
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
1897 St Kilda 0 14 0 Did not win a match until Round 1 of 1900
1898 St Kilda 0 17 0
1899 St Kilda 0 17 0 VFL/AFL record low percentage of 23.2 (scored only 323 points and conceded 1,391)
1902 St Kilda 0 17 0 Full forward Charlie Baker won the VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal despite the team being winless
1913 University 0 18 0 Full forward Roy Park won the VFL Leading Goalkicker Medal despite the team being winless
1914 University 0 18 0 Dropped out of competition and folded at the end of the season; reformed in 1919 and have competed in amateur football since
1919 Melbourne 0 16 0 Melbourne's first season in the VFL after being in recess from 1916-1918 due to World War I[8]
1926 North Melbourne 0 17 1
1928 Hawthorn 0 18 0
1931 North Melbourne 0 18 0
1934 North Melbourne 0 18 0
1950 Hawthorn 0 18 0
1964 Fitzroy 0 18 0
SANFL[edit]
In the South Australian National Football League, season length has varied from twelve games to 22. Since 2015, teams have played 18 games per season.
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
1898 West Adelaide 0 14 0 First season in SAFL.
1906[9] West Adelaide 0 12 0
1908[10] Sturt 0 12 0
1909[11] South Adelaide 0 12 0
1921[12] Glenelg 0 14 0 First season in SAFL; did not record first win until Round 1 of 1925.
1922[13] Glenelg 0 14 0
1923[14] Glenelg 0 14 0
1924[15] Glenelg 0 14 0
1926[16] South Adelaide 0 13 1
1933[17] West Adelaide 0 17 0
1948[18] South Adelaide 0 17 0
1950[19] South Adelaide 0 17 0
1964[20] Central District 0 20 0 First season in SANFL.
1995 Sturt 0 22 0 The first (and to date only) 0-22 season in a major Australian rules football league.
WAFL[edit]
The West Australian Football League has existed within Western Australia under various monikers since 1885, and until the 1980s was of equivalent standard to the VFL and SANFL. Its season was originally around six to nine games in length, later increasing to 21 games, and from 2018 is 18 .[a][21]
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
1899 Rovers 0 8 0 Folded during season; Perth played the remaining fixtures.
1902 Subiaco 0 15 0
1905 Subiaco 0 10 0 Played fewer games than rival league clubs due to financial difficulties.
1917 Midland Junction 0 12 0 Disbanded at end of season.
1999 Peel 0 20 0
VFA/VFL[edit]
1897-1995[edit]
From the time of the formation of the Victorian Football League in 1896 until it was dissolved in 1995, the VFA was the second-tier club competition in Victoria. Its home-and-away season varied erratically from 12 to 22 games in length.
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
VFA Division
Remarks
1898 Brunswick 0 15 0 Single
1903 Essendon Town 0 18 0 Single
1904 Preston 0 18 0 Single
1910 Preston 0 18 0 Single
1912 Melbourne City 0 18 0 Single First season in the VFA.
1913 Melbourne City 0 18 0 Single Folded at the end of the season.
1941 Sandringham 0 18 0 Single Conceded then-record score of 43.29 (287).
1951 Box Hill 0 19 1 Single First season in VFA.
1961 Brighton 0 18 0 Second Nearly folded at the end of the season before reforming as Brighton-Caulfield.
1973 Box Hill 0 18 0 Second
1977 Box Hill 0 18 0 Second
1981 Sunshine 0 18 0 Second
1983 Waverley 0 18 0 First
1986 Camberwell 0 18 0 First
1986 Mordialloc 0 18 0 Second
1989 Camberwell 0 18 0 Single Defeated Sunshine in Round 4, but Sunshine dropped out of the VFA and folded after eight games, with their record being expunged.
1990 Camberwell 0 18 0 Single Dropped out of the VFA and folded before the start of the following season.
1993 Coburg 0 18 0 Single Lost 29 consecutive matches between 1992–1994.
1995 Williamstown 0 16 0 Single
1996-present[edit]
After 1995, the VFA was replaced by the current Victorian Football League (VFL), which serves as a state league and feeder to the AFL.
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
2001 Bendigo 0 20 0
2002 Bendigo 0 19 1
2009 Bendigo 0 18 0
2013 Bendigo 0 18 0
2014 Bendigo 0 18 0 Dropped out of league and folded at the end of the season.
2015 Frankston 0 18 0
Rugby league[edit]
Great Britain[edit]
In the Rugby Football League Championship, teams initially played a variable number of games, with the maximum ranging over time from 26 to 38, and some teams playing as few as fourteen. In more modern times the fixture list has been standardised at 26 games per team.
