Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era

Crown, 2005. First edition. Hardcover. Fine/fine. A fine, fresh, unread copy in equally fine, price clipped dust jacket. First edition, first printing. Hardcover. Color illustrated endpapers. 267 pp. with biliography, index. Illustrated with photographs. On the night of March 2, 1962 in Hershey, Pennslyvania, a young and strijking athlete named Wilt Chamberlain, nicknamed the "Big Dipper" and playing for the Philadelphia Warriors, scored 100 points in an NBA game against the New York Knicks. As hsitoric as the achievement was, , it has remained shrouded in mystery---the game was not televised; no New York sportswriters showed up; a fourteen year old boy ran onto the court when Wilt scored his hundredth point, shook his hand, then ran off with the basketball. At the time, the NBA was still a stepchild to the college game; the players were mostly white, the games were played in drafty, half-filled arenas, and the players traveled by train. For this fascinating book, author Gary Pomerantz tracked downKnicks and Warriors fans, journalists, team officials, and other NBA stars, conducting more than 250 interviews , to recreate in painsdtaking detail the game that announced Chamberlain's greatness.