10 most impressive sports streaks of all time

The UConn Huskies women’s basketball team won their 100th-straight game, but where does that rank among the most impressive streaks in sports history?

Geno Auriemma and the UConn Huskies women’s basketball team defeated the South Carolina Gamecocks, 66-55, on Monday night. With that, they continued making their record winning streak more insurmountable. The victory over South Carolina pushed the streak to an unheard of 100 games, and of course notched the Huskies another double-digit victory in the streak.

There’s no question that UConn women’s hoops are an absolute dynasty at this point. Boasting two winning streaks of over 90 games in the past decade and now having one reach the triple-digits is phenomenal work — especially in a league where parity has supposedly increased in recent years. However, just how impressive is the streak in the scope of sports history? Specifically, where does UConn’s 100-game winning streak rank among the greatest sports streaks ever?

Between the individuals and teams that have occupied the world of sports for over a century, greatness has come in many shapes, as have the streaks. Thus, it’s no easy task to stack them up against one another. Yet, we’ve done so here to try and put 100 wins in a row into perspective.

There are plenty of other streaks that deserve consideration. Byron Nelson winning 11-straight PGA Tour events, Martina Navratilova winning 74 consecutive matches, Wayne Gretzky scoring in 51 consecutive games and even the Mount Union Purple Raiders winning 112-straight games in Division III all deserve their moment. However, they fall short of the top-10 streaks of all-time.

Here are the X most impressive sports streaks of all-time, starting with the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers.

10. Los Angeles Lakers 33-Game Winning Streak (1971-72)

We begin with a record that might never be touched again for a number of reasons. We’ve seen the Miami Heat and Golden State Warriors come close in recent years with 27- and 24-game winning streaks in a single regular season, respectively. However, they both ultimately fell short in even reaching the 30-game mark, much less of matching the streak put forth by the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers as they reeled off 33 consecutive victories.

Going down the roster of the 1971-72 Lakers, it’s not hard to see how they were able to reach such an incredible mark in terms of winning streaks. It basically reads like a rundown of Hall-of-Famers with the likes of Elgin Baylor, Jerry West, Happy Hairston, Gail Goodrich and Wilt Chamberlain. Yes, the fact that all of those guys played on the same team is wild enough, but they looked the part with what they accomplished.

The 71-72 Lakers went two full months without suffering a loss. Though the level of competition may not be what it is in today’s NBA, it was a bit more competitive than in the heyday of the Bill Russell Boston Celtics. They posted a perfect November and December and, in any professional league of any sport that’s impressive, but especially in a game such as basketball.