A few weeks ago, March 2, to be precise, marked the sixtieth anniversary of one of the most extraordinary accomplishments in all of American professional sports: the night that Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points in a regulation NBA basketball game. In a column in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Gene Collier wrote about the event and referenced the book you see to the left of these words, published in 2005, and it prompted me to borrow it from the local library, and what a treat it was to read.
Before I even get to the subject matter, let me say that the book is worth reading for the sheer artistry of Gary Pomerantz' writing. For example, read these opening sentences in the Introduction to the book:
"Wilt Chamberlain died on a mountaintop, alone, in bed, beneath a retractable ceiling that allowed him to see the stars. The gardener found his body, which is how it works in Hollywood. The Dipper died alone, a life he chose."
Great writing, evocative of the opening scene from "Citizen Kane", and so begins the story of an extraordinary night in the life of one of the more extraordinary athletes that America has ever produced. Note the subtitle of the book for that is as much a part of this story as the 100 Point Game itself: "The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era." In that 1961-62 season the NBA itself was only in its sixteenth year of existence. It was far from the international multi-billion dollar sports colossus that it is today. It was an eight team league and to many, it remained the poor step-brother of college basketball. Television coverage was spotty, and even in New York City, coverage of NBA games was buried deep in the sports section, next to the tire ads. Teams played double headers to attract crowds, and games were often scheduled in smaller cities in order to expose the pro game to folks in the hinterlands, which is why this late season game between the Warriors and the Knicks took place, not in Madison Square Garden or Philly's Convention Hall, but in a dinky 8,000 seat gym in Hershey, PA. The game was not televised - no film footage of the game exits - it was carried only on a Philadelphia radio station, and the New York newspapers didn't even bother to send any sportswriters to cover the game. Only 4,124 fans, a generous estimate, were in attendance.
It also needs to be noted that as the 1950's turned into the 1960's, NBA owners feared that their League might be perceived by the public as "too black." The NBA was integrated, but there can be no doubt that an unspoken quota system existed among the owners of the teams. There was talk that the not-so-great television contract that the league had in place at the time was in danger of not being renewed. The continued existence of the NBA as a "major league" was not a sure thing, hard as that might be to believe today.
More from Pomerantz...
"It is impossible in sports to know when or where the unforgettable moments will happen. That's the beauty of it. It can be a place or a time. It can be a personality or a startling achievement."
A minor league venue in Hershey PA on March 2, 1962 was the place and the time of the extraordinary moment, and the personality and the startling achievement belonged to twenty-five year old Wilt Chamberlain, of Philadelphia's Overbrook High School, the University of Kansas, the Harlem Globetrotters, and, now, the Philadelphia Warriors. If you are not old enough to have been around when Wilt (you only need one name to identify him) played, it is hard to comprehend what a revolutionary and extraordinary player and personality he was. This book, in addition to telling the story of the 100 Point Game, tells, or tries to tell, it's hard for even a great writer to capture the Essence of Wilt Chamberlain, just what Wilt was to the game of basketball. One more passage from the book:
"When the players of this game had grown old and gray, they would yet light up in conversation remembering the way the young Dipper ran the floor on a fast break. They would speak about it with a hushed reverence, as if they'd seen something otherworldly, like aged Plains Indians recalling the first sight of the steam locomotive."
The book tells the story of the game from the viewpoints of the other players, both Warriors and Knicks, who played that night. Aging stars like Richie Guerin and Paul Arizin, both Hall of Famers, had to know that the game that they played - Guerin still specialized in two-handed set shots - was coming to an end, and that a wave of Black stars like Wilt, Bill Russell, and Oscar Robertson, and the many that would follow them, were changing how the game would be played, the game that we watch today.
Back in the late 1960's, the Philly 76'ers scheduled some regular season games in Pittsburgh's Civic Arena, and because of that, I am privileged to say that I once saw Wilt Chamberlain play in person. I've always been a fan of his, and I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Four Stars from The Grandstander.
Back in 2014, I wrote about Wilt in this space. Here is that post.
If the name of Gary M. Pomerantz sounds familiar, his is also the author of the 2013 book "Their Life's Work", about the 1970's Era Super Bowl Steelers. If you are a Steelers fan, or just a pro football fan, you owe it to yourself to read it. Here is what I had to say about it back when it was published.
