Some local records remain unbreakable
Perhaps it was one of the ancient Greeks, perhaps Aristotle or Socrates, who first uttered the line, but from about 30 seconds after man began noting and measuring athletic accomplishments, people have been saying ad nauseam that records are made to be broken.
After all, for every athlete or team to secure a spot atop any all-time list, they had to take the position from someone who came before them.
While records are indeed made to be broken, sometimes the bar is raised so high that defeating it seems impossible. These are what are referred to as “unbreakable records.”
Such records can be found in all sports. They include Nolan Ryan’s seven career no-hitters, Johnny Vander Meer’s consecutive no-hitters, Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, former NHL goaltender Glenn Hall starting 502 consecutive games over eight seasons, the Boston Celtics winning eight straight NBA titles and the Connecticut women’s basketball team winning 111 games in a row. There are many more.
Sports are constantly evolving, which makes certain feats more attainable than ever before and moves some records into the unbreakable category. For example, with modern day starting pitchers restricted by pitch counts and teams utilizing eight-man bullpens, will anybody break Cy Young’s records of 749 complete games and 511 wins? Not in my lifetime.
A recent conversation with Matt Kifer, the sports information director at Penn West California, quickly turned to changes in college sports and how they could move many records at small schools into the unbreakable category.
“The career records at Division II and Division III schools might never be broken because, if you’re a really good player who puts up big numbers early in your career at a D-II school, then you’re not staying at that level because of the transfer portal,” Kifer pointed out. “You’ll move up to Division I.”
Kifer pointed out that Cal men’s basketball player K.J. McClurg scored 745 points last year, his first at Cal, and was named the PSAC West Player of the Year. The Vulcans’ career scoring record is 1,924 points by Joe Miller. McClurg is no longer at Cal. He transferred to Division I Longwood.
With Kifer’s theory in mind, what are the school records – career, single-season or single-game – at Cal, W&J and Waynesburg can be called unbreakable? Here are a few:
* Washington & Jefferson’s Chris Babirad rushed for 2,471 yards and scored 34 touchdowns in a season. Babirad also rushed for 5,714 yards in his career. Teams are becoming too pass-happy for a running back to put up those kind of numbers.
N Waynesburg basketball player Darrin Walls scored 2,442 career points.
* Waynesburg’s Tim McConnell once had 23 assists in a game.
* California men’s soccer player Tomas Boltnar scored 180 career points – second place on the school list is 125 points. Only one player since 2006 has 60. Boltnar is the PSAC’s all-time assists leader with 56, second place is 37. Boltnar also had 62 career goals.
N W&J’s Bobby Swallow threw 104 career touchdown passes.
* Waynesburg wide receiver Don Hermann, who went on to play nine years in the NFL, had a record-breaking day in 1968 against Lock Haven, when he caught 18 passes for 328 yards and 7 touchdowns.
* Cal baseball player Sam DiMatteo stole 115 bases in his career. What makes that even more amazing is DiMatteo is second on Cal’s career list in doubles and home runs.
* Waynesburg’s defense, because of sacks, held Westminster to minus-105 rushing yards in a game in 1967.
Even some local high school records should be considered unbreakable. They include:
* Dan Davis of Fort Cherry made 13 three-pointers in a game against South Fayette during the 2004-05 season.
* The 52-game winning streak by the Washington boys basketball team, from Dec. 16, 1983 to March 16, 1985. That mark was the WPIAL record but has been broken by Our Lady of Sacred Heart. It could be unbreakable as a local record because all of the schools in the O-R’s coverage area are public schools.
* Gina Naccarato scored 3,364 points as a girls basketball player at Monessen. The Washington County girls record is 2,390 by Sammie Weiss of McGuffey.
* Mapletown’s Dylan Rush ran for a WPIAL-record 524 yards in a game in 2016.
* Here’s one that might not be broken because of pitch-count limits in high school baseball:
West Bethlehem’s Stan Majesky struck out 27 batters in a 13-inning complete game and 1-0 win over Waynesburg in 1956. Do the math. Twenty-eight strikeouts by a pitcher is possible but highly unlikely because of the recently implimented 100-pitch limit.
Time to end this column before its length becomes an unbreakable record.
Sports editor Chris Dugan can be reached at dugan@observer-reporter.com