PTFO - Wilt Chamberlain and the Conspiracy Factory: We Unearthed the True Story of the 100-Point Game

Summary

Summary of "PTFO - Wilt Chamberlain and the Conspiracy Factory: We Unearthed the True Story of the 100-Point Game"

Podcast Information:

• Title: The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz
• Host/Author: Dan Le Batard, Stugotz
• Episode: PTFO - Wilt Chamberlain and the Conspiracy Factory: We Unearthed the True Story of the 100-Point Game
• Release Date: February 28, 2025

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Introduction

In this captivating episode of The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, hosts Dan Le Batard and Stugotz delve deep into one of basketball’s most legendary moments: Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. Titled "PTFO - Wilt Chamberlain and the Conspiracy Factory: We Unearthed the True Story of the 100-Point Game," the episode explores the enduring mysteries and conspiracy theories surrounding this historic feat. Through interviews, archival discoveries, and insightful discussions, the hosts aim to provide a comprehensive understanding of whether Wilt’s monumental achievement was everything it’s celebrated to be—or something more enigmatic.

Historical Context and Mystique

The episode begins by setting the stage in the early 1960s, a time when the NBA was still in its infancy and not widely televised. Host Pablo Torre introduces Professor Gary Pomerantz, author of Wilt 1962, who provides historical insights into Wilt’s larger-than-life persona and the NBA’s status during that era.

Notable Quote:

"Wilt was a luminous star at that time. He's just 25 years old... he owned all of Harlem, like he owned all of New York."
— Gary Pomerantz [09:42]

Pomerantz emphasizes the scarcity of video evidence from the game, contributing to its enduring mystique. He reflects on how historical events without visual proof, like Lincoln at Gettysburg, are still widely accepted, yet similar skepticism arises today.

The 100-Point Game and Its Legends

The core of the discussion revolves around Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game on March 2, 1962, and the growing conspiracy theories questioning its legitimacy. Pomerantz shares his journey in uncovering the true story, likening it to "Alice in Wonderland" as he navigates through decades of myths and incomplete records.

Notable Quote:

"There are some questions. Whether or not it happened is not a question foreign."
— Gary Pomerantz [41:04]

Investigating the Conspiracy Theories

The conversation shifts to modern skepticism fueled by online platforms like Reddit, TikTok, and YouTube, where fans debate the authenticity of the game due to the lack of comprehensive footage. The hosts explore the role of primary sources and archival discoveries in addressing these theories.

Notable Quote:

"The only photographic evidence of this is a locker room photo and a piece of paper that says 100 on it...I need your help."
— Caller Matthew [07:25]

Uncovering Lost Tapes and Evidence

One of the significant breakthroughs discussed is the discovery of partial recordings of the game. Sammy Marcus, a long-time basketball fan, recounts how he missed the game but obtained parts of the radio broadcast, providing crucial pieces to the puzzle. Additionally, archivist Tessa Burns reveals the finding of a reel-to-reel tape at the Hershey Story Museum, adding depth to the fragmented historical record.

Notable Quote:

"I found this box right here... we do have the original tape."
— Tessa Burns [17:59]

Personal Accounts and Interviews

The episode features interviews with key figures like Bill Campbell, the legendary play-by-play announcer, and Daryl Imhoff, the Knicks’ defender during the game. Their firsthand accounts shed light on the dynamics of the game and the environment that allowed Wilt to achieve his unprecedented score.

Notable Quotes:

"Wilt had 69 points going into the fourth quarter... he still needs 31 points."
— Bill Campbell [19:29]

"My word is a farce. It was a farce of a game. It was not... what makes that a farce."
— Daryl Imhoff [25:59]

The Role of Statistics and the Final Moments

Professor Pomerantz delves into the statistical anomalies of the game, highlighting Wilt’s scoring efficiency and the Knicks’ defensive strategies—or lack thereof. The discussion includes the infamous moment when Wilt continued to score despite already setting a record, raising questions about the game’s integrity.

Notable Quote:

"We’re just conjecturing here. How many can he make? He’s got 9 minutes and 24 seconds left... medium."
— Bill Campbell [20:42]

Tom Macheri’s Poetic Reflection

A standout segment features Tom Macheri, a former player and poet, who provides a poignant perspective on the game. His reflections bridge the gap between athletic achievement and personal legacy, emphasizing the emotional and cultural impact of Wilt’s performance.

Notable Quote:

"If Darrell thinks it was manufactured, it was manufactured by the Lord God himself."
— Tom Macheri [48:49]

Concluding Insights and Legacy

The episode wraps up by acknowledging the collective memory and legacy of Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game. Despite the lingering questions and the piecemeal nature of historical evidence, Pomerantz and the hosts conclude that Wilt's achievement remains a cornerstone of basketball history, emblematic of both human potential and the complexities of record-keeping in sports.

Notable Quote:

"For me, when the structure of the game breaks down and the team that's 20 points behind is stalling, something’s weird, something strange."
— Gary Pomerantz [33:59]

Final Thoughts

The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz successfully navigates the intricate web of history, myth, and personal narratives surrounding Wilt Chamberlain’s legendary 100-point game. Through meticulous research and engaging storytelling, the episode not only questions but also celebrates the enduring legacy of one of basketball’s most iconic performances.

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Key Takeaways:

• Historical Context: Understanding the NBA’s status in the 1960s is crucial to appreciating Wilt’s impact.
• Conspiracy Theories: Modern skepticism arises from the lack of comprehensive video evidence.
• Archival Discoveries: Partial recordings and newly found tapes provide pieces to the historical puzzle.
• Personal Narratives: Interviews with contemporaries and players offer diverse perspectives.
• Legacy: Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game remains a subject of fascination and debate, embodying both athletic excellence and historical ambiguity.

