Praise for Gary M. Pomerantz’s Wilt, 1962
“A masterful work nearly as great as the mighty Dipper himself.”
—The Nashville Tennessean
“More than any athlete since Babe Ruth, Wilt Chamberlain transcended his sport, and author Gary Pomerantz shows that beautifully in Wilt, 1962, the story of Chamberlain’s 100-point game.”
—San Francisco Chronicle
“Pomerantz unfolds a meticulous and engaging narrative that illustrates how a combination of obsequious teammates, forgiving rims, and more than a little showmanship (picked up playing a year for the Globetrotters) converged to make a historic evening—and a slam dunk of a read.”
—Entertainment Weekly
“Gary Pomerantz’s decision to get at the man and his times through the prism of his 100-point night against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, was a wise one…. The joy of Wilt, 1962 is in the background details…. By the conclusion of the book, the reader feels as if he had been among the 4,000 or so lucky souls in the arena on a seemingly unforgettable night that had somehow been forgotten.”
—Sports Illustrated
“Gary Pomerantz’s Wilt, 1962 is beautifully written, well reported, and compelling. But what’s so special about this book, what causes it to linger, is the atmosphere that Pomerantz has captured through his words, so bittersweet and haunting. You love Wilt Chamberlain. You feel the aura of his isolation as he towered above the rest of us in life, and you wish more than ever he was still around because of his very individuality.”
—Buzz Bissinger, author of Friday Night Lights
“A book that turns the box score into a tapestry of sweaty faces, squeaking sneakers, and roaring emotions…. From one man, one game, and 100 points, Pomerantz expands his narrative in every direction. His grasp of even the most arcane detail helps to create a vibrant sociological and historical context for Chamberlain…. The narrative follows, loosely, the four-quarter structure of the game, and even though we know the outcome, Pomerantz deliciously describes the drama leading up to that 100th point.”
—New York Times Book Review
“Genius is in the details, and Gary Pomerantz’s Wilt, 1962 proves that.”
—John Feinstein, author of A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled
“Deeply researched, beautifully written … Pomerantz uses Chamberlain’s historic game against the New York Knicks to illuminate forgotten worlds and obscure figures while detailing a sport—and a nation—on the cusp of dramatic change. Wilt, 1962 hinges on hindsight, the magic power that enables writers to see how things are and also what they are becoming…. A marvelous book.”
—The Raleigh News&Observer
“Gary Pomerantz has distilled Chamberlain’s essence as well as anyone has in print. The book is ostensibly about the night Wilt scored 100 points in a game, which Pomerantz documents with a terrific reporting job full of details and anecdotes. But his book, at heart, is a love poem to Chamberlain’s massive impact on his sport’s culture.”
—San Jose Mercury News
“An enthralling chronicle. Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 on a strange and wonderful night in Hershey. Wilt, 1962 explores that night in sumptuous detail…. There aren’t many sports books as flat-out fascinating as this one.”
—The Charlotte Observer
“Wilt, 1962 not only retells the story of that game, but captures the complexity of Wilt Chamberlain with a riveting narrative and novelistic flair. The result is a uniquely Philadelphia work, told with an insight and poignancy nearly unparalleled in the nonfiction sports book genre.”
—Philadelphia Weekly
“Thanks to Mr. Pomerantz’s keen imagination and the 250-plus interviews he conducted, there’s not a page of the book that doesn’t crackle with perfectly chosen details.”
—New York Observer
“Meticulously researched and superbly crafted, Wilt, 1962 revisits and vividly re-creates a seminal but overlooked moment in American sports history. On that transformative evening in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points and staked a black man’s claim to the city game. In Gary Pomerantz’s deft possession-by-possession retelling, Chamberlain soars again. The gangly, uncompromising seven-footer who always seemed too big for the uniform he inhabited thunders back to life.”
