March 2, 1962. It was a cold, rainy Friday night in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Honestly, the atmosphere was kind of weird for a professional basketball game. The Philadelphia Warriors weren't even playing in Philadelphia; they were at the Hershey Sports Arena to drum up some regional interest. Only 4,124 people showed up. Most of them were kids or locals who just wanted something to do on a soggy evening. They had no idea they were about to witness the most lopsided individual performance in the history of the NBA. When you look at the wilt chamberlain 100 box score, it looks like a typo. It looks like a video game glitch from a time before video games even existed.
Wilt was a giant. He stood 7'1" and weighed about 260 pounds of pure muscle. By the time he stepped onto the court against the New York Knicks that night, he was already averaging 50 points per game for the season. Think about that for a second. That is a stat that doesn't make sense. But the box score from that night tells a story that goes way beyond just a big guy bullying people in the paint.
Inside the Numbers of the Wilt Chamberlain 100 Box Score
People usually just see the "100" and stop there. But the actual data in the wilt chamberlain 100 box score reveals how calculated the night actually was. Wilt played all 48 minutes. No rest. No breathers. He shot 36-of-63 from the field. That’s a lot of shots. In fact, his teammates were basically feeding him the ball every single possession once they realized history was on the line.
But here is the real kicker: the free throws.
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Wilt was a notoriously bad free-throw shooter. He finished his career at 51.1%. He once even tried shooting them underhanded because he was so desperate. But on this specific night in Hershey? He went 28-of-32 from the stripe. That’s 87.5%. If he had shot his career average, he would have finished with about 88 points. Still a record, but not "The Century." Those 28 made free throws remain an NBA record for a single game, shared with Adrian Dantley. It was the one night where the rim just felt massive to him.
The Knicks were short-handed, too. Their starting center, Phil Jordon, was out. Rumor has it he was nursing a massive hangover, though the official report said "flu." That left a rookie named Darrall Imhoff to guard the most dominant force in sports. Imhoff played 20 minutes before fouling out. After the game, he famously said, "I think they gave him a hundred points and nobody saw it." He was joking, mostly. But the frustration was real.
The Breakdown of the Scoring Quarters
It wasn't like he scored 25 points every quarter. It built up like a fever.
Wilt had 23 points after the first quarter. Pretty standard for him.
By halftime, he had 41. The crowd started getting a little buzzed.
After three quarters, he was at 69.
That is when the Warriors' public address announcer, Dave Zinkoff, started shouting the total after every basket. The game turned into a circus. The Knicks, embarrassed, started fouling other Warriors players to keep the ball away from Wilt. In response, the Warriors started fouling the Knicks to get the ball back. It was a mess. It was ugly basketball, but it was effective. Wilt scored 31 points in the fourth quarter alone to hit the triple digits.
Why the Box Score is All We Have
There is no video. Let that sink in. We have footage of the moon landing, but we don't have a single frame of the most famous game in NBA history. No local TV stations were there. It wasn't a "big" game. The only reason we have the audio of the fourth quarter is because a college student named Bill Campbell recorded the radio broadcast.
The wilt chamberlain 100 box score serves as the primary historical document for the event. Harvey Pollack, the Warriors' statistician (and the man who basically invented modern basketball analytics), handled the stats. He’s also the guy who scribbled "100" on a piece of paper and handed it to Wilt for the famous photo. Without that piece of paper and that box score, the event would feel like a myth.
The Knicks’ box score is a graveyard of "what happened?" Richie Guerin scored 39 points for New York. Under any other circumstance, that’s a headline. Here, it’s a footnote. Cleveland Buckner had 33. It didn't matter. The Knicks shot 44% as a team, which wasn't terrible for 1962, but they couldn't stop the deliberate funneling of the ball to the low post.
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Debunking the "Fluke" Narrative
Some modern fans try to diminish the wilt chamberlain 100 box score by saying the game was "rigged" or that the competition was weak. You've heard it before. "He was just taller than everyone."
First off, there were other tall guys. They weren't scoring 100. Wilt was an elite athlete—a track star who could high jump and run the 440. He had a fadeaway jumper that was nearly unblockable. If you look at the field goal attempts (63), you realize the sheer stamina required to take that many shots while being hacked, shoved, and doubled-teamed for 48 minutes. Most players today would gass out by attempt 40.
Also, the pace of the game back then was insane. Teams averaged way more possessions per game in the early 60s than they do now. More possessions mean more opportunities. But even with that high pace, nobody has come close since. Kobe Bryant got to 81 in 2006. That was a masterpiece, and even Kobe admitted he was exhausted. Wilt still had 19 points on him.
The Statistical Anomalies
- Field Goals: 36 made on 63 attempts.
- Free Throws: 28 made on 32 attempts (The real "miracle" of the night).
- Rebounds: Wilt grabbed 25. He was literally doing everything.
- Assists: He had 2. He wasn't there to pass.
- Team Total: The Warriors scored 169 points. The Knicks scored 147.
The game ended with a literal court storming. When Wilt hit the 100th point—a short shot with 46 seconds left—the fans rushed the floor. There is actually some debate about whether the final 46 seconds were even played. Some sources say the refs just called it. The official box score says the game was completed, but the chaos was so great that it’s hard to be 100% certain.
Lessons from the Century Mark
What does the wilt chamberlain 100 box score teach us about basketball? It shows that the "impossible" is usually a mix of supreme talent and a very specific set of circumstances. You need a dominant player, a mismatch, a hot streak at the free-throw line, and a team willing to sacrifice their own stats to feed the beast.
If you want to truly appreciate what happened that night, don't just look at the number 100. Look at the 28-of-32 from the line. That is where the game was won. It was the night the most physically gifted player in the world finally mastered his only weakness.
To dig deeper into this, you should look up the original Scantron-style stat sheets Harvey Pollack kept. They show the play-by-play progression and the sheer volume of shots Wilt took in that final quarter. It wasn't "natural" basketball, but it was a deliberate pursuit of greatness that we will likely never see again in the NBA.
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How to Analyze the Box Score Yourself
- Compare the field goal attempts to modern stars. Most high-scorers today take 25-35 shots. Wilt took 63.
- Look at the free throw percentage. This is the statistical "outlier" that made the 100 possible.
- Check the minutes played. In the modern era of "load management," playing 48 minutes in a high-pace game is unheard of.
- Research the Knicks' roster that night. Understanding the absence of Phil Jordon provides the context for why the interior defense was so porous.
The record is likely safe forever. The way the game is played now—with 3-point shots and sophisticated defensive rotations—makes it almost impossible for one man to take 60+ shots without the coach being fired or the defense triple-teaming him at half-court. Wilt's 100-point game is a relic of a different era, but the box score remains the most incredible document in the history of professional sports.
Actionable Insight: If you're a basketball fan or a stats nerd, go find the digitized version of the original official scorer’s sheet. It’s a fascinating look at how games were tracked by hand before the digital age. It puts the "work" in "box score" by showing the manual tallies for every single bucket Wilt made. It makes the 100 feel much more real when you see the pencil marks adding up.