Imperfect season
Encyclopedia
An imperfect season is defined as a team losing all (or nearly all) of their games. It is the antithesis of a perfect season
, and is often referred to as such in a tongue-in-cheek manner. This ignominy has been suffered eleven times in professional American football
, six times in arena football
, thrice in professional Canadian football
, once each in American professional lacrosse
and box lacrosse
, more than twenty-five times in major Australian football
leagues, seven times in top-level rugby league
, at least twice in top-level rugby union
, and twice in English county cricket
.
and professional
football
seasons, there is a possibility that a very bad 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.
The Rochester Jeffersons
went a combined 0-21-2 over four seasons from 1922 to 1925, but in none of those seasons did they ever play more than seven games.
Source: Worst NFL Teams of all time (ESPN)
makes imperfect seasons quite possible. The following teams have gone through an Arena Football League
season without winning a game:
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 can finish any particular season entirely with losses, since every team plays each other at least twice. The 2009 California Redwoods
lost all their games except their two games against the Sentinels; they relocated from San Francisco to Sacramento (as the Sacramento Mountain Lions) for 2010. Both the Colonials and Mountain Lions made improvements on their records the following season.
/Ghostchasers
) that, despite two reorganizations, lost every game in their two-year existence. 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.
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. Consequently, especially given the much smaller number of teams playing, there have been fewer imperfect or nearly imperfect seasons than in the National Football League, with the exception of the first decade or so when fewer games were played.
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. The Syracuse Smash
in 2000 finished 1-11 and the relocated Ottawa Rebel
finished 1-13 the following year.
, 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; the Machine eventually moved to Rochester
. The New Jersey Pride
in 2004
and the Bridgeport Barrage in the previous year
also finished with a 1-11 record.
and its predecessors, the National Basketball Association
and the Women’s National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League
and Major League Baseball
- 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.
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. Since shootouts were abandoned the following season, the most losses by a Major League Soccer team has been 22 by both Real Salt Lake
and Chivas USA
in 2005. Chivas also holds the MLS record for fewest wins in a season, winning only four of its thirty-two games, whilst Real Salt Lake in the same year was second worst with only five wins.
The 1973 76ers hold the record for the lowest winning percentage of any team in an NBA season, winning only 9 out of 82 games for a winning percentage of .110. This record has been threatened by the 1993
Dallas Mavericks
and the 1998
Denver Nuggets
, both of whom went 11-71 for a winning percentage of .134 and at various points looked likely to break the 76ers record for fewest wins in a season. The Nuggets, for instance, were on track at the beginning of February 1998 to post a 7-75 record. In the original Basketball Association of America
, the Providence Steamrollers
in 1947-48 won only six games of forty-eight for a winning percentage of .125.
The 1990-91
Sacramento Kings
managed a near-imperfect road season. They won only one of 41 away games, 87-82 against the Washington Bullets
on November 20, 1990. Overall, the Kings lost 43 consecutive road games before beating the Orlando Magic
95-93 on November 23, 1991.
The 1996–97 Boston Celtics
managed only one win in 24 games against other members of the Atlantic Division
, in its last such game against the Philadelphia 76ers
. They overall lost 24 successive games against other Atlantic Division teams after beating the New Jersey Nets
112 to 106 on 19 April, 1996.
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. 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, whilst the worst record by an established WNBA franchise has been 6-28, or a winning percentage of .176, by the 2005
Charlotte Sting
.
during the 2004-05
lockout
eliminated ties. 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 first tiebreaker.
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.)
has been 162 games long; 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 closest to a perfectly imperfect season in the National League
was the infamous 1899 Cleveland Spiders season
, who won only twenty games and lost a record 134 games after its roster was looted by the owners of the team, who stacked the best players onto the St. Louis Perfectos
. The Spiders are, to this day, the only major league team to have finished a season below the Mendoza line
(.200) in win percentage. Since 1900, four other teams have come closest to imperfection, the 1916 Philadelphia A's went 36-117, the 1935 Boston Braves went 38-115, the 1962 New York Mets went 40-120 and the 2003 Detroit Tigers went 43-119.
leagues, winless seasons (the term “imperfect season” never being used in Australia) are more common and better documented than in any other professional or semi-professional team sport. In the major state leagues of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, the home-and-away season was originally between twelve and sixteen games long, and is now between twenty and twenty-two games; thus a very bad team could easily fail to win any games.
, until 1990 called the Victorian Football League, seasons have ranged from fourteen games per team in its initial season
and the shortened wartime seasons from 1916
-18
and 1942
-43
up to 22 games since 1970
. As a result of this, exceptionally bad teams were quite capable of not winning a single game in a season during the competition’s early and middle periods up to the extension of the season to twenty games in 1968
. Since then, the longer season has prevented any completely winless seasons, though several teams have come distinctly close, either through being lucky to achieve their only win or being on target for a winless season when they won.
Both St. Kilda in 1985
and Port Adelaide in 2011
has a record of two wins and nineteen losses before winning their last game; in the Saints’ case in a huge comeback upset over second-placed Footscray.
(VFL) which serves as a state league and feeder to the AFL. Its home-and-away season has varied erratically from twelve to twenty games in length. Since the VFA and VFL have never possessed any mechanisms such as zoning
or revenue sharing to reduce inequality of the sport’s limited talent pool, it has been quite easy for weak teams in these leagues to have seasons where they failed to win a single game.
, which until the 1970s was not that far below the VFL in standard, seasons before the league was reorganised under its present name in 1927 after previously being known as the South Australian Football Association up to 1906 and as the South Australian Football League were from twelve to fourteen games long. Since then they have been between seventeen and twenty-two games long, so that winless seasons have been by no means infrequent.
has existed since 1885 within Western Australia, and until the latter part of the 20th century was of equivalent standard to either the VFL or SANFL. Its season was originally around fourteen games in length, but because the league extended to a twenty-game home-and-away season well before the VFL or SANFL did, winless seasons have been much rarer. However, there have been quite a number of cases where a team came very close to a winless record through winning only one game by a very narrow margin, or was in danger of a winless season when it managed to win.
s) 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:
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. Only two teams since 1967 have had only one win in a season, and in both cases that win occurred early enough that the possibility of a winless season never occurred. There have been other teams that have started the season with more winless games, but all ultimately won at least twice. NSWRL/NRL teams with two or fewer wins since 1967, plus one case with no wins in first ten games, are:
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.
Perfect Season
A perfect season is any sports season, excluding the playoff portion of a season, in which a team remains undefeated and untied. The feat is extremely rare at the professional level of any team sport, and has occurred more commonly at the collegiate level in the United States.A perfect season may...
, and is often referred to as such in a tongue-in-cheek manner. This ignominy has been suffered eleven times in professional American football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
, six times in arena football
Arena football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
, thrice in professional Canadian football
Canadian football
Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area...
, once each in American professional lacrosse
Field lacrosse
Field lacrosse, sometimes referred to as the "fastest sport on two feet," is a full contact outdoor men's sport played with ten players on each team. The sport originated among Native Americans, and the modern rules of field lacrosse were initially codified by Canadian William George Beers in 1867....
and box lacrosse
Box lacrosse
Box lacrosse, also known as indoor lacrosse and sometimes shortened to boxla, LAX or simply box, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada, where it is the most popular version of the game played in contrast to the traditional field lacrosse game...
, more than twenty-five times in major Australian football
Australian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
leagues, seven times in top-level rugby league
Rugby league
Rugby league football, usually called rugby league, is a full contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, it originated in England in 1895 by a split from Rugby Football Union over paying players...
, at least twice in top-level rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
, and twice in English county cricket
County cricket
County cricket is the highest level of domestic cricket in England and Wales. For the 2010 season, see 2010 English cricket season.-First-class counties:...
.
Gridiron football
Because of the short schedules of collegeCollege football
College football refers to American football played by teams of student athletes fielded by American universities, colleges, and military academies, or Canadian football played by teams of student athletes fielded by Canadian universities...
and professional
Professional football
In the United States and Canada, the term professional football includes the professional forms of American and Canadian gridiron football. In common usage, it refers to former and existing major football leagues in either country...
football
American football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
seasons, there is a possibility that a very bad 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.
NFL Teams with no wins in a season (8 or more games)
| Season | Team !! Wins !! Losses !! Ties | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Detroit Lions 2008 Detroit Lions season The 2008 Detroit Lions season was the 79th season for the franchise in the National Football League. Although the Lions had a flawless preseason with a 4-0 record, the Lions became the first team in NFL history to compile an 0-16 record in regular season play. They were mathematically eliminated... |
0 | 16 | 0 | Most losses in a single season. Detroit was the first non-expansion team to lose every game in a full season since World War II. |
| 1982 | Baltimore Colts 1982 Baltimore Colts season The 1982 Baltimore Colts season was the 30th season for the team in the National Football League, and the Colts' penultimate season in Baltimore. The Baltimore Colts finished the National Football League's 1982 season with a record of 0 wins, 8 losses and 1 tie. They finished fifth in the AFC East... |
0 | 8 | 1 | Strike shortened season. Afterwards, the Colts drafted future Hall of Fame Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees... quarterback Quarterback Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line... John Elway John Elway John Albert Elway, Jr. is a former American football quarterback and currently is the executive vice president of football operations for the Denver Broncos of the National Football League . He played college football at Stanford and his entire professional career with the Denver Broncos... with the first pick in the 1983 NFL Draft 1983 NFL Draft The 1983 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. It is officially known as the NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting. The draft was held April 26–27, 1983... , but due to protests from Elway before and after the draft, had his rights traded to the Denver Broncos Denver Broncos The Denver Broncos are a professional American football team based in Denver, Colorado. They are currently members of the West Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... a week later. |
| 1976 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers season The NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers played their debut season in 1976, making league history as the first team to play an entire 14-game season without winning or tying a single game. They did not score until their third game and did not score a touchdown until their fourth. They lost by a touchdown or... |
0 | 14 | 0 | Team made league debut in 1976. Went on to lose the first 12 games of the 1977 season as well, to start 0-26-0 as a franchise. |
| 1960 | Dallas Cowboys 1960 Dallas Cowboys season The 1960 Dallas Cowboys season was the inaugural season for the franchise in the National Football League. The team finished with no wins, 11 losses, and 1 tie, which placed them last in the Western Conference, and was the worst record in the NFL for that season.-Offseason:The NFL granted a... |
0 | 11 | 1 | Team made league debut in 1960 |
| 1944 | Brooklyn Tigers 1944 Brooklyn Tigers season The 1944 Brooklyn Tigers season was their 15th and final season in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 2-8, losing all ten games. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the 13th consecutive season.-Schedule:... |
0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1944 | Card-Pitt Card-Pitt Card-Pitt was the name for the team created by the temporary merger of two National Football League teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Chicago Cardinals, during the 1944 season. The teams were forced to merge, because both had lost many players to World War II military service... |
0 | 10 | 0 | Merger between Chicago Cardinals Arizona Cardinals The Arizona Cardinals are a professional American football team based in Glendale, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League... & Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional football team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team currently belongs to the North Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League . Founded in , the Steelers are the oldest franchise in the AFC... due to player shortages during World War II World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis... ; the Steelers themselves merged with the Philadelphia Eagles Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are members of the East Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League... the previous year Steagles The Steagles is the popular nickname for the team created by the temporary merger of two National Football League teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles, during the 1943 season... for the same reasons. The Cardinals (now in the Phoenix area as the Arizona Cardinals) and Steelers eventually played each other in Super Bowl XLIII Super Bowl XLIII Super Bowl XLIII was an American football game pitting the American Football Conference champion Pittsburgh Steelers against the National Football Conference champion Arizona Cardinals to decide the National Football League champion for the 2008 season. The game was played on February 1, 2009,... 64 seasons later. |
| 1943 | Chicago Cardinals 1943 Chicago Cardinals season The 1943 Chicago Cardinals season was the 24th season the team was in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 3-8, losing all ten games. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the 18th consecutive season.-Schedule:-Standings:... |
0 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1942 | Detroit Lions 1942 Detroit Lions season The 1942 Detroit Lions season resulted in the Lions having the first winless season since Cincinnati went 0-8 in 1934. It would remain the only imperfect season for the Lions until 2008.-Schedule:-Standings:-Roster:-References:***... |
0 | 11 | 0 | |
| 1934 | Cincinnati Reds 1934 Cincinnati Reds (NFL) season The 1934 Cincinnati Reds season was their second and final in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 3–6–1, losing eight games. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the second consecutive season. The team was shut out in six of their eight games, losing 64–0 in... |
0 | 8 | 0 | Folded before the season was over. |
| 1925 | Columbus Tigers 1925 Columbus Tigers season The 1925 Columbus Tigers season was their sixth in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous record against league teams of 4-4, losing nine games. They tied for sixteenth place in the league.-Schedule:... |
0 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1922 | Columbus Panhandles 1922 Columbus Panhandles season The 1922 Columbus Panhandles season was their third in the league and last season as the Panhandles. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 1-8, losing all their games. They tied for fifteenth place in the league.-Schedule:-Standings:... |
0 | 8 | 0 |
The Rochester Jeffersons
Rochester Jeffersons
The Rochester Jeffersons from Rochester, New York played in the National Football League from 1920 to 1925.Formed as an amateur outfit by a rag-tag group of Rochester-area teenagers after the turn of the century , the team became known as the Jeffersons in reference to the locale of their playing...
