Yes, records are made to be broken. But even when they are, they can still be cherished for the athletes who set them and for the legends attached to them. The following numbers might have been surpassed in the record books, but they are still etched on the monument of their sports, indelible for all time.
29-2½ | 50 | 61 | 158 | 714 | 2,003
29-2½: Bob Beamon
On Oct. 18, 1968, a 22-year-old long jumper from Jamaica, New York, took off down the runway in Mexico City's Olympic Stadium, sprinted for 19 strides and then jumped ... into the unfathomable.
"I'm still in disbelief at what I did," said Bob Beamon, now 69 and a motivational speaker. "I was thinking about winning, not about setting a record."
Beamon had leapt so far that the electronic measuring device could not register it. A conventional measuring tape had to be used: 8.90 meters, or 29 feet, 2½ inches, nearly 2 feet farther than the previous record of 27-4¾ held by Ralph Boston and Igor Ter-Ovanesyan. As Ter-Ovanesyan would say, "Compared to this jump, we are as children."
The high altitude of Mexico might have had something to do with Beamon's jump, but 21¾ inches beyond the record? Much of that distance could be traced to aptitude. Beamon, who competed for UTEP, was an extraordinary athlete who would one day get drafted by the NBA's Phoenix Suns. But on this day, he said, "I found the perfection between horizontal and vertical."
Attitude also had something to do with it. "These were turbulent times," he said. "I had lost my scholarship because I had boycotted a meet against BYU. I wanted to channel the anger we felt as black athletes into something positive."
There was also a little gratitude mixed in. The day before, Boston, who was Beamon's American teammate and rival, saved him from fouling out of the trials by advising Beamon to take off for his jump earlier than normal.
Beamon was never able to come close to matching that jump. But it wasn't until 23 years later, 1991, that Mike Powell finally bettered him with a jump of 29-4½ in Tokyo. That's just 2 inches longer than Beamon's quantum leap, which remains the second-longest in history.
50: Maurice Richard
As a Roman numeral, it's shaped like a hockey stick. And hockey has rarely had as romantic a figure as Maurice "Rocket" Richard.
"The best nickname in sports for two reasons," goalie Jacques Plante once said. "First, there was the way Maurice would turn on his rockets from the blue line to the net. Then, there were his eyes, as bright as the glare from any rocket."
Fifty goals in a season doesn't seem like such a big deal now -- Wayne Gretzky had 92 for the 1981-82 Edmonton Oilers. But go back to the 1944-45 season, which had only 50 games. No helmets, no curved sticks and no way opponents were going to stand by and watch Richard embarrass them.
It was bad enough that he had broken Joe Malone's record of 44, set in the NHL's inaugural season of 1917-18. With 50 in sight late in the season, foes started hooking, holding and elbowing the right winger. He had 49 goals after 48 games, but in the 49th game, played before the home folks in the Forum, he missed a penalty shot.
Game No. 50 was at the Boston Garden, and the Bruins held him scoreless for the first two periods. But with a little more than two minutes left in the game and Boston leading 2-1, Richard took a pass from center Emil Lach and knocked it past goalie Harvey Bennett to tie the score. Lach and left wing Toe Blake then followed with goals of their own to give the Canadiens a 4-2 victory.
That 50th goal earned Richard a princely $1,000 bonus from Les Habs. It wasn't until 16 seasons later that Boom Boom Geoffrion would tie the mark while playing 64 games (in a 70-game season).
Rejean Houle, the former Canadiens winger and general manager, remembers watching Richard as a kid.
"My father bought his first television just to watch the Rocket," Houle said. "I can still see this big train coming over the blue line, carrying guys with him until he put that little black disc behind the goalie.
"I once scored 51 goals in a season, but that was for the Nordiques in the WHA, which wasn't NHL caliber. I was no Richard. None of us were."
61: Roger Maris
When Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's season home run record on Oct. 1, 1961, the number came with an asterisk attached, as if the slightly longer season were a badge of dishonor. By differentiating between the two Yankees right fielders, commissioner Ford Frick made it clear that Maris wasn't worthy of the Bambino.
But Al Downing begs to differ. "Roger Maris was a hero in my eyes," said Downing, a veteran of 17 seasons who's now 75. "He was one of the finest ballplayers I've ever played with and one of the nicest men. I was just a 20-year-old rookie southpaw called up from Double-A that year, but he made me feel welcome. I know the season was tough on him, chasing Ruth and dealing with all the reporters, but he was total class.
