He Had to Hustle to Keep Pace When Wilt Scored 100

Harvey Pollack, 74, the NBA’s statistical wizard, said he was never busier than March 2, 1962, when Wilt Chamberlain scored a league-record 100 points in Hershey, Pa., against the New York Knicks.

“I was keeping play-by-play and the box score and writing copy,” Pollack told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “The game ends and the first thing I did was write a one-paragraph lead for the Inquirer. ‘Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points, blah, blah.’ Then I told them to use the copy I had already sent them.

“Then I sent out the box score. Then I went to the phone and called UPI and AP and dictated stories to them. I went to the dressing room and photographers were looking for a picture. So I wrote ‘100’ on a piece of paper and gave it to Wilt. Then I wrote a complete new story for the Inquirer.”

Add Pollack: “There was a lot of pressure,” he said. “When I was through, I told the guy driving me, ‘Stop at the first bar.’ ”

Pollack was busier than Wilt.

Trivia time: What was the result of UCLA’s first appearance in the NCAA basketball tournament?

Lonesome Warrior: Mark Price, who left the Washington Bullets as a free agent for Golden State, returned to Landover, Md., last week with the Warriors and was booed every time he touched the ball.

“Not to worry,” wrote Peter Vecsey of the New York Post, adding, “The good news is that Price plays alongside Latrell Sprewell and rarely touches the ball.”

Ridiculing Riddick: Ed Sherman of the Chicago Tribune, on Riddick Bowe’s abbreviated career in the Marine Corps: “Even Gomer Pyle got through boot camp.”

Get a life: Greg Norman, when asked by Larry Dorman of the New York Times to comment on Tiger Woods:

“I feel sorry for Tiger in a lot of ways. I think he doesn’t have a life for a 21-year-old. But I don’t have any resentment about what’s being said about him or what he’s earning. I think that’s great.”

Are you sure? Texas basketball Coach Tom Penders, on criticism that his record against top-10 teams is 3-23: “People will find pimples on Sharon Stone.”

Trivia answer: In 1950, the Bruins lost to Bradley, 73-59, at Kansas City, Mo.

And finally: Arthur J. Brickman, a Pittsburgh Pirate fan who describes himself as “an old geezer in my 80s,” in a letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

“The main person I will not miss is Jim Leyland. I am simply elated that I will no longer have to watch him biting his fingernails, stroking his mustache, picking his nose and sneaking puffs on his cigarettes.”