December 11, 1977: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers Win On Their 27th Try

December 11, 1977: The Tampa Bay Buccaneers win a regular-season football game. This had never happened before.

The Bucs were an NFL expansion team, beginning play in the 1976 season. They and the Seattle Seahawks entered the League that season, the 1st new teams in the NFL since its 1970 merger with the American Football League. Like most expansion teams in sports, both teams were expected to struggle.

But John McKay, who had coached the University of Southern California to 9 Conference Championships and 4 National Championships, was named head coach by team owner Hugh Culverhouse. Lee Roy Selmon, star defensive end from the University of Oklahoma, the top defensive player in the country the season before, was their 1st draft pick. They'd also drafted Lee Roy's brother, Oklahoma linebacker Dewey Selmon.

And their 1st starting quarterback was going to be Steve Spurrier, Heisman Trophy winner at the University of Florida in 1966. Spurrier had been a bust in the pros, but some observers thought that playing in Florida again would revitalize his career. So most football fans didn't expect them to struggle as much as they did. They did win the 3rd of their 4 exhibition games, 17-3 over the Atlanta Falcons.

Officially, the longest losing streak in NFL history was, and still is, 29 games, set by the Chicago Cardinals from October 25, 1942 to October 14, 1945. However, in the 1944 season, due to the manpower drain of World War II, they merged with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They were listed in League standings as "Card-Pitt," but were nicknamed the "Carpets," because teams walked all over them. The teams were separated for 1945.

So, for a single team, the longest losing streak in NFL history before 1976 was 17, by the Dayton Triangles, over the 1927, '28 and '29 seasons. The Triangles folded after the '29 season, so, in a manner of speaking, their losing streak continues to this day. The Washington Redskins matched that 17-game losing streak in 1960 and '61.

The Buccaneers debuted on September 12, 1976, against the Houston Oilers at the Astrodome. It was a wipeout: The Oilers, a team on the rise, beat them 20-0. The next game was their home debut: In front of 39,558 people at Tampa Stadium -- leaving it half-empty -- they lost to the San Diego Chargers, 23-0.

They came close to winning their next game, falling 14-9 at home to the Buffalo Bills. Three weeks later, with their fellow expansion team, the Seahawks, also still winless, coming to Tampa, predictions that neither team could win were voiced. There would be no tie: The Seahawks won, 13-10. They finished the season 2-12. The next week, at home, the Buccaneers held the 2-time recent Super Bowl-winning Miami Dolphins to a 23-20 win.

But as the losses piled up, McKay took the same tack as Casey Stengel did when managing another expansion team, the 1962 New York Mets: He became a quote machine, entertaining the media:

* "We've determined that we can't win at home and we can't win on the road. What we need is a neutral site."

* Well, we didn't block well, but we made up for it by not tackling well, either."

* "We can't stop a pass or a run. Otherwise, we're in great shape."

* When asked, "What do think of your team's execution?" he said, "I'm in favor of it."

On December 12, the Buccaneers lost to the New England Patriots, 31-14 at Tampa Stadium. They had finished 0-14. It was the 1st winless season in the NFL since the 1960 Dallas Cowboys went 0-11-1. It was the first all-loss season in the NFL since 1944, when both the "Card-Pitt" team and the Brooklyn Tigers went 0-10. Without the manpower drain of World War II, the previous all-loss NFL season was by the Cincinnati Reds, who lost their 1st 8 games of the 1934 season, and then folded.

For the 1977 season, McKay made Tampa native and former Chicago Bear Gary Huff his starting quarterback, and drafted one of his last USC players, running back Ricky Bell. But they still kept losing. There was progress, as 5 of their 1st 7 games were lost by 10 points or less. Their 2nd game was nearly a shocker, as they held the defending NFC Champion Minnesota Vikings to a 9-3 win.

Still, they had trouble scoring. Of those 1st 26 games, they scored fewer than 10 points in 17 of them; they failed to score a touchdown in 14 of them; and they were shut out in 11 of them. On December 4, they lost 10-0 at home to the Bears, falling to 0-12 on the season, and 0-26 all-time.

