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You have heard countless times that records are meant to be broken. That applies to most records, but not all of them.

Few expect Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game to be eclipsed. Or Cy Young’s 511 career pitching victories. Or UCLA coaching legend John Wooden’s seven straight NCAA basketball titles.

Cal has assembled its own collection of records that figure to stand the test of time. Today we unveil our rankings of the 10 individual Cal records that will be toughest to break.

CAL’S 10 TOUGHEST SCHOOL RECORDS TO BREAK

Individual Records

Michele Granger threw 25 no-hitters during her Cal career.

Michele Granger

1. Michele Granger’s 25 career no-hitters not only remains the NCAA record 27 years after she completed college eligibility, it’s also 18 more than any other Cal pitcher has accumulated. Five of Granger’s no-hitters were perfect games. Granger later pitched the United States to a gold medal in the inaugural Olympic softball competition at the 1996 Atlanta Games . . . while three months' pregnant.

Natalie Coughlin was 61-0 in dual-meet races during her Cal career

Natalie Coughlin

2. Three-time Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin was 61-0 in dual-meet races during her Cal career, which ended in 2003. She was still 19 years old when she became the first woman to break 1 minute in the 100-meter backstroke in 2002. The three-time NCAA Swimmer of the Year broke school records in 12 different individual and relay events and won 12 Olympic medals.

Gene Ransom played 63.5 minutes of a five-overtime game

Gene Ransom

3. Gene Ransom played 63.5 minutes in Cal’s 107-102 five-overtime victory over Oregon on Feb. 10, 1977. The 5-foot-8 point guard made the most of it by scoring a career-high 36 points. He almost certainly would have played the entire 65 minutes, but he fouled out with 90 seconds left in the fifth OT. How unreachable is his minutes total? A player who never left the court in a quadruple-overtime game still would be 3.5 minutes shy of Ransom’s marathon effort.

Aaron Rodgers completed 23 straight passes vs. USC

Aaron Rodgers

4. Aaron Rodgers completed 23 consecutive pass attempts vs. top-ranked USC on Oct. 9, 2004 to tie an NCAA record. Rodgers’ first incompletion was an intentional throw-away ball. He finished 29-for-34 for 267 yards and a touchdown. But Rodgers threw incomplete three times and was sacked once after the Bears reached the USC 9-yard line in the final two minutes, and the Trojans escaped with a 23-17 victory. The NCAA consecutive completions mark stood until 2011, when Dominique Davis of East Carolina hit 26 in a row vs. Navy.

Kristine Anigwe, left, embraces teammate Asha Thomas in front of the Golden Gate Bridge

Kristine Anigwe, left, with former teammate Asha Thomas

5. During the 1961-62 NBA season, Wilt Chamberlain assembled 13 games of at least 50 points and 30 rebounds. Kristine Anigwe did her best impersonation when she combined 32 points with a school-record 30 rebounds in the Bears’ win over Washington State on March 3, 2019. No other Cal men's or women's player has recorded a 30-30 game. It was one of 32 career games by Anigwe of at least 30 points.

Jason Kidd

Jason Kidd

6. Jason Kidd had 110 steals as a freshman in 1992-93 to lead the nation and set a Cal record that only he has challenged (94 steals in 1993-94). Washington State’s C.J. Elleby led the Pac-12 with 56 this season and Cal’s entire team had just 129. Kidd’s 3.8 steals-per-game average that year remains an NCAA freshman record. Kidd continued his hardwood thievery during his Hall of Fame professional career, compiling 2,684 steals to rank No. 2 all-time in the NBA.

Bob Presley

Bob Presley

7. Bob Presley grabbed 27 rebounds against Saint Mary’s on Dec. 6, 1967 to set a Cal single-game record on the way to averaging 14.5 rebounds for the season. The 6-foot-11 junior center also averaged 18.9 points that season, and had two games with at least 30 points and five with 20 or more rebounds. Over the past 39 seasons, only two Cal players have even posted 20 rebounds in a game — Leon Powe in 2006 and Ivan Rabb in 2017, both with exactly 20.

8. Jahvid Best averaged 8.14 yards per rush in 2008, when he gained 1,580 yards. That’s a higher per-carry average than Stanford’s Bryce Love (8.05) had in 2017 when he ran for 2,118 yards. Over his final three games that season — against Stanford, Washington and Miami — Best rushed for 698 yards at a staggering 12 yards per attempt. Best had seven games of at least 100 yards that season and reeled off touchdowns runs of 42, 45, 60, 65, 67, 80, 84 and 86 yards.

Rick Brown still owns Cal's record in the 800 meters after 48 years

Rick Brown

9. Cal’s sturdiest track and field record — 48 years old — is Rick Brown’s 1:45.3 mark in the 800 meters. He set the record while finishing sixth at the 1972 Olympic trials in a race won by eventual Olympic champion Dave Wottle in a world-record-tying time of 1:44.3. Brown eclipsed the 1957 Cal record of 1:46.60 by Don Bowden, who was the first American to break 4 minutes in the mile but actually was an 800-meter specialist. 

10. Let’s face it, no one is likely to enroll at Cal in pursuit of this esoteric record. But Nick Harris punted for 13,621 yards in his career between 1997 and 2000, an all-time program best. That works out to 7.7 miles of punting. Of course, a punter getting that much work invariably plays for bad teams, and the Bears had a combined record of 14-29 over that stretch.

*** In the video below, Michele Granger talks about how a pitcher can control strikeouts but it takes an entire team to complete a no-hitter.

Tomorrow: Cal’s 10 toughest team records to break.

Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo

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