The Daily Dose
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
GET OUT YOUR HISTORY BOOKS: One of the more lively arguments sports fans can have is over which records will never be broken. It’s especially fun to chat about it now because today is the 57th anniversary of one of the three we think will never be broken:
Most Rebounds, Player, NBA Game: 55, Wilt Chamberlain, 11/24/60, vs. Boston
Dry, Technical Matter: Now, it’s important to differentiate between records that probably won’t be broken and those that will never be broken. A lot of records fall into the former category. Few fall into the latter.
A good example is Cal Ripken, Jr’s. record of 2,632 consecutive games played. It’s a hell of a record and appears on many lists we have seen of sports unbreakable records. It is certainly an impressive feat but we think someone can do it again. Similarly, Chamberlain’s record of 100 points in an NBA may well be broken one day and, honestly, we’re suprised Michael or Kobe never did it.
Write This Down: Our theory is if someone did something once, they can do it twice, especially since athletes are bigger and faster than they are now, and our list of records that will never be broken is short.
Disclaimer: Now, not every record is in play. Records that can’t be broken because the game is played differently now – like Will White’s 683 innings pitched in 1879 – are not considered. Also, minor league and lower level college records aren’t considered and neither is Tennessee’s football team’s 1938-40 record of 17 consecutive regular-season shutouts because not every game was against major division competition, though it is listed in the NCAA record book.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: Besides 55 rebounds in an NBA game, we think two other records will never be broken: the 70-68 5th set of the John Isner/Nicolas Mahut’s match at Wimbledon in 2010 and Johnny Vander Meer’s two consecutive no-hitters. It was never reasonable to believe 70-68 would ever happen in the first place, much less again, and while someone might well pitch two consecutive no-hitters again, no one will ever pitch three. Heck, the way the game’s played today it is unliekly anyone will ever have threee consecutive complete games anymore.
That’s it. Three. There are a lot of impressive records out there, but we think these are the only ones that are hands down, no debate unbreakable.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: What’s funny is the Warriors lost that night, beaten by Bill Russell – the man whose record Chamberlain broke – and the Boston Celtics 132-129. Russell had established the previous record of 51 rebounds the prior February.
There were certainly a lot of rebounds to be had. That night the Celtics and the Warriors combined for 133 missed field goals out of 237 taken, not to mention 29 missed free throws. Numbers like that were par for the course back then, with the NBA averaging almost 220 shot attempts every game in the 1960-61 season. By comparison, the NBA averaged 170 shots per game in 1016-17.
MORE HOT ON THIS DATE ACTION: Two days after he shot and killed President John F Kennedy Lee Harvey Oswald is himself shot by Jack Ruby on this date in 1963. Ruby shot Oswald once in the stomach and Oswald died a couple of hours later. The shooting took place in the parking garage underneath Dallas police headquarters as Oswald was being escorted to a vehicle that was going to take him to the county jail
Ruby was arrested on the spot, was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. The conviction was overturned and Ruby died in January 1967 while awaiting a second trial.
D.B., We Hardly Knew You: A man History refers to as D.B. Cooper hijacks and airplane, receives a ransom of $200,000, jumps out of the plane and is never seen again on this date in 1971.
The man identified himself as Dan Cooper and bought a ticket at the Portland, Oregon airport for a flight to Seattle. While en route he notified a stewardess he had a bomb and the pilot informed officials on the ground Cooper demanded a $200,000 ransom. The ransom was delivered at the Seattle airport, the passengers were told to scoot and the plane took off again with only the flight crew. 20 minutes after takeoff, about 8pm, Cooper stuffed everyone in the cockpit, opened the rear door and jumped out. Cooper was never found. Letters attributed to him were received by authorities after the incident, but they who knows who they were from. Over the years there has been shortage of suspects but no one was ever arrested.
Quotebook: He found he was not all certain he was doing any good, aside from providing the drug of religious hope to timorous folk frightened of hell-fire and afraid to walk alone. – Sinclair Lewis, Elmer Gantry
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
Today’s Stumper: Which teams hold the NBA record for most field goal attempts in a game by both teams?- Answer next time!