"As you know, it came down to the last game of the season. Here's my memory of the homer. I was out in the right-field bullpen, as usual, with Luis Arroyo, Tex Clevenger and Jim Coates, and we were thinking he might hit it to us since we were in the power alley. Tracy Stallard was on the mound for the Red Sox, and in the fourth inning, after getting booed for throwing two balls, he grooved one. We could see that quick, beautiful stroke of Roger's, and then we watched as the ball sailed over the right fielder's head into the seats. We saw that guy catch the ball. What was his name -- Sal Durante!
"Roger just circled the bases, normal-like, and got a warm greeting at home -- Yogi [Berra] was the first to shake his hand. He came out of the dugout and tipped his cap. But there was still a game to be played, and we won it 1-0. After the game, there were as many people in the clubhouse as there were in the park that day. Took me at least a half-hour to get through the chaos to my locker.
"It was a big deal then. Seems like a bigger deal now. Imagine a normal-looking guy, not big like Ruth or McGwire or Bonds, hitting 61 homers in a season."
Indeed, the proof of the immensity of 61 lies in both how long the record lasted -- 37 years, or three more than the gap between 1927 and 1961 -- and by the players who broke it: Mark McGwire (twice), Sammy Sosa (thrice) and Barry Bonds (once). The asterisk next to their numbers is far bigger than the one next to 61.
158: Mia Hamm
The number stands for sisterhood.
On Nov. 3, 2004, Mia Hamm scored her 158th and final international goal. It came 51 seconds into stoppage time and gave the U.S. women's national soccer team a 1-1 draw with Denmark before 18,885 fans at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. It put her a Ruthian 51 goals ahead of the next-best woman, Elisabetta Vignotto of Italy, and also extended the team's unbeaten streak to 21 games.
The crowd erupted in a mixture of joy over the tie and gratitude to the 32-year-old Hamm, who had been the face -- and feet -- of women's soccer ever since 1991, when she was the 19-year-old star of the first Women's World Cup.
But there was a sweet irony to the goal, as well, an irony that would not be fully revealed until nine years later. Hamm's 18-yard shot past goalkeeper Tine Cederkvist came after a short feed from a 23-year-old forward who had 42 international goals at the time. The forward was Abby Wambach.
And it was Wambach who would break Hamm's record nine years later. The torch was passed to the woman who'd passed the ball to Hamm that night in Giants Stadium.
Hamm's role in the growth of women's sports was enormous, but she knew it was time to go. When she scored No. 158, only two more games were left on the tour, and she was tired. "I'm exhausted," she said. "I'm ready for some time off. I think my body needs it."
Also playing one of her final games for the USWNT that night was midfielder Julie Foudy, now an ESPN analyst. "It couldn't have happened to a nicer, more gracious person," Foudy said. "The wonderful thing about Mia was that she was a superstar who never acted like one. She was always in the spotlight, but she never really sought it. And I think younger athletes picked up on the fact she was all about the team and winning and not about herself."
And one of those athletes was Wambach, who would come back from a broken leg and surpass the record with a four-goal fusillade in a 5-0 win over the Republic of Korea on June 20, 2013. No. 159 came on a header for her third goal.
After the game, Wambach acknowledged her debt to Hamm:
"I can't say enough about how much I look up to Mia, and how amazing the record that she set was."
714: Babe Ruth
Babe Ruth was larger than life, and so was that number. It was the total count of home runs he hit in his magnificent career, and it has only grown in significance since his last blast, the third of a three-homer game for the Boston Braves against the Pittsburgh Pirates on May 25, 1935, when he was 40.
Legend has it that after he took Guy Bush over the right-field roof in the seventh inning, he passed through the Pirates' dugout on his way to the visiting clubhouse and told pitcher Mace Brown, "Boy, that last one felt good."
Cut to April 8, 1974. Hank Aaron has 714 home runs, and the Atlanta Braves have pulled out all the stops for their home opener in anticipation of his record-breaking homer. An outline of the United States has been cut into the grass in center field. Aaron's parents have been flown in for the game, fireworks have been locked and loaded, and Pearl Bailey has been retained to sing the national anthem.
Al Downing, who had been there when Maris passed Ruth in 1961, was there for this occasion as well. That's because he was the Dodgers' starting pitcher against the Braves. "I kind of knew what I was in for," he said.
Downing was booed by the crowd of 53,775 when he walked Aaron on five pitches in the first. The Dodgers were ahead 3-1 when he faced Aaron again in the fourth with no outs and a man on first. "I bounced a changeup on the first pitch," Downing said. "Then I thought I could sneak a fastball by him. Not a bad idea, just poor execution."
