I've senn a 1121 drop to 697 but is this really the lowest in rating someone's ever fallen.

Not sure it's gonna mean a whole lot (since you're probably going to have to make sure that it's unintentional first). 

The first guy I played in a rated game was 500+ weaker when he finally quit the game, aged c. 99 years.

I forget what they call it when you take the birthdate of your oldest opponent and that of your youngest, and calculate the gap, but this guy is great for mine .

I thought the USCF maintains a floor rating that is never any lower than 200 points from your high (rounded to an even xx00 number)

Probably goldendog was playing that fellow before the Sandbag Police got deputized.

Yep, well before floors.

goldendog, remember when we all had those letters after our ratings?  It was to denote where our cutoff for prize-money eligibility was.  Or maybe they still do that (I don't know).

I remember when 1100 was an extremely low and uncommon rating--I guess when the few scholastics just didn't mix with the adults unless they were already pretty reasonable players.

 I actually didnt know chess scores could get below 1000 until a few years ago during one of my (many) returns to chess.

Yeah, the lowest player I ever played in a tournament was 1158--my only E (in the last round for money too!--fortunately I won, or I don't suppose I'd be bringing this up)...

When you die doesn't your rating go down to 0000?

I'll betcha Bruce Springsteen has a song about this.

Andrew, I looked you up on USCF, and it appears your rating has dropped about 2177 points, give or take a few. Must have had a few bad tournaments. Maybe you qualify for this (cough) honor.

You might want to consider the possibility that my name's not really AndyClifton.  Fortunately, I didn't make the same mistake in your case. 

That's what ouachita said...

Once again, Elubas, you prove yourself to be a regular Charlie Callas. 

 here is a cut/paste:

USCF rating for: Duck, Invisible

Reg : 2949       

Q: 2871

As you can see, I suck, relatively, at quick chess.

Aha! lol  Are you related to the McDucks? (I believe they're from Scotland).

 I have a whole lot in common with Scrooge McDuck....except the money thing.