Memories of an NBA milestone

HERSHEY, Pa. -- Wilt Chamberlain had some time to waste before the Philadelphia Warriors played the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, so he went to the arcade in the Hershey Sports Arena.

Ken Berman, the Warriors' shot-clock operator was already there, playing one of the rifle games, when Chamberlain tapped on his shoulder.

"He would do anything to challenge anybody," Berman said.

Chamberlain fired away, racking up points in record numbers as a small crowd gathered around on the concourse of the arena.

A few hours later on the court, he put on a much bigger show, one that stands as the greatest individual effort in pro basketball.

Chamberlain scored 100 points, a record that has stood for 40 years.

"One writer wrote that Wilt sharpened his shooting eye playing with the rifles in the gallery," said Berman, now a member of the 76ers' stat crew after working the shot clock for 47 years.

A sweet treat

The game was played in Hershey, about 100 miles from Philadelphia. The rectangular building now called Hersheypark Arena seated 7,200, and the Warriors played a few games in this small town known most for its chocolate.

There were 4,124 fans in the stands that night, though many more now say they attended the historic game. Some don't even remember the Warriors won 169-147, the highest-scoring game in history.

"Everybody and their brother now says they were there, but there weren't 2 million people," Warriors guard Al Attles said. "The first thing I say is we won the game. People still come up to me who don't think we won."

Harvey Pollack, the director of statistical information for the Sixers, was the Warriors' publicity director and head of the stat crew at the time. He also covered the game as a stringer.

"When the game started, there wasn't one photographer," Pollack said. "By halftime, word spread and all these guys started coming over to me, asking for programs. They didn't know he was going to score 100 points, but they knew he was going to put up some high number."

Chamberlain had 41 at the half, helping the Warriors to a 79-68 lead. After three quarters, he had 69, moving closer to the record of 78 he set just three months earlier in three overtimes against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Chamberlain, who died in 1999 at age 63, claimed over the years that the Knicks began holding the ball until the last two or three seconds on the 24-second shot clock, and resorted to fouling to prevent him from scoring. The Warriors answered by fouling to get the ball back.

"There's been some conjecture on who fouled who," said Attles, who scored 17 points in the game. "People did foul to get the ball back."

No matter what they tried, the Knicks couldn't stop Chamberlain, who was too big and powerful at 7-foot-1. Despite being a 51 percent foul shooter for his career, he made 28 of 32 free throws.

Dave Zinkoff, the Warriors' and longtime Sixers' public-address announcer who died in 1986, started calling out Chamberlain's total points after each basket toward the end of the third quarter.

The only account of the game is on audio tape. A fan sent a copy of a tape to Bill Campbell, who did the radio play-by-play.

According to that tape, Chamberlain reached 94 points on a 12-foot bank shot that gave the Warriors a 161-139 lead. Another basket moments later made it 96 points and put Philadelphia ahead 163-143.

With 1:27 left, Chamberlain had 98 and the score was 167-145. He then stole the inbounds pass and shot for 100, but missed. He missed two more shots before scoring off a pass from reserve Joe Ruklick with 46 seconds left.

Some say the shot was a dunk; some say a jumper and others a putback. No one knows for sure.

Fans stormed onto the court, and the game was stopped. Pollack said the final seconds were played, and Chamberlain stood at midcourt and didn't move.

"He didn't want to touch the ball again," Pollack said. "The number 100 sounded better than 102."

Chamberlain averaged a league-record 50.4 points that season. He took 63 shots and made 36 against the Knicks.

"The thing that sticks out most in my mind is sitting on a bench next to him in the locker room and he had this discouraged look on his face," Attles said. "I said, 'Big fella, what's wrong?' He said, 'I never thought I'd take 60 shots in a game.' I told him, 'It's OK when you make 36 of them.' You would've thought he'd be doing cartwheels. It was a once-in-a-lifetime performance that was almost surreal."

In the sparse Philadelphia dressing room, a team official looked for something to commemorate the moment. He grabbed a piece of paper and wrote "100" on it, posing Chamberlain for a famous photo.

Chamberlain once said that he thought he'd cool down in the second half of the game.

That hunch was probably the only time that night he was way off the mark.