Wilt, 1962
Page 31
“upper-lower class”: Mike Blouch interview.
never mind, the Dipper doesn’t want: Kerry Ryman interview.
“Don’t say the ball was ‘stolen’”: Mike Blouch interview.
Blouch would get three-eighths: Ibid.
“put that thing in a burn barrel”: Reuel Ryman interview.
It doesn’t matter what this ball looks like: Mike Heffner interview.
a piece of Joe DiMaggio’s wedding cake: Leland’s Auctions Catalogue, April 27–28, 2000 (New York: Dartmouth Printing Company, 2000), 160. Mike Blouch personal files.
“‘What the hell is that?’”: Mike Heffner interview.
“the most important piece of basketball memorabilia…”: Leland’s Auctions Catalogue, April 27–28, 2000, 44.
Blouch rented a big car: Kerry Ryman interview.
“Can we use this?”: Mike Blouch interview.
“He’s obviously no longer a teenager”: The Today Show, National Broadcasting Company, April 26, 2000, NBC News Transcripts.
“I scored a couple hundred thousand…”: Ibid.
“Union property”: Mike Blouch interview.
“Blouch plugged in the blow dryer”: Ibid.
Willie Smith took the historic ball out of play: Harvey Pollack interview.
placed it in the Dipper’s bag, and covered it: Jeff Millman interview.
giddy Guy Rodgers joyfully heaving basketballs: Ibid.
Ryman must’ve grabbed a replacement ball: Harvey Pollack interview.
he had only six of the twelve balls: Jeff Millman interview.
Zink had used liquid white-out: Harvey Pollack interview.
given his hundred-point game ball to Al Attles: Pluto, Tall Tales, 223. In this book, Attles is also quoted saying, “Wilt gave me the ball that he scored the 100th point with, even though some kid claimed to have run off with it.” However, Attles insisted in interviews with me that Chamberlain gave him a different ball.
“I don’t want people climbing into my…”: Joe Ruklick interview.
“You’re on the front
“building a hot dog stand…”: Joe Ruklick interview.
demanded that Ryman take a lie detector test: Joe Ruklick and Kerry Ryman interviews.
gathering signed affidavits from locals: Mike Blouch, Marty Appel, Earl Whitmore, Jim Balmer, and Kerry Ryman interviews.
“If anything, the conflicting tales create…”: Leland’s Auctions Catalogue, October 5–6, 2000 (New York: Dartmouth Printing Company, 2000), 60–61. Also: Marty Appel interview. Appel worked as Leland’s publicist for the auction.
bidder who won the ball in the first auction hadn’t bid: Mike Heffner interview.
a used Dodge Arrow to replace: Kerry Ryman interview.
$10,000 in video company stock: Ibid.
EPILOGUE
“Yes, that’s correct, twenty thousand different ladies”: Wilt Chamberlain, A View from Above: Sports. Sex. And Controversy (New York: Villard, 1991), 258–62.
“That’s what an athlete did”: Peter Gethers interview.
Gethers created a list of one hundred questions: Ibid.
“That’s nine in one night”: Ibid.
“He obviously was a little pathological…”: Ibid.
“As soon as a female has a kibosh position…”: Seymour (Sy) Goldberg interview.
self-described environmentalists: George Meyer and Maria Semple interviews.
“the funniest man behind the funniest…”: David Owen, “Taking Humor Seriously—George Meyer, the Funniest Man Behind the Funniest Show on TV,” New Yorker (March 13, 2000): 64.
“If you’re woman enough to live in Wilt…”: George Meyer interview.
“beating the system, like Hugh Hefner or Robert Evans…”: Ibid.
God, I know you’re famous: Ibid.
“That is so not what this is about”: Ibid.
“You respect Wilt’s individuality and his nerve”: George Meyer interview.
“There was just one bookshelf…”: Maria Semple interview.
“Do you think Wilt was happy…”: Ibid.
“What’s a zero between friends?”: Lynda Huey interview.
