Fifty years ago today in Hershey, Penn., Wilt Chamberlain poured in 36 field goals (on 63 shots!) and 28 free throws (against four misses) for a total of 100 points in 48 minutes in the Philadelphia Warriors’ 169-147 victory over the New York Knicks. The game was not televised and no tape is extant. In fact, the performance was seen by just the 4,124 fans in attendance at the Hershey Sports Arena (although many more later claimed to have been eyewitnesses).
Former New York Giants GM Ernie Accorsi grew up in Hershey. During a conversation several years ago, I asked him if he happened to be in the crowd for Wilt’s big game.
“No, I was a junior at Wake Forest [at the time],” Accorsi said. “I had been to the ACC tournament semifinal that night at Raleigh and was driving back to Winston-Salem with my fraternity brothers. We were listening to rock music on the car radio, and they broke in with the news. When I heard Hershey, I figured there was a fire or explosion at the chocolate factory. Why else would Hershey command such national news?”
What did he think when he learned the reason for the news bulletin?
“My first thought then was, well... I missed it. My second thought was of my father, who went to all those games. And he was the all-time leave-early-to-beat-the-traffic guy, which was ridiculous. In Hershey, Pennsylvania!
“When I got back to the dorm, I called my parents. My mother answered the phone and immediately asked, ‘What happened?’
“I said, ‘I just want to know: Did he stay?’ And for once, he did. I had this vision that he walked out when Wilt scored his 90th point to beat the crowd.”
What about all the people who later professed to have been in the stands?
“A lot more people than were present for the game claim to have been there,” he said. “Oh, 25,000 did [claim that]. They played a couple of games [in the Hershey Sports Arena] every year, and they would draw 4,000. Very rarely did they draw 4,000 in Philadelphia. They did for the Celtics, maybe, but otherwise drew 3,800 or 4,000. The [Warriors] trained in Hershey, so they would play games there. I even saw NBA double-headers there. The NBA wasn’t what it is today.”
Indeed the NBA today celebrates a player for recording a double-double. That is, at least 10 points and 10 rebounds in a single game. In the 1961-62 season, Chamberlain averaged over 50 points and 25 rebounds per game. Even better, that same year, Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals became the only player in NBA history to average a triple-double (30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds, and 11.4 assists) for a season.
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