—Jane Leavy, author of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy
“Chamberlain was a uniquely dominating force, as Pomerantz makes eloquently clear…. Wilt, 1962 draws one’s attention to an uneasy but unsurprising fact: Athletes who strive for the impossible are driven by demons that ordinary folks cannot comprehend. Such feats exact a terrible price in solitude and compulsions. Pomerantz offers exquisitely painful details of his subject’s isolation and the toll it took over the course of his career.”
—The Washington Post
“Pomerantz paints a compelling portrait of Chamberlain, a stunningly gifted athlete with larger-than-life appetites and expectations who, in some sense, seemed unknowable. Pomerantz gives us as much of him as we may ever know.”
—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“In this age of instant everything, few people have any idea who Wilt Chamberlain really was, and what he meant to sports. Gary Pomerantz shows us. In Wilt, 1962 he puts us courtside for one of the greatest unexamined moments in sports history, the night Wilt scored 100 points. In a sweet return to his sportswriting roots, Pomerantz gives us Wilt in his realm, his rise to prominence and dominance, set against the backdrop of the NBA’s coming of age. It’s all irresistible.”
—Michael Wilbon, cohost of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption
“Meticulous research (250 interviews) is welded to absorbing prose that merges basketball, biography, and history to capture a tipping point in the National Basketball Association’s evolution…. While the astonishing achievement has always seemed a footnote to NBA history, Pomerantz has given it the defining chronicle it deserves.”
—Rocky Mountain News
“Wilt, 1962 scores 100 and more…. A gloriously crafted, remarkably researched portrait of Wilt, his times, and his country, the book offers us the detail of the man and that most momentous of games, the night he scored 100 points. Pomerantz is obsessed with detail and blessed with a lyrical touch, a blend that carries us to the moment, even when the moment was 43 years ago…. And yet the night is only a vehicle to expand upon Chamberlain, upon the growth of pro basketball, about the racial climate in America, about characters and issues some have forgotten and others never knew. Like Chamberlain himself, the book is special.”
—The Oakland Tribune
“A sports book worth talking about, and a moving portrait of a great athlete and his era.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Pomerantz takes us back to the Hershey Arena, to that one magical night, removing the layer of mystique that always had been wrapped around a game played in a chocolate-covered minor-league town, in a half-filled arena with no videotape ever made…. In this meticulously researched book … Pomerantz does a masterful job, weaving the narrative of the Philadelphia Warriors—New York Knicks game into the larger context of who Wilt was—and how he fit into both the pro basketball world and the larger American society.”
—The Buffalo News
For Dad,
the Dipper in my night sky,
guiding me still
“I set my own standards. I inherit nothing.
I stand at the end of no tradition.
I may, perhaps, stand at the beginning of one.”
—YOUNG ARCHITECT HOWARD ROARK IN The Fountainhead, by AYN RAND
CONTENTS
—————————
The Rosters
The Stats
Preface
I
ntroduction
PART ONE
BUILDING TOWARD 100
1 THE DIPPER IN HARLEM
2 THE SHOOTING GALLERY
3 FIRST QUARTER
4 THE RISE OF THE DIPPER
5 SECOND QUARTER
6 GOTTY AND THE ZINK
7 McGUIRE AND HIS WARRIORS
8 HALFTIME
9 IMHOFF, GUERIN, AND THE KNICKS
10 THIRD QUARTER
11 RYMAN OF CHOCOLATE TOWN
PART TWO
THE FOURTH QUARTER
12 STIRRINGS
13 MESCHERY
14 GUERIN
15 ATTLES
16 IMHOFF
17 THE DIPPER
18 RUKLICK
19 ONE HUNDRED
20 CELEBRATION
PART THREE
AFTERMATH
21 THE LEGEND GROWS
22 THE BALL
Epilogue
Notes
Bibliography
Acknowledgments
The Rosters
PHILADELPHIA WARRIORS
Paul Arizin (33 years old, 6-4, 200, Villanova)
South Philly’s own “Pitchin’ Paul” has scored more than 16,000 points in the pro game, passing Cousy this season and ranking behind only Schayes among the NBA’s all-time top scorers.