went a combined 0-21-2 over four seasons from 1922 to 1925, but in none of those seasons did they ever play more than seven games.
NFL Teams with only one win in a season (8 or more games)
| Season | Team | Wins | Losses | Ties | Remarks |
| 2009 | St. Louis Rams 2009 St. Louis Rams season The 2009 St. Louis Rams season is the 72nd season for the St. Louis Rams, and the 15th in St. Louis. Due to the Rams winning only against the Detroit Lions, they finished with the NFL's worst record at 1–15, earning the first overall selection in the 2010 NFL Draft in Steve Spagnuolo's first season... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came against the Detroit Lions 2009 Detroit Lions season The 2009 Detroit Lions season was the franchise's 80th season overall in the National Football League. The Lions spent the whole season at the bottom of their division and finished at 2–14. The 2009 season was the first season with the Lions for new head coach Jim Schwartz, and most of his new... (8th game) who ended up 2-14 |
| 2007 | Miami Dolphins 2007 Miami Dolphins season The 2007 Miami Dolphins season was the 38th season for the team in the National Football League and 42nd season overall. The team nearly went winless for the season, but on December 16, the third to last game of the regular season, they beat the Baltimore Ravens, giving them a final record of 1–15... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win was against Baltimore Ravens 2007 Baltimore Ravens season -Game summary:The Ravens began their 2007 campaign on the road against their AFC North foe, the Cincinnati Bengals, in the first game of a Monday Night Football doubleheader. In the first quarter, Baltimore lost two fumbles early on, with the Bengals turning the second fumble into QB Carson... in OT during Week 15 (14th game) |
| 2001 | Carolina Panthers 2001 Carolina Panthers season -Regular season:-References:... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Became first team to lose 15 straight games in same season, only win was in opener against the Minnesota Vikings 2001 Minnesota Vikings season 2001 was the 41st year of season play for the Minnesota Vikings and the 82nd regular season of the National Football League.Tragedy struck the Minnesota Vikings in the summer of 2001, when Offensive Lineman Korey Stringer died of heat stroke in training camp in Mankato, Minnesota... . Did not earn the number one pick in the 2002 NFL Draft 2002 NFL Draft The 2002 NFL Draft was the procedure by which National Football League teams selected amateur college football players. The draft is known officially as the "NFL Annual Player Selection Meeting" and has been conducted annually since 1936. The draft took place April 20–21, 2002 at the theater at... by virtue of the expansion Expansion team An expansion team is a brand new team in a sports league. The term is most commonly used in reference to the North American major professional sports leagues, but is applied to sports leagues worldwide that use a closed franchise system of league membership. The term comes from the expansion of the... Houston Texans Houston Texans The Houston Texans are a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The team is currently a member of the Southern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League... automatically having the first pick. Just two years later they ended up being a field goal short of a Super Bowl Super Bowl XXXVIII Super Bowl XXXVIII was an American football game played on February 1, 2004 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas to decide the National Football League champion following the 2003 regular season.... title. |
| 2000 | San Diego Chargers 2000 San Diego Chargers season The 2000 San Diego Chargers season began with the team trying to improve on their 8–8 record in 1999. It is the worst record of any Chargers team in history. They earned the 1st overall pick in the 2001 NFL draft in which they would later trade to acquire LaDanian Tomlinson... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 12th game vs. Kansas City 2000 Kansas City Chiefs season The 2000 Kansas City Chiefs season was the second and final season led by head coach Gunther Cunningham. Cunningham was fired following a 7–9 record and third place finish in the AFC West. Cunningham was replaced by Dick Vermeil, and Quarterback Elvis Grbac was released at the end of the season... 17-16 |
| 1996 | New York Jets 1996 New York Jets season The 1996 New York Jets season began with the team trying to improve upon its league-worst 3–13 record from 1995. However, this season proved even more calamitous as they finished 1–15, which is the worst record in franchise history... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 9th game vs. Arizona 1996 Arizona Cardinals season The 1996 Arizona Cardinals season was the 77th season the team was in the league and 9th in Arizona. The team improved upon their previous output of 4-12, winning seven games. Despite the improvement, the Cardinals failed to qualify to the playoffs for the fourteenth consecutive... 31-21 |
| 1991 | Indianapolis Colts 1991 Indianapolis Colts season The 1991 Indianapolis Colts season was the 39th season for the team in the National Football League and 8th in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Colts finished the National Football League's 1991 season with a record of 1 win and 15 losses, and finished fifth in the AFC East division... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 10th game 28-27 at the New York Jets 1991 New York Jets season -Schedule:-Playoffs:-External links:*... |
| 1990 | New England Patriots 1990 New England Patriots season The New England Patriots finished the National Football League's 1990 season with a record of one win and fifteen losses, and finished last in the AFC East division... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 2nd game 16-14 at Indianapolis 1990 Indianapolis Colts season The 1990 Indianapolis Colts season was the 38th season for the team in the National Football League and 7th in Indianapolis. The Indianapolis Colts finished the National Football League's 1990 season with a record of 7 wins and 9 losses, and finished third in the AFC East division.-NFL... ; several players involved in sexual harassment of Boston Globe sportswriter Lisa Olson |
| 1989 | Dallas Cowboys 1989 Dallas Cowboys season The 1989 Dallas Cowboys season was the first year of the franchise under the ownership of Jerry Jones as well as under the helm of head coach Jimmy Johnson, who had compiled a 44–4 record in his last 4 years as coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes.... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win in sixth game versus vs Washington Redskins 1989 Washington Redskins season The 1989 Washington Redskins began with the team trying to improve on their 7-9 record from 1988. Despite a 10-6 record, they finished third in the NFC East and failed to qualify for the playoffs. The Week 11 game with Dallas was that team's only win of the season.-Regular season:In a week 14... |
| 1982 | Houston Oilers 1982 Houston Oilers season -NFL Draft:-Schedule:-Standings: -Roster:-References:* *... |
1 | 8 | 0 | Strike shortened season |
| 1980 | New Orleans Saints 1980 New Orleans Saints season The 1980 New Orleans Saints season was the team's 14th as a member of the National Football League. They were unable to improve on their previous season's output of 8-8, winning only one game. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fourteenth consecutive season and had the dubious... |
1 | 15 | 0 | Only win came in 15th game 21-20 at the New York Jets 1980 New York Jets season The 1980 New York Jets season was the 21st season for the team and the 11th in the National Football League. It began with the team trying to improve upon its 8–8 record from 1979 under head coach Walt Michaels... |
| 1973 | Houston Oilers 1973 Houston Oilers season The 1973 Houston Oilers season was the 4th season in league and the 14th overall. The team matched their previous season's output of 1–13. They missed the playoffs for the fourth consecutive season.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 13 | 0 | |
| 1972 | Houston Oilers 1972 Houston Oilers season The 1972 Houston Oilers season was the 13th season the team was with the league. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 4–9–1, winning only one game. They missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season.... |
1 | 13 | 0 | |
| 1971 | Buffalo Bills 1971 Buffalo Bills season The 1971 Buffalo Bills season was the 12th season for the club and its 2nd in the National Football League.For the second time in four seasons, the Bills finished with a 1-13 record. The season began in turmoil when coach John Rauch resigned, forcing pro personnel director Harvey Johnson to assume... |
1 | 13 | 0 | Only win in eleventh game against New England Patriots 1971 New England Patriots season The New England Patriots finished the National Football League's 1971 season with a record of six wins and eight losses, and finished third in the AFC East division. It was the first season the Patriots played in Schaeffer Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts after playing in three different... . |
| 1969 | Chicago Bears 1969 Chicago Bears season The 1969 Chicago Bears season was their 50th regular season completed in the National Football League. The club posted a 1-13 record, the worst in franchise history.... |
1 | 13 | 0 | Only win came vs. Steelers 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers season The 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers is what many consider to be the turning point of this once-moribund franchise. 1969 was the first season for Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll, the first season for defensive lineman "Mean Joe" Greene and L. C... , lost coin toss Coin flipping Coin flipping or coin tossing or heads or tails is the practice of throwing a coin in the air to choose between two alternatives, sometimes to resolve a dispute between two parties... to Steelers to draft 1970 NFL Draft The 1970 National Football League Draft was held on January 27–28, 1970.-Player selections:-Round one:-Round two:-Round three:-Round four:-Round five:-Round six:-Round seven:-Round eight:-Round nine:-Round ten:... future Hall of Fame Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees... quarterback Quarterback Quarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line... Terry Bradshaw Terry Bradshaw Terry Paxton Bradshaw is a former American football quarterback with the Pittsburgh Steelers in the National Football League . He played 14 seasons. He is a football analyst and co-host of Fox NFL Sunday... with the number one pick. |
| 1969 | Pittsburgh Steelers 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers season The 1969 Pittsburgh Steelers is what many consider to be the turning point of this once-moribund franchise. 1969 was the first season for Hall of Fame head coach Chuck Noll, the first season for defensive lineman "Mean Joe" Greene and L. C... |
1 | 13 | 0 | Won first game 16-13 vs. Detroit 1969 Detroit Lions season The 1969 Detroit Lions season was the 40th season in franchise history.-NFL Draft:-Schedule:-Standings:-Roster:-References:***... ; first season for Pro Football Hall of Fame Pro Football Hall of Fame The Pro Football Hall of Fame is the hall of fame of professional football in the United States with an emphasis on the National Football League . It opened in Canton, Ohio, on September 7, 1963, with 17 charter inductees... coach Chuck Noll Chuck Noll Charles Henry "Chuck" Noll is a former professional American football player and coach, and a member of the Sid Gillman coaching tree. He served most notably as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League from 1969 to 1991... & defensive tackle “Mean Joe” Greene Joe Greene (American football) Charles Edward Greene, known as “Mean Joe” Greene, is a former all-pro American football defensive tackle who played for the Pittsburgh Steelers of the NFL. Throughout the early 1970s he was the one of most dominant defensive players in the National Football League... . |
| 1968 | Buffalo Bills 1968 Buffalo Bills season -Offseason:* August 24: Bills sign Fullback Wayne Patrick.* August 27: Bills acquire future Buffalo Bills Head Coach Kay Stephenson from the San Diego Chargers for a Fifth Round Pick.... |
1 | 12 | 1 | American Football League American Football League The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence... Drafted O. J. Simpson O. J. Simpson Orenthal James "O. J." Simpson , nicknamed "The Juice", is a retired American collegiate and professional football player, football broadcaster, and actor... with the first pick in the ensuing draft 1969 NFL Draft The 1969 National Football League Draft was part of the Common Draft, the third and final year in which the NFL and American Football League held a joint draft of college players. The draft took place on January 28–29, 1969.... . |
| 1967 | Atlanta Falcons 1967 Atlanta Falcons season The 1967 Atlanta Falcons season was the Falcons' second season.-NFL Draft:-Schedule:-Standings: - References :* *... |
