Wilt Was Always on Call for Her

When people think of Wilt Chamberlain, they usually think about his 100-point game or his 20,000 women. But Chamberlain had a sensitive side, according to a story forwarded by Michael Arizin, whose father, Paul, is a Hall of Famer and former Philadelphia Warrior.

Michael Arizin wrote a first-person story for the Philadelphia Daily News not long after Chamberlain’s death in 1999. It was about Chamberlain and the relationship he had with Arizin’s daughter, Stephanie, who in 1993, at age 12, wrote to Chamberlain asking for an autograph.

Three years after she wrote, Chamberlain called Stephanie to apologize, explaining that her letter had been lost and he had just found it. Chamberlain also learned from Michael that Stephanie had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor.

“We lost Steph on July 30, 1997,” Arizin wrote. “From the time they first spoke, Wilt called Steph every Friday night for the rest of her life.”

Trivia time: What is the NBA record for 50-point games by one player?

More on Wilt: Several readers e-mailed to say Chamberlain’s most amazing accomplishment may have been that he averaged 48.5 minutes a game in 1961-62. He averaged more than the maximum because the Philadelphia Warriors played a few overtime games that season.

He missed eight minutes all season -- when he was ejected from a game against the Lakers after his third technical.

Match made in heaven: Jim Gillis, president and owner of Gillis Broadcasting and a 1951 graduate of Notre Dame, sent along a story from the Toronto Star about Mike Wadsworth, 60, former Notre Dame athletic director.

Wadsworth was in need of a kidney transplant and seeking a donor, which is almost always a blood relative. Chances of a non-blood relative being a match are about 1 million to one.

When Wadsworth first learned he needed a transplant, his wife, Bernadette, said she thought she’d be a perfect donor.

“She was tested,” Wadsworth said, “and, miracle of miracles, she couldn’t be a better match if she was my sister.”

Wadsworth is now recovering at a Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.

An unreal fantasy: There is a 16-team college football playoff after all. Except the games are video games. CSTV and EA Sports got together to create a fantasy playoff that involves the top 15 BCS-ranked teams and Boise State.

Results of the first-round games will be announced on CSTV today at 4:30 p.m., with quarterfinal results coming Dec. 17, and semifinals Dec. 27. The champion will be crowned in the Crystal Bowl Jan. 4.

It’s another possible title for USC, which opens up against Purdue.

Trivia answer: 118, by Chamberlain. That’s more than the rest of the players in the NBA combined.

And finally: From Jay Leno: “George Foreman is coming out with his own line of clothes. This is like the male version of Lane Bryant basically. Instead of a little alligator, there’ll be a big side of beef on the pocket.”

*

Larry Stewart can be reached at larry.stewart@latimes.com.