Wilton Norman Chamberlain was born, on August 21, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1936. At birth, Wilt was nine inches longer than the national average, by eight-years-old he was forced to pay the adult ticket price at movie theaters and he didn't stop growing until he was 7'1 1/16".
Wilt's interest and talent for basketball emerged in junior high. In 1951 he started on the freshman basketball team at Overbrook High School. In high school, his athletic career flourished. He amassed 2,252 points. Overbrook lost three games in total during Wilt's high school career, winning two school championships.
While Wilt was still in high school fact over 200 colleges and universities wanted to draft Wilt. On May 14, 1955 he announced he would attend the University of Kansas on a basketball and track scholarship.
Over 14,000 people showed for Wilt's first exhibition game, where he scored 42 points and grabbed 29 rebounds. Wilt made his varsity debut his sophomore year in a game against Northwestern, which was even more impressive-52 points and 31 rebounds.
In 1958 Wilt announced he was leaving Kansas. He decided to make an effort to polish his skills before entering the NBA, he spent the next year with the Harlem Globetrotters. It enabled him to sharpen skills he'd never had the opportunity to work on before.
In September of 1959, newspapers hyped a non-existent rivalry between Wilt center Bill Russell. During the game Russell blocked one of Wilt's shots, and received national kudos. The next time they met, Wilt demolished Russell in points and rebounds. Wilt was statistically a better player.
At the end of his first NBA season, Wilt had broken nine records, including highest scoring average, and most rebounds. These individual achievements resulted in Wilt being the first person ever to simultaneously receive the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards.
In 1960 he topped all his rookie records. On March 2, 1962, he shocked the world by scoring a record 100 points against the New York Knicks. Wilt stayed with the Warriors during their move to San Francisco, where they became the Western Division champs. Later he joined the Sixers
The Sixers ended the regular season with a league record, and went on to beat Boston for the championship. Wilt had his had finished third in the league in assists an unheard of feat for a center, by finishing more than 20 assists ahead of Hawks superstar Lenny Wilkens.
In 1968, Wilt joined the Los Angeles Lakers, where he spent the last five years of his career. He continued to rack up NBA records, and won another NBA championship in 1972, despite playing with an injury in the final game. He retired in 1973.
He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1978. In honor of his accomplishments, the Philadelphia 76ers retired his number on March 18, 1991. The year later, the University of Kansas retired Wilt's Jay hawks jersey.
On October 14, 1999, at the age of 63, Wilt died from a heart attack in his Bel-Air home. Before his death, Wilt was named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996.