1 | 12 | 1 | Only win 21-20 against Minnesota Vikings 1967 Minnesota Vikings season 1967 was the seventh year of season play for the Minnesota Vikings and the 48th regular season of the National Football League. The Vikings finished with a record of three wins, eight losses, and three ties, under their first-year head coach Bud Grant, who succeeded Norm Van Brocklin.-Notable... . |
| 1966 | New York Giants 1966 New York Giants season The 1966 New York Giants season was the 42nd season for the club in the National Football League. The Giants finished in last place in the Eastern Conference with a 1–12–1 record, the worst in franchise history.... |
1 | 12 | 1 | |
| 1962 | Oakland Raiders 1962 Oakland Raiders season The 1962 Oakland Raiders season began with the team trying to improve on their 2–12 record from 1961. The 1962 season was the third season in Oakland and in the American Football League. It ended with the Raiders finishing in last place in the AFL West... |
1 | 13 | 0 | American Football League American Football League The American Football League was a major American Professional Football league that operated from 1960 until 1969, when the established National Football League merged with it. The upstart AFL operated in direct competition with the more established NFL throughout its existence... Only win came against the Boston Patriots 1962 Boston Patriots season The Boston Patriots finished the American Football League's 1962 season with a record of nine wins and four losses and one tie, and placed second in the AFL's Eastern division.-Staff:-Draft picks:-Game-by-game results:-Roster:... in the final week of the season |
| 1962 | Los Angeles Rams 1962 Los Angeles Rams season The 1962 Los Angeles Rams season was the team's 25th year with the National Football League and the 17th season in Los Angeles. Eventual Hall of Famer Bob Waterfield, the team's head coach for the past two seasons, came back and coached the Rams to a 1-7 record before being fired... |
1 | 12 | 1 | |
| 1961 | Washington Redskins 1961 Washington Redskins season The 1961 Washington Redskins began with the team trying to improve on their 1-9-2 record from 1960. However, their 1-12-1 performance during the season placed the Redskins in last-place in the NFL Eastern Conference... |
1 | 12 | 1 | Only win in final game against second-year Cowboys 1961 Dallas Cowboys season The 1961 Dallas Cowboys season was their second in the National Football League. The team finished with 4 wins, 9 losses, and 1 tie, placing them 6th in the Eastern Conference.-Offseason:... . |
| 1960 | Washington Redskins 1960 Washington Redskins season The 1960 Washington Redskins involved the team's last-place finish in the NFL Eastern Conference, with a dismal 1-9-2 record.This season was also the last one in their old stadium, Griffith Stadium.-Schedule:-References:... |
1 | 9 | 2 | |
| 1958 | Green Bay Packers 1958 Green Bay Packers season The 1958 Green Bay Packers season was their 38th season in the National Football League. The club posted a 1-10-1 record under coach Ray McLean, earning them a last-place finish in the Western Conference and the worst record ever posted by a Packers team... |
1 | 10 | 1 | Packers hired Vince Lombardi Vince Lombardi Vincent Thomas "Vince" Lombardi was an American football coach. He is best known as the head coach of the Green Bay Packers during the 1960s, where he led the team to three straight league championships and five in seven years, including winning the first two Super Bowls following the 1966 and... as coach following the season |
| 1953 | Chicago Cardinals 1953 Chicago Cardinals season The 1953 Chicago Cardinals season was the 34th season the team was in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 4-8, winning only one game, the final game of the season. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 10 | 1 | Only win in final game against Chicago Bears 1953 Chicago Bears season The 1953 Chicago Bears season was their 34th regular season completed in the National Football League. The club posted a dismal 3-8-1 record under head coach George Halas placing them in fourth place in the NFL's newly formed Western Conference.-Schedule:... . |
| 1952 | Dallas Texans 1952 Dallas Texans season The 1952 Dallas Texans season was the team's only season in the league. They started 0-9 before finishing 1-11 and failing to qualify for the playoffs. The Texans home game against Chicago was moved to Akron, Ohio's Rubber Bowl and the final game of the season was moved to Detroit from... |
1 | 11 | 0 | Successor to New York Yanks New York Yanks The New York Yanks American football team played in the National Football League under that name in the 1950 and 1951 seasons. In 1949, Boston Yanks owner Ted Collins had requested the NFL to fold his Boston team and give him a new one in New York City... owned by Ted Collins. Only NFL season; game against the Detroit Lions Detroit Lions The Detroit Lions are a professional American football team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League , and play their home games at Ford Field in Downtown Detroit.Originally based in Portsmouth, Ohio and... transferred to that team’s home field. |
| 1951 | New York Yanks 1951 New York Yanks season The 1951 New York Yanks season was their second as the Yanks , and their final season before the franchise folded. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 7-5, winning only one game. They played eight of their twelve games on the road, including seven of the first... |
1 | 9 | 2 | |
| 1950 | Baltimore Colts 1950 Baltimore Colts season The 1950 Baltimore Colts season was their fourth as a franchise and lone season in the NFL. The team matched their previous season's output of 1-11. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the second consecutive season.-Schedule:-Standings:... |
1 | 11 | 0 | Consecutive seasons with record of 2-22-0 worst until 1972/1973 Oilers. |
| 1949 | Baltimore Colts 1949 Baltimore Colts season The 1949 Baltimore Colts season was their third as a franchise and last season in the AAFC before moving to the NFL. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 7-7, winning only one game.-Season schedule:-League standings:... |
1 | 11 | 0 | |
| 1949 | New York Bulldogs 1949 New York Bulldogs season The 1949 New York Bulldogs season was their inaugural season and last as the Bulldogs . The finished 1-10-1, failing to qualify for the playoffs.-NFL Draft:-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 10 | 1 | |
| 1946 | Detroit Lions 1946 Detroit Lions season The 1946 Detroit Lions season was their 17th in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous season's output of 7-3, winning only one games. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the 11th consecutive season.-Schedule:-Standings:... |
1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1945 | Chicago Cardinals 1945 Chicago Cardinals season The 1945 Chicago Cardinals season was the 26th season the team was in the league. The team improved on their previous output of 0-10, winning one game. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the 20th consecutive season... |
1 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1941 | Pittsburgh Steelers 1941 Pittsburgh Steelers season The 1941 Pittsburgh Steelers season was the club's ninth as a member of the National Football League. In the off season, the team had been sold and then re-acquired in a bizarre series of transactions which has come to be referred to as the "Pennsylvania Polka"... |
1 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1940 | Philadelphia Eagles 1940 Philadelphia Eagles season The 1940 Philadelphia Eagles season was their eighth in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 1–9–1, losing ten games... |
1 | 10 | 0 | Only win in penultimate game against Pittsburgh Steelers 1940 Pittsburgh Steelers season The 1940 Pittsburgh Steelers team was led by head coach Walt Kiesling in his first full season in the top job. Kiesling's assistant coaches were Wilbur "Bill" Sortet and Hank Bruder, who both also played. They held training camp at St... 7-0. |
| 1939 | Chicago Cardinals 1939 Chicago Cardinals season The 1939 Chicago Cardinals season was their 20th in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2-9, winning only one game. They played eight of their eleven games on the road and failed to qualify for the playoffs for the 14th consecutive... |
1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1939 | Philadelphia Eagles 1939 Philadelphia Eagles season The 1939 Philadelphia Eagles season was their seventh in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 5–6, winning only one game. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the seventh consecutive season.-Off Season:... |
1 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1937 | Cleveland Rams 1937 Cleveland Rams season The 1937 Cleveland Rams season was the team's first year with the National Football League and the second season in Cleveland.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:*... |
1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1936 | Philadelphia Eagles 1936 Philadelphia Eagles season The 1936 Philadelphia Eagles season was their fourth in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2–9, winning only one game... |
1 | 11 | 0 | Lost 11 consecutive games after winning opener 10-7 against New York Giants 1936 New York Giants season The 1936 New York Giants season was the twelfth season for the club in the National Football League.-Schedule:-Standings:-See also:*List of New York Giants seasons... . |
| 1933 | Chicago Cardinals 1933 Chicago Cardinals season The 1933 Chicago Cardinals season was their 14th in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2-6-2, winning only one game. They failed to qualify for the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season.-Schedule:-Standings:... |
1 | 9 | 1 | |
| 1931 | Frankford Yellow Jackets 1931 Frankford Yellow Jackets season The 1931 Frankford Yellow Jackets season was their eighth and final in the National Football League. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 4-13-1, winning only one league game... |
1 | 6 | 1 | |
| 1930 | Minneapolis Red Jackets 1930 Minneapolis Red Jackets season The 1930 Minneapolis Red Jackets season was their sixth and final season in the league. The team improved on their previous output of 1-9, losing only seven games.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 7 | 1 | |
| 1930 | Newark Tornadoes 1930 Newark Tornadoes season The 1930 Newark Tornadoes season was their second and final in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 3-5-4, winning only one game. Playing, and losing, eight games in October, they finished eleventh in the league.-Schedule:... |
1 | 10 | 1 | |
| 1929 | Buffalo Bisons 1929 Buffalo Bisons (NFL) season The 1929 Buffalo Bisons season was their ninth and final season in the league. The team marginally improved on their previous output of 0-5, winning one game... |
1 | 7 | 1 | Only win came in final game of season. Played no games in 1928; previous season (1927), team went 0-5-0. |
| 1929 | Minneapolis Red Jackets 1929 Minneapolis Red Jackets season The 1929 Minneapolis Red Jackets season was their fifth in the league and first as the Red Jackets. The team improved on their previous output of 0-6, winning one game. They finished eleventh in the league. Prior to this season, the Red Jackets were the Minneapolis... |
1 | 9 | 0 | |
| 1927 | Duluth Eskimos 1927 Duluth Eskimos season The 1927 Duluth Eskimos season was the Eskimos' final season in the NFL. Coached by Ernie Nevers, the Eskimos finished with a 1-8 record. The team scored 68 points and allowed 134.-Schedule: -Standings: -Roster:*Marion Ashmore T*Bunny Belden WB... |
1 | 8 | 0 | |
| 1927 | Dayton Triangles 1927 Dayton Triangles season The 1927 Dayton Triangles season was their eighth in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 1-4-1, losing six games. They finished tenth in the league.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 6 | 1 | |
| 1926 | Canton Bulldogs 1926 Canton Bulldogs season The 1926 Canton Bulldogs season was their sixth and final season in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous output of 4-4, winning only one game. They finished twentieth in the league.-Schedule:-Standings:-References:... |
1 | 9 | 3 | |
| 1923 | Oorang Indians 1923 Oorang Indians season The 1923 Oorang Indians season was their second and final season in the league. The team failed to improve on their previous league record of 3-6, winning only one NFL game. They finished eighteenth in the league.-Schedule:... |
1 | 10 | 0 | |
| 1921 | Columbus Panhandles 1921 Columbus Panhandles season The 1921 Columbus Panhandles season was their second in the newly formed American Professional Football Association . The team failed to improve on their previous output of 2-6-2, winning only one league game... |
1 | 8 | 0 | American Professional Football Association |
Source: Worst NFL Teams of all time (ESPN)
Arena Football League
The short length of seasons in arena footballArena football
Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League . It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game....
