Pollack said he squashed an idea of posing Chamberlain with the ball and wanted something more unique to preserve the moment. When the game was over, Pollack stuffed the game ball - it is now lost - into Chamberlain’s duffel bag and organized a famed photo.ĪP photographer Paul Vathis, who attended the game as a fan, rushed to a car for his equipment. His son, Ron, who now joins Pollack on the Philadelphia 76ers statistics crew, ran the copy to Western Union. He wrote or dictated the game story for The Associated Press, The Philadelphia Inquirer and United Press International. With each milestone basket putting Chamberlain closer to triple digits, Pollack knew his job titles were about to expand. Pollack started the night as the public relations director for the Warriors and the game statistician. It was incredible - and pressed Harvey Pollack into service. And, of course, a 100-point game was absolutely incredible." But unbeknownst to us, he had made a pact with Wilt when Wilt first got there that Wilt was going to average 50 points a game and one day score 100. And Frank McGuire acted like he couldn’t hear him. "Wilt wasn’t the kind of guy to say, ‘OK, I’m tired take me out.’ He’d listen to the coach. But (coach) Frank McGuire would not take him out," Attles said.
"Wilt tried to come out of the game before he got the 100 points. (Announcer) Bill Campbell, energized, made his own loud barking sound, husky, yet clear, "He made it! He made it! He made it! A Dipper Dunk!" The Dipper caught it in front of the basket, only inches away, and rose high above the Knicks, high above the rim. "(Joe) Rucklick flipped the pass perfectly, high and into the middle. "It was comical, because from that point on, all the shots went to Wilt, all the passes went to Wilt and everybody on the Knicks team tried to get the ball to anybody except Wilt."Īfter more than 250 interviews with players, fans, officials and journalists, Pomerantz described the 100-point basket: "Then we all realized that this was going to happen," said Tom Meschery, who scored 16 that night for the Warriors. When Chamberlain broke his own mark, Zinkoff told the fans, "Ladies and gentleman, a new scoring record has been created by Wilt Chamberlain!" While 100 is tough to imagine, think about this: Warriors public address announcer Dave Zinkoff would state the point total to the crowd as the number swelled in the fourth. It wasn’t that big a deal."Īt least not through the first three quarters, when Chamberlain scored 69. "I played one game where he got 78 points and we lost," Attles said. Oh, the game came during a season when Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points a game. "I don’t know if a team will allow it to happen now." "I personally don’t think it will ever happen again," said Chamberlain’s Warriors’ teammate, Al Attles.
Wilt chamberlain underhand throw free#
Chamberlain, a woeful 51.1 per cent career shooter from the line, attempted his free throws underhand against the Knicks. He shot 36 of 63 from the floor and an un-Wilt like 28 of 32 from the free-throw line. "I’d hate to try and break it myself," Chamberlain said, according to Pomerantz’s book.Ĭhamberlain played all 48 minutes in Philadelphia’s 169-147 win over the Knicks. David Robinson scored 10 less field goals than Chamberlain made in the 100-point game when he scored 71 in 1994. Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant had the luxury of the 3-point shot (he hit seven) when he scored 81 on Jan. No NBA star has really come close to scoring 100 points. "The 100-point game was a hyperbolic announcement of the rise of the black athlete in basketball," said author Gary Pomerantz, who wrote the complete narrative of that game in the 2005 book, "WILT, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era. The number of people who claimed they were there to witness history, however, could have stretched the East Coast.Īnd why not? The milestone, after all, changed the game forever. Only 4,124 (at $2.50 a ticket) attended the game, in fact, between the Warriors and the New York Knicks as the final stretch of the 1961-62 season dwindled down. Sports writers were scarce - and so were the fans. It was a fireball of scoring that will likely never be topped - and put Chamberlain everywhere from the record book, to "The Ed Sullivan Show," to an unmatched spot in the short list of sport’s all-time unbelievable performances.īut on Maat the Hershey Sports Arena, hardly anyone noticed. One hundred points was no flash of momentary greatness. Playing at 7-foot-1 and 260 pounds for the Philadelphia Warriors, Chamberlain held the single-game record of 78 points (in three overtimes) and the regulation mark of 73 in January 1962. At 25, Chamberlain had already crafted a career built on steady, sustained and spectacular excellence.
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