Notable Quotes with Attribution:

• Gary Pomerantz [09:42]: Discussing Wilt’s larger-than-life persona.
• Matthew [07:25]: Voicing doubt about the game’s authenticity.
• Tessa Burns [17:59]: Revealing the discovery of archival tapes.
• Daryl Imhoff [25:59]: Critiquing the legitimacy of the game.
• Tom Macheri [48:49]: Defending Wilt’s performance against conspiracy theories.

This detailed exploration provides listeners—both aficionados and casual fans—with a nuanced understanding of one of sports history’s most debated moments, blending factual investigation with engaging personal stories.

Transcript

[Pablo Torre]

Welcome to Pablo Torre Finds Out. I am Pablo Torre. Today's episode is brought to you by DraftKings. DraftKings. The Crown is yours. And today we're gonna find out what this sound is.

[Gary Pomerantz]

I used to hate the fact that there was no video of it, but as time goes on, I think it kind of adds to the mystique of the game.

[Tessa Burns]

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[Pablo Torre]

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[Gary Pomerantz]

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[Pablo Torre]

When you heard from us, Gary Pomerantz, that we wanted to do this topic because of what people had been saying on the Internet, were you excited?

[Gary Pomerantz]

My intuitive reaction was, here we go again. My second reaction was something approximating an eye roll. You know, it's a conspiratorial time.

[Bill Campbell]

Here is a bulletin from CBS News. In Dallas, Texas, three shots were fired at President Kennedy's motorcade in downtown Dallas.

[Gary Pomerantz]

You go back to the 1960s, and there were still a lot of questions about the Kennedy assassination.

[Bill Campbell]

That's one small step for man.

[Daryl Imhoff]

One triathlete for mankind.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Did Neil Armstrong really touch the moon or was he in a studio somewhere in the United States? So it was that kind of a time. And now, you know, we're unfortunately a bit of a historically illiterate country. If there's no video, then it didn't happen. Well, we know the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, but there's no video of that. We know about Lincoln at Gettysburg. There's no video of that.

[Pablo Torre]

Do we, though? Are we sure?

[Gary Pomerantz]

We're pretty sure.

[Pablo Torre]

Are we sure about that?

[Gary Pomerantz]

We're pretty sure Lincoln was at Gettysburg. Yeah. And so, you know, for sports fans, you gotta lock in on how different the NBA was then and how different sports media was then. When Kobe scores 81, 15 minutes later online, you can buy a DVD of his performance. So that's what we're used to. That's the immediacy of today with technology. It wasn't so then.

[Pablo Torre]

Do you remember the first time you heard somebody casting aspersions on the subject that you have literally written the book about?

[Gary Pomerantz]

Yeah. I mean, there was always questions of how could he have done this? How could anybody score 100 points? Kobe's 81 is second best. And that's not even close. There's something too, about the number 100, the symbolism of 100. It's a century. It's a perfect score on a test. If Wilted scored 102 or 97, we wouldn't embrace it or question it even as we do. And so I decided all these decades later, I gotta find out what happened here. This is one of the most famous and famously unknown stories in sports history. The deeper I went, it became, you know, like Alice in Wonderland. Curiouser and curiouser.

[Pablo Torre]

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[Gary Pomerantz]

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[Pablo Torre]

So the anniversary of one of the most iconic performances in the history of sports is approaching on Sunday. But what most distinguishes Wilt Chamberlain's single game scoring record is that right now, for each of his points on March 2, 1962, there appears to be just as many questions 60 plus years later, if I'm understanding correctly, on the Pat McAfee show, we are now questioning the veracity of Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game.

[Gary Pomerantz]

We're questioning whether this is whether or not this actually happened. No, we're not. Pac man is not. But I did not know that there was no documented footage of this until just now. So as soon as that happens, boom. My brain goes, whoa.

[Matthew]

Are you sure?

[Gary Pomerantz]

The people always say they don't know if it's true or if it's false. Did Wilt actually score 100 points?

[Bill Campbell]

Like, even the scores table people like, did they all die?

[Pablo Torre]

Like, yeah, like, that's why I'm curious, who's on the Knicks? Is anyone still?

[Gary Pomerantz]

You just.

[Bill Campbell]

That's. That was the only thing that could, like, sell me on. Like, there was people like, yeah, I was actually at that game.

[Gary Pomerantz]

People know what happened 10 billion years ago. They know how the Earth was created. They know what the Egyptians were talking about, what they were saying. Even though that is like, I've seen aliens. Even though that is six languages removed.

[Pablo Torre]

From what we're talking about right now. And nobody knows outside of a sheet.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Of paper with crayon on it that says 100.

[Pablo Torre]

And on and on it goes across Reddit and TikTok and YouTube to the point where we here at Pablo Torre finds out. Got a voicemail about this topic at our detective agency hotline, 51385. Pablo.

[Matthew]

Hey, Pablo. Long time. First time. There's been a lot of stuff going around the Internet lately about whether or not Wilkes scored 100 points, because there's a lot of old footage from the 50s and 60s of the NBA, but nothing really about that supposed 100 point game.

[Pablo Torre]

And then we got another one.

[Matthew]

Hi, Pablo, my name is Matthew. I have a question. And it's actually kind of a conspiracy theory that perhaps only I believe in, but maybe others do. We shall find out. It revolves around Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game. We have no video evidence of this happening, as far as I know. And the only photographic evidence of this is a locker room photo and a piece of paper that says 100 on it. I'm not sure that I truly believe and trust that Lilt Chamberlain actually scored 100 points in a game. I know that sounds crazy, but I need your help.