“I believe the 2,000 number”: Ibid.
“ended up with each other at the end—by default”: Ibid.
“far too much nothingness”: Chamberlain. A View from Above, 66.
“Why did I ever think that I could fool myself…”: Ibid.
told fond stories about “us” and “we”: Lynda Huey interview.
“He refused to be loved or to love”: Ibid.
“Why do they tell me that they came…”: Ibid.
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Television and Radio
WCAU Radio, Philadelphia, PA, Philadelphia Warriors vs. New York Knicks, fourth quarter play-byplay and postgame show, March 2, 1962.
ESPN Radio, The Sporting Life, Chuck Wilson, program host. March 2, 2002. An interview with Richie Guerin on the fortieth anniversary of the hundred-point game.
Philly Hoops: The SPHAs and Warriors, WHYY-TV, Channel 12, Philadelphia Public Television, April 12, 2003. A documentary produced and directed by James Rosin.
Warriors Weekly Round Table: The Night Wilt Scored 100, KNBR-Radio, San Francisco. March 2, 1993. On the game’s thirty-first anniversary, a one-hour retrospective hosted by Greg Papa and featured an in-studio interview with Al Attles and telephone interviews with Wilt Chamberlain, Darrall Imhoff, Joe Ruklick, Bill Campbell, and Harvey Pollack.
List of Interviews
More than 250 interviews were conducted for this book between November 2002 and May 2004. A number of subjects graciously agreed to multiple interviews.
Players from the 100-Point Game Rosters
Paul Arizin, Tom Gola, Darrall Imhoff, Al Attles, Frank Radovich, Donnie Butcher, Ted Luckenbill, Dave Budd, Johnny Green, Tom Meschery, York Larese, Joe Ruklick, Willie Naulls, Sam Stith, Whitey Martin
The New York Press
Sam Goldaper, Leonard Lewin, Leonard Koppett, Les Keiter, Murray Janoff
The Philadelphia Press
Larry Merchant, Stan Hochman, Sandy Grady, Bill Campbell, Jim Heffernan, Bob Vetrone, Ralph Bernstein, Alan Richman, Mike Rathet
Hershey, Pennsylvania, and Environs
Paul Serff, Brent Hancock, Pam Whitenack, Earl Whitmore, Lucille Ryman, Gabe Basti, Irvin “Bud” Miller, Reuel Ryman, Kerry Ryman, Mike Blouch, Evo Ionni, Bern Sharfman, John Bolan, Ernie Accorsi, Paul Vathis, James Neill Flaherty, Harry Goff, Sanford Krevsky, George Krevsky, Todd Thompson, John Rowan, Jeff Adams, Larry Wagner, Ted Russ, Jim Balmer, Bob Seiverling, Dan Seiverling, Jack Snavely, Woody Slaybaugh, Dave Damore, Michael Larkin, Bill Pavone, Eliot Goldstein, James Hayney
Philadelphia
Cecil Mosenson, Larry Jacobs, Gerald Early, Vince Miller, Angelo Musi Jr., Harvey Pollack, Ron Pollack, Ken Berman, Hal Lear, Gil Fitch, Jeff Millman, Mike Richman, Charles Blockson, Simcha Gersh, Wally Nowacki, Marv Bachrad, Dave Shapiro, Ray Scott, Joe Goldenberg, Irv Cross, Tommy McDonald, Tim Brown, Sonny Jurgensen, Clarence Peaks, A. Toby Deluca
The NBA
Bob Cousy, Pete Newell, Red Auerbach, Earl Lloyd, Pete D’Ambrosio, Nate Thurmond, Bill Sharman, Tom “Satch” Sanders, Marty Blake, Rod Hundley, Clyde Lovellette, K.C. Jones, Norm Drucker, Carl Bennett, Boag Johnson, Vern Mikkelsen, Johnny “Red” Kerr, Dolph Schayes, John Kundla, Ken Sears, John Oldham, Pat Williams, Todd Caso, Al Cervi, Cal Ramsey, Tom Hawkins, Fred Schaus, Louis “Red” Klotz, Frank Selvy, Tom Heinsohn, Fred Crawford, Tom Stith, Bob McCollough, Brian McIntyre
Others
