Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 3/2/2012

3/2/1962:
Wilt Chamberlain sets an NBA record by scoring 100 points for the Philadelphia Warriors during a 169-147 triumph over the New York Knicks before a crowd of 4,124 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He also sets records for most field goals made (36), most field goals attempted (63), most free throws (28 in 32 attempts), and most points in a half (59) in this game. Chamberlain records 23 points in the first quarter, 18 in the second, 28 in the third, and 31 in the fourth. The 100th point is accomplished following a pass from Joe Ruklick with 46 seconds remaining. Chamberlain also has 25 rebounds. It will be nearly 34 years before anyone, including Wilt, tops the 80-point mark in an NBA contest. That honor will go to Kobe Bryant, who will score 81 in a game for the Lakers against the Raptors on January 22, 2006.

Birthdays:
Mel Ott b. 1909
Hopalong Cassady b. 1934
Ian Woosnam b. 1958
Terry Steinbach b. 1962
Ben Roethlisberger b. 1982

CONTEMPORARY CLASSIC

Willie Morris is required reading for all Southerners, and for anyone who appreciates writing that is straightforward yet deeply moving, memoirs that are both personal and grand. The Sunday Times of London called North Toward Home “the finest evocation of an American boyhood since Mark Twain.” A vivid sketch of a place and time long gone, yet never forgotten, that William Styron called “a classic.”
   Also unmissable is My Dog Skip, Morris’s memoir of his boyhood dog and their adventures in Yazoo, Mississippi.

NORTH TOWARD HOME, by Willie Morris (1967; Vintage, 2000)