March 2, 1962: The Philadelphia Warriors beat the New York Knicks, 169-147, in a "home game" for the Warriors at the Hershey Sports Arena.
It was not unusual for such games to be played by NBA teams in those days, in the hopes of building a regional fanbase. It might have worked better if the games had been on television. But there is no surviving TV broadcast of this game, and it might not have been on TV at all. There is no surviving film, either. Just a radio broadcast, from WIBG, 990 AM (now WNTP), with Bill Campbell on the microphone; and a few photographs.
Which is too bad, because this was the game in which the Warriors' Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points. He shot 28-of-32 from the foul line; those shots and attempts also remain records.
Think about that: Wilt scored 100 despite being fouled 16 times, an average of once every 3 minutes. He also scored 100 without the 3-point field goal being available to him: The NBA would not adopt it until 1979, 6 years after his last game.
Everybody else on the Warriors: Al Attles scored 17, Paul Arizin 16, Tom Meschery 16, Guy Rodgers 11, York Larese 9; and, playing but not scoring, Ed Conlin, Joe Ruklick and Ted Luckenbill.
For the Knicks: Richie Guerin 39, Cleveland Buckner 33, Willie Naulls 31, Dave Budd 13, Donnie Butcher 10, Al Butler 8, Darrall Imhoff 7 and Johnny Green 6.
After 1 quarter, it was Warriors 42, Knicks 26; at the half, Warriors 79, Knicks 68; after 3 quarters, Warriors 125, Knicks 106; and the final, again, was Warriors 169, Knicks 147. That final score was then the highest in NBA history, and the combined total of 316 points would remain an NBA record for 21 years.
Wilt scored 23 in the 1st quarter, 18 in the 2nd, 28 in the 3rd, and 31 in the 4th. Dave Zinkoff, the Warriors' public-address announcer from Day One in 1946 (and would hold that job for the 76ers until his death in 1985), began revealing Wilt's point total after he reached 70. There were just 4,124 fans on hand, and they began to chant, "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!" The Warriors obliged: Attles passed up an easy layup to pass to him for points 88 and 89, and later told an interviewer, "We wanted that Wilt got that record, because we all liked him." He got the 99th and 100th points on a layup with 46 seconds left.
The Hersheypark Arena
After the game, Harvey Pollack, the Warriors' statistician and publicist since day one, who would hold that job for the 76ers until his death in 2015, found him in the locker room, and gave him a piece of paper with the number 100 on it, figuring a photograph of him holding it would make for good publicity. Pollack was right.
Wilt set these records: Most points in a game, 100; most points in a half, 59; most field goals in a game, 36; most field goals in a half, 22; and, belying his infamous problems with shooting them, most free throws in a game, 28, in 32 attempts.
That season, Wilt scored more points than any player ever has, 4,029, over 1,000 more than the next-best total, by Michael Jordan. He averaged 50.36 points per game. Today, when a player has a single 50-point game, it's a big deal. Wilt averaged over 50 a game that season. Even if you take out that 1 game, he still averaged 49.73. As the man himself said, "So, it was like doubling my average." (It was also the 1st season in which a player averaged a triple-double: Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals. That feat wouldn't be matched until 2018.)
Wilt had games of 78 and 73 points that season. Take out those 2 games, and the 100-pointer, and he still averaged 49.06 points per game. In other seasons, he also had 2 games with 67, 2 with 65, 3 with 62, 3 with 61, and 2 with 60.
The 1961-62 season also featured Oscar Robertson of the Cincinnati Royals averaging 30.8 points, 12.5 rebounds and 11.4 assists. The term "triple-double," meaning averaging double figures, 10 or more, in at least 3 categories, had not yet come into use -- its origin is unclear, with credit having gone to Chick Hearn, Bruce Jolesch, Harvey Pollack and Bob Ryan -- and didn't become an official statistic until 1980. But "The Big O" was the 1st player to average a triple-double for an entire season. It would not happen again until 2016-17, with Russell Westbrook.
Before that season, the record was 71, by Elgin Baylor, Wilt's eventual teammate on the Los Angeles Lakers. The highest total since has been 81, by Kobe Bryant in 2006, and that included 7 treys. So, under the old rules, it would have been 74, still the 3rd-highest ever, behind Wilt and... Wilt.
