The Yucks

Two Years in Tampa with the Losingest Team in NFL History

By: Jason Vuic

Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor

Long before their first Super Bowl victory in 2003, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers did something no NFL team had ever done before and that none will ever likely do again: They lost 26 games in a row. It started in 1976, in their first season as an expansion team, and it lasted until the penultimate game of the 1977 season, when they defeated Archie Manning and the New Orleans Saints on the road. It was the beginning of a new streak for a team that had come to be called "The Yucks". They won their final game at home, and the fans tore down the goalposts. This was no ordinary streak. It was an existential curse that unfolded week after week, with Johnny Carson leading the charge on The Tonight Show. Along with their ridiculous mascot and uniforms, the Yucks were a national punch line and personnel purgatory. Owned by the miserly and bulbous-nosed Hugh Culverhouse, the team was the end of the line for Heisman Trophy winner Steve Spurrier, and a banishment for former Cowboy defensive end Pat Toomay after he wrote a tell-all book about his time on "America's Team."

Jason Vuic's The Yucks is an unforgettable and hilarious account of athletic futility and despair.

©2016 Jason Vuic (P)2016 Tantor

Critic reviews

" The Yucks is a delightful merging of terrific writer, terrific subject, ugly-ass uniforms, and a gathering of gridiron ineptitude only a blind scout could love. Wonderfully done." (Jeff Pearlman, author of Boys Will Be Boys: The Glory Days and Party Nights of the Dallas Cowboys Dynasty)

Perfect!!

The story is a history of the area AND the Bucs. If you are from Tampa read this book.

What memories!

I am not a Bucs fan, but I loved the old creamcicles!
Fun story, good narration, and I almost cried when the Bucs wine their first game!
Culverhouse May have been cheap, but at least he is not a knucklehead like Jerry Jones - who fires Tom Landry in such a classless manner?
I got to review a great book and slam Jerry Jones- it’s a good day!

Yucks to Bucs

Wonderfully narrated and delightfully told, the Yucks is a must for any Bucs fan or fan of the sport. Vuic does a great job of capturing the problem the Bucs faced in its early history, poor ownership and lack of vision. The book also shows how the team brought the Bay Area together, win or lose. The Yucks were lovable losers because they displayed humanity in professional sports. Real people experience loss and failure. The Yucks were no different.

Just what you want.

This book tells the story of the team in a great way. The reader was great and the stories were entertaining and enjoyable. If you are a football fan this is a great listen and if you arent into football you will still be able to enjoy the story and not be lost.

Fun Listen

Have always been fascinated by the 0-26 Bucs but was born in 75 so it was great to hear how a team was put together from scratch back then, how you lose 26 in a row and the experience of the people who lived it.

The execution of this audiobook? I’m in favor of it !

Keep in mind that this book was published before the last Bucs Super Bowl win in 2021, but this is the story of the long, grueling, infuriating road that is the story of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of 1976-1977, and the cast of crazy, arrogant, greedy, bizarre, yet determined people that defined a team that earned the right to be called the worst team in the entire history of professional sports.