[Pablo Torre]

Now, those callers sounded reasonable enough to us that we finally decided it was time to get to the bottom of what seems to be a global mystery. And the first person we called was Stanford professor Gary Pomeran, the aforementioned author of the book Wilt 1962. And Gary immediately established something. He established that one tricky thing about fact checking Wilt Chamberlain is that Wilt Chamberlain's whole brand was to be larger than life.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Wilt was a luminous star at that time. He's just 25 years old. He's got a nightclub in Harlem called Big Wilt Small's Paradise Smalls paradise dates the halcyon days of the Harlem Renaissance. And Wilt walked through that place like he owned all of Harlem, like he owned all of New York. Redd Fox, Etta James, Cannonball Adderley. Wilt's the greeter, the tallest greeter in NBA history. Wilt had a Goliath syndrome. He was 7 1, 260 pounds. Dolph Shays of the Syracuse national said his body was the most perfect instrument made by God to play basketball. You know, another writer likened Wilt's body to first sight of the New York skyline. I mean, think about this. 7 1, 260 pounds. His back triangulates down to a 31 inch dancer's waist. The guy was cut. The guy could run the floor like a train. Everything about him was magnificent.

[Pablo Torre]

I had to do a lot of just reacquainting myself with history as well. For this, Wilt was singing his own tune, literally on American Bandstand, right by.

[Gary Pomerantz]

The river, down by the river, by the river. You know, he wasn't Frankie Valli. He wasn't very good, but they did cut a record of it. You know, he had a racehorse named Spooky Cadet and never won. He had an Asian motif apartment off Central park west in New York. And then, of course, there was Will telling stories about his womanizing.

[Pablo Torre]

That's the number that people are most, you know, had been most obsessed with that statistic. 20,000. If I had to count my sexual encounters, I'd be closing in on 20,000 women. That equals to having sex with 1.2 women a day every day since I was 15 years old. What kind of reaction did you receive after that?

[Gary Pomerantz]

Do you still receive? I. Well, you know, I still, I still receive.

[Pablo Torre]

What's the fact checking on that like?

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, the fact checking is difficult to do, as a matter of fact. But I interviewed one of the 20,000, a woman named Linda Huey, who became a great friend of Wilt's at the end of his life. She said, wilt, why did you say 20,000? And Wilt's response was to wink and say, what's an extra zero between friends?

But, you know, I thought maybe one of the reasons you invited me on the show was to give me an award from the Board of Education, because whenever people see me now, they go, 20,000. And let's see, he must have started when he was like 15. He's now maybe 55. So let's see, 20,365 and 20,000. And, you know, and then you're getting people thinking not only that, I'm teaching them mathematics, which is really the whole story here, you understand?

[Pablo Torre]

I don't think that's gonna be a word problem for kids if Wilt Chamberlain.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Is with 10 women on a train headed east.

[Bill Campbell]

That's right.

[Gary Pomerantz]

There you go. I got this sense as I was working on this book, you know, excavating this 100 point game. There's a comic book superhero quality to Wilt, his life, his numbers. I interviewed ultimately 56 people who were there, 15 of them players, the broadcaster, the statistician, the shot clock operator, a number of fans. Look, Pablo, when you go back into this time, you're going back into a time when the NBA was a lounge act. It was a league in search of itself. The crowds weren't very big. The joke used to be that the PA announcer would introduce the players in the starting lineup and then would introduce each fan. It was nine teams in the league, only one team west of St. Louis, that would be the Lakers, who'd moved out a year before to the west. And the league was trying to grow new fans. And that's why they played in outlying areas that had sizable arenas. The Lakers played a game in Portland, they played a game in Seattle. The Celtics played in Providence. And the Philadelphia warriors played three games that year in Hershey. This was the third of those games.

[Pablo Torre]

You should know that Hershey, Pennsylvania, population in 1962, about 7,000, sits in the shadow of Amish country. That's where the chocolate capital of America is located. Which doesn't entirely explain why there is no full recording of Philadelphia warriors game against the visiting New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. But electricity in general was scarce. The game wasn't televised. The NBA, as Gary said, was basically a lounge act. But the sport was big enough for an AM radio station, wcau, Philadelphia. Except it soon became clear, particularly to legendary play by playman Bill Campbell, who was frantically calling technicians at the station in Philly, that nobody involved with this broadcast had actually kept a tape of the game, which then created a puzzle of its own.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, you have to realize back then TV stations didn't save tapes, they were saving money and they were retaping over these tapes. That's why they disappear with, with television, that's why they disappear some with radio. It was a game 75 in an 80 game season.

[Pablo Torre]

But very recently, about 60 plus years later, something kind of crazy happened because we here at Pablo Torre finds out, found a Philly basketball fan by the name of Sammy Marcus. And Sammy Marcus had never given an interview about this before, but in 1962, Sammy used to listen to every warriors radio broadcast on March 2nd. However, that Friday, he decided to do something different. He went to go see the Elizabeth Taylor film Butterfield 8.

[Gary Pomerantz]

And then I came home from that, turned on the radio just in time to hear Bill Campbell say, world Chamberlain.

[Pablo Torre]

Just scored 100 points.

[Gary Pomerantz]

100 points, fans. Oh my God, what a game to miss. So I didn't give up. I thought, where else can I get this recorded? Called up a friend the next day and he said that he had recorded it, but only the fourth quarter and only when the warriors had the ball. This is where I have the tape somewhere.

