March 2, 1962 Wilt Chamberlain 100-Point Game Program and Ticket Stub (PSA 3 VG)
March 2, 1962 will forever be etched into basketball lore as the night Wilt Chamberlain did the unthinkable: 100 points in a single game. It was a home contest for the Philadelphia Warriors against the New York Knicks in little Hershey, PA, with just 4,124 on hand as witnesses. No members of the New York press showed up. The game was not televised, and no video footage is known to exist today. The only audio recording is from the 4th quarter. In spite of the lack of media, the colossal achievement holds an almost mythological place in sports history. Thankfully, an iconic photo of Wilt holding up a sheet of paper marked "100" captured the transcendent moment that lifted The Big Dipper from human athlete to immortal superhero.
Nobody could have anticipated that history would be made that evening. The Big Dipper – whose reputation off the court was just as legendary – reportedly spent the night before partying in New York City before dropping off a lady friend at 6 a.m. Sleep-deprived and hungover, he took the 8 a.m. train back to Philly to meet friends for lunch and barely made the team bus to Hershey Sports Arena. It was the Warriors' third "home" game that season in the small chocolate factory town 85 miles outside Philadelphia, something the struggling NBA imposed to increase fan bases. Only two photographers made the trip and, with so few media members in attendance, the Warriors publicist served as a stringer for major newspapers. With five games left in the regular season, neither team had much to play for: the 2nd place Warriors were too far back to catch the Celtics and the Knicks were dead last.
Wilt's drive to 100 began with a 23-point first quarter, including a surprising 9-for-9 from the foul line. By halftime, he stood at 41 points, and in the locker room Warriors point guard Guy Rodgers suggested to Coach Frank McGwire that they keep feeding "Dip" to "see how many he could get." The Knicks did their best to defend him, committing hard fouls and throwing triple, even quadruple-teams at him. It didn't matter. The 7' 1", 275-lb. behemoth was unstoppable and relentless in his pursuit, mixing in dunks, layups and short turnaround jumpers. The 51% career free-throw shooter kept making his foul shots, too. Wilt poured in 28 in the third quarter to reach 69, well within reach of the single-game record of 78 he had set a few months prior. The crowd's energy and anticipation grew with every basket, and with 7:51 left in the fourth quarter he got point number 79. Al Attles and his Philly teammates were passing up shots to toss it to the big guy in the key. The Knicks countered by milking the shot clock and fouling other Warriors intentionally to prevent Wilt from embarrassing them even further. Chants of "Give it to Wilt!" rang out as he blew past 80, then 90, and all sights were set for 100. "Man, these people are tough," recalled Chamberlain later. "No one has ever scored 80." With 46 seconds to go, The Stilt reached the century mark with a short jumper, sending the crowd into a frenzy as they stormed the court. Chamberlain finished 36-63 from the field and 28-32 from the line, while grabbing 25 rebounds. He would average 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds for the 1961-62 season. Unfathomable numbers to us humans, but apparently not to Wilt, who stated,
"As outstanding as it may seem, it's really a normal thing that I did it. You have to remember that I averaged 50 points a game that year. Players that average 16 or 17 points usually have at least one game during a season when they score 35. That's just what I did; I doubled my average."
This pair of rare artifacts from Wilt's epic 100-point performance includes an original game program and ticket stub. Both items are amongst the finest examples of their limited populations. The program is relatively clean and tightly bound. A few small pin-sized holes appear on the top edge of the cover and light wear is evident at the corners. Writing on the program includes, “100 Points” neatly inscribed beneath the large black and white photo of Chamberlain on the cover and the recordation of the quarterly scoring totals for each player on both teams on the scoring grids inside the program. The final tally Wilt’s offensive production, “100” was emphatically circled for posterity. The accompanying ticket stub is a truly elite specimen. A mere thirteen examples have been encapsulated by PSA to date with nine of those receiving “Authentic” designations. In addition to this VG 3 graded example, the three other examples with numerical grades include a single stub graded PR 1, and two graded VG-EX 4(MK) and VG-EX 4 respectively.
Rarely offered together, this extraordinary pairing is the ultimate commemoration of one the most historic feats in sports history, one that will never be surpassed!
