Sports Records That May Never Be Broken

Wayne Gretzky is widely known as the greatest hockey player of all time, so it should come as no surprise that he had the greatest goal scoring season in NHL history. During the 1981-1982 season, Gretzky shattered Phil Esposito’s record of 76 goals in a season, lighting the lamp an astonishing 92 times. His incredible season included 10 hat tricks, also an NHL record.

Two seasons later, Gretzky scored 87 goals — still the second highest total all time. Brett Hull came the closest to the goals record, scoring 86 times during the 1990-1991 season with the St. Louis Blues.

In recent years, the Golden State Warriors have revolutionized the NBA with their high-scoring offense that is largely built around good three-point shooting. The key to the offense is point guard Steph Curry, one of the great long-distance shooters in basketball history.

Curry obliterated the record books in the 2015-2016 season, when he hit 402 three-point shots, hitting more than 45% of his three-point attempts. For context, the previous record had been 286 threes — set by Curry the year before. James Harden has come the closest to this record, hitting 378 threes in the 2018-2019 season when he played with the Houston Rockets.

Richard “Night Train” Lane had one of the most impressive debut seasons in all of sports history. As a rookie in 1952, Lane intercepted his opponents 14 times — a record that still stands today. What makes the record even more impressive is that the NFL season was only 12 games long.

Nolan Ryan was notoriously difficult to make contact against. The Texas fireballer holds the MLB record with 5,714 strikeouts in his career. He struck out over 300 batters in six different seasons, with his best season in 1973. As a California Angel, Ryan struck out 383 batters, a modern era MLB record. That season, he threw two no-hitters.

LaDainian Tomlinson set the NFL ablaze in 2006, rushing for a record 28 touchdowns and adding three receiving touchdowns for good measure. In that season, Tomlinson also led the NFL in rushing with over 1,800 yards. Tomlinson also set the NFL record for most fantasy football points in a season.

After being drafted in the ninth round of the NFL Draft, not much was expected from Ken Houston. But he turned into an all-time great ballhawking safety with the Houston Oilers. In 1971, Houston set an NFL record with five defensive touchdowns — four interceptions returned for touchdowns and one fumble recovery returned for a touchdown. Houston would go on to make 12 Pro Bowls and the NFL Hall of Fame.

If a starting pitcher ends the year with an earned run average around 2.00, he may be one of the best pitchers in the game. Having an ERA around 1.00 is practically unheard of. Only Dutch Leonard has posted an ERA below 1.00 for a full season. In 1914, Leonard went 19-5 with a 0.96 ERA for the Boston Red Sox. He was just 22 at the time.

In 1993, Hardy Nickerson was one of the busiest men in football. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers linebacker made 214 tackles, or more than 13 per game. No other player has made even 200 tackles in a season before or since. For his effort, Nickerson was named first team All-Pro.

Though Billy Hamilton’s baseball career predates the MLB as we know it, his single-game stolen base record has yet to be beat. Hamilton, an outfielder for the Philadelphia Phillies, swiped seven bases on Aug. 31, 1894 against the Washington Senators. That season, Hamilton stole 100 bases and hit .403, the best batting average of his Hall of Fame career.

On Feb. 7, 1976, the Toronto Maple Leafs crushed the Boston Bruins 11-4. Center Darryl Sittler had a hand in 10 of those goals, scoring six and assisting on four. Several other players have mustered eight-point games, but Sittler’s record is still in a league of its own.

Running back Adrian Peterson established himself as a force to be reckoned with during his rookie season when he ran for an NFL record 296 yards in a game against the San Diego Chargers. He also scored three touchdowns en route to a 35-17 win for his Minnesota Vikings.

Only four players in NBA history have managed the mythical quadruple-double — getting a double-digit number in four major statistical categories in one game. But center David Robinson’s feat was easily the most impressive. The Admiral recorded 34 points and recorded 10 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 blocks in a 115-96 win over the Detroit Pistons.

Flipper Anderson wasn’t even the top wide receiver for the Los Angeles Rams in 1989 when he turned in the greatest receiving performance of all time. Anderson caught 15 passes for 336 yards and a touchdown against the New Orleans Saints in a 20-17 overtime win. Anderson still holds the record for most receiving yards and yards from scrimmage in one game.

Hall of Fame quarterback Norm Van Brocklin absolutely demolished the New York Yanks pass defense in a 1951 game, throwing for five touchdowns and an NFL-record 554 yards. Later that season, he led the Los Angeles Rams to an NFL championship. Of the 21 games in which a quarterback threw for at least 500 yards, 13 have come since 2009. NFL QBs are inching closer to Van Brocklin’s record, but it will take a truly special game to break it.