[Pablo Torre]

And so Sammy ran over to his friend's house with his own recorder and microphone and he bootlegged that puzzle piece right off the speakers. And it's a tape he still has today.

[Gary Pomerantz]

One of these is the tape.

[Pablo Torre]

Just don't know which one.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Nope, that's a Floyd Patterson Sonny Liston fight. Ah, this is the one.

[Pablo Torre]

All of which is how the NBA got a copy of a grainy secondhand recording of history, or at least a fraction of that history. But as for the rest of Wilt's pivotal fourth quarter, including the Knicks possessions, the way we wound up finding that involved a different box entirely.

[Tessa Burns]

Hi, my name is Tessa Burns and I'm archivist here at Hershey Community Archives. We are inside of our collection storage facility here at the Hershey Story Museum in Hershey. Penns. We heard from the producers at Pablo Torre finds out asking us about one particular event in Hershey sports history, which was Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game at the Hershey Arena.

[Pablo Torre]

And this puzzle piece, it turns out was the full fourth quarter. But it wasn't taped in Hershey at all. Actually it was taped at UMass Amherst by an aspiring student broadcaster named Jim, who listened by rigging his transistor radio to the five story heating pipe in his dormitory. And that night in that dorm, Jim broke out a reel to reel tape recorder. Apparently the one his girlfriend had been using for elocution lessons. And many years later, those reels would finally find their way back home.

[Tessa Burns]

So I did some searching in our collections and I was very excited to find this box right here. So this is from our Hershey Entertainment and Resorts company collection. And when we look inside, you can see we have some audio visual material, some CDs, cassette tape, and then the most exciting item here is this five and three quarter inch reel to reel tape. So this is an audio recording format, it's magnetic media we look inside, you can see that we do have, in fact, the original tape.

[Pablo Torre]

Not even the Basketball hall of Fame has the tape of Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game. By the way, as their historian explained to us, they've never even had an official exhibit devoted to Will. But this show now has two independently sourced recordings of the pivotal fourth quarter, plus a third, entirely different box of tapes that I need to tell you about, because this is a box of tapes that contains Gary's interviews, which we're going to curate for you as part of this exhibit here today.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, that's the joy of it to me. You know, that's what the attorneys call discovery. You know, you go and, and immerse yourself, full immersion. And I would travel far and wide to find these people. And it becomes, it becomes an obsession. You know, what about this? I, I called Bill Campbell so many times. I call. The last time I called him, I said, bill, it's Gary Pomerantz. And he said, not again. And that's just Bill. One more thing, one more question.

[Pablo Torre]

We can relate, we can rel. You know, Gary, one of our joys was that we actually did unearth your 22 year old interview tapes because at Emory University at the rare Book Library, manuscript collection number 890, we found your archive. And just tell me how you feel as we go back to March 1962.

[Bill Campbell]

WCAU, WCAU FM in Philadelphia. The time is 3:30 stop. And we're ready to go. And here's Bill Campbell. There's the big fourth quarter and everybody's thinking, how many Wolf gotta get? He's got 69 going in. Here's the pass to him. He's got another one.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, Wilt's got 69 points going into the fourth quarter, right? And so he still needs 31 points. You know, that's a lot of points.

[Bill Campbell]

Rogers takes the jump shot. It's no good. Chamberlain with a rebound.

[Gary Pomerantz]

And he just scored 28 points in the third quarter. And the Knicks are just going through the motions. It's a 10, 15, 20 point lead. The warriors have inside to Adles to Chamberlain.

[Bill Campbell]

He's got it 133 to 114. And the fellows on the Warrior bench are jumping for joy farm. Every time he scores, they'll jump up in a body.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Now, the NBA didn't find out about this tape until 1990. And it's like, wait, what? That's just the way things were then.

[Bill Campbell]

We're just conjecturing here. How many can he make? He's got 9 minutes and 24 seconds left, and the guesses are running as high as 100.

[Pablo Torre]

This is Bill Campbell that you're hearing. This is the play by play announcer in Philly, wcau, the radio broadcast. But it's one of your interviewees, a primary source here, who is in the game somewhere on the court, Joe Rucklich, that I wanted to ask you about because Joe Rucklich sounds like he might be a guest on the McAfee show at times revisiting some of these tapes. Hearing you in O3 Talk to Joe Ruklich is a time machine inside of a time machine.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, Joe was the Kennedy liberal from Northwestern when I got there as their.

[Daryl Imhoff]

First draft choice that season out of Northwestern behind Wilt. Wilt was technically first.

[Gary Pomerantz]

He was Wilt's backup. Now think about it. When you're the backup to a player who never comes out of the game, you don't play very much. But he observed a lot and he was a very keen observer. Joe also was into conspiracy theories. And Joe said, wait a minute, why did this tape just appear 28 years later? And Joe said he questioned whether Bill Campbell had. Had recreated it. Right.

[Daryl Imhoff]

I don't think Campbell was there. But then, you know what, that's.

[Gary Pomerantz]

So what are you saying? If I get a tape. What are you saying about the tape?

[Daryl Imhoff]

I think you get the last few minutes.

[Gary Pomerantz]

I think it's only the last quarter.

[Daryl Imhoff]

Yeah. Less than that. I've got it. You do? I think it's fake.

[Bill Campbell]

But anyway. Yeah, real talk.

[Pablo Torre]

Why do you think it's fake? Well, his allegation seems to be even a little more pointed than that. It was that Bill Campbell wasn't even there. Actually, he wasn't really the announcer.

[Daryl Imhoff]

If it's a fake, it illustrates the nonsense that the NBA perpetrates about. About those days. It was a bush league. I mean, it was really bush.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Bill Campbell was there. Bill Campbell and I spoke and he talked about dreading going to Hershey, you know, for game 75 of an 80 game season.