Aaron flicked his wrists and the ball sailed over left fielder Bill Buckner and into the home team's bullpen, where Downing had hoped Maris' 61st homer would land 13 years before.
At 9:07 p.m., the scoreboard flashed a huge "715!" the fireworks exploded and Aaron trotted around the bases, joined briefly by two interloping fans between second and third. As Downing bowed his head, back turned toward the plate, Braves reliever Tom House ran in from the bullpen to give Aaron the ball he had caught. The game was stopped for 35 minutes of celebration. Downing was able to quickly congratulate Aaron behind home plate.
"Then I went over to the Dodger bench and just watched for a while," he said. "Some of our guys had cameras and were taking pictures of the whole thing. After a while, I went back out to the bullpen to warm up again."
When play resumed, Downing walked the first two batters, and manager Walter Alston replaced him with Mike Marshall. "After I was lifted," he said, "I headed to the clubhouse, got dressed, and as I was coming out, I ran into this writer, George Plimpton. He seemed worried about me, but I told him I was all right.
"I really was OK. Not glad exactly, but I was kind of honored to have a place in baseball history. Besides, I admired Hank. He and Maris were brothers of a different color."
On Aug. 7, 2007, Barry Bonds hit home run No. 756 off Mike Bacsik of the Washington Nationals to pass Aaron on the all-time list. Fashion designer Marc Ecko bought the ball for $750,000 in an auction, branded it with an asterisk and donated it to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Quick: How many home runs did Bonds finish with?
Yeah, 762 doesn't have quite the same ring as 714.
2,003: O.J. Simpson
In order to fully appreciate the mark of 2,003, we will have to erase a lot of video from the past 22 years. That's because it was the number of rushing yards during the 1973 season by a Buffalo Bills running back named O.J. Simpson.
Back then, he was an engaging Heisman Trophy winner from USC who had it all. "Speed, moves, size," said Reggie McKenzie, his right guard then and now the owner of Reggie McKenzie Industrial Materials in Livonia, Michigan. "But what really separated him from other running backs was his intelligence. He just knew where the holes would be. Greatest running back I've ever seen."
With O.J. in mind, Bills coach Lou Saban drafted tight end Paul Seymour and right tackle Joe DeLamielleure in the first round of the '73 draft, then traded for Patriots center Mike Montler. When McKenzie went out to California that offseason to train with Simpson, Simpson mentioned the possibility of breaking Jim Brown's record of 1,863 yards. McKenzie's reply: "Jim Brown? Let's go get two grand."
"Two Grand" became the mantra for the offensive line. "It started with picture day in training camp at Niagara University," McKenzie said. "Jim Ringo, our offensive line coach, was old school and didn't like that stuff, but we could see we were going to do something special -- thanks to No. 32."
Simpson ran for 250 yards in the first game against the Patriots, and by Week 7, a Monday night home game against the vaunted Chiefs, he had 868 yards. "He promised Howard Cosell he would get 1,000 yards for him, and he did," McKenzie said. After Simpson's 157 yards in the 23-14 victory, even Saban got into the spirit of things, telling the players, "One down, one to go."
But then the Bills lost three in a row, and O.J. slowed his pace a bit. He was still the brightest star in the league, though, and the light reflected off toward men not usually recognized. Budd Thalman, the Bills' PR man, started calling the offensive line "The Electric Company." The nickname not only matched the name of a popular children's television program, but it also spoke to what they did. "We turned on the Juice," said McKenzie, referring to Simpson's nickname.
Coming into the 14th and last game of the regular season, the Bills needed a win over the Jets in Shea Stadium to keep their postseason hopes alive. Simpson needed only 61 yards to pass the record Brown set in 1963. He did that as snowflakes fell in the first quarter. Even in the snow, the Bills could see Two Grand. With 6:28 left to play, quarterback Joe Ferguson called for a 27 Left, with DeLamielleure as Simpson's vanguard and McKenzie as his escort. The 7-yard run gave O.J. 200 for the game and 2,003 for the season. With the game in hand, he left the field on the shoulders of his teammates. (Alas, wins that day by the Steelers and Bengals eliminated the 9-5 Bills from the playoff picture.)
After the game, Simpson turned the tables on the offensive line and led for them. "Gentlemen," he told the assembled media, "I want you to meet a few of my friends -- the cats who did it for me all year." And then he introduced them one by one.
"That's what I'll remember about O.J.," McKenzie said. "That he remembered us."
One other thing to remember: Although six running backs have since gained more than 2,000 yards, led by Eric Dickerson's record 2,105 in 1984, none of them did it in 14 games.