Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game, told by the box score

On 2 March 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in the Philadelphia Warriors’ 169–147 win over the New York Knicks.¹² He made 36 of 63 field goals and 28 of 32 free throws³, played all 48 minutes⁴ and grabbed 25 rebounds.² No television camera filmed it, so the box score is the best witness we have.

The box score

This is the Warriors’ side of the sheet. Field goals made, free throws, fouls and points come from a newspaper box score printed in 1962¹; minutes, shot attempts, rebounds and assists from the box score on Wikipedia, which this newspaper box score does not include.⁵ The Warriors’ rebounds include 3 team rebounds.

For the Knicks, Richie Guerin scored 39, Cleveland Buckner 33 and Willie Naulls 31.² Their usual starting center, Phil Jordon, was ill and missed the game⁶, so Darrall Imhoff guarded Chamberlain most of the night until he fouled out in the fourth quarter.²

Quarter by quarter

Points per quarter: Chamberlain and the rest of the Warriors

Wilt ChamberlainRest of the Warriors

Q12319

Q21819

Q32818

Q43113

Scores are Warriors first, Knicks second. Quarter scores from the 1962 box score¹, Chamberlain’s quarters from The Analyst and the Inquirer.⁶³ The Warriors raced to a 19–3 lead and were 79–68 up at half-time.² Chamberlain had 41 points at the break on 14 of 26 shooting and 13 of 14 free throws; in the third quarter he went 10 of 16 and 8 of 8.⁶ In the fourth he took 21 shots and 10 free throws⁷, which works out at 12 of 21 and 7 of 10 (our calculation).

What the numbers say

• Shooting: 57.1% from the field and 87.5% from the line. That season he made 61.3% of his free throws, the only one of his 14 seasons above 60%⁶; his career mark was 51.1%.⁸ Going into the game he stood at 60.6% (our calculation from his season totals).⁹ He shot his free throws underhand.⁴
• True shooting: 64.9% (our calculation). It adds free throws to field goals, counting each free-throw attempt as 0.44 of a shot; how it works is on our true shooting page.
• Share of the team: 59.2% of the Warriors’ points, 54.8% of their shots and 61.5% of their free-throw attempts. The other eight Warriors scored 69 points on 27-52 shooting and 15-20 from the line.
• Rodgers and Attles: Guy Rodgers had 20 of the Warriors’ 39 assists, and Al Attles made all 8 of his shots for 17 points.¹⁰
• Fouls: 57 personal fouls and 93 free-throw attempts in one game. Late on, Chamberlain’s team-mates fouled on purpose to get the ball back for him.⁷

What the 1962 box score did not show

The newspaper box score lists only four columns per player: field goals, free throws, fouls and points.¹ There were no field-goal attempts, rebounds, assists or minutes in it, and several stats were not yet officially kept:

• Blocks and steals: official only from 1973–74.¹¹¹²
• Player turnovers: official from 1977–78.¹³
• Three-pointers: the line came in 1979–80¹⁴, so all 100 points were two-pointers and free throws.

The statistician that night was Harvey Pollack, the Warriors’ public relations director, who by his own count had five jobs during the game.⁴¹⁵ Pollack is credited with starting the league’s official tracking of offensive and defensive rebounds, steals, turnovers, blocked shots and minutes, and with coining the term triple-double.¹⁶ If you want to read a modern box score column by column, start with our guide to the box score.

The night itself

The Warriors played a few “home” games away from Philadelphia to win new fans, and Hershey, about 90 miles to the west, was one of the places.⁸¹⁷ Only 4,124 people came, at $2.50 a ticket⁴; many of them were there for the warm-up game between players of the Philadelphia Eagles and the Baltimore Colts.¹⁸

• No film, one radio call. The game was not televised and no film has ever turned up.⁶¹⁹ Bill Campbell called it on Philadelphia’s WCAU radio.⁶ The fourth quarter survives because two listeners recorded the broadcast; the Library of Congress added the recording to its National Recording Registry in 2016.²⁰²¹
• Two final scores. Campbell signed off with 169–150; the official score is 169–147, and it is still unclear which Knicks total is right.⁶
• Point 100. It came with 46 seconds left, from a pass by reserve Joe Ruklick.²²⁸ Was it a dunk or a lay-in? Witnesses disagree.²³ Fans ran onto the floor and the game was held up.²
• The photo. AP photographer Paul Vathis was there as a fan and fetched his camera from his car; afterwards Pollack wrote “100” on a sheet of paper for Chamberlain to hold up in the dressing room.⁴
• The ball. The ball Pollack packed into Chamberlain’s bag is lost.⁴ Another ball said to be from the game sold at auction in 2000 for $551,844; the sale was cancelled and it later went for $67,791.²⁴

Which records still stand in 2026?

The AP report from that night listed five individual league records: 100 points, 36 field goals, 28 free throws, 31 points in a quarter and 59 in a half; it called the combined 316 points a league record too.² Where they stand today:

The closest anyone has come is Bam Adebayo’s 83 points for Miami against Washington on 10 March 2026, ahead of Kobe Bryant’s 81 against Toronto on 22 January 2006.²⁶²⁷ Adebayo took 43 shots and 43 free throws; Bryant 46 and 20.²⁶²⁷ Both finished at least 17 points short of 100.

The season around it

The 100 points were not a freak night in a quiet season. In 1961–62 Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points, 25.7 rebounds and 48.5 minutes a game³; he missed only eight minutes of his team’s entire season²⁸ and scored 4,029 points, still the only 4,000-point season in the league.²⁹³⁰ The whole league played fast: teams averaged about 108 shots and 118.8 points a game, on 42.6% shooting.³¹⁷ How the pace of play changes such numbers is on our NBA eras page.

Frequently asked questions

How did Wilt Chamberlain score 100 points?

He made 36 of 63 field goals and 28 of 32 free throws: 72 points from two-pointers and 28 from the line. There was no three-point line in 1962.

Who was the Warriors’ opponent?

The New York Knicks. The Warriors won 169–147 at the Hershey Sports Arena in Pennsylvania on 2 March 1962.

Has anyone come close to 100 points since?

The nearest are Bam Adebayo with 83 points on 10 March 2026 and Kobe Bryant with 81 on 22 January 2006.