[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2306]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




     HONORING WILT CHAMBERLAIN FOR HIS 100-POINT GAME 50 YEARS AGO

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                           HON. CHAKA FATTAH

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, February 27, 2012

  Mr. FATTAH. Mr. Speaker, I call to the attention of my colleagues--
and not just those who are basketball fans--that on March 2 in 
Philadelphia we will celebrate a once-in-the-universe athletic feat 
that occurred precisely 50 years ago.
  On March 2, 1962, in a game between the Philadelphia Warriors and the 
New York Knicks on a neutral court in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wilt 
Chamberlain--perhaps the greatest and most influential player in 
basketball history--scored exactly 100 points. No one had done it 
before. No one has done it since. No one ever will.
  But for Wilton Norman Chamberlain, born in Philadelphia August 21, 
1936, and already a national superstar when he played for Overbrook 
High School in the early 1950s, astonishing feats on the hardwood were 
the commonplace. Basketball has been utterly and permanently changed 
since he first attracted notice on--and above--the courts of West 
Philly in neighborhoods I have been privileged to represent in 
Congress.
  Even in the quintessential big man's game of basketball, Wilt 
Chamberlain towered over his on-court contemporaries and truly loomed 
larger than life. These days, ``game changer'' has become a cliche. 
Wilt might as well have authored the term. Not just 7-foot-1 but agile, 
competitive and creative, he transformed ``the city game.'' He invented 
and perfected a style that has become another cliche: ``above the 
rim.''
  The Warriors-Knicks game that historic day was otherwise 
unremarkable. The Knicks were in last place. The ``crowd'' in Hershey 
was 4,124. There was no TV or video, and press coverage was scant. The 
Warriors' statistician Harvey Pollack was drafted to cover the game for 
the Philadelphia Inquirer and two wire services--and he's the guy who 
penciled ``100'' onto scrap paper for the iconic post-game photo that's 
gone 'round the world. Wilt said later he had been up all night the 
night before, and was a bit embarrassed to have taken 63 shots to reach 
100, with teammates feeding him the ball and Knicks fouling him at 
every opportunity.
  It seemed like no big deal at the time--Wilt scored at least 70 
points five other times, and that season averaged 50.4 a game. But it's 
a big deal now in his home town, the subject of ESPN and NBA TV 
specials, and exalted wherever fans gather. Philadelphia's team, the 
Sixers, will be hosting Wilt's old team, now the Golden State Warriors, 
on the night of March 2, with an amazing giveaway--two-inch squares of 
the long abandoned Hershey Sports Arena oak-wood court where 
Chamberlain scored those 100 points.
  Leading the tributes in Philadelphia is Donald Hunt, the respected 
and tireless sportswriter for the Philadelphia Tribune, who has led 
efforts to commemorate the game and have Wilt Chamberlain honored on a 
U.S. postage stamp. Keep putting up those shots, Donald.
  Basketball has come a long way since that evening a half century ago. 
The American game has gone global, from Belarus to China, from 
Argentina to Zaire, at the Olympics, on aircraft carriers, against 
garage walls and on a million playgrounds, wherever a hoop can hang and 
a roundball sent skyward. Its heroes and innovators are figures of 
historic and cultural import. Wilt Chamberlain, take a bow.

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