• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Athletic/sports records that will never be broken

Status
Not open for further replies.
H

Hobbestetrician

Member
The 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game got me wondering about athletic feats or sports records that will probably never be replicated. Off the top of my head:

Baseball
- DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak
- Pete Rose's career hits
- Barry Bonds 73-HR season
- Nolan Ryan's 7 no-hitters
- Cy Young's 511 career wins
- Cal Ripken Jr's ironman streak

Football
- Emmitt Smith's career rushing record (RBs are becoming less valuable and teams don't run as much)
- Brett Favre's 297 straight starts
- LaDanian Tomlinson's 28 rushing TDs in a season
- Kellen Moore's 50-2 record as starter in college

Basketball
- Wilt's 100-point game
- Bulls 72-win season
- Russell's 11 championships
- Jordan's 6-finals MVPs
- Scott Skiles 30 assists in a game
- UCLA's championship runs

Hockey
- anything Wayne Gretzky has
- Red Wings 67-win season

Olympics
- Eric Heiden's 7 gold medals in speed skating 1980
- Michael Phelps' 8 gold medals in 2008

What records does GAF think are untouchable?
 
A

Anno

Member
I also wouldn't be shocked if someone eventually gets past 72 wins. Maybe not, though.

Unless Tiger can turn things around over the next 10 years or so I don't think Jack's 18 majors will ever fall. Competition is too fierce now.
 
H

Hobbestetrician

Member
shira said:
Steroids/PED/bionics/technology(sharkskin) allowed or not?
Click to expand...
If they are allowed in the sports, sure.

nateeasy said:
I wouldn't be shocked if someone had more than 28 rushing TDs in a season.
Click to expand...
Probably the easiest of those I listed to break but I am operating under the assumption that more and more teams will throw the ball 50+ times a game. And most teams feature a few backs or the QB can run it in (Panthers)
 
C

Credo

Member
Of those listed, I think Cy Young's career wins total is the most untouchable. There's a 0% chance it will ever be broken with the way pitchers are rested now. He also holds the record for most career losses, 316, which is another one that will stand forever.

I used to think nobody would ever touch Wilt's 100-point record, but with Kobe scoring 81 a few years ago, at least someone has approached it even though it was still 19 points off.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
JimWood27 said:
The 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game got me wondering about athletic feats or sports records that will probably never be replicated. Off the top of my head:

Baseball
- DiMaggio's 56-game hit streak
- Pete Rose's career hits
- Barry Bonds 73-HR season
- Nolan Ryan's 7 no-hitters
- Cy Young's 511 career wins
- Cal Ripken Jr's ironman streak
Click to expand...
Cy Young's Wins are untouchable, the others i can see being broken at some point.

some more baseball ones

- Hugh Duffy .440 Batting Average in 1894.
- Barry Bonds .609 On Base Average in 2004 (FUCKING INSANE)
- Barry Bonds 232 Walks in 2004 (he holds the top three records, 232, 198, 177. 4th is Babe Ruth at 170)
- Will Whites 75 Complete Games in 1879.
- Pud Galvin's 75 Games Started in 1883.
 
S

Stet

Banned
Hockey
Scott Bowman coached 2,141 regular season games in his career. The next highest has 1,607.
 
Z

Zeppelin

Member
Sotomayor's world record in high jump seems pretty hard to beat and no one has been close to it since then. Year bests since then are usually around 7-8 cm short.
 
O

out0v0rder

Member
Chamberlains points will probably never be topped because he was dope, and because basketball has evolved over the years (shot clocks....etc)
 
P

Parch

Member
XMonkey said:
Hockey
Teemu Selanne's rookie goal scoring and points record (76 goals, 132 points)
Click to expand...
Defensive systems have found a way to control offensive production.
I wouldn't say everything Gretzky, but I think 50 goals in 39 games was extremely impressive and will be the toughest record to beat.
 
V

videogames

Banned
Some of Eddie Merckx records
Code: 
Most career victories by a professional cyclist: 525.
Most victories in one season: 54.
Most stage victories in the Tour de France: 34.
Most stage victories in one Tour de France: 8, in 1970 and 1974 (shared with Charles Pélissier in 1930 and Freddy Maertens in 1976).
Most days with the yellow jersey in the Tour de France: 96.
The only cyclist to have won the general classification, points classification and mountains classification in the same Tour de France (1969).
Most victories in classics: 28.
Most victories in one single classic: 7 (in Milan – San Remo).
Most Grand Tour Victories 11

The man.

oh, and Armstrong's 7 Tour wins. Greg LeMond will always have the record for closest win (a record worth keeping?)

Fuck, cycling is boss.
 
C

Corran Horn

May the Schwartz be with you
Barry Bo...
Windu said:
Cy Young's Wins are untouchable, the others i can see being broken at some point.


