Did you know that this classic photograph of Wilt Chamberlain after the first (and only) 100-point night in NBA history was taken by a fan?
Yeah, there are unfortunately no highlights of Chamberlain’s 100-point game, a record he set on March 2, 1962, that he still holds today. There were no official photographers in Hershey, PA, that night. The game wasn’t televised. As legend has it, most New York sports reporters were at baseball spring training. The fan who took the photo, Paul Vathis, was actually a professional photojournalist who happened to be in attendance and would later win a Pulitzer Prize for an unrelated photo.
So how did they make do? Vathis realized history was unfolding at the end of the third quarter and ran to his car to get his camera. In the locker room after the final buzzer, Warriors PR professional Harvey Pollock grabbed a piece of paper, wrote “100” on it, and handed it to a seated Chamberlain.
This moment serves as a cautionary reminder that you never know when — or where — sports history is going to strike. The story behind the photo adds to the lore of the event itself. The sports history world is forever grateful for an off-duty Vathis among a crowd of fewer than 5,000 folks who witnessed the historic night.
