Friday, November 1, 2013

Revisiting area's 10 most unbreakable high school football records

In 2008, The News-Herald published a list of the 10 most unbreakable records in area high school football.

Let's look at where those records stand, and a few that might be on the list the next time we de one.

1. Euclid's Robert Smith winning AP Ohio Mr. Football twice: This one is safe.

2. Coach Bill Gutbrod's 310 career victories. All you have to do is average 10 wins a year for more than three decades.

3. Tony Fisher's 37 regular-season touchdowns in 1997. South's Kareem Hunt blew past this record like PAC defenders on the way to the end zone. He had 39 in 2011 and 45 in 2012.

4. Sean McHugh's career rushing yards (5,655). For an idea of how many that is, Hunt rushed for 5,295 yards over three years and was 360 short. To break this record, a running back would have to get on a near 2,000-yard pace as a sophomore.

5. Mentor's 37-game winning streak in the mid-1950s. Depending on how you look at it, it's been broken. Kirtland has won 44 consecutive regular-season games going into Friday. There were no playoffs in the 1950s, so the Cardinals had no opportunity to win -- or lose -- in the postseason. On the other hand, the Hornets of 2012 have a state championship ring. Worth noting is that Kirtland had a 29-game winning streak, including the playoffs, from 2011 until the last game of 2012.

6. Euclid's streak of 18 consecutive winning seasons. The key word is winning, not .500. Chagrin Falls is on a run of 16 winning seasons in 17 years, with a 5-5 mark in 2006. Mentor has been better than .500 in 15 of 16 seasons, with a 5-5 finish in 2005. To not have a down year for that long is difficult.

7. Lake Catholic's back-to-back state titles in 1991 and '92. Kirtland was one win from making it two in a row last year. In hindsight, this one and No. 6 should have been higher on the list.

8. Jim Smith's 1,354 receiving yards in 1999. With today's passing offenses, it's not if, it's when. A couple receivers break the 1,000-yard plateau each season. Mayfield's Ryan Bailey has 1,142 receiving yards going into Friday. So it's probably safe for this season. But how much longer?

9. Kevin Harper's 61-yard field goal in 2007. The circumstances have to be right. But it's not impossible.

10. Wickliffe's 469 points in the 1960 regular season. This one has been broken twice. Kirtland scored 482 points in 2012. This season, the Hornets have scored an astounding 517 points through Week 9.

Here are a few more of interest:

-- As ohiovarsity.com reported before the season, Kirtland's Ryan Loncar has a chance to break the state record for most consecutive starts. He's at 52 before Friday's games. The record is 57, by Mogadore's Tommy Lee.

-- South's Ben Munitz had three punt returns for touchdowns against Wickliffe on Sept. 6, 2002. The cool thing about this record is that it could be another 11 years, or it could fall this week. You never know.

-- O.J. McDuffie's 108-yard interception return for a touchdown for Hawken. Another cool record, because it's 1 yard away from being truly unbreakable, like the next one ...

-- Mentor's Jim Gordon had a 99-yard touchdown run in 1955. The best anyone can do is tie it.

-- Euclid Shore's 127 points against Middlefield in 1930. It would to have to be something like a 77-77 game that goes eight overtimes. Let's hope it's an afternoon game.

-- Howard Primer

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

are you saying that winning back-to-back state championships is a feat worthy of #7 on the list of most unbreakable records??

June 4, 2014 at 9:31 PM 

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