A photo, a story | Wilt Chamberlain’s “100” picture

This is the first image that comes to mind when talking about this legendary game. On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain, the Warriors’ star pivot, performed one of the greatest feats in sports: scoring 100 points in the same game against the Knicks! A round number immortalized by this no less legendary photo. The ” ultimate photo” of Wilt Chamberlain will qualify the biographer of the giant, Robert Cherry.

What happened at the Hershey Sports Arena (Pennsylvania), at the end of this unprecedented performance, for such a picture to be taken?

The first name to remember is Harvey Pollack. That night, the man who would later be considered a legend of statistics in the league, had to officiate as the Warriors’ public relations director as well as the statistician of the game. But not only that: he was also asked to cover the game for the Associated Press, the Philadelphia Inquirer and United Press International!

” The Philadelphia Inquirer decided not to send their reporter to cover the game. They asked me to do it for them. I brought my portable typewriter. At the same time, the AP and United Press International had staffers in Harrisburg, but they didn’t know much about basketball,” the handyman recalled in 2012, a few years before his death, considering that the game was now known to everyone largely because of his work. ” The biggest night in my 65-year career in the league. ”

The photographer present… as a spectator!

That night, the Philadelphia Inquirer wants, for example, the smallest detail on the 36 shots converted by the pivot (36/63 in total and 28/32 in free throws!). After checking the numbers with Dave Richter, the official scorer, we head to the locker room.

Wilt Chamberlain is already there, sitting on a stool. Harvey Pollack then notices one of the few photographers present, Paul Vathis, from the AP, waiting. The professional photographer, who won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his photograph of John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower at Camp David, found himself here almost by chance. He came to the game as a spectator, bringing his son for his tenth birthday. The photographer had to rush to his car to retrieve his camera during the evening!

” Did you take your pictures yet?” asked him in the locker room Harvey Pollack, who reported the scene in a documentary about the game.

– Paul Vathis: I don’t know what to take. What can I do?

– Harvey Pollack: Did anything unusual happen here tonight?

– Paul Vathis: Yes, Wilt scored 100 points.

– Harvey Pollack: Let’s do something to mark the occasion. ”

The statistician, not wanting to simply have the player pose with the ball, then turns to Jim Heffernan, editor of the Philadelphia Bulletin. ” You got any paper Hef? ” The reporter gives him a sheet from his notebook on which he was going to write the story. Once the number “100” is scribbled, Harvey Pollack holds up the sheet inside, ” See this symbol? This shows what you did here tonight, a photographer is going to take a picture of you. ” And Wilt Chamberlain replies, ” Hey, great idea! ”

No caption needed

” My dad just needed an idea. He wrote ‘100’ on a piece of paper, which we didn’t keep, and they took a picture of it. It was just a quick idea. He thought the easiest thing was to write the number down and have him hold it. That says it all. You don’t need a caption. A picture is worth a hundred points,” Ron Pollack formulated in 2016 about his father’s approach.

“ It’s just Wilt sitting on that bench, looking sheepishly at a camera while holding a piece of paper. But it works,” judged Gary Pomerantz, author of the book ‘Wilt, 1962. “It’s as great as any image taken in basketball. Whether it’s Julius Erving’s dunks, Michael Jordan levitating, or Kareem’s (Abdul-Jabbar) ‘sky hook,’ this image outshines them all. ”

An iconic image for an iconic game that Randall Vathis, who was celebrating his 10th birthday for the occasion, will ” never forget. It was just a wonderful night. I remember thinking, ‘This is a triple-digit number. I never thought that in my lifetime someone could make that much of a mark. No one, no one, has done what this guy has done. ” Good thing his father and “advisor” were there to immortalize it.

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