The Detroit Red Wings faced the Montreal Maroons in the 1936 Stanley Cup semifinals. In the first game, a six-overtime-marathon ordeal, Detroit goalie Normie Smith made an astonishing 92 saves. The game ended at 2:25 a.m. after Mud Bruneteau hit the game winner past Maroons goaltender Lorne Chabot. All-in-all, the game took over 176 minutes from start to finish — the equivalent of nearly three games back-to-back. Smith reportedly lost 12 pounds throughout the course of the game. No one has ever made as many saves in one game as Smith did, and certainly not in a shutout performance. The Red Wings would go on to hoist the Stanley Cup that season.

In the 1990-1991 NBA season, the Denver Nuggets and Orlando Magic were two of the worst teams in the league. But when they played each other on Dec. 30, 1990, it turned into a historic game. Magic point guard Scott Skiles dished out 30 assists, more than any player in a single game in NBA history.

Few records in sports seem as unbreakable as Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point performance in the March 2, 1962 game against the New York Knicks. The closest anyone has gotten is Kobe Bryant with 81 points. The Philadelphia Warriors’ center was always a dominant force, but on that day he became legendary. The Knicks’ starting center was out with the flu (or a hangover, depending on who you ask), and their backup got into early foul trouble, leaving a helplessly overmatched backup to try to guard Chamberlain. It clearly didn’t work as Chamberlain hit 36 of his 63 shots — and grabbed 25 rebounds. The Warriors won 169-147.

Legendary pitcher Cy Young last played in the Major Leagues over a century ago, but he still holds a number of records that seem as if they will last forever. Young started a record 815 games in his 22-year career, and has both more wins (511) and more losses (315) than any pitcher in baseball history. Perhaps his most impressive feat is pitching 749 complete games. Complete games are becoming a rare accomplishment. Since 2000, no pitcher has had more than 65 complete games.

It may not be surprising that the Great One holds more than one NHL record. A player has registered over 100 assists in a season 13 times — 11 of those it was Wayne Gretzky. He truly outdid himself during the 1985-1986 season, when he notched 163 assists, breaking the record of 135 assists he set the season before. With 52 goals that year, Gretzky also set the NHL record for most points in a season, with 215. He is still the only player to record a 200-point season — a feat he accomplished four times.

Mark Eaton was one of the greatest shot blockers in NBA history. The 7’4″ center is one of just six players all time with more than 3,000 rejections. His best defensive performance came during the 1984-1985 season, when he blocked 456 shots for the Utah Jazz, or 5.6 blocks per game. That broke Artis Gilmore’s record of 422 blocks.

Now that perimeter shooting is much more common in today’s NBA, Eaton’s record seems like it could stand forever. The last time a player got even 300 blocks in a season was in the 2003-2004 season, when Theo Ratiliff blocked 307 shots.

Linebacker Derrick Thomas led the NFL in sacks during the 1990 season with 20 — many of them during just one game, against the Seattle Seahawks. In that game, he got to Seattle QB Dave Krieg seven times, an NFL record. Despite Thomas’s record-breaking work on the field, the Kansas City Chiefs lost the game 17-16. Thomas is also tied for the second most sacks in a game with six.

Center Wilt Chamberlain led the league in rebounds in 11 different seasons and averaged more than 22 per game over his entire career. He put together his best rebounding game against the Boston Celtics in 1960, pulling down 55 boards and scoring 34 points. Even more impressively, he played opposite Bill Russell, one of the greatest NBA players of all time. Still, Chamberlain’s effort for the Philadelphia Warriors wasn’t enough. The Celtics won that game 132-129.

Joe Malone was known as the NHL’s first star, and looking back it’s easy to see why. Malone scored seven goals as center for the Quebec Bulldogs against the Toronto St. Patricks (now the Maple Leafs) in a 10-6 win. Seven other players have notched six goals in one game since, but none have scored seven, and nearly a century later, Malone’s record still stands.

The record is all the more impressive, considering how bad Malone’s team was. Quebec lost 20 of their 24 games during the 1919-1920 season, and the NHL moved the hapless franchise to Hamilton.

Tom Cheney set a Major League record of 21 strikeouts in a single game, but it took him a long time to do it. Cheney threw 228 pitches in a 16-inning, 2-1 victory for his Washington Senators over the Baltimore Orioles. Several other pitchers have gotten to 20 strikeouts in nine-inning games, but don’t expect to see any other pitchers throw 16 innings ever again.