makes imperfect seasons quite possible. The following teams have gone through an Arena Football League
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League is the highest level of professional indoor American football in the United States. It is currently the second longest running professional football league in the United States, after the National Football League. It was founded in 1987 by Jim Foster...
season without winning a game:
| Year | Team !! Played !! Wins !! Losses | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Maryland Commandos Washington Commandos The Washington Commandos were an Arena football team that operated from 1987 to 1990.-Inaugural season :The Washington Commandos were a charter member of the Arena Football League, playing in the initial four-team "demonstration season" of 1987.... |
4 | 0 | 4 | Relocated to Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... after season ended |
| 1991 | Columbus Thunderbolts | 10 | 0 | 10 | Moved to Cleveland the following year. |
| 1992 | New Orleans Night New Orleans Night The New Orleans Night was an Arena Football League team that competed in the 1991 and 1992 AFL seasons and were based in New Orleans, Louisiana. The team was officially announced at a press conference on March 18, 1991... |
10 | 0 | 10 | Team ceased operations after season. |
| 1994 | Milwaukee Mustangs Milwaukee Mustangs The Milwaukee Mustangs were an Arena Football League team. They played from 1994 to 2001 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin's Bradley Center.-History:The team was founded in 1994 amidst rumors that the Green Bay Packers would soon stop playing games in Milwaukee, something they'd been doing since 1936... |
12 | 0 | 12 | First winless team to remain in same city during following season. Went to 10-4 in 1996 1996 Arena Football League season The 1996 Arena Football League season was the 10th season of the Arena Football League. The league champions were the Tampa Bay Storm, who defeated the Iowa Barnstormers in ArenaBowl X. The AFL finally stabilized its scheduled number of games. It expanded to a 14-game season, which would remain... |
| 1996 | Memphis Pharaohs | 14 | 0 | 14 | Relocated twice, firstly as the Portland Portland, Oregon Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States... Forest Dragons from 1997 and then as the Oklahoma Wranglers. Folded in 2001. |
| 2003 | Carolina Cobras Carolina Cobras Not to be confused with the Los Angeles Cobras, who played in the 1988 AFL season.The Carolina Cobras were an expansion franchise in the Arena Football League... |
16 | 0 | 16 | Went to 6-10 the following season. |
United Football League
The United Football League has had, to date, one winless season. In their inaugural season, the 2009 New York Sentinels2009 New York Sentinels season
-Roster:-Schedule:-Week 1: at Florida Tuskers:-Week 2: at California Redwoods:-Week 4: vs. California Redwoods:-Week 5: vs. Las Vegas Locomotives:-Week 6: vs. Florida Tuskers:-Week 7: at Las Vegas Locomotives:...
lost all six of their games. The team, which was a traveling team
Traveling team
In professional team sports, a traveling team is a member of a professional league that never or rarely competes in its home arena or stadium. This differs from a barnstorming team in that the latter does not compete within a league or association framework...
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 can finish any particular season entirely with losses, since every team plays each other at least twice. The 2009 California Redwoods
2009 California Redwoods season
-Roster:-Schedule:-Week 1: at Las Vegas Locomotives:-Week 2: vs. New York Sentinels:-Week 3: at Florida Tuskers:-Week 4: at New York Sentinels:-Week 6: vs. Las Vegas Locomotives:-Week 7: vs. Florida Tuskers:...
lost all their games except their two games against the Sentinels; they relocated from San Francisco to Sacramento (as the Sacramento Mountain Lions) for 2010. Both the Colonials and Mountain Lions made improvements on their records the following season.
Other American football leagues
Since non-professional, semi-pro and minor league teams are inherently unstable in their membership, it is far easier for seasons in which a teams 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. Five teams in football history have failed to score a single point in an entire season; all played eight games or less. 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. 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; it also had at least one team with one win or less in all six seasons, including one team (the GhostridersCarolina Ghostriders
The Carolina Ghostriders is a now-defunct indoor football team and charter member of the American Indoor Football League. The team has a rather strange history....
/Ghostchasers
AIFL Ghostchasers
The AIFL Ghostchasers was an all-road team that was created four weeks into the 2006 AIFL season after the Carolina Ghostriders lost 15-straight games and declared themselves inactive. This team was around for the remainder of the 2006 regular season, occupying the rest of the scheduled road...
) that, despite two reorganizations, lost every game in their two-year existence. The National Indoor Football League
National Indoor Football League
National Indoor Football League was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, af2, however, that changed briefly with their expansion into AFL...
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
Spring Football League
The Spring Football League was a professional American football that existed for only part of one mini-season in 2000. Founded by several ex-NFL players such as Eric Dickerson, Drew Pearson, Bo Jackson, and Tony Dorsett, the SFL planned to use the four game mini-season to test cities, fans,...
had two teams with winless seasons (the Los Angeles Dragons
Los Angeles Dragons
The Los Angeles Dragons were a professional football team based in Los Angeles, California that played in the Spring Football League in 2000. They would be coached by former Dallas Cowboys Doug Cosbie. The Dragons would play their home games at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum....
and the Miami Tropics
Miami Tropics
The Miami Tropics were a team in the Premier Basketball League that began to play in 2007 in Miami, Florida. The team was owned by the Imperiali Organization, which also owns the Palm Beach Imperials. They originally played their inaugural season in the American Basketball Association, but moved...
), and the Stars Football League
Stars Football League
The Stars Football League is a semi-pro American football league operating primarily in the Southern United States. The league is headquartered in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Its inaugural season began June 30, 2011 with two teams; the league phased two more teams into the schedule over the course of...
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.
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football LeagueCanadian Football League
The Canadian Football League or CFL is a professional sports league located in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football, a form of gridiron football closely related to American football....
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. Consequently, especially given the much smaller number of teams playing, there have been fewer imperfect or nearly 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 one or no wins in a season (based on official CFL site)
| Season | Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Ties | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Hamilton Tiger-Cats Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a Canadian Football League team based in Hamilton, Ontario, founded in 1950 with the merger of the Hamilton Tigers and the Hamilton Wildcats. The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Ivor Wynne Stadium... |
18 | 1 | 17 | 0 | Most losses in a CFL season |
| 1964 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League . They play their home games at Canad Inns Stadium, and plan to move to a new stadium for the 2012 season.The Blue Bombers were founded... |
16 | 1 | 14 | 1 | |
| 1959 | Saskatchewan Rough Riders | 16 | 1 | 15 | 0 | |
| 1954 | British Columbia Lions BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team competing in the West Division of Canadian Football League . Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, the Lions play their home games at BC Place Stadium in Downtown Vancouver, having previously played at Empire Stadium in East Vancouver from 1954... |
16 | 1 | 15 | 0 | Expansion team: most recent of present-day CFL teams |
| 1949 | Hamilton Wildcats | 12 | 0 | 12 | 0 | Merged with the Hamilton Tigers for 1950 season |
| 1948 | Hamilton Wildcats | 12 | 1 | 10 | 1 | |
| 1946 | Hamilton Wildcats | 12 | 0 | 10 | 2 | |
| 1941 | Montreal Royals Montreal Royals (football) Montreal Royals was a Canadian football team in Interprovincial Rugby Football Union. The team played in the 1939 season.-IRFU season-by-season:... |
6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | Did not resume when Canadian football recommenced after World War II World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis... . |
| 1941 | Vancouver Grizzlies Vancouver Grizzlies (football) Vancouver Grizzlies was a Canadian football team that played a single season in 1941 in the Western Interprovincial Football Union, the fore-runner of the Canadian Football League West Division. League play was suspended in 1942 due to the Second World War and the team did not return when WIFU... |
8 | 1 | 7 | 0 | Did not resume when Canadian football recommenced after World War II. |
| 1940 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 1 | 5 | 0 | |
| 1939 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 0 | 5 | 1 | |
| 1938 | Edmonton Eskimos Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Eskimos are a Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They currently play in the West Division of the Canadian Football League . Edmonton is currently the third-youngest franchise in the CFL, although there were clubs with the name Edmonton Eskimos as early as 1895... |
8 | 0 | 8 | 0 | |
| 1938 | Montreal Royals | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
CFL teams with only two wins in a season (qualification 12 games, no ties)
| Season | Team | Games | Wins | Losses | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Hamilton Tiger Cats | 18 | 2 | 16 | |
| 1988 | Ottawa Rough Riders 1988 Ottawa Rough Riders season The 1988 Ottawa Rough Riders finished the season in 4th place in the East Division with a 2–16–0 record and failed to qualify for the post-season. In terms of winning percentage , this was the worst season the franchise had endured since the formation of the Canadian Football League... |
18 | 2 | 16 | First CFL team to lose 16 games. Franchise disbanded in 1996 |
| 1982 | Montreal Alouettes | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1981 | Toronto Argonauts Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League. The Toronto, Ontario based team was founded in 1873 and is one of the oldest existing professional sports teams in North America, after the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta... |
16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1980 | Saskatchewan Rough Riders | 16 | 2 | 14 | Successive seasons with combined record of 4-28 |
| 1979 | Saskatchewan Rough Riders | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1970 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1967 | Montreal Alouettes | 14 | 2 | 12 | |
| 1963 | Edmonton Eskimos | 16 | 2 | 14 | |
| 1952 | Montreal Alouettes Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes are a Canadian Football League team based in Montreal, Quebec.The current franchise named the Alouettes moved to Montreal from Baltimore, Maryland, in 1996 where they had been known as the Baltimore Stallions... |
12 | 2 | 10 | |
| 1949 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 12 | 2 | 10 | |
| 1948 | Winnipeg Blue Bombers | 12 | 2 | 10 |
National Lacrosse League
Seasons in the National Lacrosse LeagueNational Lacrosse League
The National Lacrosse League is a men's professional indoor lacrosse league in North America. It currently has nine teams; three in Canada and six in the United States. Unlike other lacrosse leagues which play in the summer, the NLL plays its games in the winter and spring. Each year, the playoff...