[Bill Campbell]

It was annoying because instead of doing a home game at home, we had to go to Hershey. Players weren't happy either.

[Gary Pomerantz]

It's a long drive and it sure would be nice to be playing it, you know, at home in Philadelphia.

[Bill Campbell]

Wilt, in order to come to that game, took a train. I remember him being there early, but.

[Gary Pomerantz]

He remembered vividly the game and the details.

[Bill Campbell]

Everything was such constant ease. It was effortless. They broke the ball up and he'd go out and get it and dunk it. They knew Something unnatural was going to happen here, and they offered.

[Pablo Torre]

As for just how bush league game 75 really was, I should acknowledge that Joe Rucklich dead wrong about the tape of the fourth quarter being this false flag operation. Also relatedly, it's funny that none of the online conspiracists that we mentioned before did enough research to be able to cite Joe Rucklich's theory in the first place. But it is pretty easy to imagine why the whole event did feel a bit confused.

[Gary Pomerantz]

This is played in an arena that's built for hockey. The hockey team, the Hershey Bears. There's not during this game, a big screen where it says number 13, big fella, how many shots attempted, made, free throws, attempted, made, assists, et cetera. There's just a cold, metallic, boxy scoreboard up in the netherland of this place that says, you know, Philadelphia, New York, even the people who are watching the game don't have context.

[Pablo Torre]

But Wilt Chamberlain, as he later explained in an interview with Bob Costas, was keeping score.

[Gary Pomerantz]

The game starts. I'm fairly warm. I'm really warm from the foul. I'm not missing anything from the foul. That should have gave me some kind of hint that, you know, you made 28 of 32 from the foul line.

[Pablo Torre]

That night, which is good for anybody and staggering for you.

[Gary Pomerantz]

I appreciate that. Right? Staggering. Staggering for me, you know what I'm saying? But I was even better than that the first half. I was missing nothing. I was a hundred percent, 100%, remember? You know what I'm saying? So I said, hey, you know, things are going pretty good. And I had, I think like 44, 41 points at halftime. And I was shooting well.

[Pablo Torre]

And one big reason Wilt was playing so well is that the Knicks starting center was out sick and apparently kind of hungover. And so, yes, Wilt would go on to average 50 points a game that season. But the man primarily tasked with stopping the single most unstoppable offensive performance in basketball history, arguably all of sports history, was not supposed to be starting that night. And instead, what he became was the answer to a trivia question forever.

[Gary Pomerantz]

This is an interview with Daryl Imhoff I M H O F F in.

[Daryl Imhoff]

Eugene, Oregon on July 8, 2003.

[Gary Pomerantz]

By the way, I take a double tape in case one take fails.

[Daryl Imhoff]

Okay, Isn't this interesting?

[Gary Pomerantz]

Yeah. So, gosh, Darrell was a second year player, 6 10, left handed. And, you know, he was primarily a defender at times a rough defender. He would become known as the axe for axing, you know, shooter's arms, you.

[Daryl Imhoff]

Know, Wilt was an attraction. And I was going to have to spend the next that night in his armpits. So I wasn't looking forward to that.

[Gary Pomerantz]

And one of the things that was so interesting, he was then working in Eugene, Oregon at the U.S. basketball Academy, a training ground. And we walked by an open court and I said, darrell, could you come here for a second? I stood in the middle of the lane. I said, show me how you defended Wilt that night. Wilt, Imhoff said, would arch his back and it was like a tree and Darryl's behind him down low. He said it was like a tree was gonna fall down on me. I said, so what would you do? And he said, I did this. And he took the point of his elbow and put it in my rhomboids right between the shoulder blades. And Darrell could still inflict some pain all these years later, but he said he would position himself behind Wilt with. When Wilt's down on the offensive, left side down by where we would now see the block. The block didn't exist then. And he would put his knee into Wilt's the back of his thigh to collapse his leg. He would put his foot inside of Wilt's left foot to keep him from turning in. Daryl played only 20 minutes and fouled out. He was in and out of the game. So he played some in the second half, six fouls covering Wilt. The tallest, next, next, tallest player the Knicks had was six foot eight. Rookie Cleveland Buckner. Six, eight, they said 210 pounds. He's probably 185, 190. He was a stick. He scored 33 points that night too, I might add. It was a career night for him. What a night to have a career night. Seven and a half minutes are left when Wilt, he scores. And Harvey Pollock, statistician, he passes over a sheet of paper to the PA announcer, the great Dave Zinkoff. Zinkoff then announces Wilt Chamberlain has just set a new record for most points in a game. He has 79 points, breaking his 78 points scored in three overtime game earlier that season. And while he's announcing that Wilt makes shooting underhanded, two more free throws to go to 80 and 81 on the.

[Bill Campbell]

PA they're announcing the new record of 79. And during the announcement, Chamberlain goes right ahead through the announcement and makes a foul. They're still making the announcement. He makes another foul chamber. Didn't even listen to it. He just made two straight fouls. He now has 81 quarts.

[Pablo Torre]

Granny style.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Granny style. He looked ridiculous doing it because he's so big. He would squat down low, his knees would flare out. He looked like an adult trying to sit in a kindergartner's chair.

[Pablo Torre]

What did Daryl say to you, particularly Gary, if you recall in your interview with him about the refs.

[Gary Pomerantz]

He just thought they loved Wilt. And you know that at one point they called a foul against Imhoff that Imhoff did not think was a foul.