It got so bad that they were worked into pop culture. On an episode of the sitcom What's Happening!! that aired on ABC on November 10, Dwayne (Haywood Nelson) keeps winning in football predictions. Rerun (Fred Berry) wants to win the approval of his brother-in-law, Ike, a compulsive gambler, so he asks Dwayne to pick the Monday Night Football game.

Dwayne's pick is "Tampa Bay 10, Oakland 7." This pick doesn't make any sense: The Raiders are the defending World Champions, and the Buccaneers haven't won a game yet. (In real life, the Bucs did not play the Raiders that season.) But Dwayne says his system is foolproof.

So Rerun gives Ike the pick. Ike calls his bookie, and bets $500 -- about $2,460 in 2022 money. Rerun yells at him: "I told you to bet big, not crazy!" Now, Rerun knows that if Dwayne's pick isn't foolproof, he's in trouble. Sure enough, the Raiders win, 47-0. Ike tells Rerun he's going to work at his store until that $500 is paid off.

Rerun and Raj (Ernest Thomas) demand to know how Dwayne's "foolproof system" works. Dwayne gives them the convoluted way he picks the score. As for which team wins? Helmets: He picks the team that he thinks has the better-looking helmets. I have to admit: The orange and white Tampa Bay helmets, with a pirate known as "Bucco Bruce" on the side, did look better than the silver and black Oakland helmets, which also had a pirate logo.

And on NBC, in his "Carnac the Magnificent" sketch for The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson said this:

Answer: The Titanic and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Question: Name two disasters that were accompanied by band music.

At the time, if you asked an NFL fan what team would give the Bucs their first regular-season win ever, the likeliest answer would have been the New Orleans Saints, a team that had been perennially snakebit since their 1967 debut, and had never had a winning season. (They wouldn't have one until 1987, wouldn't make the Playoffs until that season, wouldn't win a Playoff game until 2000, and wouldn't reach a Super Bowl until the 2009 season, winning Super Bowl XLIV.)

So it wasn't a total surprise that, on December 11, 1977, at the Superdome in New Orleans, the Buccaneers beat the Saints, 33-14, finally winning in their 27th regular-season game. Dave Green kicked a field goal in each of the 1st 2 quarters. Huff threw a touchdown pass to Morris Owens to make it 13-0 Tampa Bay at the half.

In the 3rd quarter, Mike Washington intercepted a pass from Archie Manning -- Peyton and Eli's father -- and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown. In the 4th quarter, Richard Wood intercepted Manning, and returned it 10 yards for a touchdown. It was 26-0 Tampa Bay. Had that turned out to be the final score, it would have been poetic justice: A reverse of 0-26.

Manning ran for a touchdown to put New Orleans on the board, but on the Saints' next drive, he got sacked deep in his own territory, fumbling, and Greg Johnson recovered the ball in the end zone for another Buccaneer touchdown. Manning threw a late touchdown pass to John Gilliam, but the Saints would get no closer than 33-14.

The big surprise was the margin of victory. The Bucs had only scored as many as 20 points twice before that, topping out at 23 in another loss to Seattle earlier in '77.

The following week, the last game of the regular season, the Bucs gave their home fans their 1st win, beating the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 17-7, to finish the season at 2-12. In 1978, they improved to 5-11. In 1979, they finished 10-6, winning the NFC Central Division, and advancing to the NFC Championship Game, where they lost to the Los Angeles Rams. After a losing season in 1980, they won the Division again in 1981, before falling apart again.

It would take until 1997 -- the season when they dropped Bucco Bruce for their pirate flag helmet design, and their "creamsicle" uniforms for their red and "pewter" version -- for the Bucs to stop being a joke franchise and make the Playoffs again, beginning a run of success that included winning Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. They have also won Super Bowl LV in 2021.

The longest losing streak in the NFL since the '76-'77 Bucs is 20, by the 2020 and '21 Jacksonville Jaguars. Although the 2008 Detroit Lions and the 2017 Cleveland Browns both went 0-16, neither threatened the Bucs' 0-26 mark.

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December 11, 1977 was a Sunday. These other NFL games were played that day:

* The New York Giants lost to the Philadelphia Eagles, 17-14 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The New York Jets lost to the Buffalo Bills, 14-10 at Shea Stadium.

* The New England Patriots beat the Miami Dolphins, 14-10 at Schaefer Stadium (later Sullivan Stadium and Foxboro Stadium) in the Boston suburb of Foxborough, Massachusetts.