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
Charlotte Cobras
The Charlotte Cobras were a member of the Major Indoor Lacrosse League . They were based at Independence Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina and only played during the 1996 season. In October 1995 the MILL announced that Charlotte had been awarded an expansion franchise to begin play for the 1996...
, 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. The Syracuse Smash
Syracuse Smash
The Syracuse Smash were a member of the National Lacrosse League from 1998 to 2000. They were based in Syracuse, New York. The team finished last in the standings each of their three seasons, before moving to Ottawa, Ontario to become the Ottawa Rebel. In their three seasons in the NLL, the Smash...
in 2000 finished 1-11 and the relocated Ottawa Rebel
Ottawa Rebel
The Ottawa Rebel was a team in the National Lacrosse League based in Ottawa, Ontario from 2001 until 2003. They played at the Corel Centre in nearby Kanata originally, but then part-way through the 2002 season, the Rebel moved to the Ottawa Civic Centre, which is a smaller arena, but more...
finished 1-13 the following year.
Major League Lacrosse
In Major League LacrosseMajor League Lacrosse
Major League Lacrosse, or MLL, is a professional men's field lacrosse league that is made up of five teams in the United States and one team in Canada.- History :...
, the season has consisted of either twelve or fourteen games since the league was formed in 2001
2001 MLL season
The 2001 Major League Lacrosse season was the 1st season of the league. The season began on June 7 and concluded with the championship game on September 3, 2001.-General information:...
.
The only winless season in Major League Lacrosse has been by the 2006 Chicago Machine
Chicago Machine
The Chicago Machine is a mens field lacrosse team that plays in Major League Lacrosse that was based in Chicago, Illinois until the franchise left after the 2009 season to be a travel team in 2010. The team then transferred its roster to the reborn Rochester Rattlers on November 23, 2010 when it...
, who went 0-12 and lost an MLL record thirteen consecutive games; the Machine eventually moved to Rochester
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
. The New Jersey Pride
New Jersey Pride
The New Jersey Pride were a men's field lacrosse team formerly based in Piscataway, New Jersey, United States. They played in Major League Lacrosse from 2001-2008.-Franchise history:...
in 2004
2004 MLL season
2004 Major League Lacrosse season was the 4th season of the league. The season began on May 22 and concluded with the championship game on August 22, 2004.-General information:...
and the Bridgeport Barrage in the previous year
2003 Bridgeport Barrage season
The Bridgeport Barrage played their third season, as a charter member of the MLL, during the 2003 season of Major League Lacrosse. The 2003 season was the team's last season in Bridgeport, Connecticut before relocating to the Philadelphia suburb of Villanova for the 2004 season. The Barrage ended...
also finished with a 1-11 record.
Other North American leagues
In the other major professional sports leagues of North America - Major League SoccerMajor League Soccer
Major League Soccer is a professional soccer league based in the United States and sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation . The league is composed of 19 teams — 16 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada...
and its predecessors, the National Basketball Association
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...
and the Women’s National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
and Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
- 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
Since it began in 1996, 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. Since shootouts were abandoned the following season, the most losses by a Major League Soccer team has been 22 by both Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake
Real Salt Lake is an American professional soccer club based in Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The team competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States and Canada. They currently play their home games at Rio Tinto Stadium. Real Salt Lake won...
and Chivas USA
C.D. Chivas USA
Club Deportivo Chivas USA is an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California that competes in Major League Soccer , the top professional soccer league in the United States of America and Canada....
in 2005. Chivas also holds the MLS record for fewest wins in a season, winning only four of its thirty-two games, whilst Real Salt Lake in the same year was second worst with only five wins.
National Basketball Association
Since 1967, the National Basketball Association’s regular season schedule has been 82 games long. Originally it was 48 games long, but this was gradually expanded to an 82-game schedule by the beginning of the 1960s.The 1973 76ers hold the record for the lowest winning percentage of any team in an NBA season, winning only 9 out of 82 games for a winning percentage of .110. This record has been threatened by the 1993
1992-93 NBA season
-Statistics leaders:-Yearly awards:*Most Valuable Player: Charles Barkley, Phoenix Suns*Rookie of the Year: Shaquille O'Neal, Orlando Magic*Defensive Player of the Year: Hakeem Olajuwon, Houston Rockets...
Dallas Mavericks
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are a professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. They are members of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association , and the reigning NBA champions, having defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 NBA Finals.According to a 2011...
and the 1998
1997-98 NBA season
The 1997–98 NBA season was the 52nd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Chicago Bulls winning their third straight championship and sixth in the last eight years, beating the Utah Jazz 4 games to 2 in the 1998 NBA Finals...
Denver Nuggets
Denver Nuggets
The Denver Nuggets are a professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. They play in the National Basketball Association . They were founded as the Denver Rockets in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association, and became one of that league's more successful teams...
, both of whom went 11-71 for a winning percentage of .134 and at various points looked likely to break the 76ers record for fewest wins in a season. The Nuggets, for instance, were on track at the beginning of February 1998 to post a 7-75 record. In the original Basketball Association of America
Basketball Association of America
The Basketball Association of America was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. The league merged with the National Basketball League in 1949, forming the National Basketball Association ...
, the Providence Steamrollers
Providence Steamrollers
The Providence Steamrollers were a National Basketball Association team based in Providence, Rhode Island. As of November 2011, the Steamrollers remain the last pro sports franchise from one of the Big Four leagues to be based in Rhode Island....
in 1947-48 won only six games of forty-eight for a winning percentage of .125.
The 1990-91
1990-91 NBA season
-Statistics leaders:-NBA awards:*Most Valuable Player: Michael Jordan, Chicago Bulls*Rookie of the Year: Derrick Coleman, New Jersey Nets*Defensive Player of the Year: Dennis Rodman, Detroit Pistons...
Sacramento Kings
Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are a professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California, United States. They are currently members of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association...
managed a near-imperfect road season. They won only one of 41 away games, 87-82 against the Washington Bullets
Washington Wizards
The Washington Wizards are a professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C., previously known as Washington Bullets. They play in the National Basketball Association .-Early years:...
on November 20, 1990. Overall, the Kings lost 43 consecutive road games before beating the Orlando Magic
Orlando Magic
The Orlando Magic is a professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association and are currently coached by Stan Van Gundy...
95-93 on November 23, 1991.
The 1996–97 Boston Celtics
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are a National Basketball Association team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946, the team is currently owned by Boston Basketball Partners LLC. The Celtics play their home games at the TD Garden, which...
managed only one win in 24 games against other members of the Atlantic Division
Atlantic Division (NBA)
The Atlantic Division is one of the three divisions in the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . The division consists of five teams, the Boston Celtics, the New Jersey Nets, the New York Knicks, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors...
, in its last such game against the Philadelphia 76ers
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers are a professional basketball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They play in the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association . Originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA...
. They overall lost 24 successive games against other Atlantic Division teams after beating the New Jersey Nets
New Jersey Nets
The New Jersey Nets are a professional basketball team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association...
112 to 106 on 19 April, 1996.
Women’s National Basketball Association
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
1998 WNBA season
-External links:**...
Washington Mystics
Washington Mystics
The Washington Mystics is a professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C., playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded prior to the 1998 season. The team is owned by Monumental Sports & Entertainment , who also owns the Mystics'...
in their first season. Two other expansion WNBA teams, the 2008
2008 WNBA season
-Season Highlights:*Candace Parker becomes the second and third player in WNBA history to dunk in a regular season game.*A fight breaks out between the Los Angeles Sparks and the Detroit Shock resulting in four ejections and ten suspensions....
Atlanta Dream
Atlanta Dream
The Atlanta Dream is a professional basketball team based in Atlanta, Georgia, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the 2008 WNBA season began. The team is owned by Dream Too LLC, which is composed of two Atlanta...
at 4-30 and the 2006
2006 WNBA season
-External links:*******...
Chicago Sky
Chicago Sky
The Chicago Sky is a professional basketball team based in Rosemont, Illinois, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the 2006 WNBA season began. The team is owned by Michael J. Alter and Margaret Stender...
at 5-29 have come closest to this record, whilst the worst record by an established WNBA franchise has been 6-28, or a winning percentage of .176, by the 2005
2005 WNBA season
-External links:***...
Charlotte Sting
Charlotte Sting
The Charlotte Sting was a Women's National Basketball Association franchise based in Charlotte, North Carolina and it was one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007....
.
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League’s schedule, like that of the NBA, consists of 82 games. Each game is given two points for a win, one point for a tie, and no points for a regulation loss. Since 1997, one point has also been given for overtime losses; the introduction of a shootoutPenalty shootout
The shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to penalty shots in that a single player takes one shot on goal...
during the 2004-05
2004-05 NHL lockout
The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a lockout that resulted in the cancellation of what would have been the 88th season of play of the National Hockey League . It was the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded since 1919, and the first time a major professional sports league in North America canceled a...
lockout
Lockout (industry)
A lockout is a work stoppage in which an employer prevents employees from working. This is different from a strike, in which employees refuse to work.- Causes :...
eliminated ties. 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 first tiebreaker.
