The 100-Point Game

How the stars aligned for Wilt Chamberlain

Sports can produce special moments, that when experienced live, will be etched into our memories forever. The atmosphere of a live sporting event is unmatched. It’s something you will tell your friends about years after the ringing in your ears dies down. “I was there when…” is an often-heard phrase as we pull up the YouTube highlights to reminisce. 

Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game is one of those events where you had to be there to experience it. With no cameras in the arena, only the 4,124 spectators can ever truly remember the roar of the crowd. If it wasn’t for a grainy radio broadcast that turned up years later in someone’s Philadelphia home, none of us would have a glimpse of the atmosphere in Hersheypark Arena that historic day. 

 Setting the stage

Wilt went into his record-setting game against the New York Knicks with unbelievable stats. During the 1961-62 season he averaged 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game. He shot 50.6% from the field and 61.3% from the line on 40 field goals and 17 free throws per game. Maybe an even more absurd statistic was him averaging 48.5 minutes per game. How did he do it? The Philadelphia Warriors played 10 overtime periods that season.

Wilt’s 100-point game took place when the Warriors were playing a home game about an hour and a half away in Hershey, Pennsylvania. In the 1960s, the NBA was working to win over more fans and did so by playing outside their normal arenas. On traveling to the game Wilt said:

"There were no hotels for us to go to or stay in because we didn't do those kinds of things in those days. We went straight to the arena where we had to wait around for five or six hours for the game. But it happened to be in this arena, they had a shooting gallery, [an] old penny arcade, so some of the guys went there, and I started shooting rifles and so forth. And I couldn't miss anything. So if there was ever a clue that I was going to have a hot day, this was definitely the clue."

The stage was perfectly set for Wilt to have a great scoring night. The Warriors entered the game with a 46-29 record and the Knicks were 27-45. New York’s starting center, Phil Jordon, was out with what was being called the flu. Darrall Imhoff, Jordon’s backup, said, “The inside scoop was he was hungover.” 

Imhoff was in foul trouble much of the game, which left the 6’9” rookie, Cleveland Buckner, to guard Wilt most of the night. Wilt took full advantage of his two inferior competitors. Imhoff complained to a referee after drawing his third foul on Wilt saying, “Well, why don’t you just give the guy a hundred now and we’ll all go home!” Little did he know.

The Game

With 23 points in the first quarter and 41 at halftime—a ton of points for anyone else in that juncture of the game—it wasn’t entirely uncommon for Wilt to have big numbers through only two frames. After a 28-point third quarter, Wilt was 31 points away from 100 with 12 minutes remaining. The fans, realizing the possibility of witnessing a historic feat, started yelling, “Give it to Wilt!”

First-hand witness accounts and a grainy radio broadcast have helped us understand what happened in that fourth quarter. Wilt’s teammates and coach did everything they could to manufacture a once-in-a-lifetime moment

Box score from Wilt’s 100-point game

Teammates passing the rock

Every time down the court, Wilt’s teammates looked to get him the ball. Wilt has written, “My teammates wanted me to do it. They started feeding me the ball even when they were wide open…I really think I shot too often in that 100-point game–particularly in the fourth quarter when everyone was egging me on towards 100.”

Time-saving

Royce Young wrote, "From accounts of how it went down, the Warriors spent almost the entire fourth quarter fouling to get the ball back and force-feeding Chamberlain the ball." Wilt shot 21 times in the fourth quarter, five more shots than any other quarter in the game. Frank McGuire, the coach of the Warriors, even resorted to putting in his bench in the closing minutes to use extra fouls to get the ball back for Wilt. 

New York Knicks coach Eddie Donovan said, “The game was a farce. They would foul us and we would foul them.” The Knicks were doing everything they could to run the clock out to save themselves from embarrassment. Donovan gave his team orders to hold the ball and pass up good shots so Wilt couldn’t get the ball back as quickly.

Foul Shooting

Everything went right for Wilt at the charity stripe when he was historically a 51.1% free throw shooter. Wilt wrote:

"I'm the world's worst foul-shooter, and I hit 28 of 32 free throws that night—87.5 percent. That just shows that anyone can get lucky. Just check the box scores over a few months; some really weak players will have fantastic games."

The Final Play

With 46 seconds left in the game, Wilt scored his 100th point. Fans stormed the court and play was stopped as Wilt was celebrated all the way to the locker room. The PR man, Harvey Pollack, wrote the number 100 on a piece of paper and had him hold it up for the camera in what is now one of the most famous photographs taken in basketball history. 

Chamberlain finished with 100 points on 36-of-63 shooting from the field (57.1%), 25 rebounds, and two assists. The Warriors beat the Knicks 169-147.

An unbroken record

Single-game points record leaders

We may never see anyone accomplish what Wilt did in what will be 62 years ago this March. Kobe came the closest but was still 19 points short. With the unspoken rules of the game being evermore respected and enforced by coaches, everything would need to align perfectly for anyone to remotely have a chance to break Wilt’s record. 

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