High School Career
As a player for the Overbrook Panthers, Chamberlain averaged 31 points a game during the 1953 high school season and led his team to a 71–62 win against the Northeast High School of his future NBA teammate Guy Rodgers. He scored 34 points, won Overbrook the Public League title and a berth for the Philadelphia city championship game against the winner of the rival Catholic league, West Catholic. In that game, West Catholic triple-teamed Chamberlain the entire game, and despite the center's 29 points, the Panthers lost 54–42.
In his second Overbrook season, Chamberlain continued his prolific scoring, among them scoring a high school record 71 points against Roxborough. The Panthers comfortably won the Public League title after again beating Northeast in which Chamberlain scored 40 points, and later won the city title by defeating South Catholic 74–50. Chamberlain scored 32 points and had led Overbrook to a flawless 19–0 season.
During summer vacations Chamberlain worked as a bellhop in Kutsher's Hotel. Red Auerbach, the coach of the Boston Celtics, spotted the talented teenager there and had him play 1-on-1 against Kansas University standout and national champion, B. H. Born, elected the Most Valuable Player of the 1953 NCAA Finals. Chamberlain won 25–10; Born was so dejected that he gave up a promising NBA career and became a tractor engineer ("If there were high school kids that good, I figured I wasn't going to make it to the pros"), and Auerbach wanted Chamberlain to go to a New England university, so he could draft him as a territorial pick for the Celtics, but Chamberlain did not respond.
In Chamberlain's third and final Overbrook season, he continued his high scoring, once logging 74, 78 and 90 points in three consecutive games. The Panthers won the Public League a third time, beating West Philadelphia 78–60, and in the city championship game, they met West Catholic once again. Scoring 35 points, Chamberlain led Overbrook to an easy 83–42 victory. After 3 years, Chamberlain had won Overbrook 2 city championships, logged a 56–3 record and had broken Tom Gola's high school scoring record by scoring 2,252 points, averaging 37.4 points per game.
After his last Overbrook season, over 200 universities wanted to recruit the basketball prodigy. Among others, UCLA offered Chamberlain the opportunity to become a movie star, the University of Pennsylvania wanted to buy him diamonds, and Chamberlain's Panthers coach Mosenson was even offered a coaching position if he could persuade the center. Cherry has described that Chamberlain wanted a change and therefore did not want to go to or near Philadelphia (also eliminating New York), was not interested in New England, and snubbed the South because of segregation; leaving the Midwest. In the end, after visiting the University of Kansas, also commonly known as KU, with renowned college coach Phog Allen, Chamberlain then proclaimed he was going to play college basketball at KU.
Read more about this topic: Wilt Chamberlain
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