Y’all ready for March Madness? The field of 68 is set and the ‘First Four’ games are scheduled to be played on March 19th and March 20th.
This year’s tournament features a handful of teams with – to put it mildly – pathetic showings in past NCAA tournaments.
In fact, the Akron Zips (14-seed), Colgate Raiders (14-seed), Boise State Broncos (10-seed), Nebraska Cornhuskers (8-seed), and South Dakota State Jackrabbits (15-seed) are a combined (0-32) in the Big Dance.
0-32.
NCAA Tournament All-Time Losing Streaks
Now, of course, the majority of those teams are not exactly from powerhouse conferences, and more often than not, it’s a feat just to play their way into the tournament or to get an invite.
Except for Nebraska. Yes, we picked on the Huskers in the headline because they are the best-known of all these teams. And because – Cornhusker Nation, you’re a Big Ten school and one that can capitalize off a powerful football program. How are you winless in the NCAA tournament?
Boise State has the worst record of all these teams at 0-9. South Dakota State is 0-6, while Akron and Colgate are both 0-5.
Can any of these teams get off the schneid when this year’s showcase tips off? Only time will tell. In the meantime, here are a few sports teams, athletes, and entertainers who have had at least some success over the years. More so than the above-mentioned group.
New Jersey Reds
On January 5th, 1971, the New Jersey Reds defeated a basketball team from NY, 100-99.
It was the Reds first official win following 2,495 consecutive losses.
The New Jersey Reds today are known as the Washington Generals. The NY team? The Harlem Globetrotters.
The Washington Generals, known for being Barney to the Globetrotter’s Fred Flintstone throughout their history, have tasted victory more than Akron, Colgate, Boise State, Nebraska, and South Dakota State in the NCAA Tournament.
To paraphrase Larry David: That is pretty, pretty, pretty sad.
Susan Lucci
In 1999, actress Susan Lucci won her first Daytime Emmy after being nominated 19 times for her work on the ABC soap opera, All My Children.
Overall, Lucci was nominated 21 times, but took home the trophy just once.
In other words, she tasted victory more times than the Akron Zips have in the NCAA Tournament.
New Jersey Tech Highlanders
When the New Jersey Tech (NJIT) Highlanders joined Division I basketball, they embarked on a 51-game losing streak that extended two seasons and ended on Jan. 21, 2009, with a 61-51 victory over the Bryant Bulldogs.
The Highlanders ended the 2008-09 season with a 1-30 record.
Highlanders winning percentage – .032.
Colgate Raiders NCAA Tournament winning percentage – .000.
Anthony Young
On July 28th, 1993, a well-liked pitcher for the New York Mets came out of the bullpen in the 9th inning of a 3-3 tie against the Florida Marlins.
That pitcher, Anthony Young, proceeded to give up an RBI on a bunt single that put his team behind 4-3. A loss seemed imminent, something that Young had become accustomed to at the time.
Young was in the midst of a 27-game losing streak that spanned two seasons and 74 appearances, as both a starter and a reliever. He was 0-14 as a starter during that time, and 0-13 as a reliever, despite having respectable numbers.
As luck would have it, however, Young’s team finally picked him up, scoring two runs in the bottom of the 9th to give him his first and only win that year.
He would finish 1-16.
Fellow Met players mobbed him after the game, and Young would later acknowledge they celebrated “like winning the World Series.”
In other words, even Anthony Young that year celebrated victory more than the South Dakota State Jackrabbits have in the NCAA Tournament.
City College New York Lacrosse
9 years. 92 games.
That was how long Coach Hector Munoz and his Division III City College New York lacrosse team went without winning a single game.
That is until City scored an overtime goal and defeated Queens College on April 30th, 1988, by a score of 9-8.
It would mark their first win since May of 1979.
City College would finish 1-10 that season.
”My players will never forget that game,” Munoz told the New York Times.
“The feeling of elation was incredible.”
A feeling the Nebraska Cornhuskers have yet to experience in the NCAA Tournament.
Barry Horowitz
In 1995, a professional wrestler by the name of Barry Horowitz entered the ring to take on Chris Candido, one-half of a tag team known as the Bodydonnas, and who went by the in-ring name, Skip.
It was just another night for Horowitz, who was what those in the industry of sports entertainment describe as a ‘jobber’ – a person sent out specifically to lose to more talented competition and enhance their opponent’s career.
He was a paid loser.