[Daryl Imhoff]

And he started backing in and I held my position and Willie Smith had called me for a foul. And I said, willie, I'm allowed to position. And I said, why don't, you know, why don't you give the guy 100 points, we'll all go home.

[Gary Pomerantz]

I mean, you did say that.

[Daryl Imhoff]

You said, right, I said that. Why don't you give him 100 points, we'll all go home. And he did.

[Bill Campbell]

Going in for the layup. Up with a shot. No good. Chamberlain rebounds. Good. Chamberlain rebounds and scores. And he's fouled. 145 to 126. Daryl Imran fouled him. He has 83.

[Gary Pomerantz]

And the game took on, you know, Daryl would call it a farce.

[Daryl Imhoff]

My word is a farce. It was a farce of a game. It was not. I don't think it was a legitimate type of thing where a guy goes out in the course of event. I mean, we had guys score 60 points. Elgin Bader scored 60 points against in the guard. I mean, that was a legitimate great performance. Jerry west had 60 against us in the sports arena against same year in that year. It was one of those things where guys had individual performances that were great, but it wasn't done the way that one was done. And that's what makes that a farce. I just don't. I don't see it as one of the great games ever. And I think the Hunter point game is totally out of, out of context with what you would consider the great games that were played in the NBA by great players.

[Tessa Burns]

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[Gary Pomerantz]

Will that be cash or credit?

[Pablo Torre]

Credit. 4 Galaxy S25 Ultra, the AI companion.

[Gary Pomerantz]

That does the heavy lifting.

[Pablo Torre]

So you can do you get [e-mail].

[Gary Pomerantz]

Compatible with select apps.

[Pablo Torre]

Requires Google Gemini account. Results may vary based on input. Check responses for accuracy.

[Tessa Burns]

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[Pablo Torre]

So this is where I need to observe that everybody who's been trying to undermine Wilt's record by asking if it really happened has been asking the wrong question. Because what Daryl Imhoff is arguing here as one of the principles is not that the 100 point game never took place. What Daryl is arguing is that compared to other Great Performances, Wilt's 100 was abnormal and ultimately illegitimate to the point of being, quote, a farce.

[Gary Pomerantz]

With seven and a half minutes to play and everybody realizing now what the stakes were, the Knicks started not quite stalling but sort of couple extra passes, then they start running a weave down court, taking the ball in 94ft from the basketball. The warriors start committing fouls of the Knicks to get the ball back, quicker to get the ball to Wilt.

[Bill Campbell]

Aaron Cross court to butcher as they eat up as much time as they can. Butchered of a circle and fouled by Rodgers. Warriors figured the only way to combat the New York stall is to come out and foul the backcourt side themselves.

[Gary Pomerantz]

If somebody walked into the arena and they see the warriors fouling and the Knicks stalling, they're going to think the Knicks are ahead by 20, not the Warriors. That's where it breaks down.

[Bill Campbell]

Knowles is fouled by Joe Recklich and I almost came to blows. New York. Of course you can understand the Knickerbockers feelings. They're a little upset having rubbed in a little bit like this with a guy on a scoring rampant.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Whether or not it became a farce is a serious question. You know, when the structure of the game breaks down and the team that's 20 points behind is stalling, something's weird, something strange.

[Daryl Imhoff]

Yeah, you've got a situation where you're feeding somebody intentionally make something happen. But that's what was going on. I mean it wasn't, it wasn't in the flow of the game. Now the first, you know, the first half if you will, or first three quarters, it was certainly in the flow of the game. But when they started doing some things intentionally to foul and getting the ball and left him in the game when the game was already over. I mean, it was obviously they were out to prove something and so they did.

[Pablo Torre]

There's a moment, you know, just in terms of recreating, when people began to realize we're witnessing something that we'll be talking about forever. There's the moment where Bill Campbell, the play by play guy on the radio broadcast, says on a night work this.

[Bill Campbell]

Night, down, Chamberlain on the line. Foul shot up in the air. He has 84, 146 to 126. If you know anybody not listing, call them up. Little history you're sitting in on tonight.

[Pablo Torre]

This brings us as we get deeper into the fourth quarter. Gary to the 98 point mark. So the psychology of the 98 point moment here. Who gets the ball to Wilt. How does this play unfold here?

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, there's a, a guard named York Larisi and he's leading the fast break. And so he doesn't see Wilt behind him, but he hears the big fella, the mighty huff and puff. He feels the vibration of the floor when Chamberlain's moving. And so he just as he's going straight at the basket, he doesn't distribute left or right. He just sort of throws the ball up and continues on underneath the basket, past the baseline and out of play. At which point he looks back and sees Wilt, the mighty dipper, grabbing the ball, fully extended, my arms leaving the screen and then slams it in one movement.

[Bill Campbell]

Larisi with the ball down the right side, passes to chamber and he's open. He shoots. He's gone. 167 to 145. He has 98.

[Pablo Torre]

What was the call? What was the, the sequence of events to get to, to the number?

[Gary Pomerantz]

Well, Wilt would have three attempts at the hundred point basket. And in fact, one of them came after he scored on that slam dunk to hit 98. He started to run down court and quickly turned around and stole the ball and missed it from around the free throw line. Then he'd get two more attempts and there's 50 seconds left. And now the warriors have the ball. And Guy Rogers, who would have 20 assists on this night, a wonderful passer. He throws the ball down court, length of the court to Wilt, who jumps, catches it because the next tallest snake is five inches short.

[Bill Campbell]

Rogers goes long to Chamberlain. He's got it. He's trying to get up. He shoots. No good. The rebound.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Luckinville and Ted Luckinville A rookie comes in, gets the rebound, gets it to Wilt again.

