On January 5th, 2008, the longest known winning streak in sports came to an end, when the Brandon High School wrestling team fell 32-28 to Homestead South Dade in Florida.

Read on…

The winning streak lasted nearly 34 years, starting on January 28th 1974 (the same year that Richard Nixon resigned) and ending only a few days ago. The streak included 36 consecutive perfect seasons (take that Patriots…).

459 straight victories. To put that into perspective, the longest winning streak in NBA history stands at an essentially untouchable 33 (Los Angeles Lakers), in the NFL and MLB the longest streaks in history are both 21 (Held by the New England Patriots and Chicago Cubs), and 17 in the NHL (Pittsburgh Penguins). Of course, in professional sports it is difficult to maintain a long winning streak, but in high school sports other obstacles present itself (including the fact that any one player generally will be on the team for 4 years). The 459 straight victories are 300 more than the longest HS basketball winning streak (159, Passaic High School in New Jersey) and 308 more than the longest HS football winning streak (151, De La Salle in California). Brandon was helped by a strong youth wrestling program, drawing people from other communities who were interested in joining the team, and head coaching consistency, as they only had 2 head coaches in the last 34 years.

There is one team with the potential to reach this record, the Christian Brothers Academy’s Cross Country running team in New Jersey, which holds the national dual meet wins streak at 289. They still have a long way to go though… (170 wins). Brandon’s winning streak may never be touched.

During the win streak, the team won 66 individual state championships and 18 team titles. The streak would probably have lasted longer, but the coach Russ Cozart created the “Jim Graves Tournament” five years ago to draw the best teams in the state, allowing Brandon to face teams outside of their regular County determined schedule. He made the tournament to “get beat,” and they finally were beaten, albeit after decades of stunning success.

Read more at Rivals High

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