Crazy Sports Streaks That You Had No Idea About
Cal Ripken Jr.'s consecutive games played streak. The Boston Celtics' eight straight NBA championships. UConn women's hoops' 90-game win streak.
These are all great examples of what makes sports so incredible—feats of great significance.
And because fans love stat-digging and finding out info that is sometimes too hard to believe, I'm giving you a few of the best and weirdest streaks that sports has to offer—so be prepared to show off your knowledge to your buddies.
Edwin Moses' 122 Consecutive 400m Hurdle Wins
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There have been some phenomenal athletes on the track, but only Edwin Moses can lay claim to having one of the coolest streaks that the sport has ever seen.
That's because Moses won 122 straight 400-meter hurdles races—a streak that stretched nearly a decade long—which means the guy stood atop the winner's blocks for two-and-a-half presidential campaigns.
When you think about Moses' run—which included two Olympic gold medals—and all of the small things that could go wrong in a hurdles race, it's pretty amazing.
Tony Cingrani's First 22 Career Starts
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With a career record of 9-12 and an ERA at 3.49, one might find the streak that Cincinnati Reds starting pitcher Tony Cingrani holds to be pretty strange.
While I'm not doubting the ability of Cingrani—after all, the dude is just 25 years old and has an entire career in front of him—he's the only pitcher in more than 100 years to begin his MLB tenure with 22 straight starts without giving up more than five hits.
That's impressive.
Oddly enough, since the streak ended on April 24, Cingrani gave up more than five hits in his next seven starts.
What's this mean? That baseball is a crazy, weird game.
Otto Graham's 10 Straight Championship Games
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As someone who originally hails from the great city of Cleveland, I found Hall of Fame quarterback Otto Graham's streak of 10 straight championship games with the Cleveland Browns to be pretty damn incredible.
Before calling me a homer and all, sit back and think about Graham's streak for a second.
That would be like a quarterback making a decade-long run to each Super Bowl—winning seven of those title games—over the entirety of his career.
What makes this streak even more ironic, though, is that it came before the inception of the Super Bowl, with the Browns being just one of four franchises to never make it to the Big Game.
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Clemson Basketball’s 0-57 Record at North Carolina
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I know that the University of North Carolina men's hoops team has had players like Michael Jordan and James Worthy and a legendary head coach in Dean Smith who have helped guide them to five national titles, but the Tar Heels' winning streak over the Clemson Tigers at home is just insane.
Dating all the way back to 1926—yes, 88 years ago—the Tigers have yet to win in Chapel Hill.
Am I the only one who finds that to be ridiculous?
I mean, in the 57 games that the two teams have played on UNC's campus, never once have the Tigers just played the game of their lives, beating the Tar Heels on a buzzer-beater or something.
Why is my mind going nuts over this!?
Anthony Young's 27 Consecutive Losing Decisions
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Having a six-year major league career has to be a pretty cool feeling—unless you happen to be former pitcher Anthony Young.
Not only did Young never finish with a record better than .500 in a season—going 15-48 with a 3.89 ERA overall—but he happened to have the worst luck of any pitcher on the face of the planet.
That's because he actually lost 27 consecutive decisions from May 1992 to July 1993—which, no doubt, ultimately led to his disastrous career record.
When digging into the numbers even more, Young actually had a stretch of 23 straight scoreless innings—and still had the bad luck to lose as many games in a row as he did.
Some things are just meant to happen, man.
Big 10 Without a National Title in a Major Sport in 12 Years
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To all you haters out there who love to bash the Big Ten Conference, here's a streak that, no doubt, brings you joy. The conference hasn't won a title in a major sport like football, men's/women's basketball or baseball since 2002—which is the year that Ohio State won a (heavily debated) football title.
In that time, the conference has boasted arguably the top men's basketball teams in the country, with Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State playing in national title games, as well as having Ohio State playing in back-to-back championship games in 2007 and 2008.
That's pretty (un)impressive by the Big 10—and an absolute crazy streak.
San Francisco 49ers' 18 Straight Game Road Winning Streak
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You know what's hard to do for sports teams? Going on the road and leaving another team's place with a win.
But the San Francisco 49ers in the late '80s? Yeah, they weren't too fazed with packing their bags and playing on the road.
They proved that by winning an NFL record 18 straight roadies from 1988 to 1990 that, not coincidentally, ended with the team winning two Super Bowls in the three-year span.
With the way players and teams get hyped to play in front of their home fans, it's a streak that probably won't get beaten anytime soon.
Bill Bergen's 46 Straight at-Bats Without a Hit
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Hitting a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher isn't the easiest thing to do—and former big league catcher Bill Bergen proved that.
Somehow lasting 11 seasons in the Bigs, Bergen holds the dubious streak of going 46 straight at-bats without a single hit.
Not a little nubbler down the line. Not a blooper over the infield. Not a hot shot that a defender couldn't react quickly enough to.
With a career average of just .170, it seemed that Bergen wasn't too great at keeping his eye on the ball—except for when behind the plate, where he made his living as a solid defensive catcher, which kept him around for as long as he played.
Notre Dame Football's 43 Straight Wins over Navy (Ended in 2007)
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Much like the aforementioned streak about the Clemson Tigers not winning a single men's hoops game at UNC in the entirety of the series, Notre Dame football always seemed to own the Navy Midshipmen—no matter where the teams met.
Dating back to 1964, the Irish had gone a ridiculous 43-0 against the school in their annual football matchup—which started all the way back in 1927.
Making this stat even stranger these days, in the past seven meetings since Navy finally ended the losing streak in 2007, Notre Dame is just 4-3.
Chris Dudley's 13 Straight Missed Free Throws
10 of 12Enjoying a 16-year NBA career, former center Chris Dudley proved that he was effective in a variety of things that helped his teams—but free-throw shooting definitely wasn't one of them.
A career 46 percent charity-stripe shooter, Dudley holds the NBA record for the most consecutive misses from the line with 13 straight.
It's pretty remarkable when you think about fifth-grade kids who can hit 80 or even 90 percent of their attempts—granted, on a much smaller stage.
Graduating from Yale, at least Dudley can brag that he was probably always the smartest guy on his team; that's something at least.
Johnny Vander Meer's Two Straight No-Hitters
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Who says that throwing a no-hitter is difficult?
Not former MLB pitcher Johnny Vander Meer, who accomplished the feat in back-to-back starts in 1938—which was his first full season in the bigs.
Going 119-121 with a 3.44 ERA overall in his 13 years, Vander Meer may not have been able to hold onto that type of success, but he'll forever be the only pitcher to toss consecutive no-no's.
A two-game streak in sports usually isn't too much to brag about. This one, however, should blow away every fan.
Caltech Men's Basketball Losing 207-Straight Games
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Whenever someone tells me that they played a sport in college, I immediately have respect for them, knowing how difficult it is to train, practice and then play in games against other great athletes.
But, admittedly, if someone ever told me that they played for the men's basketball team at Caltech from 1996 to 2007, I would scoff at them bragging about being a college athlete.
That's because, well, when a team loses 207 straight games, that should be considered volunteering to play, not actually being part of a team.
The school might be well-respected for its academics, but, as one can see with this miserable streak, not so much in basketball—or, come to think of it, baseball either.
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