Greg Hansen's top 10 unassailable Arizona Wildcats sports records

Today’s list: the top 10 winning streaks in Tucson sports history.

Arizona’s 81-game basketball winning streak at Bear Down Gym has been handed down from generation to generation as something of a mythical dimension.

From December 1945 until December 1952, the Wildcats never lost at the old gymnasium. But on further inspection, the streak is more legitimately 67, which is a streak to be admired anytime, anywhere by any generation.

It was the almost unreachable figure of 81, listed for posterity in UA record books, that continues to make it shine. Not the more legit 67.

The list of 81 straight victories includes 14 flawed opponents: two games against the Los Angeles Club for the Deaf; a win over Phoenix Webbco, an amateur team put together by the Del Webb retirement community builders; the University of Mexico; seven games against San Diego-based Marine and Naval forces; and two victories in 1947 against the UA Alumni team and another against Chihuahua University.

In short, coach Fred Enke’s long winning streak, 67 or 81, whichever you prefer, didn’t crack our top five. The top 10:

1. Jennie Finch, 60 straight pitching wins. Finch was already an established sophomore, 49-10 overall, when she won her final eight games of the 2000 season. She then rolled to the 2001 national championship, 32-0 overall, perfect, running her personal winning streak to 40.

Finch set the NCAA record of 51 straight on Feb. 24, 2002, beating Cal-Northridge 6-0 at Hillenbrand Stadium. Finch had rolled to 60 straight in early April when No. 1 UCLA arrived in Tucson. The then-largest crowd in Hillenbrand history, 3,161, watched the Bruins take down Finch’s streak, 6-5.

“At least it was a legit loss,” she said, spilling a few tears. She would finish the season 31-5.

2. Arizona wins 71 straight at McKale Center. After losing to UTEP in the first and last NCAA Tournament game the Wildcats played at McKale, March 1987, Lute Olson’s team went undefeated at home for four years, 64-0 overall. The streak reached 71 when No. 2 UCLA arrived on Jan. 11, 1992. Don MacLean scored 38 points and the Bruins won 89-87 on a short jumper by Darrick Martin with 1.4 seconds remaining.

3. Tucson High wins 51 straight basketball games. The Badgers won back-to-back state titles in 1948 and 1949, finishing 28-0 and 23-0. Alas, in the 1950 opener, THS was beaten by Nogales.

4. Sunnyside High School senior-to-be Roman Bravo-Young is 130-0 with three state wrestling championships. The state record is believed to be 178 in succession.

5. Lorena Ochoa wins seven straight golf tournaments. As an Arizona sophomore in 2002, Ochoa set an NCAA record by winning seven consecutive tournaments, capped by the Sun Devil Ping Invitational in which she had a hole-in-one.

6. Arizona wins 81 straight games at Bear Down Gym. Or 67, depending on 14 non-NCAA teams that played at Bear Down from 1945-52.

7. Sunnyside wins 187 consecutive dual wrestling meets. The Blue Devils practically wrote and rewrote the state wrestling record books. The only one in dispute is the 187-match streak from 1976-92. Some say the Blue Devils lost No. 64, when it forfeited a 1988 match to Flowing Wells because of an ineligible wrestler. Either way, Sunnyside won the next 123.

8. Arizona’s softball team wins 47 straight games. One could sense something special was in the works when the Wildcats went 17-0 to finish the 1996 season, including the national championship. Arizona opened 30-0 a year later, 47 straight, before losing to Oregon State in a Southern California tournament.

9. UA pitcher Mark Schimpf wins 20 straight games in 1973 and 1974. The irony of Schimpf’s streak, the longest in school baseball history, is that it ended in the NCAA Tournament against Northern Colorado when the No. 1-ranked Wildcats were 58-5 and heavily favored. He won his final seven decisions of ’73 and his first 13 of ’74.

10. Tucson High wins 33 straight football games. You can’t say the Badgers of 1943-45 ducked anybody. Their three consecutive state championships were sandwiched by a loss to Santa Barbara (California) High to end the 1942 season, and a loss to Austin (Texas) High in a game in El Paso to start the 1946 season.