As a result of this fairly lengthy schedule, it has been almost impossible for British rugby league teams to lose all their games, with the only exception being during World War II's so-called "Wartime emergency League" when teams were often able to arrange no more than ten games and some as few as five. The only two winless seasons since normal competition resumed after the war have been in the second and third divisions of the Championship.
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
2006 Oldham 0 18 0 National League One
Finished with a points difference of -724
1991–92 Nottingham City 0 26 0 Third Division
Last season in league
Finished with a points difference of -1159
1989–90 Runcorn Highfield 0 28 0 Second Division
Renamed Highfield for following season; still took five successive wooden spoons before disbanding in 1997
1941–1942 Bramley 0 19 0 Left the league until 1945–1946
1940–1941 Broughton Rangers 0 10 0 "Wartime Emergency Season"
Left the league until 1945–1946 as Belle Vue Rangers before disbanding in 1955.
1940–1941 Leigh 0 13 0 "Wartime Emergency Season"
Did not return until 1946–1947
1906–1907 Liverpool City 0 30 0 Scored only 76 points and conceded almost 1,400.
Australia[edit]
In Australian rugby league seasons were initially between eight (in the event of Kangaroo tours) and sixteen games long, so that a very bad team could go through a season with only losses. As a result of the expansion of the NSWRL from 1947 onwards, the season has been lengthened gradually with a few intermissions. The following NSWRL teams up to 1966 did not win a single game:
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
1966 Easts 0 18 0 Longest winless season in NSWRL/NRL history. Last season with 18 games: in 1967 the season expanded to 22.
Sequence of 29 winless games from Round 13 of 1965.
1946 Souths 0 14 0 Lost 22 successive games after the death of Alf Blair during the 1944/1945 off-season.
1937 University 0 8 0 Team disbanded after season shortened by Kangaroo tour, having won only one game in three years (13–11 against St. George in the last round of 1936).
1935 University 0 16 0 Lost 42 consecutive games after winning 4–3 in opening game of 1934
1921 University 0 8 0 Kangaroo tour shortened season.
Won only one game in initial season of 1920 for a combined 1–20 record.
1920 Annandale 0 13 0 Disbanded at end of season after having won only one game (8–5 against Norths) in three seasons.
1918 Annandale 0 14 0 Sequence of 27 winless games: won only twice in last four seasons
Since 1967, NSWRL and later NRL seasons have been between 22 and 26 games long; thus it is much less likely a very bad team could lose every single one of its games.
Rugby union[edit]
Super Rugby, the Southern Hemisphere's principal club competition, has seen two teams go through an entire season with no wins or draws. Both seasons were in the competition's past incarnations of Super 12 and Super 14, each name reflecting the number of competing teams.
Under both Super 12 (1996–2005) and Super 14 (2006–2010) formats, each team played all other teams once, resulting in seasons of 11 and then 13 games. The competition became Super Rugby with the addition of a 15th team in 2011. The season format was also heavily revamped; the regular season now consists of 16 matches.
The Super 12 and Super 14 eras each saw one team finish a season with only losses; both teams with this dubious distinction are from South Africa. In 2002, the Bulls, based in Pretoria, finished with 11 losses from 11 matches. The other imperfect season was that of the Johannesburg-based Lions in the final season of the Super 14 format in 2010, who lost all 13 of their matches, while ending up with a final points difference of negative 300.
Cricket[edit]
County cricket[edit]
Main articles: Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1884 and Derbyshire County Cricket Club in 1920
In English first-class county cricket, which has a history dating back to the early nineteenth century and was until the middle twentieth century up to the highest standard of the game, seasons have varied in length. Before the 1880s, they were generally less than ten matches in length and some "first-class" counties played only against one or two different opponents, so that a team losing all its games was not uncommon. Between 1887 and 1929, seasons were gradually increased in length to a standard twenty-eight matches for all counties. However, because of the development and popularity of one-day cricket, seasons have been reduced to twenty-four games in 1969 and twenty in 1972, though this was increased by two in 1977 and 1983. With an increase to four days for all games, sixteen or seventeen games have been played since 1993.
Also, because of improvements to pitches via the heavy roller and covering to protect from rain, the proportion of games "drawn" (not finished) has steadily risen since the 1870s.
