There are some accolades and records in professional sports that will never be replicated. Fans know it, players know it, even the record-holder knows it. Success and legacy are arbitrary terms constantly up for debate, it’s the numbers that never lie. Some of the numbers we’re about to cover here not only jump off the pages of record books, but they’re borderline unimaginable. They say history repeats itself, but this list would like to respectfully disagree. Ranking these records is virtually impossible given the uneven circumstances, so we opted for a list format. Without further ado, here are the nine most unbreakable records in sports history.
Bill Russell’s 11 Championships (and the Boston Celtics’ 8 Straight Titles)
Date(s): 1957 – 1969
We’re starting off with the greatest winner in NBA history – Bill Russell. One of the original big men in the league, Bill Russell won eleven titles in his thirteen-year career. Prior to 1967, the playoffs allowed just six teams, making Russell’s path to a championship much less intensive than the modern 20-team gauntlet. Regardless, eleven championships in any era is a sign of pure dominance. The Boston Celtics went to ten straight NBA Finals from 1957 to 1966 and won nine of them, including eight in a row from ‘59 to ‘66. Further, the reason why both of these records will stand the test of time is because parity in the modern NBA is incredibly high. It’s very unlikely one team dominates for more than three to five years because other teams will be constantly retooling for a chance to take down the champs.
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UCONN Women’s Basketball 111 Straight Wins
Date(s): Fall 2014 – March 31, 2017
The domination of UCONN Women’s Basketball is truly something to marvel at. After winning a then record-setting 91 consecutive games, the UCONN women went on an even crazier run. The 111 game win-streak included 108 double-digit victories, 61 of which came by at least 40 points. Led primarily by now-WNBA star Breanna Stewart, these teams dominated nearly everyone in their path en route to four straight national championships. Further, if you factor out the NCAA tournament, UCONN’s regular-season win streak stood at 126 games. Yeah, this record isn’t going anywhere in the near future.
Rickey Henderson’s 1,406 Career Stolen Bases
Date(s): 1979 – 2003
Rickey Henderson was a thief on the diamond. Known as the greatest leadoff hitter in baseball history, Henderson was swiping bags into his early 40s. Rickey is the only player to eclipse one-thousand stolen bases, with Dee Strange-Gordan serving as the active leader with a mere 333 career steals. Advanced analytics show a stolen base is a very high-risk, low-reward tactic, prompting most teams to drastically reduce their attempts. With that being said, even if a speedster the caliber of Rickey Henderson came along in the future, it’s unlikely he maintains the foot speed to average 94 steals for fifteen years to break this record. Moreover, nobody has stolen 94 bases in a single season in the last twenty-five years.
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Jerry Rice’s 22,895 Career Receiving Yards
Date(s): 1985 – 2004
Wide receivers in the NFL will forever have their greatness compared to Jerry Rice. He holds basically all of the NFL records for receiving, including receptions and touchdowns. Yet none is more impressive than his career yardage mark, truly one of the most unbreakable football records. The closest player to eclipsing this record – Larry Fitzgerald of the Arizona Cardinals – is still over 5,000 yards short. Like several of the names on this list, part of the reason why Rice’s records are so staggering is that he managed to stay healthy and play at an elite level for twenty years.
Cy Young’s 749 Complete Games & 511 Wins
Date(s): 1890 – 1911
There’s a reason why Major League Baseball’s annual award for the best pitcher is named after Cy Young. Only three pitchers in history have started over 749 games: Young, Don Sutton, and Nolan Ryan. But as we all know, starting and finishing are two different things. The active leader in complete games? Adam Wainwright with 27. The active leader in wins? Justin Verlander with 226. Both of whom are in the final years of their careers. Cy Young holds one of the most ridiculous sports records simply because no manager would ever let a pitcher do to their arm what Young did over his 22-year career. Additionally, with a greater emphasis on pitcher-batter matchups, bullpen usage, and the concept of the “opener,” raw tally statistics like complete games and wins just don’t hold the same value as they once did. Regardless, this record is insane. The only way a pitcher could even sniff being in the realm of this record is if the MLB reduces games from nine to seven innings, and even then it’s a stretch.
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Wilt Chamberlain’s 50.4 Points Per Game
Date(s): 1961 – 1962
Earlier this month, we looked back on Wilt Chamberlain’s iconic 100 point performance from the 1961-62 season. While that record certainly deserves its place on this list, Wilt’s unreal 50.4 points per game that season is arguably the more impressive feat. In fact, Wilt holds the record for the four highest-scoring averages in NBA and ABA history. The closest anyone has come to scoring as much as Wilt was Michael Jordan in the 1986-87 season with a light 37 points per game. Among active players, James Harden came closest to breaking this record with his 36.13 points per game in the 2018-19 season. Wilt’s record is, of course, slightly inflated due to less defensive emphasis of the era and the lack of offensive goaltending. Nevertheless, unless the league introduces a four or five-point shot, this will remain one of the most unbreakable NBA records.
Wayne Gretzky’s 2,857 Career Points
Date(s): 1978 – 1999
Admittedly, I’m not too privy to hockey accolades. However, I know a statistical anomaly when I see one, and Wayne Gretzky’s points record resembles video game numbers. In hockey, a point total encompasses a player’s total goals and assists, which Gretzky had an unreal amount of. The second-highest career point total? That honor belongs to Jaromir Jagr with 1,921 – nearly a thousand less than Gretzky’s mark. Remarkably, Gretzky won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in each of his first 8 seasons. He’s widely known only as “The Great One,” and for good reason.
Billy Bird’s 138 Knockouts
Date(s): 1920 – 1948
The greatest boxer you’ve never heard of is British welterweight Billy Bird. Over his twenty-eight-year career, Bird recorded 356 professional fights, 260 wins, and 138 knockouts. While Archie Moore’s record of 132 knockouts is a close second, modern boxers don’t fight nearly as often as their predecessors. With a growing concern for long-term injury and trauma related to the sport, it’s unlikely any boxer ever touches Billy Bird’s record.
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Cal Ripken’s 2,632 Consecutive Games Played
Date(s): May 30th, 1982 – Sept. 19th, 1998
In 1995, Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig’s record of 2,130 consecutive games played. Then, the Iron Man proceeded to play in another five-hundred straight games. There are two things that make this record insane. 1) Ripken stayed healthy. 2) He was good enough to hold down a starting job for nearly 17 years. In today’s day and age, regardless of sport, teams are extremely concerned with rest and load management. It’s rare a baseball player takes part in more than a hundred straight games without a day off. The odds a player stays healthy, productive, and doesn’t take a day off are astronomical. We can confidently say that eclipsing two-thousand consecutive games is as close to impossible as it gets.
We hope you enjoyed this list of the most unbreakable records in sports history. Lastly, for more editorials, The Top 20 Quentin Tarantino Characters of All-Time.
