May

Greatest streak ever- Brandon High School

Posted by Jason Galloway Published in Miscellaneous

Let’s travel back in time to February 20, 1973. Richard Nixon is the president of the United States, ESPN did not exist, and the current head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Lane Kiffin, was still over two years away from being born.

Brandon High School’s wrestling team also lost to Manatee 29-18 that night just outside of Tampa, Fla. Why does this mean anything, better yet, why the hell do I know this? Because this was the last time the Brandon wrestling team lost a match before losing on January 5 of this year.

The 459-match streak was snapped against South Dane High in the championship of the “Beat the Streak” tournament that Brandon had started hosting every year, which invites any high school wrestling team in Florida to come to Tampa and try to end the 34-year undefeated streak.

Now that, what became known in Tampa as “The Streak”, is over, I want to take time to reflect on how incredible of a streak this really is. I know this is high school athletics, but I believe based on the pure longevity of it, that this is the greatest streak in sports history.

You look at how praised Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak is, but when you look at 56 games compared to 34 years… I’m sorry, I have to go with Brandon wrestling. Some people may call me crazy, and I know that getting a hit in 56 consecutive Major League Baseball games is nothing short of spectacular, but 34 YEARS WITHOUT A LOSS people. You thought it was crazy that the Patriots lost the Super Bowl this year after going 16-0, but if the Patriots winning streak had been going on as long as Brandon’s had, that would have been the first Super Bowl the Patriots lost since Super Bowl VII. Hell, the Tampa Bay Bucs did not even exist when Brandon started the streak.

Two other streaks you could look at as the greatest ever are consecutive starts streaks by Brett Favre (275) and Cal Ripken Jr. (2,632). As much as it pains me to say it, and it REALLY pains me to say this, Favre’s consecutive games started streak is not as great as Brandon High School’s winning streak, nor is Cal Ripken’s better. The streak by Brandon is not only just starting games, but it is defeating every single opponent on the schedule for 34 years straight.

To put another perspective on how much farther ahead this streak is than any other high school sports streak, listen to what I was doing when Brandon broke the all-time record for consecutive wins in high school wrestling: absolutely nothing- I was not born yet. I am only 19, but that is still simply unfathomable to me. I was only seven when the streak reached 293, breaking the record for most consecutive wins by a high school team in any sport.

In fact, when Brandon started the streak, my mom was not even in high school yet at age 13. ESPN did a special on Brandon’s wrestling team this year, which is really how I know about this streak. While watching this team on ESPN, it was crazy to see that current wrestler Kevin Timothy’s white-haired dad had wrestled for Brandon when the streak was already at 80-100 matches in a row.

I know a lot of you are thinking “this just seems wrong for someone to put a high school streak up with the great streaks in professional sports”, but based on how much longer this streak is than every other comparable one, I think it would be unjust to not consider it.

I would like to know what everyone else thinks. I would really appreciate it if every reader of this article votes on the poll below to give your opinion of what the greatest streak in sports is.