Tom Kearns, Clarence “Bevo” Francis, Newt Oliver, Ron Thomas, Bob Kurland, Carol Ann Morgan, Marge Donovan, Elsie Richter, Dr. Robyn Fivush, Tom Callahan, Al Oerter, Jack Curran, Marty Appel, Maria Semple, George Meyer, Max Falkenstien, Jerry Waugh, Lynda Huey, Maurice King, Jim McGregor, Mike Heffner, Harry Edwards, Dorothy DaCosta, Joe Goldstein, Ed Schuyler Jr., Bert Rosenthal, Peter Gethers, Hugh Wheelright, George Sullivan, Jim Trelease, Bob Boyd, Jim Mutscheller, Gino Marchetti, Andy Nelson, Lloyd Williams
Magazines Consulted
American Heritage; Ebony; Fortune; Greater Philadelphia; Jet; Life; Look; McClure’s Magazine; Newsweek; Saturday Evening Post; Senior Scholastic; Sport; Sporting News; Sports Illustrated; Success; Time
Newspapers Consulted
Amsterdam News; Boston Globe; Boston Herald; Boston Traveler; Chicago Defender; Chicago Tribune; Harrisburg (PA) News; Harrisburg (PA) Patriot; Hershey News; Lebanon (PA) Daily News; Lexington (KY) Herald; Lexington (KY) Leader; Jewish Exponent (Philadelphia, PA); Long Island (NY) Daily Press; Los Angeles Times; Minneapolis Tribune; Newsday; New York Daily News; New York Herald-Tribune; New York Journal-American; New York Mirror; New York Post; New Yor
k Times; New York World Telegram; Philadelphia Daily News; Philadelphia Evening Bulletin; Philadelphia Inquirer; Philadelphia Tribune; Pittsburgh (PA) Courier; Pottsville (PA) Republican; St. Louis Post-Dispatch; St. Paul (MN) Dispatch; Tacoma (WA) News Tribune; Washington Post; York (PA) Dispatch
Libraries and Archives Consulted
Doe Library, University of California, Berkeley; Woodruff Library, Emory University; New York Public Library; Paley Library, Urban Archives, Temple University; Greater Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum; Hershey Community Archives; Derry Township Historical Society
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
AT THE HERSHEY HIGH MEADOWS CAMPGROUND, in a barn’s second-story loft, I found the hardwood floor from the hundred-point game. It had been brought there years before. Decayed around the edges, warped in places and loaded down with various campground materials, the famous floor, nearly seven decades old, had been clicked together haphazardly, out of sequence as if by a drunken or dyslexic carpenter—a piece of the lane (where the Dipper held sway over Imhoff) set here, another piece of the lane set over there. I walked to the free-throw line—or at least a portion of it—near the far wall. Standing there, striving to connect to March 2, 1962, and then acting silly perhaps, I bent low and pretended to shoot an underhanded free throw. (I only did it once, not thirty-two times.) I walked across the floor slowly, taking time to imagine Rodgers and Attles leading the break, Imhoff and Buckner and Naulls and Budd building a human wall around the Dipper. Then, I left. As I neared my car, a young worker shouted from behind, “Hey!” I turned. He said, “I got this for you.” In his hand he held a small piece of wood, perhaps three inches by fifteen inches. He’d just ripped it from the edge of the famous floor. “I can’t take that,” I said. “Go ahead,” he replied, adding, “It isn’t doing much in here. I’ll just throw it out if you don’t take it.” Reluctantly, I took it. Its surface had darkened from age and wear, covered over by time. Scratching at that surface, though, revealed a lighter wood beneath, closer to its color on that long-ago night. In trying to recover the lost game, I sought to find that light wood, that moment when the game lived.