* The Detroit Lions beat the Baltimore Colts, 13-10 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore.

* The Houston Oilers beat the Cleveland Browns, 19-15 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Chicago Bears beat their arch-rivals, the Green Bay Packers, 21-10 at Soldier Field in Chicago.

* The Seattle Seahawks beat the Kansas City Chiefs, 34-31 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Denver Broncos beat the San Diego Chargers, 17-9 at Mile High Stadium in Denver.

* The Los Angeles Rams beat the Atlanta Falcons, 23-7 at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

* In a rematch of the previous season's Super Bowl, the Oakland Raiders beat the Minnesota Vikings, 35-13 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* The day before, Washington Redskins lost to the football version of the St. Louis Cardinals, 26-20 at Busch Memorial Stadium in St. Louis.

* Also the day before, the Cincinnati Bengals beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10 at Riverfront Stadium in Cincinnati.

* And the next night, on ABC Monday Night Football, the Dallas Cowboys beat the San Francisco 49ers, 42-35 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.

There was 1 college football game played, the Mirage Bowl at Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo, Japan. Grambling State beat Temple, 35-23.

There were 3 NBA games played that day:

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Washington Bullets, 106-95 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Buffalo Braves, 124-119 in overtime at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 43 points and had 19 rebounds.

* And the Seattle SuperSonics beat the Houston Rockets, 116-84 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 8-2 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers beat the Cleveland Barons, 11-1 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. Tom Bladon had a hat trick.

* The Washington Capitals beat the St. Louis Blues, 2-1 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Vancouver Canucks, 3-0 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-1 at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh.

* And the Chicago Black Hawks beat the Minnesota North Stars, 8-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

And there were 3 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* This was the season of an experiment where Soviet and Czech All-Star teams played in the WHA. The Czechoslovakia team played 8 games, and won only 1, This was not it: They lost to the Quebec Nordiques, 8-4 at the Colisée de Québec.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Indianapolis Racers, 7-1 at the Winnipeg Arena.

* And the Houston Aeros beat the Edmonton Oilers, 4-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

January 1, 1935: The 1st Sugar Bowl

January 1, 1935: The 1st Sugar Bowl is played, at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Tulane University beat Temple University, 20-14.

The most notable play of the game came in the 2nd quarter, when Tulane's quarterback, John McDaniel, caught a Temple kickoff, ran to the right to draw tacklers, then threw a lateral pass to his teammate Monk Simons, who ran 75 yards for the touchdown. Two more Tulane touchdowns in the second half outweighed Temple's early lead.

Tulane had been built on a sugar plantation, and sugar was long the leading crop in the State of Louisiana. Hence, the game was named for a local crop. New Orleans civic leaders wanted to copy Pasadena, California's Rose Bowl for a few years, and finally got it set up for 1934-35. There was no pregame parade, however.

Tulane had been one of the South's leading football schools, winning titles in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association in 1920, and the Southern Conference in 1925, 1929, 1930 and 1931. That league was the forefather of both the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC).

In 1933, Tulane was a founding member of the SEC, and won the title in 1934, giving them the credibility to host the bowl game. They would win the SEC again in 1939 and 1949, but went into decline, and left the league after the 1965 season, surpassed in football importance in their State by Louisiana State University (LSU), and even by the black college rivalry between Grambling State and Southern University. They would later win the title in Conference USA in 1998, and are now members of the American Athletic Conference (AAC). (UPDATE: They won the AAC title in 2022.)

The game was held at Tulane Stadium from 1935 until 1975. In 1975, the Louisiana Superdome opened, and the game has been held there every year since, with the exception of 2006, when it was held at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta, due to repairs on the Superdome from Hurricane Katrina.

Tulane Stadium

Temple have also never again reached the football heights they reached in the 1930s. They devalued their program in 1958, but began moving back up in 1991, becoming members of the Big East Conference. In 2013, they joined the American Athletic Conference (AAC), winning it in 2016.

After the inaugural Sugar Bowl, they didn't go to another bowl game until the 1979 season, and then not again until 2009. They won the Garden State Bowl in 1979, the New Mexico Bowl in 2011, and the Gasparilla Bowl in 2017. But they've never been to another traditional New Year's Day bowl game.

