20 Sports Records That May Never Be Broken

We may never see any of these records broken, but some are a lot more untouchable than others.

Barry Bonds has no shortage of records that feel truly unbreakable. Mandatory Credit: Rick Scuteri-US Presswire Copyright Rick Scuteri / IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

They say records are meant to be broken, but that isn't true for every milestone. In some instances, it's actually impossible — or close to it — for some records to be broken. There could be a medley of reasons for it, too.

One, an athlete may just be a freak of nature. Take the Rickey Hendersons, Emmitt Smiths or Jerry Rices of the world. They played at a high level for years. Their ability not only to stay healthy but also to play at a high level for their entire careers was unrivaled.

Add to that the fact that, across generations, sports have changed. They've either added more games or rules, making it impossible for some feats to even be touched. These are 20 of the hardest records to break!

20. This is just inhumane: 110-round boxing match between Andy Bowen and Jack Burke (1893)

The only thing stopping boxing promoters from doing this is that they would likely be arrested for even allowing it. You also probably couldn't find two fighters to agree to this, and any who do likely aren't in a good place to even agree to something so torturous. Those 1890s were a different time.

19. No rage quitting allowed: 1916 Cumberland vs. Georgia Tech football game 222-0 (October 7, 1916)

Between 2000 and 2026, there have been three games that hit triple digits in college football. The latest was when Snow College beat Community Christian College 101-6. Before then, Rockford beat Trinity 105-0.

It's virtually impossible to get over 100 points in an NCAA game, so to hit 200 almost feels like it's something of legend, and yet, Georgia Tech coming out of the gates hot, scoring 63 in the first — when 63 in a single game is hard to do in itself — legitimately happened.

18. How does this even happen? Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder Owen Wilson with 36 triples in a season

36 triples were hard, even during an era when the Titanic stole all the headlines. Before that season, Wilson hit 12 triples — which is still a lot. After that season, he had 14. That was an outlier season by Wilson himself.

Curtis Granderson came close to that in 2007. He had 23 triples.

17. The first of the Bonds' records: 232 walks in a season (2004)

These days, players are seeing two to three pitchers a game who are hitting high 90s and triple digits. Add that to some of the most wicked movement the sport has ever seen on breaking pitches. Between velocity, movement and deception being a science at this point, getting on base is harder than ever.

The best players will get over 100 walks in a year, and Judge's 133 in 2024 was still about 100 behind what Bonds did in 2004. It will be interesting to see if anybody even gets close to 200 again.

San Francisco Giants left fielder (25) Barry Bonds heads to first base after being walked by the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field in Phoenix, AZ. / IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

16. Running backs don't hold up like this anymore: Emmitt Smith's 18,355 career rushing yards

Emmitt Smith's record is unheard of, not just for the accumulation of yards, but for the sheer fact that he played as many years as he did to reach that milestone without breaking down. LaDainian Tomlinson was one of the best to do it, and he could only last 11 years in the NFL as a running back.

Smith played four years more than LT and rushed for 1,000 yards as late as his age-32 season. At 33, he nearly hit it again, going for 975 yards. Football is a violent game. The ability to have that lasting power is unheard of.

15. They wouldn't allow this many innings in a week, let alone one game: 26 innings pitched in a single game by Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger (May 1, 1920)

Call it the greatest pitching duel in the history of the sport. In 1920, the Boston Braves and Brooklyn Robins pitched to a 1-1 tie, and for the entirety of that 26-inning game, both Leon Cadore and Joe Oeschger pitched every inning.

In today's MLB, both guys are likely getting yanked in the sixth or seventh if they're rolling. Even if they do pitch a complete game, the ghost runner is going to make it even harder to reach the 10th, let alone the 26th.

14. The speediest of the speed demons: 1,406 career stolen bases

It's easier than ever to steal bases now. The bases are a little bigger, and pitchers can only throw to first a certain number of times.

Even with that, players aren't stealing at the rate they used to. One of the best base stealers in recent years was José Reyes, and his 78 stolen bases came in 2007. That was still decades ago.

Billy Hamilton may have also been as prolific a base stealer as Henderson, but he wasn't that good, so he wouldn't have the longevity to make that happen, either.

Nobody is getting close to 1,406 these days, and even if they could. Rickey was one-of-one, and if a player were to match his athletic talents, they also wouldn't be allowed to steal that many bases for fear of getting injured.

Rickey Henderson steals second base in the first inning of Game 2. He eventually scored on Jose Canseco's ground out. The Reds beat the A's, 5-4, in 10 innings to take a 2-0 lead in the World Series.1990 Cincy Reds 27 / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

13. Hot for the whole game: Wilt Chamberlain 100 points in a game (March 2, 1962)

To put into perspective how hard it is for a player to score 100 points in a game, think about Kobe Bryant's last game in the NBA. He scored 60 points against the Utah Jazz, and both the Lakers and Jazz seemed to just want to see him score as many points as he could before going out into the sunset. Even if they let you, players aren't hitting 100.

12. An elastic arm that we'll never see again: Nolan Ryan: 5,714 career strikeouts

Gerrit Cole was considered to have an elastic arm, but even he suffered a UCL tear in his career. Ryan, on the other hand, had 15 seasons with 200 or more strikeouts. He had 300 or more strikeouts in six of those seasons. It's an amazing feat if a pitcher lasts even 15 years these days. Now pretty much double that and you get Ryan's 27-season career.