Tom Meschery (23 years old, 6-6, 215, St. Mary’s, CA)
The Manchurian-born rookie, who speaks Russian and French with fluency, has quickly emerged as a sharp shooter and bullish rebounder.
Wilt Chamberlain (25 years old, 7-1, 260, Kansas)
The Big Dipper has rewritten the record books with fifty points and twenty-five rebounds per night. The former Globetrotter ranks as the greatest rebounder in league annals and his specialty is dunking.
Guy Rodgers (26 years old, 6-0, 185, Temple)
The flashy dynamo in his fourth pro season dribbles and passes like a magician and as a feeder ranks behind only Oscar Robertson.
Al Attles (25 years old, 6-1, 180, North Carolina A&T)
Emerging from obscurity, he has used his speed and rugged defense to earn the nickname of the Destroyer.
Tom Gola (29 years old, 6-6, 205, LaSalle)
After three years as an All-American at nearby LaSalle College, he is playing his sixth NBA season as the versatile Warriors captain and all-around Mr. Consistency.
York Larese (23 years old, 6-4, 185, North Carolina)
A record-breaking shooter of free throws at the University of North Carolina, he played for Coach Frank McGuire with the Tar Heels.
Joe Ruklick (23 years old, 6-9, 220, Northwestern)
A top scorer in the Big Ten, he has served as Chamberlain’s understudy for three seasons, developing a nice hook shot and popularity with Philly fans, who have formed a fan club for him.
Ed Conlin (29 years old, 6-6, 200, Fordham)
The seven-year veteran had earlier stints with Syracuse and Detroit. He can play either front or back court and has an accurate outside set shot.
Ted Luckenbill (22 years old, 6-6, 205, Houston)
The hardworking rookie lefty, “Lucky” was the second best scorer in the history of the University of Houston.
Frank Radovich (23 years old, 6-8, 235, Indiana)
The burly frontline player, tough under the hoop, was obtained in the trade with St. Louis for Joe Graboski.
NEW YORK KNICKS
Willie Naulls (27 years old, 6-6, 225, UCLA)
The smooth all-star scorer and team captain, who as a collegian led UCLA to the Pacific Coast Conference crown, spurred the Knicks last season with a 23.4 scoring average and has been even better this season.
Johnny Green (28 years old, 6-5, 200, Michigan State)
Jumpin’ Johnny often outleaps taller foes and in his best pro game produced twenty-seven points and twenty-five rebounds against Wilt Chamberlain.
Darrall Imhoff (23 years old, 6-10, 220, California)
A good defensive man and rebounder in his sophomore NBA season, he won a collegiate title with the University of California and a gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome.
Richie Guerin (29 years old, 6-4, 210, Iona)
The Leatherneck, a fan favorite at Madison Square Garden, is enjoying his finest all-star season, scoring twenty-nine markers per game. He once scored a Knicks’ team-record fifty-seven points in a game.
Al Butler (23 years old, 6-2, 175, Niagara)
The multitalented guard joined the Knicks in December on purchase from Boston and hopes to reproduce the scoring magic of his sensational career at Niagara University.
Cleveland Buckner (23 years old, 6-8, 210, Jackson State)
A rookie named to the All-NAIA team for two seasons while playing in Mississippi, he can play the pivot and the outside with his deft jump-shooting touch and strong ball-handling skills.
Phil Jordon (28 years old, 6-10, 205, Whitworth)
Traded back to New York from Cincinnati in the middle of last season, he matched a career high with thirty-three points versus Philly earlier this season. He first developed his shots playing AAU ball with the Buchan Bakers of Seattle.
Donnie Butcher (26 years old, 6-3, 200, Pikeville)
The fifteenth of sixteen children, with five older brothers once serving in World War II, the onetime shooting star of the All-Kentucky Athletic Conference plays a rugged game.