Tulane Stadium hosted Super Bowls IV, VI and IX, and was home to the NFL's New Orleans Saints from 1967 to 1974, before they and the Green Wave moved into the Superdome for the 1975 season. Tulane Stadium was demolished in 1979, the 1st of the 4 classic New Year's Day bowl game facilities to go. (The Orange Bowl followed in 2008, while the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl stadiums still stand.) In 2014, Yulman Stadium was opened on the site of Tulane Stadium.

The Superdome

The Sugar Bowl has usually invited the SEC Champion, although this was not made official until the 1976 season. With the advent of the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) in the 1998 season, hosting the SEC Champion was no longer a given. Given the success of the SEC since the start of the National Championship Playoff in 2014, it's been almost impossible.

The Sugar Bowl has featured the National Champions of the preceding calendar year 23 times: Louisiana State University (LSU) in 1959 and 2007; the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1960, 1961 and 1963; Alabama in 1962, 1979, 1980 and 1993; the University of Miami in 1990 and 2001; Texas Christian University (TCU) in 1939; Texas A&M in 1940; Oklahoma in 1950; Maryland in 1952; Georgia Tech in 1953; Notre Dame in 1974; the University of Pittsburgh in 1977; Georgia in 1981; Penn State in 1983; Florida in 1997; Florida State in 2000; and Ohio State in 2021.

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January 1, 1935 was a Tuesday. This was also the day the 1st Orange Bowl was played, at Miami Field in Miami. Unlike in a few later appearances, having the home-field advantage did not help the University of Miami, as they lost to Bucknell University, 26-0. I have a separate entry for that event.

Also on this day, the Rose Bowl was played at the stadium of the same name, outside Los Angeles in Pasadena, California. Alabama completed an undefeated season, ruining Stanford's, 29-13.

And the entire National Hockey League was in action:

* The New York Rangers lost to the Boston Bruins, 5-2 at the Boston Garden.

* The New York Americans beat the Montreal Canadiens, 5-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Detroit Red Wings beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 1-0 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* And the Montreal Maroons beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 2-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

January 1, 1927: The Palestra Opens

January 1, 1927: The Palestra opens on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania, next-door to the school's football stadium, Franklin Field. It become known as "The Cathedral of College Basketball."

William N. Bates, a Penn professor, named the building after the ancient Greek term palaestra, meaning a rectangular enclosure attached to a gymnasium where athletes would compete in various sports in front of an audience. 

There is one level of seats, 8,725 of them. The seats do not have backs. Also, if you're in the back row, you could end up sitting next to a hot radiator. But it really does resemble a cathedral: There are stained-glass windows. And there are no luxury boxes: Ivy League bankers and lawyers have to sit next to kids from the street. This is what Philadelphia, the birthplace of the country, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, is all about.

Starting in 1955, the "Big Five" has been Penn, Temple University, La Salle University, St. Joseph's University and Villanova University. The Palestra became nationally famous for its Big 5 doubleheaders, with 4 out of the 5 teams playing. Temple used it as its home court from 1955 until the 1969 opening of McGonigle Hall, and St. Joe's used it in the 2008-09 season, while Alumni Fieldhouse/Hagan Arena was renovated.

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January 1, 1927 was a Saturday. In the Rose Bowl, in the stadium of the same name in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, California, Stanford University and the University of Alabama played to a 7-7 tie. The schools were retroactively recognized as sharing the National Championship. It was the 1st sporting event broadcast on nationwide radio, on NBC.

It was a big day in the history of football for another reason, although that wouldn't be known for another 20 years: Doak Walker was born on this day.

There were 4 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-0 at the Chicago Coliseum.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens, 2-1 at the Ottawa Auditorium.

* The Montreal Maroons beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-0 at the Mutual Street Arena in Toronto.

* And the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Detroit Cougars, 3-2 at the Border Cities Arena (now the Windsor Arena) in Windsor, Ontario.

And in English soccer, Arsenal lost to Welsh team Cardiff City, 3-2 at the Arsenal Stadium, nicknamed Highbury for its North London neighborhood. It was no fluke: Cardiff City would also defeat Arsenal in that season's FA Cup Final.