Was Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game televised?
Chamberlain holds the single-game scoring record, having scored 100 points in a game in 1962.
Follow Us
Wilt Chamberlain (AP Photo/Paul Vathis, File)
It is no argument that Wilt Chamberlain is one of the all-time greats of the game of basketball. A player of his size, skill, and demeanor was surely destined to be one of the most dominating offensive players in the NBA. Standing at a whopping height of seven feet and one inch, Chamberlain joined the NBA way back in 1959. He joined the Philadelphia Warriors, who later relocated to the San Francisco Warriors. Playing in the league for over 14 years, Chamberlain is recorded to have scored more than 30,000 points in his NBA career.
Chamberlain first started his professional career by playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. After graduating from college and meeting the eligibility criteria to join the NBA, Chamberlain joined the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors and played for the franchise from 1959 to 1965. In his rookie season, Chamberlain made his way into the Eastern Conference All-Star team and won the All-Star game. He also managed to pick up the All-Star MVP. A remarkable feat for a rookie player.
Unfortunately, the Warriors couldn’t pick up a title win that year as they lost 4-2 to the Boston Celtics. However, in the years to come, Chamberlain would end up winning two championships. One with the Philadelphia 76ers and one with the Los Angeles Lakers. He is recorded to have scored 50 or more points in over 118 games and 60 or more points in over 32 games. He is also the NBA’s all-time leading rebounder, with 23,924 rebounds to his name.
Related: NBA on TNT throws shade at media for comparing heroics of modern-day players with Wilt Chamberlain
The year in which Wilt Chamberlain cemented his legacy
The 1961-62 NBA season saw some of Chamberlain’s most amazing basketball ever. The legendary Center went on to score over 4,000 points and more than 2,000 rebounds that season, making him the only player to cross that number. Chamberlain was at his peak, as he was averaging about 48 minutes on the court every game. Many would also call this a career-defining season, as these weren’t the only achievements Chamberlain was satisfied with.
Chamberlain walked into a game against the New York Knicks to create history on March 2nd, 1962. With his stat line standing at 36 field goals made off 63 attempts and 28 made free throws out of 32 shot attempts, Chamberlain combined for a mind-boggling 100 points. An achievement that no one has accomplished to touch or cross since then. The closest anyone has come to Chamberlain is Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. In the modern age of the NBA, players can only dream of a stat line so staggering. It is no doubt that Wilt Chamberlain had a dream like scoring dominance.
Can we watch Wilt Chamberlain’s historic 100-point game highlights?
As enthralling as Chamberlain’s 100-point game sounds, watching it is an unfortunate impossibility. The game was played in Pennsylvania and was not broadcasted live on television. As tragic a miss as it could be, it was aired on the radio by a Philadelphia-based radio station. Although there is an audio recording of the radio broadcast, no video footage has ever been found. The audio recording is preserved by the Library of Congress and is one of the 25 audio recordings that were announced for inclusion in the National Recording Registry. The Library of Congress later released a statement about the same, saying:
“On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain shattered the NBA record by scoring 100 points in a single game. The game, played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, was not covered by television; it was only broadcast by a Philadelphia radio station. University student Jim Trelease, who had fallen asleep listening to the game, awoke to the news that the station would be replaying part of the game in the early morning. Trelease decided to record the rebroadcast.”
“In 1990, Trelease learned that the Hershey Community Archives did not have a copy of the broadcast. Fortunately, Trelease still had his copy and donated it to the HCA, which later gave a copy to the NBA. In 1988, the NBA had acquired a copy of the fourth quarter of the game from Warriors fan Samuel B. Marcus, who had recorded the Warriors’ possessions on a Dictaphone. League archivist Todd Caso had both recordings cleaned up and combined to make the best possible version from the two sources.“
In case you missed:
Stay Updated!
Ritvik Malhotra
(1085 Articles Published)