Sam Stith (24 years old, 6-2, 185, St. Bonaventure)
He rejoins Coach Eddie Donovan, his mentor in college. He and younger brother Tom Stith combined to average fifty-one markers a game for the Bonnies one season.
Whitey Martin (22 years old, 6-2, 185, St. Bonaventure)
A playmaker and defensive whiz for Donovan with the Bonnies, he has quick hands and an accurate two-hand set shot.
Dave Budd (23 years old, 6-6, 210, Wake Forest)
The former Atlantic Coast Conference standout showed promise as a rookie last year, his .432 shooting percentage rating second best on the Knicks.
THE STATS
Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-Point Game
March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia Warriors 169, New York Knicks 147
PREFACE
AT THE MOMENT OF HIS GREAT GLORY, a minute twenty-five to play, the kids in Hershey screaming, “Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!” we see Wilt Chamberlain running the floor, a force of nature gathering power with each stride, and recognize him for what he is: unprecedented.
He came with a body and an ego perfectly sculpted for dominating his game. The ego was essential: For a player to score one hundred points in an NBA game, he must not only want to do it, he must, on a deeper level, need to do it—to take an opponent, an entire sport, and bend it to his will—to show that it could be done and only by him. In one hundred there was hubris but also a symbolic magic. In our culture the number connotes a century, a ripe old age, a perfect score on a test. Scoring one hundred points meant infinitely more than scoring, say, ninety-seven. One hundred was a monument.
Writers and players and coaches prophesied such a night for the young Wilt Chamberlain. He was a one-man revolution. He entered what was still largely a white man’s game, took it above the rim, and made it his. The game’s traditionalists, seeing the future, blanched. He was, at the core, an individualist, the ultimate alpha male. He loved his sport, he loved his women, and he loved himself. He was averaging fifty points per game during that 1961–62 season, and as his scoring numbers grew so did the prophecy. Pity the average NBA center of the day: Several inches smaller, not nearly as agile or strong or well conditioned, they became, against Chamberlain, desperate underdogs, some even sassing him by calling him “Globetrotter.” Chamberlain luxuriated in the prophecy and admitted coyly that if he kept his cool, made his shots, then, yes, one hundred points was possible.
His body was a spectacle unto itself, like “a first sight of the New York skyline,” according to one writer. Perfectly proportioned, seen from up close or afar, Chamberlain presented a physical majesty. H
e topped out at seven-foot-one and one-sixteenth and weighed 260 pounds, his upper body tightly coiled, not yet pumped up by the weightlifter’s mass of later years. His broad back sloped downward gently to a dancer’s thirty-one-inch waist. “The most perfect instrument ever made by God to play basketball,” the veteran Dolph Schayes would say. So long were Chamberlain’s legs, he wore kneepads high on his shins, where opposing knees were apt to strike. He pulled his socks up high, in part to hide scars from thousands of mosquito bites he suffered as a kid on visits to a farm his uncle worked in Virginia near the Rappahannock; he used rubber bands to hold those socks in place and, in a quirky habit dating to boyhood, still wore a spare rubber band on each wrist.
His father stood a touch over five-foot-eight and his mother just over five-foot-nine. He heard stories about a great-grandfather six-foot-ten or seven-foot-two but he half-wondered if the man existed. To call him Wilt the Stilt meant you were not his friend. He hated that name. It reminded him of a big crane standing in a pool of water. He preferred the Big Dipper. His family and all of west Philly called him Dippy either because of his “dip shot” dunk or because he dipped beneath doorways or because Philadelphia had its share of guys named Dippy—there was Dippy Carosi, Dippy Chamberlain, Dippy this, Dippy that. Nicknames were the rage in Philly then, with asphalt stars known as Tee, Misty, The Bird, and Hal “King” Lear. It’s the same city that in the early Fifties sized up the Asian eyes of a high school basketball star, Ray Scott, and called him Chink—Chink Scott.
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