Defender Wants to Set the Record Straight

Forty-three years ago tonight, Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors scored 100 points against the New York Knicks at Hershey, Pa.

Darrall Imhoff, the former University of California star who spent four seasons with the Lakers in the mid-1960s, was the Knick center assigned to guarding Chamberlain that night.

According to a new book, “Wilt, 1962” by Gary Pomerantz, Imhoff years later was introduced at a golf function by former Laker teammate “Hot Rod” Hundley as “the man who held Wilt to 100 points.”

Countered Imhoff: “That’s a bad rap. I didn’t play the whole game. Wilt only got 85 off me.”

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Trivia time: The Warriors defeated the Knicks, 169-147, and the box score shows Chamberlain made 36 of 63 field-goal attempts and, incredibly, 28 of 32 free throws. He also had 25 rebounds. How many assists did he have?

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Proper perspective: To illustrate how amazing it is for a player to score 100 points in a game, NBA statistics maven Harvey Pollack did some research to see whether two players on the same team combined for 100 points in any other game.

Pollack found the Denver Nuggets’ Kiki Vandeweghe and Alex English combined for 98 (56 and 42, respectively) in a triple-overtime game at Denver won by the Detroit Pistons, 186-184, in 1983. The teams’ combined point total of 370 is an NBA record.

Pollack also found that in a 1960 game at New York, Elgin Baylor of the Lakers scored 71 points and rookie Jerry West had 26 for a combined total of 97.

In that game, Hundley had two points, which prompted this classic line: “Elgin and I combined for 73.”

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Multi-tasking: Pollack is somewhat of a legend himself. In the NBA’s first year of 1946, he started with the Philadelphia Warriors at age 24. At 83, he is the 76ers’ director of statistics.

As the Warrior publicity director in 1962, he covered Chamberlain’s 100-point game for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Associated Press and United Press International.

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Looking back: On this day in 1980, Bill Shoemaker rode Spectacular Bid to a five-length victory in the Santa Anita Handicap.

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Trivia answer: Two.

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And finally: There is another anniversary today involving Chamberlain. Kansas’ Allen Fieldhouse, where Chamberlain played in college, turns 50. The anniversary will be celebrated tonight, when Kansas plays host to Kansas State.

Chamberlain returned to the arena for the first time since his college days on Jan. 17, 1998, to have his jersey retired.

Why did he stay away so long? There are many theories, but Linda Huey, Chamberlain’s off-and-on companion, gave this one to Robert Cherry, author of “Wilt: Larger Than Life”:

“Wilt didn’t like to be pushed into anything. He hated mandatory behavior.”

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