[Bill Campbell]

Back to Chamberlain. He shoots up. No good. In and out.

[Gary Pomerantz]

He misses. Luckinville again.

[Bill Campbell]

Rebound. Luckinville back to Luckwick, into Chamberlain. He made it. He made it.

[Pablo Torre]

He made it.

[Bill Campbell]

A good result. He made it. The fans were all over the floor. Stop the game. People are running out on the court. 100 points. The retriever has stopped the game. People are shouting, pounding him, banging him. The Warrior players are all over him. Fans are coming out of the stands. 46, second Dr. The most amazing scoring performance of all time. 100 points. And for the big difference.

[Gary Pomerantz]

An adrenalized moment for the fans and for Wilt until he gets to the locker room and sees the stat sheet. He's sitting next to Al adl's and he's shaking his head. And Adles says, what's the matter, big fella? He said, I can't believe I took 63 shots, 21 of them in the fourth quarter. And Adel said, that's okay. You made 36 of them. That's all right. The criticism against Wilt is not his athleticism. It's always that he cared more about himself and his own statistics rather than the greater good of the team. And this night, he thought for many years reflected that criticism in a big way.

[Pablo Torre]

And, yeah, I understand why. I mean, it's worth remembering here that the most enduring image of that night, the thing that everybody remembers still today was the Big Dipper holding a piece of paper with the number of points he scored written on it. But the person responsible for that meme, it turns out, was not Wilt Chamberlain. It was the same warriors statistician that Gary mentioned earlier, a man named Harvey Pollack.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Harvey Pollack was a legend in Philadelphia basketball. He was an employee of the Philadelphia warriors, then the Philadelphia 76ers, for six decades. And at the time this game is being played, he's known as the Octopus because he would send out a Christmas card every year with the Octopus, each arm representing another thing he did on this night when Will's score is 100. Harvey is the statistician. He is publicist who's got to arrange any interviews. He's writing the game story for the Philadelphia Inquirer, who didn't care enough about it to send anybody. He's writing for AP and he's writing for United Press. That's a lot of work. And in fact, when he finished the scorekeeping and added stuff up, he thought, oh, my, what if Will ends out with 98 points? Well, you know, one of the things you hear on the radio Is I think three times the final score is 169 to 150.

[Bill Campbell]

Butcher breaks down for an easy layup and he's got it. 169, 150.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, I was going to mention this. Yeah.

[Gary Pomerantz]

And the Knicks. Now we look back at it and see the Knicks at 147. And no one could reconcile that. For me, I think it was just sort of this slap dash nature of the whole night. And this was one more aspect of it. Oh, yeah, the Knicks. Well, it doesn't matter what the Knicks got. You know, all that matters is what.

[Pablo Torre]

Will got right there was the disc. Well, that's it, right? The discrepancy between what the radio announcer was saying versus the official score. There's all this confusion. You hear it on the tape a couple of times. But what the. The Octopus, he makes sure to establish that there is no ambiguity around how many points Wilt Chamberlain scored because he does the thing that results in the one piece of evidence that I think every basketball fan has seen.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Pollock looks around and says, hef to Jim Heffernan, the sportswriter of the Philadelphia Bulletin, let me borrow a sheet of paper. And he takes out what was a Magic Marker. I don't think they had Sharpies in 1962. I may be wrong on that. And he writes 1 00. And it's the backstory to this classic photo. And that might be the best picture in basketball history because of what it represents and who it represents. It's the Dipper on his night. Remember, this is a time when the NBA even its statistics in the way stats were kept. They didn't count block shots. You know, somebody said, how many shots did Will plug? I don't know. I don't know. We just have the numbers that they kept. Did The Knicks score 147 or 150? I don't know. I don't know. But. But to me it was about getting to the essence of this story. There are some questions. Whether or not it happened is not a question foreign.

[Tessa Burns]

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[Pablo Torre]

So this is where I should point out what might now feel obvious, which is that every person that Gary Pomeranz has mentioned to this point, every voice you've heard on this episode, has passed away. This will forever be a story about hidden boxes and lost recordings and secondary sources and truly tricky ambiguities, which is something that Wilt Chamberlain himself, who died in 1999, eventually learned to accept.

[Gary Pomerantz]

I used to hate the fact that there was no video of it, but as time goes on, I think it kind of adds to the mystique of.

[Pablo Torre]

The game, or in the words of Gary Pomerantz, and, you know, the baseball.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Great Ted Williams used to say his dream was that when he walked down the street, people would point at him and say, there goes the greatest hitter in baseball history. Wilt came to realize that people would point at him as he walked down the street and say, there goes the guy who scored 100 points in a game. And he came to like it.

[Pablo Torre]

But in our research near the end here, we were able to find one last primary source for the online exhibit we've been building. A person who, at 86 years young, still has a unique and even poetic perspective on what really happened in hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962. Tom, give me the pronunciation of your name. I just want to make sure I'm getting it right. Macheri. Okay, good, good, good, good. Didn't know where the. The accent or the stress was going to be, but Macheri makes sense.

[Tom Macheri]

My third grade teacher called Macheri Masheria.

[Pablo Torre]

More. Yes, A different nickname for. For a bruiser power forward.

[Tom Macheri]

The one that pretty much stuck was the mad Manchuria. That had to do with my birthplace. I was born in Manchuria, which is in China now. White Russian parents. And I was an immigrant kid. I came to the United States after the Second World War. My parents, my mother and I, and my sister were interned in a Japanese concentration camp in Japan during the war. And then we came to the United States via the Red Cross, to San Francisco, where my father was waiting for us. And. And that's kind of where I learned. San Francisco is where I learned how to play basketball.