No team has ever come close to losing every game in an NHL season; the worst record is by the 1974–75 Washington Capitals
1974–75 Washington Capitals season
The 1974–75 Washington Capitals season was the first in Capitals history. Along with the Kansas City Scouts, the Capitals joined the National Hockey League as an expansion team for the 1974–75 season. The team was owned by Abe Pollin, owner of the NBA's Washington Bullets...
who went 8-67-5 (8 wins, 67 losses, 5 ties). The 1974-75 Capitals and 1992–93 Ottawa Senators
1992–93 Ottawa Senators season
The 1992–93 Ottawa Senators season was the inaugural season of the modern Ottawa Senators. Despite winning the first game of the regular season on October 8, 1992, the Senators would only win nine more en route to their worst season ever...
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
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, in which the Senators were considered the road team.)
Major League Baseball
Since the early 1960s, the schedule of both leagues of Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
has been 162 games long; 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 closest to a perfectly imperfect season in the National League
National League
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...
was the infamous 1899 Cleveland Spiders season
1899 Cleveland Spiders season
The Cleveland Spiders season was a season in American baseball. It was their 13th season in the major leagues, their 11th season in the National League and their last season in existence....
, who won only twenty games and lost a record 134 games after its roster was looted by the owners of the team, who stacked the best players onto the St. Louis Perfectos
1899 St. Louis Perfectos season
The St. Louis Perfectos season was the team's 18th season in St. Louis, Missouri and the 8th season in the National League. The Perfectos went 84-67 during the season and finished 5th in the National League....
. The Spiders are, to this day, the only major league team to have finished a season below the Mendoza line
Mendoza Line
The Mendoza Line is an expression in baseball in the United States, deriving from the name of shortstop Mario Mendoza, whose lifetime batting average is taken to define the threshold of incompetent hitting...
(.200) in win percentage. Since 1900, four other teams have come closest to imperfection, the 1916 Philadelphia A's went 36-117, the 1935 Boston Braves went 38-115, the 1962 New York Mets went 40-120 and the 2003 Detroit Tigers went 43-119.
Australian Rules football
Owing to the short schedules and restricted talent pool of Australian rules footballAustralian rules football
Australian rules football, officially known as Australian football, also called football, Aussie rules or footy is a sport played between two teams of 22 players on either...
leagues, winless seasons (the term “imperfect season” never being used in Australia) are more common and better documented than in any other professional or semi-professional team sport. In the major state leagues of Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, the home-and-away season was originally between twelve and sixteen games long, and is now between twenty and twenty-two games; thus a very bad team could easily fail to win any games.
VFL/AFL
In the Australian Football LeagueAustralian Football League
The Australian Football League is both the governing body and the major professional competition in the sport of Australian rules football...
, until 1990 called the Victorian Football League, seasons have ranged from fourteen games per team in its initial season
1897 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1897, the inaugural season of the VFL.-Premiership season:In 1897, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 20 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of...
and the shortened wartime seasons from 1916
1916 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1916.The 1916 season of the VFL saw just four teams competing, due to World War I...
-18
1918 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1918.-Premiership season:In 1918, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume...
and 1942
1942 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1942.-Influence of World War II:World War II had many negative effects on AFL in Australia:*Geelong were unable to compete in the competition because of wartime travel restrictions...
-43
1943 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1943.-Influence of World War II:*Geelong were still unable to field a team due to the war, so the bye was retained.-New System:...
up to 22 games since 1970
1970 VFL season
-Premiership season:In 1970, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man...
. As a result of this, exceptionally bad teams were quite capable of not winning a single game in a season during the competition’s early and middle periods up to the extension of the season to twenty games in 1968
1968 VFL season
Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1968.-Premiership season:In 1968, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man...
. Since then, the longer season has prevented any completely winless seasons, though several teams have come distinctly close, either through being lucky to achieve their only win or being on target for a winless season when they won.
VFL teams with no wins in a season, 1897-1967
| Season | Team !! Wins !! Losses !! Draws | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1897 1897 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1897, the inaugural season of the VFL.-Premiership season:In 1897, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 20 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of... |
St. Kilda St. Kilda Football Club The St Kilda Football Club, nicknamed The Saints, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club plays in the Australian Football League, the sport's premier league.... |
0 | 14 | 0 | Lost first 48 games before beating Melbourne Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria.... on a protest. |
| 1898 1898 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1898.-Premiership season:In 1898, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 20 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" .Each team played each other twice in... |
St. Kilda | 0 | 17 | 0 | Season expanded to seventeen games with sectional matches. |
| 1899 1899 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1899.-Premiership season:In 1899, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves" .Each team played each other twice in... |
St. Kilda | 0 | 17 | 0 | Record low percentage of 23.2 for seventeen games (scored only 323 points and conceded 1,391). |
| 1902 1902 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1902.-Premiership season:In 1902, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume... |
St. Kilda | 0 | 17 | 0 | Had won only two games out of 99 at end of season, and lost every away game until June 8, 1903 at the Lake Oval Lake Oval The Lake Oval was an Australian rules football and cricket stadium located in Albert Park, Victoria. It was the home of the South Melbourne Football Club from 1878 until their relocation to Sydney in 1982 , and also of the South Melbourne Cricket Club... . |
| 1913 1913 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1913.-Premiership season:In 1913, the VFL competition consisted of ten teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their... |
University Melbourne University Football Club Melbourne University Football Club, often known simply as University is an Australian rules football club.The club achieved prominence by being a member of the game's most elite competition in the early 20th century, the Victorian Football League between 1908 and 1914.Although there are no records... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Won only one of last 70 games from Round 3, 1911. |
| 1914 1914 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1914.-Premiership season:In 1914, the VFL competition consisted of ten teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their... |
University | 0 | 18 | 0 | Lost last 51 matches and disbanded at end of year due to World War I World War I World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918... . Minimum losing margin of 15 points largest for any winless VFL team. |
| 1919 1919 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1919.-Premiership season:In 1919, the VFL competition consisted of nine teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their... |
Melbourne Melbourne Football Club The Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the Australian Football League , based in Melbourne, Victoria.... |
0 | 16 | 0 | Withdrew from competition during war due to opposition to player payments |
| 1926 1926 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1926.-Premiership season:In 1926, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume... |
North Melbourne North Melbourne Football Club The North Melbourne Football Club, nicknamed The Kangaroos, is the fourth oldest Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League and is one of the oldest sporting clubs in Australia and the world... |
0 | 17 | 1 | Lost four games by less than a goal. |
| 1928 1928 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1928.-Premiership season:In 1928, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume... |
Hawthorn Hawthorn Football Club The Hawthorn Football Club, nicknamed the Hawks, is a professional Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League . The club, founded in 1902, is the youngest of the Victorian-based teams in the AFL. The team play in Brown & Gold vertically striped guernseys... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Lost 43 of 44 games up to Round 6, 1929. |
| 1931 1931 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1931.-Premiership season:In 1931, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man... |
North Melbourne | 0 | 18 | 0 | Lost 33 games in a row to Round 2, 1932. Won only ten games in six seasons from 1926 to 1931. |
| 1934 1934 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1934.-Premiership season:In 1934, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus one substitute player, known as the 19th man... |
North Melbourne | 0 | 18 | 0 | Lost 35 games in a row (eight were by less than a goal) before winning against Footscray Western Bulldogs The Western Bulldogs are an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based at the Whitten Oval in West Footscray, an inner-western suburb of Melbourne... in Round 16, 1935 |
| 1950 1950 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1950.-Premiership season:In 1950, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man... |
Hawthorn | 0 | 18 | 0 | Lost 22 games in a row to Round 2, 1951 |
| 1964 1964 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1964.-Premiership season:In 1964, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man... |
Fitzroy Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Lost 27 games in a row before beating Footscray in Round 2, 1965, but lost by one point to Carlton Carlton Football Club The Carlton Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club competes in the Australian Football League, and was one of the eight founding members of that competition in 1897... and North Melbourne. Won only seven of 89 games between Round 9, 1962 and Round 7, 1967 |
VFL/AFL teams with two or fewer wins since 1968
| Season | Team !! Wins !! Losses !! Draws | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1972 1972 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1972.-Premiership season:In 1972, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man... |
North Melbourne | 1 | 21 | 0 | Only win against South Melbourne in seventeenth round. |
| 1972 | South Melbourne Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney... |
2 | 20 | 0 | Lost last sixteen games, and overall lost twenty-nine in a row before beating Geelong Geelong Football Club The Geelong Football Club, nicknamed The Cats, is a professional Australian rules football club, named after and based in the city of Geelong, playing in the Australian Football League . The club has been the VFL/AFL premiers nine times, with a record equalling 3 in the AFL era. Geelong has also... in Round 14, 1973. |
| 1975 1975 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1975.-Premiership season:In 1975, the VFL competition consisted of twelve teams of 18 on-the-field players each, plus two substitute players, known as the 19th man and the 20th man... |
South Melbourne | 2 | 20 | 0 | Won twice against Geelong but beat no other team. |
| 1981 1981 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1981.-Grand final:Carlton defeated Collingwood 12.20 to 10.12 , in front of a crowd of 112,964 people... |
Melbourne | 1 | 21 | 0 | Only win at Western Oval in Round 3 with after-siren goal from Mark Jackson Mark Jackson Mark Jackson may refer to:* Mark "Jacko" Jackson , Australian rules footballer and actor* Mark Jackson, HarperCollins attorney associated with Judith Regan's firing and subsequent receipt of an apology and legal settlement... . Closest loss in last nineteen games seventeen points against Richmond Richmond Football Club The Richmond Football Club, nicknamed The Tigers, is an Australian rules football club which competes in the Australian Football League. Richmond shares healthy rivalries with Carlton, Collingwood and Essendon. After winning five premierships between 1967 and 1980, the club hit the depths in 1990,... |
| 1981 | Footscray | 2 | 20 | 0 | Only wins against Essendon Essendon Football Club The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League... in Round 6 (after which the Bombers won fifteen straight) and Melbourne in Round 13. |
| 1986 1986 VFL season Results and statistics for the Victorian Football League season of 1986.- Awards :* The Brownlow Medal was awarded to both Greg Williams of the Sydney Swans and Robert "Dipper" DiPierdomenico of the Hawthorn Hawks... |
St. Kilda | 2 | 20 | 0 | Did not win until thirteenth week against Melbourne. |
| 1993 1993 AFL season -Ladder:All teams played 20 games during the home and away season, for a total of 165. Each team also had two byes. An additional 7 games were played during the finals series.-Awards:*The Brownlow Medal was awarded to Gavin Wanganeen of .... |
Sydney Swans Sydney Swans The Sydney Swans Football Club is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The club, founded in 1874, was known as the South Melbourne Football Club until it relocated to Sydney in 1982 to become the Sydney... |
1 | 19 | 0 | Reduced schedule due to demands from AFL Players Association AFL Players Association The AFL Players Association, or AFLPA, is the representative body for all current and past professional Australian Football League players.... . Lost 26 consecutive games before only win against Melbourne in Round 13 (actually twelfth game due to bye Bye (sports) A bye, in sports and other competitive activities, most commonly refers to the practice of allowing a player or team to advance to the next round of a playoff tournament without playing... ). |
| 1995 1995 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 1995.-Round 1:-Round 2:-Round 3:-Round 4:*This was the first ANZAC Day clash held between Collingwood and Essendon which famously ended in a draw.-Round 5:-Round 6:... |
Fitzroy Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club, formerly nicknamed The Lions, is an Australian rules football club formed in 1883 to represent the inner Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy, Victoria and was a foundation member club of the Victorian Football League on its inception in 1897... |
2 | 20 | 0 | Lost final fourteen games after two wins in three games over St. Kilda and Adelaide Adelaide Crows The Adelaide Football Club, nicknamed The Crows, is a professional Australian rules football club based in Adelaide, South Australia, playing in the Australian Football League .... , and overall lost 21 on end. |
| 1996 1996 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 1996.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-Lighting Premiership:... |
Fitzroy | 1 | 21 | 0 | Last season before merging to form the Brisbane Lions Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is an Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in Brisbane, Queensland. The club was formed from the merger of the Brisbane Bears and the Fitzroy Lions in 1996... . Only win in Round 8 against Fremantle by 31 points. |
| 2000 | St. Kilda | 2 | 19 | 1 | |
| 2001 2001 AFL season Results and statistics for the Australian Football League season of 2001.See List of Australian Football League premiers for a complete list.-National Cup:Port Adelaide defeated Brisbane Lions 17.9 to 3.8 in the Final.... |
Fremantle Fremantle Football Club The Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed The Dockers, is an Australian rules football team which plays in the Australian Football League . The club is based in the port city of Fremantle at the mouth of the Swan River in Western Australia... |
2 | 20 | 0 | Was 0-17 and generally predicted to finish with the first 0-22 record before a huge upset against Hawthorn in Round 18. |
Both St. Kilda in 1985
1985 VFL season
The 89th Victorian Football League Premiership season commenced in March 1985 and concluded on 28 September 1985 with Essendon winning their second consecutive Premiership in their third consecutive Grand Final battle with Hawthorn...
