The most memorable losing streaks in sports

The Pistons missed out on Victor Wembenyama, but they did sign Monty Williams to help coach a young roster with lottery picks, including 2021 first overall pick Cade Cunningham. Alas, the 2023-24 season proved brutal in the Motor City. Detroit started the season 2-1…and then proceeded to lose 28 in a row. That ties the overall record, but it is the longest single-season losing streak in NBA history.

Detroit is not a city immune to losing streaks and sports futility. Notably, no NFL team had ever gone winless over the course of a 16-game NFL season. Then, the Detroit Lions did it. In 2008, the Lions became the first NFL team to go 0-16. Luckily for them, the Cleveland Browns joined the ranks of the 0-16 squads a few years later.

There are bad expansion teams, and then there is the 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In the franchise’s first season of existence, the Bucs went 0-14. That wasn’t the end of it, though! Tampa lost the first 12 games of the next year before winning the first game in franchise history. Those 26 losses in a row are an NFL record.

Trust the Process? The 76ers were torn down to the studs, and the losses piled up. They lost the final 10 games of the 2014-15 NBA season, and then proceeded to start the 2015-16 season on a 0-18 streak. Philly would flirt with the worst record in NBA history, but ended up with 72 losses, one off the record.

Northwestern is a school known for fine academics, and has had football success here and there. If you went to the school at the start of the 1980s, though, you would not have seen any of it. Running from the 1979 season into the 1982 season, the Wildcats lost 34 consecutive games. That’s the FBS record.

In soccer, draws are common, so losing streaks are particularly dire. Norwich City, though, not only has the record for consecutive losses in the Premier League, but did it twice. In the 2019-20 season, the Canaries would lose 16 in a row, but after a season in the Championship they bounced right back up. Then, they proceeded to post another 16-loss streak once again. Yes, Norwich was relegated once more.

The longest couple of losing streaks in American baseball history were in the 1800s, which is effectively not the same sport. The American League record is modern, though. In 1988, the Orioles managed to lose 21 games in a row. They would finish with 107 losses, but the next year, bolstered by Rookie of the Year Gregg Olson and Manager of the Year Frank Robinson they won 87 games, a nice bounce back.

It takes talent to make the playoffs, but in the postseason anything can happen. Like, say, losing 18 games in a row. The Minnesota Twins managed to lose 18 straight playoff games, and since they didn’t make the postseason every year, that run stretched a while. After winning a playoff contest in 2004, it would take until 2023 until Minnesota would win in the postseason.

Wins and losses are a poor indicator of a pitcher’s ability. And yet, the futility of Young’s run with the New York Mets certainly stands out. Across the 1992 and 1993 seasons, Young managed to pick up 27 losses in between wins. When Young retired, he had a 15-48 record.

While in Detroit, the Shock found quite a bit of success. In Tulsa, that wasn’t the case. In 2011, the Shock lost 20 games in a row. That’s bad enough as is, but there were only 34 games in the WNBA season. Tulsa went 3-31 that year.

Towson is a force in both men’s and women’s lacrosse, especially within the CAA conference. When it comes to basketball, though, the men’s team hasn’t always been up to snuff. The 2010-11 season was bad enough for the Tigers, but the 2011-12 season would somehow be worse. Given that in the former they went 4-26, that’s saying something. In Pat Skerry’s first season as head coach, Towson went 1-31, and across those two seasons managed a 41-game losing streak.

Chicago State would have loved to have its losing streak end at 41 games. The Lady Cougars ended the 2015-16 season with a few losses. Then, they managed to go the entire 2016-17 season without a win, going 0-29. The futility didn’t end there. Chicago State would start the next campaign with 23 losses in a row before it beat Utah Valley. All in all, the Cougs lost 59 times in a row.

Caltech? One of the best science and engineering schools in the world. The school runs NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Athletics? Not really the school’s forte. The Beavers play Division III basketball, and think for a second about how many schools play Division I hoops. Caltech men’s basketball is, perhaps, the worst collegiate sports team ever. The Beavers lost 207 games in a row. Yes, really. They lost from 1996 through 2007.

Individual athletes go on losing streaks as well. McDuffie feels like the kind of guy they should make a biopic about. He raced forever, as his NASCAR career ran from 1963 through 1991. McDuffie finished in the top 10 106 times in his career, but he never won a NASCAR race. Yes, not one. McDuffie ran 653 NASCAR races without a win. Tragically, he died on the track, suffering fatal injuries during the fifth lap of the 1991 Budweiser at The Glen Race. Like we said, they could make a biopic about him.

Perhaps it isn’t fair to point out a streak of futility during the 2020-21 NHL season, which was rife with COVID-19 postponements and what have you. However, no other team during that season managed to lose 18 games in a row. The Sabres did, though. Now, that includes two overtime losses and a shootout loss, but even so. Hey, at least a lot of those games were played in empty arenas. Nobody had to watch Buffalo struggle — in person.

Spadea had a pretty good career in the ATP. He once ranked as high as 18th, and even got to beat Andre Agassi a couple times. On the other hand, after making the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Spadea had a tough run, becoming, in the words of the Associated Press, the “Charlie Brown of tennis.” He managed to lose 21 matches in a row, until he finally won in the first round of the 2000 Wimbledon tournament.

On January 1st, 1953, the Bullets won in Milwaukee. After that, a visit from Baltimore became as close to a guaranteed win as possible. The Bullets would lose the last 12 road games of the 1952-53 season, and all 22 of their road games the next season. They would lose two more away contests in the 1954-55 campaign until they finally won on the road. It would be the franchise’s final road win. The Baltimore Bullets folded DURING the season, and would not be reborn until the Chicago Zephyrs moved there in 1963.

Get out the brooms! Between 1975 and 1979, the Blackhawks lost 16 playoff games in a row. That includes being swept 4-0 in three quarterfinals matchups and 2-0 in one preliminary round, a thing long gone from the NHL playoff process. Eventually, Chicago would win some playoff games, but would not hoist a Cup between 1961 and 2010.

The Red Sox lost 13 playoff games in a row. Now, that isn’t as long as the Twins’ losing streak, but this is about notable, memorable streaks. Boston’s certainly is that. The first loss of this streak? It came in 1986, specifically during Game 6 of the World Series. You know, when a certain grounder headed toward Bill Buckner. It would not be until 1998 that Boston would win a playoff game.

The Bills have perhaps the most bittersweet losing streak, and also one of the most infamous. Making it to four straight Super Bowls? That’s incredible. To lose all four of them? That’s almost tragic. Sure, Buffalo had a lot of success in order to lose those four Super Bowls in a row, but that doesn’t take away the sting.