[Pablo Torre]

And Tom Macheri really was good at basketball. The warriors, who eventually relocated from Philly to the Bay Area, retired his number, and Tom was in the starting lineup playing 40 minutes right alongside his teammate Wilt Chamberlain in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on the day in question. And while Tom would go on to spend 24 years as a high school English teacher and also write five books of poetry and six novels and two.

[Tom Macheri]

Memoirs on My mother's side, I'm related to Leo Tolstoy.

[Pablo Torre]

He still thinks about Hershey all the time, in part because it was his very first season in the NBA.

[Tom Macheri]

Talk about working out, huh? I got off the plane, I was pretty naive, gentle, and I just walked into this fantastic moment.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm getting the sense that as much as you were a guy who was not there to shoot that night, you enjoyed spectating yourself.

[Tom Macheri]

I was mesmerized. I mean, the one thing I was a rookie. Imagine being a rookie from the west coast, coming to the east coast, being part of the NBA. I mean, this was like a dream for me, a well deserved not to be questioned. My daughter called me up, she's a 8th grade middle school teacher, and she provided me with the new news that there. Some of her kids, you know, think that, well, 100 point game was fake news just because there was no video of it.

[Pablo Torre]

Yeah, look, the question of why people.

[Tom Macheri]

Question it, for me, that's a very simple answer. I think we have a whole society that has anybody can say anything they want and there's no fact checks. And nobody believes in fact checks. Nobody believes in honesty. I mean, it's. We're in a really troubled times. They'll believe all sorts of conspiracy stuff.

[Pablo Torre]

Well, one of the things I wanted to fact check with you was a theory of a different kind because one of the people that was interviewed by Gary Pomerantz in his book is a gentleman by the name of Darrell Imhoff. You remember Darryl in some.

[Tom Macheri]

Sure, sure, I remember Darrell. I chased him in the stands and almost beat him to death.

[Pablo Torre]

Why? Why did you do that, Tom?

[Tom Macheri]

Because I hated there.

[Pablo Torre]

I'm getting the sense that the mad Manchurian may have also earned that nickname because you also TR Darryl with a chair.

[Tom Macheri]

Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that chair. Yeah, it just sort of. Just sort of appeared in my head.

[Pablo Torre]

But I bring up Darrell Imhoff now not simply because you have this personal backstory with him, but because I need you to help fact check something that he told Gary Pomeranz that we discovered in the course of fact checking the story of that night. Because the allegation that Daryl makes, of course, is not that the hundred points did not happen. He was there. He in fact, personally was responsible for quite a number of those points. Trying to guard Wilt. The allegation that Darrell Imhoff made on tape was this quote, the 100 point game was a farce.

[Tom Macheri]

Well, I say sour grapes, kid. You know, you got smoked and you know, sold out and Somebody else filled in for you, and you couldn't stop Wilt. Nobody could stop Wilt that night. So it's just sour grapes. I could just say your defense was a farce. That's why Wilt scored. If you want to be a forest, maybe I should have punched him off a little more. I don't think anybody could have guarded Wilt that night. I don't think Shaq at his very best guarded Wilt that night. Will was indomitable that night. Everything he threw up. But in it was a miracle game. And if Darrell thinks it was manufactured, it was manufactured by the Lord God himself. I've never heard that. Darrell said that. That makes me angry. That makes me really angry.

[Pablo Torre]

He accused you guys of pouring it on. As in, of course we poured.

[Tom Macheri]

Absolutely. Reported on. Reported on because we were going to help our teammates score 100 points. There's nothing wrong with that. What I saw was a destruction. Unless my eyes were failing me. I saw destruction.

[Pablo Torre]

So this is where I do need to jump in here and let cooler heads prevail for a second. For the sake of posterity, if nothing else. Because, yes, I have apparently goaded the bad manchurian at age 86 back into bloodlust. But also because the thing that courses inside of Tom, the thing in his blood, as mentioned before, is really poetry.

[Tom Macheri]

I grew up listening to poetry from my mother and my father, Bolster.

[Pablo Torre]

And so you may not be surprised to find out at this point that the Big Dipper was not just a teammate and a friend to Tom, but also a muse.

[Tom Macheri]

I wrote a poem last night. I don't know, I think because I was going to be on your zoom and I was thinking about it.

[Pablo Torre]

Would you. Would you mind reading some of the poem that you just wrote last night for me? Would you? Is that. Is that.

[Tom Macheri]

I thought you'd never asked.

[Pablo Torre]

I was wondering when the mad Manchurian might read from his latest work.

[Tom Macheri]

Okay, let me give it up. Let me give it a try.

[Pablo Torre]

Okay? Please.

[Tom Macheri]

Welch ghost. March 2, 2025. Can you imagine on this day when Welt scored 100 points in a single game in Chocolate Town, his ghost striding onto the court of Chase arena six decades later, followed by his teammates in that game, all gone. Arizona, Gola, Rogers, Adoles, and the rest, except for me, waiting my turn to be a ghost, cheering like crazy for the Dipper because he always belonged in the sky.

[Pablo Torre]

Tom, the mad Manchurian, the poet laureate of the NBA. You contain multitudes, and you observed multitudes. And I very, very sincerely thank you for joining us.

[Tom Macheri]

You're very welcome.

[Pablo Torre]

This has been Pablo Torre finds out a Meadowlark Media production and I'll talk to you next time.

[Gary Pomerantz]

Smoking gonna quit my drinking start life.

[Bill Campbell]

But I'm gonna do it gonna quit my.