He was on the practice green with his team – where else? – on a pluperfect day for golf, when Kansas University coach Ross Randall first heard the news that Byron Nelson, one of the game’s all-time greats, had died earlier Tuesday.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Randall said. “I knew him a little bit and played in his tournament a number of times. He was a great ambassador for the game.”

When Randall played in the Byron Nelson Classic, wife Linda and the other players’ wives were the guests of Nelson’s first wife, the late Louise Nelson, on the family ranch. Classy people.

Nelson will be remembered most for setting one of those records termed unbreakable. In 1945, he won 11 tournaments in a row.

“Nobody’s going to break that one,” Randall said.

Passing Lou Gehrig, Cal Ripken proved it’s dangerous to set any record in concrete.

Sandy Koufax threw four no-hitters. Nolan Ryan tossed seven.

Babe Ruth’s 714 home runs never would be touched. Hank Aaron hit 755. Barry Bonds, modern muscles and all, will pass him with 23 more. Centuries from now, when steroids and human growth hormone are laughed at as primitive means of enhancing performance, gene doping will be the rage for power hitters and pitchers alike. Don’t like your fastball? The team doctor will inject the genes of Rapid Robert Feller XII into your veins.

If there is no such thing as an unbreakable record in sports, there are many our imaginations won’t allow us to see crumbling.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in an NBA game in Hershey, Pa. Cy Young won 511 games. Ty Cobb retired with a .366 career batting average. Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight games. Happy Jack Chesbro won 41 games in 1904.

Rickey Henderson, who taught himself how to steal bases when one of his high school teachers told him she would give him a quarter for every stolen base, stole 130 bags in one season. If you think Rickey drove opposing pitchers nuts, it was nothing compared to how he once threw his ballclub’s accountants into a panic. The books weren’t balancing, off by a million dollars. The Oakland A’s asked his agent to ask Henderson if he remembered what he did with his signing bonus check.

“I framed it,” Henderson said. “I’m looking at it right now.”

Even that record might be matched. Ages from now, inflation could be such that instead of framing the first dollar earned, it could become standard practice to frame the first million.

Rickey and countless other athletes might argue they should have the nickname “The Great One.” It belongs to Wayne Gretzky, who had 215 points in an 80-game season, or 2.69 points per game. Untouchable? Suppose some marketing weasel does a study that shows tweaking rules in a way to triple scoring would double profits?

There is no such thing as an unbreakable record, but Nelson’s comes close, just not as close as these two: Fernando Tatis hit two grand slams in one inning, and Johnny Vander Meer pitched consecutive no-hitters. Bettering Tatis’ feat would require three slams in one inning. Vander Meer’s mark only falls if a pitcher tosses three consecutive no-hitters.

l Nelson obituary, page 2C