Only two county teams have ever finished a season with only losses in a program of eight or more games:
English First-Class County Teams Losing Every Game (qualification 8 or more games)
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
1884 Derbyshire 0 10 0 Won only three games from 1884 to 1887
Lost every game in 1887, but played only six games
1920 Derbyshire 0 17 0 One match, against Nottinghamshire, was abandoned without a ball bowled
Teams losing or drawing every game in a first-class county season have been rather less exceptional, though by no means frequent:[22]
Other English First-Class County Teams with No Wins in a Season (qualification 8 or more games)
Season
Team
Wins
Losses
Draws
Remarks
1865 Yorkshire 0 6 2 Were to have an amazing rise due to the discovery of deadly fast bowlers Freeman and Emmett, winning every game in 1867.
1871 Surrey 0 9 4
1877 Sussex 0 7 1
1886 Derbyshire 0 8 1 Was demoted from first-class status between 1888 and 1893
1897 Derbyshire 0 9 7 Lost two games by one wicket to power clubs Lancashire and Yorkshire
1900 Hampshire 0 16 6 Lost star batsman Robert Poore to the Boer War
1901 Derbyshire 0 13 7
1910 Somerset 0 15 3 Lost star bowler Bill Greswell to business in Ceylon.
Two-year record in 1910 and 1911 was one win, 28 losses and five draws
1924 Derbyshire 0 13 11
1928 Worcestershire 0 19 11 Most matches and most losses by any winless county team.
Played 54 county matches without a win between June 1927 and May 1929.
1936 Northamptonshire 0 9 15 Did win one game against Sussex under "one-innings" rules after first two days washed out by rain
1937 Northamptonshire 0 16 8 Lost star batsman Fred Bakewell to a car crash and bowler "Nobby" Clark to loss of form
1938 Northamptonshire 0 17 7 Ninety-nine County Championship matches without a win between 14 May 1935 and 29 May 1939
1967 Nottinghamshire 0 4 24 Only team to be winless without finishing bottom
24 drawn matches is most in county cricket history; four finished games is fewest in a season of more than sixteen games
1979 Glamorgan 0 10 11
1982 Warwickshire 0 8 14 Alvin Kallicharran was leading run-scorer in country, but bowling exceptionally weak with average of over 45 runs per wicket
1996 Durham[23] 0 12 5 Won only one match in any competition (four-day or one) against a first-class opponent
2008 Surrey 0 5 10 First Division[24]
2008 Gloucestershire 0 5 11 Second Division[24]
2009 Worcestershire 0 10 6 First Division[25]
2013 Leicestershire 0 8 8 Second Division[26]
2014 Northamptonshire 0 12 4 First Division[27]
2014 Leicestershire 0 10 6 Second Division. First back-to-back winless seasons by a county since the Second World War.[27]
There were no completely winless seasons in the Sunday League limited-overs competition during its history from 1969 to 2009.
International first-class cricket[edit]
With the exception of the Sheffield Shield since the 1970s, most first-class cricket competitions outside England have either been knock-outs or of such short length that it becomes an everyday occurrence for a team to lose all its games. Some, such as the Ranji Trophy and most seasons of the Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, have indeed been knockout competitions, which typically use first innings lead to decide if a match is unfinished.
There have still be some notable winless sequences in non-English first-class cricket:
in the 1981–1982 Quaid-e-Azam Trophy, Karachi lost all nine of its matches[28]
between 1959–1960 and 1986–1987, Jammu and Kashmir played a total of 115 games without a win[29]
International one-day and Twenty20 cricket[edit]
In the 2012–13 season of the Australian Big Bash League, the Sydney Thunder completed an imperfect season where they lost all their eight games despite possessing the likes of Chris Gayle.
Netball[edit]
In the ANZ Championship, which formed out of the old Commonwealth Bank Trophy in 2008, seasons have been thirteen games. There has so far been one winless season, by the Central Pulse from Wellington (formed as a combination of the Wellington Shakers and Western Flyers)[30] in the opening 2008 season. They did earn one point when a game was abandoned due to a leaking roof. The Pulse were to win only one game each in 2009[31] and 2010, thus having a record of 2–36 after three seasons.
Association football[edit]
Only three teams are known to have completed a season with no victories or draws. Antigua Barracuda lost all 26 matches of the 2013 USL Pro, while in the 2015-16 season, English non-league team Longford AFC, played a 30-game season in the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two (14th tier on the English pyramid), losing all their matches after the majority of their players and manager left. In 2016, Grêmio Barueri lost all 19 matches of the Campeonato Paulista Série A3, the third level of the São Paulo state championship. After the disastrous season, the Antigua and Grêmio Barueri teams folded.