and Port Adelaide in 2011
2011 AFL season
The 2011 Australian Football League season was the 115th season of the Australian rules football competition. It was the debut year for , and was scheduled to be the only season to be played with 17 teams...
has a record of two wins and nineteen losses before winning their last game; in the Saints’ case in a huge comeback upset over second-placed Footscray.
VFA/VFL
From the time of the formation of the Victorian Football League in 1896 until it was disbanded in 1995, the Victorian Football Association (VFA) was the second-tier club competition in Victoria, after which it was replaced by the current Victorian Football LeagueVictorian Football League
The Victorian Football League which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association , taking its new name as from the 1996 season, is the premier Australian rules football league in Victoria The Victorian Football League (VFL) which evolved from the former Victorian Football Association...
(VFL) which serves as a state league and feeder to the AFL. Its home-and-away season has varied erratically from twelve to twenty games in length. Since the VFA and VFL have never possessed any mechanisms such as zoning
Zoning (Australian rules football)
In Australian rules football, zoning refers to a system whereby a given area, either region or lower-level football league, is reserved exclusively for one club....
or revenue sharing to reduce inequality of the sport’s limited talent pool, it has been quite easy for weak teams in these leagues to have seasons where they failed to win a single game.
| Season | Team !! Wins !! Losses !! Draws !! VFA Division | Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1903 | Essendon Association | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | |
| 1904 | Preston Preston Football Club Preston Football Club may refer to* Northern Blues, Victorian Football League team, formerly known as Preston Football Club, Preston Bullants and Northern Bullants* Preston Lions FC* West Preston Lakeside Football Club* Preston North End F.C., English club... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Single | |
| 1910 | Preston | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Lost 29 games in a row and withdrew from the VFA only to return in 1926. |
| 1912 | Melbourne City | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Formed in 1912. |
| 1913 | Melbourne City | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Disbanded at end of season after two winless seasons with closest loss being eight points. |
| 1941 | Sandringham | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Conceded record score of 44-23 (287) Lost 44 games in a row (with no matches due to war World War II World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis... from 1942 to 1944) up to 1945, then after being 2-18 won premiership in 1946 under Len Toyne Len Toyne Len 'Barrow Boy' Toyne was an Australian rules footballer who played for Geelong, Fitzroy and Melbourne in the Victorian Football League during the 1940s.... . |
| 1951 | Box Hill | 0 | 19 | 1 | Single | First season in VFA |
| 1961 | Brighton Brighton Football Club Brighton Football Club was an Australian rules football club which played in the VFA. The club was based in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton and were nicknamed the Penguins... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Second | Re-formed as Brighton-Caulfield after disbanding following season. |
| 1973 | Box Hill | 0 | 18 | 0 | Second | Lost 25 games in a row; won only eighteen in nine seasons from 1973 to 1981 |
| 1977 | Box Hill | 0 | 18 | 0 | Second | |
| 1981 | Sunshine Sunshine Football Club Sunshine Football Club, nicknamed The Crows, was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association from 1959 until 1989. The club colours were navy blue and white.-History:... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Second | Lost 65 of 72 games from 1980 to 1983. |
| 1983 | Waverley Waverley Football Club Waverley Football Club, nicknamed The Panthers, was an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association from 1961 until 1987... |
0 | 18 | 0 | First | Relegated to Second Division. 26 winless games after an opening round draw in 1984. |
| 1986 | Camberwell Camberwell Football Club Camberwell Football Club was an Australian rules football club who were formed in 1896 and competed in the Victorian Football Association between 1926 and 1990. Nicknamed the Cobras, Camberwell wore dark blue, white and red club colours... |
0 | 18 | 0 | First | Relegated to Second Division, but not successful even there. |
| 1986 | Mordialloc Mordialloc Football Club Mordialloc Football Club, nicknamed The Bloodhounds, is an Australian rules football club which played in the Victorian Football Association from 1958 until 1988... |
0 | 18 | 0 | Second | Withdrew early in 1988 season. |
| 1989 | Camberwell | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Did beat Sunshine early in season, but win not counted because Sunshine withdrew after eight games. |
| 1990 | Camberwell | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Planned to play in 1991, but withdrew at beginning of season. |
| 1993 | Coburg | 0 | 18 | 0 | Single | Lost 30 consecutive games; last coaching appointment for Alex Jesaulenko Alex Jesaulenko Alex 'Jezza' Jesaulenko MBE is a former Australian rules footballer and coach. He is regarded as one of the game's greatest-ever players and is an official Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame... |
| 1995 | Williamstown Williamstown Football Club The Williamstown Football Club, nicknamed The Seagulls, is an Australian rules football club based in Melbourne and are currently playing in the Victorian Football League... |
0 | 16 | 0 | Single | Last season as the “VFA”. |
| 2001 | Bendigo Diggers | 0 | 18 | 0 | VFL | Went 1-17 in 2000. |
| 2002 | Bendigo Diggers | 0 | 18 | 0 | VFL | Two successive winless seasons; replaced by Bendigo Bombers for 2003. |
| 2009 | Bendigo Bendigo Bombers The Bendigo Bombers Football Club is an Australian rules football club based in Bendigo, Victoria, Australia playing in the Victorian Football League .-Brief history:... |
0 | 18 | 0 | VFL |
SANFL
In the South Australian National Football LeagueSouth Australian National Football League
The South Australian National Football League is an Australian rules football league based in the Australian state of South Australia. It is also the governing body for the sport of Australian rules football in South Australia....
, which until the 1970s was not that far below the VFL in standard, seasons before the league was reorganised under its present name in 1927 after previously being known as the South Australian Football Association up to 1906 and as the South Australian Football League were from twelve to fourteen games long. Since then they have been between seventeen and twenty-two games long, so that winless seasons have been by no means infrequent.
| Season | Team !! Wins !! Losses !! Draws | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1898 | West Adelaide West Adelaide Football Club West Adelaide Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League . Commonly known as The Bloods and Westies, the clubs home base is City Mazda Stadium located in Richmond, an inner-western suburb of Adelaide.-Early Years :West Adelaide was formed in... |
0 | 14 | 0 | |
| 1906 | West Adelaide | 0 | 12 | 0 | Was to win the premiership in 1908 with a 12-2 record for the whole season. |
| 1908 | Sturt Sturt Football Club Sturt Football Club is an Australian rules football club in the South Australian National Football League. The club is best known for its period of dominance from 1966–76 under legendary coach Jack Oatey, during which it revolutionised the style of play by emphasising teamwork and accurate ball... |
0 | 12 | 0 | |
| 1909 | South Adelaide South Adelaide Football Club South Adelaide Football Club competes in the South Australian National Football League . Known as the Panthers, their home ground is Hickinbotham Oval , located in Noarlunga Downs in the southern suburbs of Adelaide.... |
0 | 12 | 0 | Minimum losing margin was 15 points in extremely low-scoring game even for era. Went 1-11 in both 1910 and 1911 for a combined three-season record of 2-34 including losing streaks Losing streak (sport) In sports, a losing streak is an uninterrupted string of contests lost by a team or individual. A losing streak can last as few as two games, or it may last much longer... of 19 and 17 games. |
| 1921 | Glenelg | 0 | 14 | 0 | First season in SAFL. Lost first fifty-six matches for all-time record losing streak in major Australian Rules competitions. |
| 1922 | Glenelg | 0 | 14 | 0 | |
| 1923 | Glenelg | 0 | 14 | 0 | |
| 1924 | Glenelg | 0 | 14 | 0 | Won first game in 1925 opening round against 1924 premiers West Torrens West Torrens Football Club West Torrens Football Club was an Australian rules football club that competed in the South Australian National Football League from 1897 to 1990... |
| 1926 | South Adelaide | 0 | 13 | 1 | |
| 1933 | West Adelaide | 0 | 17 | 0 | Lost five games by six points or fewer. |
| 1948 | South Adelaide | 0 | 17 | 0 | Minimum losing margin was 23 points. Lost 34 games in a row from Round 4, 1947 to Round 3, 1949 |
| 1950 | South Adelaide | 0 | 17 | 0 | Lost 24 games in a row. Success rate for the five seasons from 1947 to 1951 was 8.14% (seven wins in 86 games). |
| 1964 | Central District | 0 | 20 | 0 | First senior SANFL season. |
| 1995 | Sturt | 0 | 22 | 0 | Longest winless season in major Australian Rules competition. Minimum losing margin of 24 points also greatest for a winless SANFL team. |
WAFL
The West Australian Football LeagueWest Australian Football League
The West Australian Football League is an Australian rules football league based in Perth, Western Australia. The WAFL is the second-most popular in the state, behind the nation-wide Australian Football League...
has existed since 1885 within Western Australia, and until the latter part of the 20th century was of equivalent standard to either the VFL or SANFL. Its season was originally around fourteen games in length, but because the league extended to a twenty-game home-and-away season well before the VFL or SANFL did, winless seasons have been much rarer. However, there have been quite a number of cases where a team came very close to a winless record through winning only one game by a very narrow margin, or was in danger of a winless season when it managed to win.
