On March 2, 1962 one of the most memorable records in sports history was set when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 point in the regular season NBA game between the Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks.

Born on August 21, 1936 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Wilton Norman “Wilt” Chamberlain played at the University of Kansas, then for the Harlem Globetrotters and in the NBA since 1959.

From the beginning Wilt Chamberlain’s statistics were impressive and they grew further: in his first season he scored an average of 37.6 points per game, in season 1960/61 he scored 38.4 points per game and in season 1961/62 he reached 50.4 points per game, the highest in NBA history. On December 8, 1961, in the game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Wilt Chamberlain scored 78 points but that game had three overtimes.

Wilt Chamberlain rebounds statistics were remarkable as well: In his first season he grabbed an average of 27.0 rebounds per game, in season 1960/61 he grabbed 27.2 rebounds per game and in season 1961/62 he grabbed an average of 25.7 rebounds per game.

Thus Wilt Chamberlain was a dominant player and not only for his 2.16 m (7’1″) hight and about 125 kg (275 lbs) of weight but in that March 2, 1962 he had to really look unstoppable. Chamberlain’s weak point were free throws, which in his NBA career he shot with an average of just 51.1%, but that day he scored the first 9 of them and had a total of 23 points in the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Wilt Chamberlain scored 18 more points, bringing the total of 41 points at halftime. In the third quarter, Chamberlain scored 28 more points for a total of 69. Inevitably, in the fourth quarter his teammates passed him the ball more and more and Chamberlain scored 31 points to finish with a total of 100 points scored with a 36/63 at shooting. The final 28/32 at free throws was also extraordinary for him. Instead the 25 rebounds captured were normal for him. For the record, the match ended with a 169-147 win for the Philadelphia Warriors.

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There are no video recordings of that game, only an audio recording of the last quarter. Today this can be shocking but at the time the NBA wasn’t one of the most important leagues in American sport. There’s a photograph of Wilt Chamberlain holding a piece of paper on which the number 100 was written, reproduced in the commemorative sign at the Hersheypark Arena, then known as the Hershey Sports Arena (Photo ©Eric Beato).

4,124 people were there to see that game, in later years 40,000 stated that they were present at that event. Wilt Chamberlain said that the 100-point game wasn’t his favorite: he cared more for another record, his 55 rebounds grabbed against his arch-rival Bill Russell.

Basketball has changed a lot in the last 50 years and now players and coaches can see a lot of footage of their opponents so they can prepare their defense in a better way. On January 22, 2006 the meeting between a dominant player and a defense really bad by today’s standards allowed Kobe Bryant to score 81 points against the Toronto Raptors. Records are made to be broken but the 100 points scored by Wilt Chamberlain may be one of the few that will never be beaten.