Unbreakable Kentucky Basketball and Football Records

Tuesday night LeBron James did what few thought anyone could ever do, break Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record. There have been many prolific scorers throughout NBA history, but to catch Kareem one needed to be great year after year after year for decades. It felt like an unbreakable milestone until LeBron defied all odds with 20+ years of dominance.

Not only does it take skill, it takes a little luck, particularly on the injury front, to break an “unbreakable” record. That is also the case for a few different statistics in the Kentucky basketball and football record books that will likely never be touched.

Dan Issel’s All-Time Scoring Record

There are barriers to catching Dan Issel, and it’s not just skill-based. The best basketball players no longer stick around for three years in the college ranks. That is why almost every noteworthy UK basketball career record is seemingly untouchable. Setting that obstacle aside, consider this.

Issel also holds the single-season scoring record with 948 points in 1970. He did it in 28 games. Jodie Meeks is No. 2 on that list. He had 854 in 2009, including a 54-point night at Tennessee. Meeks played in eight more games than Issel and is still 94 points behind. Remarkable.

Anthony Davis’ Single-Season Block Record

The Unibrow averaged 4.65 blocks per game during his National Championship-winning 2012 season. He finished with 186 blocked shots, 80 more than the second-ranked player on that list, Willie Cauley-Stein. Anthony Davis‘ 186 blocks rank sixth on the career blocked-shots record list.

The Longest Held Kentucky Football Record

Like the basketball scoring record, the nature of the game will ensure some records stand for years. Jim Kovach‘s 521 tackles came at a time when SEC run-stuffers regularly ate up 150+ a season. Now there might only be a couple guys a year that surpass the century mark in the SEC.

In somewhat similar fashion, Freddie’s football coach made his mark during an era when the best quarterbacks completed 50% of their passes. In 1949 Jerry Claiborne intercepted nine passes for Bear Bryant’s Cats. Only one other has come close to catching that single-season mark. Paul Calhoun picked off seven passes in 1984. The high-watermark in the Mark Stoops era for an individual is four in one season. Even the best ball-hawks have to more than double their output to catch Coach Claiborne.

Jared Lorenzen’s Passing Record

I had a hunch that somebody could catch Oliver Barnett‘s long-standing sack record. Josh Allen eventually obliged in 2018, the same year Benny Snell broke what was once thought to be an unbreakable record. Chris Rodriguez nearly caught him a few years later. There is a world where the right coach and player come together for a remarkable run to catch Jared Lorenzen, but it’s not happening anytime soon.

From 2000-03 Lorenzen threw for 10,354 passing yards, which still ranks among the top ten of all passers in SEC history. Not only was Jared an outlier as an athlete, he got to start his career in the Air Raid as a freshman. A freshman starting QB is rare anywhere, but even more so under Mark Stoops, who has almost exclusively had success at with transfer quarterbacks.

For someone to catch Lorenzen, a quarterback would need to pass for around 3,500 yards over three seasons. There have only been five of those seasons in Kentucky football history (Couch 2x, Woodson 2x, Lorenzen once). Even if Kentucky transitions out of the Mark Stoops era into a pass-happy offense, finding a quarterback to stick around for that long and have that much success — it’s possible, but I’m not betting on anyone beating Lorenzen anytime soon.

The Most Untouchable Obscure Stat

Of all the names you expected to see on this list, I’m sure Lonnell Dewalt did not make the cut. The Bowling Green wide receiver did not stuff the stat sheet by catching passes. He did the unthinkable by blocking seven kicks in 11 games. The 6-foot-6 athlete holds UK’s career record for blocked kicks despite only playing one season in Lexington. For comparison’s sake, this year Notre Dame’s entire team blocked seven kicks to lead the nation in the statistical category. Dewalt did that by himself. Unbelievable.