11. They don't even hit .300 anymore: Rogers Hornsby's .424 average (1924)

The record is technically held by Hugh Duffy, who had a .440 average in 1894, but Hornsby was in a somewhat modern version of the game that is close to ours today. Granted, it was pre-integration.

The closest anybody came to hitting over .400 recently was in 2023. That year Luis Arraez hit .354, and wasn't anywhere close to finishing the season at .400. Pitching is just too good these days.

10. The most underrated Bonds record: Barry Bonds' 688 intentional walks

Here is how you know nobody is touching this record. Aaron Judge is one of the best bats since Barry Bonds, and yet, the most intentional walks he ever drew in a season was 36. That came in 2025.

That's considered an outlier season, and it doesn't feel likely that he will ever be able to do that again. Even if he does, it's still not coming close to Bonds' intentional walks record.

9. The Hit King: Pete Rose's 4,256 hits

Pete Rose played in the big leagues for 24 years. He accumulated the most games (3,562), had the most plate appearances (15,890), and had the most hits (4,256). It was the combination of time spent in the league and his consistency that made him one of the best to do it. It's hard to imagine any player of any era lasting as long as Rose did, while also playing at the high level he did as well.

Derek Jeter aimed for that, but fell four years short. Not to mention he needed nearly 800 more hits. Jeter was one-of-one and a first-ballot Hall of Famer, and if he couldn't do it, it's hard to imagine anybody else in the future being able to pull that off — especially these days, where batting averages are among the lowest they have ever been.

Plus, as it is with most baseball records, the game is completely different now. Pitching is just too good, and teams are constantly swapping out starters for hard-throwing relievers. That makes it even harder to hit in today's game. A player will never hit .400 again, but it feels pretty impressive when they are able to hold that mark into June or July as Aaron Judge and Luis Arraez have in recent years.

8. Did defense not exist? Wilt Chamberlain's 50.4 PPG (1961-62 season)

Wilt Chamberlain averaging 50.4 points was so absurd that no one has come close to it again. Not even him. He averaged 44.8 the year after. He averaged 36.9 and 34.7 in subsequent years.

7. Who is lasting long enough to do that? Jerry Rice's career: 22,895 receiving yards

This one is a lot like Emmitt Smith's record. It will be hard to find another athlete who can not only post but also do so for years and years and years. It feels like most players are human and going to be slowed down by a serious injury at some point, which would hinder their ability to reach 1,400 yards more than once. Rice did that six times.

Jerry Rice / USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

6. This one is impossible even if they counted six innings as a complete game: Cy Young's 749 complete games

There were 29 complete games in the entire MLB in 2025. Even that feels a little high. At this point a pitcher even coming close to double-digit complete games in their career would be a shocker. It's simply not happening since pitchers have now been conditioned to throw just 100 pitches.

5. Another Barry record: Barry Bonds' 73 home runs in a single season (2001)

When Aaron Judge hit 62 home runs in 2022, even that was a struggle. He fell off toward the end because pitchers just weren't letting him see anything. It took until the very last series of the season for Judge to get to 62.

Bonds had such a prolific eye that he may have seen fewer pitches than Judge did then, and yet, he was able to capitalize on the few pitches that even came close to the strike zone when they did. Bonds was just one-of-one, and he may have had some synthetic help, too. Players aren't privy to that type of stuff anymore.

4. The longest hot streak you've seen: Joe DiMaggio's 56-Game Hitting Streak (1941)

This is impossible for a few reasons. One, few players are playing 56 straight games. Second, players don't make the type of contact they once did before pitching is too good.

It would be shocking if Joe DiMaggio faced more than a few fastballs over 92 MPH during this streak. Edwin Díaz is having a horrible year, but even at his worst, if dropped into that time period, he might be mistaken for a wizard.

3. The Great One's record: Wayne Gretzky's career 2,857 points

Alex Ovechkin is considered to be one of the all-time greats. Yet, his 1,687 points pale in comparison to Wayne Gretzky's 2,857. The closest a modern player has come to that feat is Jaromír Jágr. Even his 1,921 were far away.

2. The Iron Man's streak: Cal Ripken's 2,632-game streak

Cal Ripken's games played streak started in 1982. It ended in 1998. He surpassed Lou Gehrig's 2,130 games played without a single day off in 1995. These days, rest is built into a player's schedule, and playing over 150 games is considered a full season.

Nowadays, it's impressive if a guy like Giancarlo Stanton can manage to play 120 games. They might even give him a comeback player of the year if he does.

The record for a state that is not as relevant anymore: Cy Young's 511 wins

Baltimore Orioles former player Cal Ripken Jr. throws out the first pitch on the 20th anniversary of breaking Lou Gehrig's 2131 consecutive games played streak before the game between the against the Tampa Bay Rays at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. / IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

1. They created financial rules to make sure nothing like this can ever happen again: Celtics' eight consecutive titles

To show how hard it is to be a repeat champion in today's NBA, you just have to look at what happened to the Knicks this offseason. After coming off a year in which they won their first championship in 53 years, they had to watch Mitchell Robinson go to the Boston Celtics because of the second apron.

That center tandem of Karl-Anthony Towns and Robinson was one of the best big-man tandems again, and the Knicks were forced to either keep Robinson and forgo having any depth or choose an array of smaller pieces like Landry Shamet and Jose Alvarado.

This isn't a Knicks issue, though. Every NBA champion will have to deal with this because of the second apron. That alone will hinder teams from winning back-to-back championships. Winning eight in a row is a pipe dream, unless you're playing NBA 2K on easy mode.