WAFL teams with none or one win in a season
| Season | Team !! Wins !! Losses !! Draws | Remarks | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1902 | Subiaco Subiaco Football Club The Subiaco Football Club, nicknamed the Lions, is an Australian rules football club in the West Australian Football League . It was founded in 1896, and admitted to the WAFL in 1901, along with North Fremantle... |
0 | 15 | 0 | Record losing sequence of 29 straight games. |
| 1903 | Subiaco | 1 | 14 | 0 | |
| 1904 | South Fremantle South Fremantle Football Club The South Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Bulldogs, is an Australian rules football club, based in Fremantle, Western Australia, playing in the West Australian Football League... |
1 | 14 | 0 | |
| 1905 | Subiaco | 0 | 10 | 0 | Played fewer games than rival league clubs due to financial difficulties. |
| 1906 | Subiaco | 1 | 16 | 0 | |
| 1909 | Midland Junction Midland Junction Football Club Midland Junction Football Club, nicknamed the Railways, was an Australian rules football club that competed in the West Australian Football League . The club played in the WAFL, the premier football league in Western Australia, from 1905 to 1910 and again from 1914 to 1917. They team wore black and... |
1 | 15 | 1 | Was 0-14-1 before beating West Perth West Perth Football Club The West Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Falcons, is an Australian rules football club located in Joondalup, Western Australia, competing in the West Australian Football League . It is the oldest existing Australian rules football club in Western Australia. It competes in the West Australian... . |
| 1914 | North Fremantle North Fremantle Football Club The North Fremantle Football Club was an Australian rules football club which competed in the West Australian Football League from 1901 to 1915.North Fremantle started out in the First Rate Junior Association, the state's second tier competition... |
1 | 13 | 0 | Only win against West Perth in second last game by three points. |
| 1915 | North Fremantle | 1 | 20 | 0 | Forfeited five of last six games due to lack of players and disbanded at end of season. |
| 1917 | Midland Junction | 0 | 12 | 0 | Disbanded at end of season despite efforts at a revival in 1920s. |
| 1923 | Perth Perth Football Club The Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Demons, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League . The club plays its matches at Lathlain Park.-History:... |
1 | 12 | 1 | Only win in last game by two points against Subiaco. |
| 1926 | Claremont Claremont Football Club The Claremont Football Club, nicknamed the Tigers, is an Australian rules football club in the West Australian Football League . Its official colours are navy blue and gold.... |
1 | 17 | 0 | Debut season in league when known as Claremont-Cottesloe; only win by one point against South Fremantle. |
| 1927 | Claremont | 1 | 17 | 0 | |
| 1939 | West Perth | 1 | 19 | 0 | Lost 27 consecutive games until sole win against Subiaco. |
| 1951 | Swan Districts Swan Districts Football Club The Swan Districts Football Club, nicknamed the Swans, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League . The club is based at Bassendean Oval, in Bassendean, an eastern suburb of Perth, Western Australia... |
1 | 20 | 0 | |
| 1968 | Swan Districts | 1 | 20 | 0 | Only win by one point (with fewer goals) after siren against East Fremantle East Fremantle Football Club The East Fremantle Football Club, nicknamed the Sharks, is an Australian rules football club playing in the West Australian Football League . The team's home ground is East Fremantle Oval... . |
| 1982 | Subiaco | 1 | 20 | 0 | Start of sixteen straight losses worst in league history to that point; only win against East Fremantle in seventeenth round. |
| 1997 | Peel | 1 | 19 | 0 | Debut season in league; only win by three points against Claremont in seventh match. |
| 1998 | Peel | 1 | 19 | 0 | Began season with 0-14 record for 27 losses on end before beating East Perth East Perth Football Club The East Perth Football Club, nicknamed the Royals, is an Australian rules football club that is a member of the West Australian Football League... |
| 1999 | Peel | 0 | 20 | 0 | Lost 28 consecutive games. |
| 2000 | Perth | 1 | 17 | 0 | Only win in very last game against Swan Districts. |
| 2002 | Swan Districts | 1 | 17 | 0 | Only win by two points against Peel in seventh game. |
| 2003 | Peel | 1 | 19 | 0 | Only win in second last game against South Fremantle. Lost seven games by over 100 points and one by 99. |
Rugby league
In British rugby league, it is exceedingly unlikely that a team could lose all its games because the schedule was around 38 games long when the code was first established, and has never been shorter than the current 27 games. In Australian rugby league, however, seasons were initially between eight (in the event of Kangaroo tourKangaroo Tour
Kangaroo Tour is the name given to Australian national rugby league team tours of Great Britain and France. The first Kangaroo Tour was in 1908. Traditionally, Kangaroo Tours took place every four years and involved a three-Test Ashes series against Great Britain and a number of tour matches...
s) 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 Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League and is one of the oldest and most successful clubs in Australian rugby league history, having won twelve New South Wales Rugby League... |
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 South Sydney Rabbitohs The South Sydney Rabbitohs are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in Redfern, a suburb of South-central Sydney, New South Wales. They participate in the National Rugby League premiership and are one of nine existing teams from the state capital... |
0 | 14 | 0 | Lost 22 successive games after the death of Alf Blair Alf Blair Alf "Smacker" Blair was an Australian rugby league footballer of the 1910s and 20s. An Australian internationaal and New South Wales representative half, he played his club football career with the South Sydney Rabbitohs, with whom he won the 1925, '26, '27 and '29 premierships.-Club career: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
National Rugby League
The National Rugby League is the top league of professional rugby league football clubs in Australasia. The NRL's main competition, called the Telstra Premiership , is contested by sixteen teams, fifteen of which are based in Australia with one based in New Zealand...
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. Only two teams since 1967 have had only one win in a season, and in both cases that win occurred early enough that the possibility of a winless season never occurred. There have been other teams that have started the season with more winless games, but all ultimately won at least twice. NSWRL/NRL teams with two or fewer wins since 1967, plus one case with no wins in first ten games, are:
| Season | Team !! Played !! Wins !! Losses !! Draws | Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | Souths | 24 | 3 | 21 | 0 | Began the season with twelve losses and at one point were 1-18. |
| 1995 | North Queensland Cowboys North Queensland Cowboys The North Queensland Cowboys are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Townsville, Queensland. They compete in Australasia's elite rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership... |
22 | 2 | 20 | 0 | Debut season; won only twice and lost first seven games. |
| 1993 | Gold Coast Seagulls | 22 | 1 | 21 | 0 | Only win in sixth game against Newcastle Newcastle Knights The Newcastle Knights are an Australian professional rugby league football club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. They compete in Australasia's premier rugby league competition, the National Rugby League premiership... 22-6. |
| 1991 | Gold Coast Seagulls | 22 | 2 | 19 | 1 | Lost final thirteen games. |
| 1990 | Souths | 22 | 2 | 20 | 0 | Lost final thirteen games; was minor premier in 1989. |
| 1989 | Illawarra | 22 | 2 | 19 | 1 | Lost first eight games; had lost 19 of 20 before first win in Round 9. |
| 1984 | Wests Western Suburbs Magpies The Western Suburbs Magpies are an Australian rugby league football club based in the western suburbs of Sydney, New South Wales. Formed in 1908, Wests, as they are commonly referred to, were one of the nine foundation clubs of the first New South Wales Rugby League competition in Australia... |
24 | 1 | 23 | 0 | Only win in sixth game against Illawarra Illawarra Steelers The Illawarra Steelers are an Australian rugby league football club based in the city of Wollongong, New South Wales. The club competed in Australia's top-level Rugby League competition from 1982, when they, along with the Canberra Raiders, were admitted into the then New South Wales Rugby Football... 13-10 Was sacked due to financial problems after 1983 and escaped against after 1984. |
| 1980 | Penrith Penrith Panthers The Penrith Panthers are an Australian professional rugby league football team based in the western Sydney suburb of Penrith. They compete in the National Rugby League premiership, the top rugby league football competition in Australasia. For the 2012 NRL season they will be coached by Ivan... |
22 | 2 | 19 | 1 | Second win in final game; only previous win 15-14 against Cronulla. |
| 1979 | Norths North Sydney Bears The North Sydney Bears are an Australian rugby league football club based in North Sydney, New South Wales. They currently compete in the New South Wales Cup, having exited the National Rugby League following the 1999 NRL season after 92 years of top-grade competition. The Bears are based on... |
22 | 2 | 20 | 0 | Lost last thirteen games. |
| 1978 | Newtown Newtown Jets The Newtown Jets are an Australian rugby league football club based in Newtown, a suburb of Sydney's inner west. They currently compete in the NSWRL Premier League competition, having left the top grade after the 1983 NSWRFL season... |
22 | 2 | 19 | 1 | Winless in first fifteen games with only a draw 6-6 against St. George. |
| 1977 | Newtown | 22 | 2 | 20 | 0 | Twenty consecutive losses between Rounds 2 and 21 is record single-season losing streak. |
| 1968 | Newtown | 22 | 2 | 19 | 1 | Winless from ninth game of 1968 until tenth game of 1969 24-game winless streak worst in NSWRL/NRL since 1967 |
Rugby union
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
1996 Super 12 season
The 1996 Super 12 season was the inaugural season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 1996, with each team playing all the others once...
–2005
2005 Super 12 season
The 2005 Super 12 season was the tenth season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 2005, with each team playing all the others once. At the end of the regular season, the top four teams entered the playoff semi finals,...
) and Super 14 (2006
2006 Super 14 season
The 2006 Super 14 season started on Friday 10 February 2006. The Grand Final was held on Saturday 27 May 2006. Super 14 is a provincial rugby union competition with 14 teams from New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. This season was the first of the expansion, which saw two new teams, the...
–2010
2010 Super 14 season
The 2010 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2010 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 29 May. The 2010 season was the fifth and last season of the expanded Super 14 format. The schedule, which covers 3½ months, featured a total of 94 matches, with each team playing one...
) 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
Melbourne Rebels
The Melbourne Rebels are a professional rugby union team based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They are the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia...
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
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
. In 2002
2002 Super 12 season
The 2002 Super 12 season was the seventh season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 2002, with each team playing all the others once...
, the Bulls, based in Pretoria
Pretoria
Pretoria is a city located in the northern part of Gauteng Province, South Africa. It is one of the country's three capital cities, serving as the executive and de facto national capital; the others are Cape Town, the legislative capital, and Bloemfontein, the judicial capital.Pretoria is...
, finished with 11 losses from 11 matches. The other imperfect season was that of the Johannesburg
Johannesburg
Johannesburg also known as Jozi, Jo'burg or Egoli, is the largest city in South Africa, by population. Johannesburg is the provincial capital of Gauteng, the wealthiest province in South Africa, having the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Sub-Saharan Africa...
-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.