Horowitz wasn’t just any jobber, however. He embraced his role. He didn’t simply arrive to the ring as a non-descript, speedo-wearing shlub. No, he wore sequined vests and even had a gimmick – he’d pat himself on the back after each successfully executed move. Ultimately, however, he’d end his matches the same way, shoulders to the mat, 1-2-3.
It ended this way every night. At one point in the WWE, Horowitz is said to have lost 131 straight matches.
That is until he faced Skip this one fateful night in 1995. Officials told Horowitz that he was going to win the match that night, something he assumed was a joke.
‘Twas not. The career jobber won his match for the first time in 131 tries and was able to pat himself on the back in victory. The victory led to a minor push for Horowitz, as he was able to beat Skip again at that year’s Summerslam.
Finally, after years of toiling as a jobber, Horowitz had finally escaped the chokehold of defeat.
A chokehold the Boise State Broncos currently have on the worst record of all time in the NCAA Tournament.
Cleveland Spiders
The Cleveland Indians/Guardians have been symbolic with losing for many, many years. They even made a movie about that futility. A comedy.
But being the butt of jokes in Major League wasn’t the most embarrassed Cleveland fans have ever been about their baseball team. By far.
Did you know that Cleveland once had a team that played in the National League?
Gather âround folks, and let me tell you a little tale about the 1899 Cleveland Spiders âŚ
The Spiders were a respectable, if not formidable team that began play in 1887 as the Cleveland Blues, then moved to the National League between 1889 and 1899.
The team captured the Temple Cup in 1895, a playoff series that served as a precursor to our modern-day World Series, played between first and second-place teams in the league.
The Spiders were led by a pitcher named Denton True Young who, in their championship season of 1895 led the league with 35 wins against only 10 losses. He also led the league in wins (36) and ERA (1.93) in 1892, and was the strikeout king in 1896.
Young notched 241 wins with Cleveland. You may know him as Cy Young. He would go on to win another 270 games.
The team played competitively throughout the 1890s, achieving a winning record for every season between 1892 and 1898.
But in 1899, things took a horrible turn for the team from the city that rocks.
The teamâs owner purchased another franchise and in a shady move shipped all of Clevelandâs talented players to the new team thinking that city would generate more money. As a result, Young was moved out, as were Hall of Famers Jesse Burkett and Bobby Wallace.
The decimated roster could not compete. The Spiders at one point lost 24 consecutive games, one of the worst streaks in MLB history. They would finally defeat the Washington Senators, 5-4, on September 18, 1899, to put an end to the misery.
They finished with a record of 20-134, the worst in baseball history. Finishing 35 games out of first would have been bad â but the Spiders actually finished 35 games behind the SECOND TO LAST PLACE team!
When the season was over and the carnage surveyed, the team presented traveling secretary George Muir with a diamond locket.
The inscription explained why he was given the pricey gift â He âhad the misfortune to watch us in all our games.â
If all five of these teams lose again in the NCAA Tournament, we will all have had the misfortune to watch those games.
Caltech Beavers
26 years. 26 long, excruciating, agonizing years.
Thatâs how long it had been between conference wins for the Caltech Beavers.
On January 23rd, 1985, Caltech cut down La Verne University, sinking their teeth into a 48-47 victory. It would be the last time they would celebrate a conference victory for many, many years.
Indeed, while many things came and went over the next 26 years â Beavis and Butt-Head, Web TV, and hair bands for example â there remained but one constant in America. Caltech Beaver basketball.
Caltech lost an astounding 310 consecutive conference games beginning in 1985.
On February 22nd, 2011 however, the Beavers became the Mighty Beavers, gnawing their way to a 46-45 victory over Occidental College.
The fans were ecstatic. For the first time in nearly three decades, they finally gave a dam about basketball.
Es-chewing complacency, Coach Oliver Eslinger expressed hope for more wins in the near future.
âWe still have goals and aspirations that we want to accomplish,â Eslinger optimistically declared.
âGoals and aspirationsâ â Something these teams won’t have to worry about if they lose again this year.
We Wish All These Teams Well In The NCAA Tournament
Nebraska, in the end, probably has the best chance of these teams to move forward. They have an exciting squad led by Keisei Tominaga – a Japanese basketball star who is the team’s leading scorer.
As per our usual policy, we kid because we care. All of these teams have had very accomplished and exciting seasons. But will it finally translate to victory in the NCAA Tournament?
I sure hope so. Or we’re probably going to pick on them again next year.
