Philadelphia 76ers: 3 fun facts about Wilt Chamberlain’s 100 point game

2. Wilt’s 100 point game wasn’t played in Philadelphia either.

Not only was Chamberlain’s 100 point game not played as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers – who, again, didn’t exist yet – but it wasn’t played in Philadelphia either, or in New York for that matter. No, the contest, which saw the Warriors beat the New York Knicks by a score of 169-147, was actually played in Hershey, Pennsylvania, mere miles away from where I was born at the Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center.

The Hershey Sports Arena, which is still standing though seldom used, was the home to three different Warriors games during the 1961-62 season and drew an average crowd of 6,273, which was a lot for the time. When the Warriors were at home, the team split their time between the Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center and the Philadelphia Arena, depending on availability, but because of the fly-by-the-seat-of-their pants nature of the NBA at the time, one or both venues weren’t always available, which made Hershey a logical choice to host some games a good time before the Bears became a minor league affiliate.

Had Chamberlain put up his 100 points at, say, the Civic Center, maybe that venue would still be hanging on like the Hershey Sports Arena, which has since been renamed the HersheyPark Arena, but alas, it just wasn’t meant to be. The Warriors ultimately chose to move to San Francisco in 1962 after being purchased by Bay Area entertainment multi-hyphenate Franklin Mieuli, and after hosting Sixers games during their initial run, both the Civic Center and Philadelphia Arena were demolished.