The 50 Most “Unbreakable” Records in Sports : 10-6
For an introduction to the list, click here.
For previous parts of the list, click on the numbers: 50-46 , 45-41 , 40-36 , 35-31 , 30-26 , 25-21 , 20-16 , 15-11
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10. Byron Nelson wins 11 consecutive PGA events
Many sports fans may be familiar with this record because of its exposure during Tiger Woods’ recent decade of success, during which he enjoyed winning streaks of five, six, and seven wins.
Tiger will likely surpass Sam Snead’s career wins record, and may still have an outside shot at Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. But his best win streak still came up five wins shy of Nelson’s streak. He’ll never eclipse it. And if he can’t do it, surely no one else will.
The PGA Tour only played in one major championship, the PGA Championship, during Nelson’s magical ’45 season (he recorded a total of 18 wins in 35 tournaments; 51% wins). As expected, Nelson won it.
Some have suggested the record is not totally legitimate as the playing field was watered down due to the war. It is worth noting that Nelson’s two contemporaries, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan, played as much as Nelson did that season.
Unpredictable schedules, emphasis on “money events,” increasing worldwide talent–and currently, a lack of a dominant superstar–keep this record safe for a long time.
–Joey Sparks
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9. Nolan Ryan throws 7 no-hitters
Sandy Koufax was the king of no-hitters, throwing 4 in his amazing career. Then along came a fireballer from Texas with a flair for keeping hitters off-balance because of his great numbers of strikeouts…and walks.
The result was a career that spanned 27 seasons and a record that will stand forever. Nolan Ryan’s 7 no-hitters are an amazing achievement. In fact, he is one of only 5 pitchers in Major League history to throw more than two, and only he and Koufax ever threw more than three.
One reason this record will stand is that no-hitters take a very rare combination of 9 innings of dominance and a bit of luck. Usually a ball is caught that should not be, or a close played is officially scored as an error instead of a hit. Combine those things with the pressure of “the moment,” and throwing one no-hitter is a great feat.
But to throw 7 in one career? It won’t happen again. The current leader is Roy Halladay, who has….two.
One More Ryan Fact: Ryan also tossed 12 games in which he gave up just one hit, for a total of 19 games pitched with zero or one hit allowed.
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8. Wilt Chamberlain averages 50.4 points per game
Wilt Chamberlain would dominate any discussion of points per game in NBA history. In fact, he owns the top four seasons in the history of the league. In 1961-62, though, the Philadelphia Warrior’s center went over a threshold that is nearly unthinkable. He averaged over 50 points per game, ending at an astounding 50.36 per contest.
Chamberlain played in 80 games that season, and actually averaged more than 48 minutes per game. He only averaged 1.5 personal fouls per contest, despite those minutes. He shot over 50% from the field and averaged over 10 made free throws per game.
The highest season ever for a player not named “Wilt Chamberlain” was Michael Jordan’s 1986-87 season. In that year, Jordan averaged 37 points per game, 13 fewer than Chamberlain. Among active players. Kobe Bryant averaged 35.4 points per game in 2005-06, a full 15 points per game lower than Wilt’s record.
By the way, in the 1961-62 season, Walt Bellamy finished 2nd in the scoring title behind Wilt Chamberlain. He averaged 31.6 points per game. That 18.5 ppg difference translates to Chamberlain scoring 1534 more points than Bellamy.
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7. Georgia Tech scores 222 points (and has 222 point margin of victory) in NCAA football game
There are a lot of records from this 1916 football game between the Georgia Tech Engineers (now Yellow Jackets) and Cumberland University Bulldogs.
We decided to go simply with the score and margin of victory, as Tech won by a staggering 222-0 score. Maybe even more jaw-dropping was that the game was shortened due to the halftime score of 126-0. (I guess they thought Cumberland couldn’t come back!)
Georgia Tech, who forced Cumberland to play the game though they had disbanded their football program the year before, never threw a single pass, but ran the ball 40 times for 1620 yards (a few more than the mere 604 they had against Kansas just a couple of weeks ago). They actually could have scored more, but they missed on two extra points, “only” converting on 30 of their 32 attempts.
Today, scores are rarely “run up.” For some reason, 70 points seems to be the threshold of tolerance, so 100 point games are very rare. There have been several 100 point games in college football history, but nearly all of them occurred in the early days of the sport. Only one other school has ever eclipsed 200 points in a game, and that was in 1922, when King College beat Lenoir 206-0. Georgia Tech’s amazing day will stand forever as the standard in college sports blowouts.
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6. UCLA wins 7 consecutive men’s basketball titles
Wooden’s 10 titles have already made an appearance on the list, but we wanted to have a place for the teams that, well, just never lost. For 7 years in a row, 1967-1973, Wooden’s Bruins came out on top of the NCAA tournament every single season. That feat was unthinkable before it was done, and has remained so in the years after.
As the NCAA tournament has expanded rounds, this record has become even more mythic. Teams now must go through 6 rounds (or 7 from a “play in” game) to win the tournament, something UCLA did not have to do. That is not meant to diminish what the Bruins accomplished, but is to state how impossible it would be for a team to duplicate it.
In fairly recent years, only Duke (1991-1992) and Florida (2006-2007) have even one two tournaments in a row, and that ties them for second place on the list of longest such streaks. That’s right: UCLA won 7 in a row, and no other team has ever won more than 2 straight. This record will stand as long as does college basketball.
List Factoid: This is John Wooden’s 3rd and final appearance on our list. He is on here more than any other individual, a fact that needed to be pointed out.
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10 Comments
Jim
Did Cumberland not beat GT in baseball which caused the discrepancy between the two schools? Also, I think Cumberland literally took fans to play in the game (as you mentioned they had gotten rid of football and had to throw together a team).
Adam Faughn
Cumberland did beat GT in baseball, and GaTech’s baseball coach was also their football coach: John Heisman. He would not relieve CU of their contract. Since the school had no football team, they had to get students to play. If I remember correctly, they only had 12 players, one of whom coached.
Jim
Yeah that is correct about the players. I had a friend who played baseball at CU and we talked about this game often.
Joey Sparks
The Ga Tech score is so crazy, it’s hard to replicate on video games. You have to score quickly every time you have the ball, get a few defensive/ST TD’s, and hope the opponent tries to pass to stop the clock some.
Fun record to analyze, for sure.
Tim Archer
Byron Nelson’s brother, Charles, leads singing in the Bible class that I’m teaching on Sunday mornings this fall. Do you suppose Byron is the highest ranking member of churches of Christ on your list?
Adam Faughn
Tim…I’m quite confident he is. Always good to know that there is a legit “nice guy” in sports.
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Jim Faughn
If I’m not mistaken Nelson was a member of the church of Christ.