Don't say Kobe. Don't say LeBron. Don't say Jordan. Wilt Chamberlain is the greatest basketball player of all time. He not only did to offensive stats in basketball what Babe Ruth did to them in baseball and Wayne Gretzky in hockey, he was the best defensive player, too. At the absolute least, 2nd in his time to Bill Russell. The most rebounds in a game? Wilt. Same season. 55. Fifty-five rebounds in one game. Against Russell. (But the Celtics won, and that sums up the rivalry between the men: Wilt outplayed Russ, but Russ led his team to victory over Wilt's team.)
Today, young fans like to say, "Wilt played against slow white guys." He also played against fast white guys. And fast black guys. In a league not watered down by expansion. Sure, the Knicks were bad, but there was no Donald Sterling-era Clippers, or pre-Jason Kidd Nets in the league.
Some young fans like to say, "Wilt played against plumbers." Guys who couldn't stay in shape all year long, because salaries were so low, they had to get off-season jobs. Well, if they were plumbers, then they brought their wrenches into the game, because Wilt got fouled like crazy, and it didn't stop him. Shaquille O'Neal whined about "Hack-a-Shaq." He didn't take half of what Wilt took, back when games weren't televised, and players knew they could get away with stuff that wouldn't get played on ESPN 5 times an hour. LeBron James? He would have faced the 1960s Celtics, with their thuggery, and run in stark terror.
Despite Wilt's achievements, at the end of the 1961-62 season, the Warriors were sold, and moved across the continent. They would play from 1962 to 1971 as the San Francisco Warriors, then move across the Bay to Oakland, using the name Golden State Warriors. They returned to San Francisco in 2019, but have kept the Golden State name.
After 1 season without an NBA team, 1962-63, Philadelphia got the Syracuse Nationals to move into the Warriors' former home, the Convention Hall of the Philadelphia Civic Center. They were renamed the Philadelphia 76ers. They moved into The Spectrum in 1967, and the arena now named the Wells Fargo Center in 1996. Wilt died in 1999, and a statue of him now stands outside the Wells Fargo Center.
The arena in question, built in 1936, still stands, under the name of the Hersheypark Arena. It was long the home of the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League, until 2002, when a new arena was built adjacent, now named the Giant Center after a supermarket chain. Though it would be understandable if people thought the Giant Center was named after Wilt Chamberlain.
Chamberlain, Guy Rodgers, team owner Eddie Gottlieb, broadcaster Bill Campbell, and public address announcer Dave Zinkoff have been elected to the Philadelphia Sports Hall of Fame.
UPDATE: On March 10, 2026, Bam Adebayo scored 83 for the Miami Heat in a win over the Washington Wizards. That is now the most since Wilt's 100. He had 7 3-pointers, so it would have been 76 under the rules Wilt played under; and he broke Wilt's record for most points on, and attempts on, free throws, raising it to 36 out of 43. After the game, he said, "Wilt, me, then Kobe. Sounds crazy."
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March 2, 1962 was a Friday. Two very different music stars were born that day: Rock singer Jon Bon Jovi, and hip-hop disc jockey Scott LaRock.
There were 2 other NBA games played that day. Robertson's Royals beat the Detroit Pistons, 120-112 at the Cincinnati Gardens. And Russell's Celtics lost to the St. Louis Hawks, 138-120 at the Kiel Auditorium in St. Louis. The Royals became the Kansas City Kings in 1972, and the Sacramento Kings in 1985. The Hawks moved to Atlanta in 1968.
There were no NHL games scheduled for that day. Lots of people told Wilt they were at Madison Square Garden the night he scored 100 points against the Knicks. But the game wasn't there. And the Rangers weren't at home that night, either.
Baseball was just starting Spring Training. And the NFL and the AFL were in their off-seasons.
One more note: This was also the day CBS aired the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man," which series creator Rod Serling adapted from the 1950 science fiction story by Damon Knight. Spoiler Alert for a 60-year-old episode: To Serve Man is a cookbook for aliens.
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