In the 2010–11 Ukrainian Second League (3rd tier on the Ukrainian pyramid), FC Veres Rivne lost all 14 out of 22 scheduled games before being expelled from the league due to failure of payment of league dues; in addition, they also did not score a single goal at home.
In top-level domestic league football however, few teams have completed their respective seasons without winning a game. In the 2010–11 Serbian SuperLiga, FK Čukarički Stankom played an entire season winless, drawing five matches and losing 25 in a 30-game season, giving them only 5 points and finishing bottom in a field of 16. The team also only scored ten goals whilst conceding 65.
In the Bulgarian A Professional Football Group, which is the top tier of association football in the European country, three teams have all played a season without winning, with those being Torpedo Ruse (four draws out of 22 matches during 1951), Rakovski Ruse (one draw out of 30 matches during 1996/97) and Chernomorets Burgas Sofia (also one draw out of 30 matches during 2006/07). Chernomorets were however the worse performing out of these, conceding 131 goals with only eight in reply (the same number scored as Rakovski Ruse in their winless season), they still however completed the season with a minus 2 points total, because they violated a rule concerning not being able to field enough youth players.
In the 1946-47 Allsvenskan, the Swedish Football League season of 1946-47 with 22 games played, Billingsfors IK tied 3 games and lost 19, the only team in Swedish football history never to win even one single Allsvenskan game.
In the 1999–2000 Vyshcha Liha, the highest division of Ukrainian football championship, FC Zirka Kirovohrad tied 9 matches and lost 21 out of 30.
The open high frequency of draws in association football, coupled with the relatively long length of seasons and promotion and relegation system used in a majority of jurisdictions to automatically remove the lowest performing teams from any given league, makes winless seasons less likely to occur.
Ice hockey[edit]
Winless seasons occurred frequently in the Ukrainian Hockey Championship, the top-level ice hockey league in Ukraine. The longest series belongs to HK Dniprovski Vovky who lost all 30 games in the regulation time in the 2007–08 season. SDYuShOR Sokil, the academy team of HC Sokil Kyiv, had three winless seasons (1999–2000, 2004–05, and 2006–07). Four more teams completed a season without winning a single game: Ivars Kyiv lost all 12 games in 1996–97, Kryzynka II, the second team of HK Kryzynka Kiev (playing in the same league as the main team), tied 1 and lost 13 games out of 14 in 1998-99, HC Khimik Sieverodonetsk lost all 16 games in 2003–04, and VIM-Berkut lost all 10 games in 2009–10.
Notes[edit]
a In the 1944 under-19 wartime competition that replaced the senior competition between 1942 and that season due to the player drain of World War II, South Fremantle lost all nineteen of their games.
References[edit]
Jump up ^ "The 1942 Lions were a winless, toothless mess". Detroit Athletic. November 22, 2015. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
Jump up ^ "Worst NFL Teams of all Time". ESPN. August 22, 2002. Retrieved 2002-08-22.
Jump up ^ "Semi-pro Football / Minor League Football – Team Points Records". Semiprofootball.org. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ "Semi-pro Football / Minor League Football – Team Games Records". Semiprofootball.org. 1986-10-08. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
Jump up ^ http://www.sprintfootball.com/single-post/2016/04/12/Princeton-drops-Sprint-Football
Jump up ^ "1973 Regular Season Standings | CFL.ca | Official Site of the Canadian Football League". CFL.ca. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Sacramento Kings at Washington Bullets Box Score, November 20, 1990". Basketball-Reference.com. 1990-11-20. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Melbourne Football Club – Bio". Australian Football. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "West Adelaide Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Sturt Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "South Adelaide Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Glenelg Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Glenelg Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Glenelg Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Glenelg Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "South Adelaide Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "West Adelaide Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "South Adelaide Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "South Adelaide Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. 2013-03-27. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Central District Football Club – Stats". Australian Football. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "West Australian Football League". WAFL. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ Wynne-Thomas, Peter; The Rigby A–Z of Cricket Records; pp. 53 to 67. ISBN 072701868X
Jump up ^ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
^ Jump up to: a b "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
^ Jump up to: a b "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-09-27.
Jump up ^ "The Home of CricketArchive". Cricketarchive.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ Wynne-Thomas; The Rigby A−Z of Cricket Records; p. 68
Jump up ^ "Central Pulse fail to attract Silver Ferns". Stuff.co.nz. 2009-01-01. Retrieved 2014-02-18.
Jump up ^ "Netball: Pulse winless no more". 28 June 2009.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_winless_seasons&oldid=834054615"
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