Today in Labor History March 2, 1962: Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in one basketball game, setting an NBA record. The closest anyone has come to this record was Kobe Bryant’s 81-point game in 2006. Chamberlain also broke the record for most free throws scored during a game. That season, he averaged over 50 points per game, scoring over 60 points in 12 games. No one has come close to this. Wilt also had a 78-point game in 1961, two 73-point games in 1962, a 72-point game in 1962 and a 70-point game in 1963. Chamberlain has 5 the 8 single highest single game point totals in NBA history. I was lucky enough to see him play once, as a kid, toward the end of his career, when he was playing for the now defunct San Diego Conquistadores.
Chamberlain holds 72 NBA records, including records in scoring and rebounding. He once made 55 rebounds in a single game. He is not only the only NBA player to average over 30 points and 20 rebounds per game over the course of a season, he did this seven times in his career. He left college early to play professionally, at first with the Harlem Globetrotters because, in those days, the NBA refused to accept players until their graduating year of college had ended. One of the Globetrotters’ skits involved team captain, Meadowlark Lemon, feigning injury and falling to the floor. Instead of helping him up, Chamberlain lifted the 210-pound Lemon and threw him several feet into the air, and then caught him, like a ragdoll. Lemon called Chamberlain the strongest athlete who ever lived. In 1967, Chamberlain nearly got the opportunity to box against Muhammad Ali.