1962: Wilt Scores 100

On This Day in Sports: March 2, 1962

On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points as the Philadelphia Warriors defeated the New York Knicks 169–147 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. No NBA player had reached triple digits before, and none has matched the total since. Chamberlain played all 48 minutes, made 36 of 63 field-goal attempts and converted 28 of 32 free throws, a remarkable performance from a player whose foul shooting was often considered his weakness.

The game took place at Hershey Sports Arena rather than Philadelphia’s usual home floor and drew only a few thousand spectators. It was not televised, and no complete game film is known to exist. A radio broadcast and eyewitness accounts preserved the night’s momentum as teammates increasingly fed Chamberlain, New York defenders fouled to slow the pace and the crowd realized that an unthinkable number was becoming reachable.

Chamberlain entered the fourth quarter with 69 points and scored 31 more. With less than a minute remaining, he took a pass near the basket and scored the final field goal that pushed him to 100. The familiar postgame photograph of Chamberlain holding a handwritten “100” sign became the event’s lasting image, but the box score shows the scale of the effort: he also collected 25 rebounds.

The performance crowned a season in which Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points and 48.5 minutes per game, both still NBA records. Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006 came closest among later players, yet the gap remains enormous. The Hershey night survives as a benchmark for individual dominance and as a reminder that one of basketball’s most famous achievements happened beyond the reach of television cameras.