Was Wilt Chamberlain the first player to score 100 points in a game?
The Big Dipper’s 100-point output in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1962 was not the first, not by a long shot. In 1953, Clarence "Bevo" Francis of Ohio’s tiny Rio Grande scored 116 points in one game. He also averaged 50.1 points for the season, but the US NCAA refused to recognize his scoring marks because many of his team’s 39 games were against small colleges that only offered two-year, not four-year courses. On February 13, 1954, he was overshadowed by Furman’s Frank Selvy. Selvy poured in an even 100 in a 149-95 rout of Newberry College. At any rate, shortly after Francis scorched Hillsdale College of Michigan for 113 points. As a footnote, Cheryl Miller, the biggest US college women’s star of the 1980’s (and Indiana Pacers guard Reggie Miller’s older sister) once scored 105 points in a high school game.
What was the worst defeat in basketball history?
There have been many exercises in futility, but I don’t think there’s anything that comes close to the entries on this list. Months before the United States NCAA is formed in 1904, Potsdam Normal College of New York totally embarrasses Plattsburgh Normal, 123-0. In junior competition, 13-year old Mats Wermelin scored all of his team’s points in a 272-0 bloodbath in a regional boys’ tournament in Stockholm, Sweden in 1974. At the 1982 Asian Games, Iraq blasted Yemen, 251-33.
Have any women ever played in the NBA?
Delta State’s Lusia Harris was drafted by the New Orleans (now Utah Jazz) in 1977, but it was largely seen as a publicity gimmick. But Ann Meyers, after a sensational college career at UCLA (where she became a four-year All-American), became the first woman to sign an NBA contract after a tryout with the Indiana Pacers in 1978. Despite being offered a guaranteed contract by the Pacers, Meyers later decided that a women’s league was more to her liking.
Why are basketball players called cagers?
Original basketball teams barnstormed across the United States, often playing in front of hostile crowds. Chicken wire or ropes were often used to keep spectators from attacking visiting teams, giving the impression of playing in a cage. In 1930, all use of such protective measures was stopped, but the name "cagers" stuck.
Who made the first basketball shoes?
Well, they used to be called sneakers, and Spalding made the first "suction sole" variety back in 1904. But 11-year pro player Chuck Taylor is credited with creating and marketing the first specialized shoe for basketball in 1921, and spent the remainder of his life promoting the sport and his sneakers. Converse eventually named its most popular shoe model after him.
When was basketball first played in the Olympics?
The first Olympic medals were given out during the 1936 Games in Berlin. But the 1904 Olympics in St. Louis hosted what was billed the "Olympic World’s College Basketball Championship." It was an outdoor event featuring only three teams: Hiram College, Wheaton College and Latter Day Saints College (now Brigham Young). Hiram defeats both its opponents to win the title.
When were basketball games first shown on television?
It seems unthinkable that there was ever a time that basketball was not on TV. But before billion-dollar television deals and the birth of cable, New York’s W2XBS broadcasts the first college double-header on February 28. Only an estimated few hundred people witness Pittsburgh beat Fordham and NYU defeat Georgetown.
What has the Philippines contributed to international basketball?
Although recent years have not been so kind to Filipino basketball, the decade of the 1930’s was when we first made a big mark on the sport. In 1933, the first ever basketball stamps were issued in the Philippines, and are no doubt priceless collector’s items now. In 1936, we sent a team to the first Olympic basketball tournament in Berlin, Germany, lost only one game, but were declared fifth. Nevertheless, "The Islanders," as they were called (from what was then known as The Philippine Islands) became celebrities in Hitler’s homeland, constantly being swamped with attention and press coverage.
I hope that quenches some of your questions. If you have any more (or some answers to tough sports questions), just let me know through billvelasco@hotmail.com. I’ll do my best to find the answers.