- Barry Bonds .609 On Base Average in 2004 (FUCKING INSANE)
- Barry Bonds 232 Walks in 2004 (he holds the top three records, 232, 198, 177. 4th is Babe Ruth at 170)
Click to expand...

...damnit
 
P

params7

Banned
Cricket
Don Bradman - Test Batting average of 99.94

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Bradman#World_sport_context

The statistics show that "no other athlete dominates an international sport to the extent that Bradman does cricket". In order to post a similarly dominant career statistic as Bradman, a baseball batter would need a career batting average of .392, while a basketball player would need to score an average of 43.0 points per game. The respective records are .366 and 30.1.
Click to expand...
 
B

braves01

Banned
The Favre streak could be beaten by a good kicker I think. I don't think any other position could survive that many games though.
 
B

BorkBork

The Legend of BorkBork: BorkBorkity Borking
Basketball
John Stockton All time assists: 15,806.
2nd is Jason Kidd at 11,720.
 
H

Hobbestetrician

Member
Parch said:
I wouldn't say everything Gretzky, but I think 50 goals in 39 games was extremely impressive and will be the toughest record to beat.
Click to expand...

I shouldn't have said EVERYTHING Gretzky, I was more referring to career assists/goals/points and few others (like the goal one you list). It was just easier to not list them all.


braves01 said:
The Favre streak could be beaten by a good kicker I think. I don't think any other position could survive that many games though.
Click to expand...
Should have specified it with 'by an actual player'
 
C

Cat Party

Member
One of the most unbreakable records in sports is Glenn Hall's record of 502 consecutive starts (551 if you count playoffs) as a goalie in the NHL. He did this at a time when they played 70 games, rather than 82, and when teams only had one goalie on their roster (the equipment manager was usually the emergency backup). That was basically seven straight seasons never missing a game. That will never happen again, because teams ahve two goalies now and prefer to rest even their star goalies about 15 games a year, typically. No goalie will ever come close to 100 again, let alone 500.
 
GTP_Daverytimes

GTP_Daverytimes

Member
videogames said:
Considering the restrictions on steroids and drugs, this is just not true.
Click to expand...

You will be amazed at what people can accomplish with just determination and talent, someone very talented and determined individuals will eventually come up and challenge whatever record was put in place and they generally will take the crown. Very few records have been left standing for more than 40 years.
 
W

Windu

never heard about the cat, apparently
GTP_Daverytimes said:
You will be amazed at what people can accomplish with just determination and talent, someone very talented and determined will eventually come up and challenge whatever record was put in place and they generally will take the crown. Very few records have been left standing for more than 40 years.
Click to expand...
well there are some records that are impossible to break just because of the way the sport has changed. Like Cy Young's Wins or the Games Started records etc..
 
C

ConfusingJazz

Member
GTP_Daverytimes said:
You will be amazed at what people can accomplish with just determination and talent, someone very talented and determined will eventually come up and challenge whatever record was put in place and they generally will take the crown. Very few records have been left standing for more than 40 years.
Click to expand...

Unless something dramatic happens, its going to be hard to break the women's track records. PEDs are more effective with the female body then male body: http://www.slate.com/articles/sports/sports_nut/2011/08/unbreakable.html
 
S

Solo

Member
Gretzky's career point total. The size and overall skill of goalies keeps increasing and scoring drops. No one will ever come within like 1000 points of him, aside from Messier and Howe.
 
M

msdstc

Incredibly Naive
clemenx said:
I think Dimaggio and Bonds's records are breakable. Same with Rose's hits.
Click to expand...

No way. Nobodies even close to 73 since the steroid era has really tapered off, not to mention his OBP and walks are never going to be touched. I also don't think anyone will ever get the hit streak record. I mean once a year somebody goes on a ridiculous run around 30 and that's still only just over half.
 
W

Wool

Member
Brett Favre is the only quarterback (and player? I'm not sure) that has beaten every NFL team at least once in his career. That can't be beaten, but I doubt anyone ever ties him for a long time.
 
H

Hobbestetrician

Member
Wool said:
Brett Favre is the only quarterback (and player? I'm not sure) that has beaten every NFL team at least once in his career. That can't be beaten, but I doubt anyone ever ties him for a long time.
Click to expand...

I like this one. Yeah, it can never be beaten technically but even tying that record has only a slim chance of ever happening.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

There will come a point where professional sports records can't be broken
2
58
4K
StreetsofBeige replied
What happened to 12 of gaming's biggest studios after they were sold
2 3
116
13K
D.Final replied
  • Locked
Rio Olympics features record number of openly LGBT athletes
29
6K
Dusk Soldier replied
  • Locked
Mario Lemieux's 1992-93 was the greatest single season a modern pro athlete ever had.
2 3
144
11K
Giard replied
  • Locked
Serena Williams' tearful return to World No. 1
17
2K
MrHicks replied
Top Bottom