Once a revered record falls, what remains?
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Football has Favre’s consecutive-games streak, Dan Marino’s 61,361 yards passing and Jerry Rice’s 1,549 pass receptions (among other records). All, however, are relatively modern.
Eric Dickerson’s 2,105 yards rushing holds up well — it’s 23 years old and was accomplished during the 16-game-schedule era. Some, however, say O.J. Simpson’s 2,003 yards in 1973 were more impressive because they came in a 14-game season.
“I really just don’t know. I have no idea,” Rice said when asked which record impressed him the most.
In hockey, Wayne Gretzky holds the record for most career goals with 894. Probably more impressive is that he holds the records for holding records: According to the latest count, he currently owns or shares 60 regular-season and playoff records.
In golf, the record most fans know about is Jack Nicklaus’ 18 majors. Tiger Woods taped accounts of the Golden Bear’s accomplishments on his bedroom wall as a kid and dreamed of surpassing Nicklaus. He’s at 12 heading into this week’s British Open and it seems like only a matter of time before he breaks it.
The golf record that may never be broken, however, is Byron Nelson’s string of 11 consecutive wins on the PGA Tour back in 1945. Woods made a run at that recently, but the enormity of the task was reinforced when the world’s best player had his streak snapped at seven by little-known Nick O’Hern at a match-play event in February. To be credited with a victory in that tournament, Woods would have had to have won six matches over five days.
Another amazing record was Bob Beamon’s long jump at the 1968 Olympics.
In an era before news of steroids clouded almost every track and field event, Beamon jumped 29 feet, 2½ inches, breaking the old record by more than 21 inches. That it was in the thin air of Mexico City and that he had a tail wind behind him couldn’t fully explain the almost unexplainable feat — breaking a record that had increased by a grand total of 8½ inches over the previous 33 years.
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Of course, so many track records that fall today come under a haze of steroid-induced suspicion. It’s much the same with baseball and its soon-to-be eclipsed home run record.
It makes some of those other long-lasting records that much easier to appreciate.
Mark Spitz’s seven Olympic gold medals (which Michael Phelps could surpass next year in Beijing); the Dolphins’ undefeated 1972 season; Nolan Ryan’s seven no-hitters: All have stood the test of time, and made people wonder if all records really are made to be broken.
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