Sometimes in sports a team is so woefully bad that it’s funny. The futility, in some ways, gives the team a lovable character. That is the message that comes through in “The Yucks,” which chronicles the longest losing streak in National Football League history, turned in by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or Bucs (which rhymes with Yucks). The 26-game streak so exasperated John McKay, the coach of the expansion team, that he once famously replied to a reporter who asked, “What do you think of your team’s execution, Coach?” “I’m in favor of it,” he said acerbically. The team was shut out 11 times during its inaugural 1976 and 1977 seasons before finally breaking the skid by defeating the Archie Manning-led New Orleans Saints in the next-to-last game of the ’77 season. Eight thousand long-suffering fans came out to celebrate the win upon the Bucs’ return home. Author Jason Vuic not only captures the hilarious moments, but also explains how the team helped secure a collective identity for Florida’s Gulf communities.
Here’s an excerpt from The Yucks:
“Now the hard part was designing the mascot. What did a buccaneer look like? A pirate? The team had to be careful here. The Oakland Raiders used a pirate-like logo, and Al Davis, the owner of the Raiders, would have sued. Therefore, when Tampa Tribune artist Lamar Sparkman submitted a skull and crossbones and also a hangman’s noose, Bill Marcum nixed the ideas. A buccaneer was a French pirate, Marcum said, not Long John Silver, so he asked Sparkman for something classier, a character like d’Artagnan from The Three Musketeers. Sparkman came back with ‘Bucco Bruce,’ a classy, rakish rogue, a cross between a 1970s Bee Gee and a swashbuckler.”
