Playing in Madison Square Garden is special. New York City is the center of the media world, and a good performance there means untold possibilities and national exposure. In 1958, this was even more true than today. Without cable television, players weren’t seen by fans as they are now. Visiting athletes were known only by reputation. When I was in college, few people had actually seen Wilt Chamberlain. Most fans didn’t know what he looked like. In New York, the media and wire services saw everyone. An appearance in New York meant that you, Wilt, or I would be playing on the biggest imaginable stage, in front of all the people who would report to the world, tell the nation who you were or were not, what you could or couldn’t do…

Whatever marketing plans the Garden execs had, they didn’t exactly bring out the fans that night, because our game tipped off in front of a mostly empty building. I took my first shot 35 seconds into the game, a midrange jumper that missed. A minute and 15 seconds later, I backed a defender down, then spun off him and leaped and hit a scooping layup...

There must have been something in the air that day… holding the ball in my right hand, far above my head, releasing and following through on a virtually unblockable shot, I hit jump shot after jump shot. I posted up, ran fast breaks, filled the lane, and finished with one scooping layup after another. Whether they were layups or running hook shots or rare deep jumpers, the ball kept going in the basket. I didn’t know how many points I had until afterwards, when I was cornered in the dressing room, and an eager group of reporters started asking me about my record night, that I asked for a stat sheet and saw the following:

Field goals attempted: 32. Field goals made: 22.
Free throws attempted: 12. Free throws made: 12.

When I finally dressed and left the Garden, it was late; the streets were empty and glowing. A light snow was in the air. I was with my roommate, Chuck Machock. The team had long gone, so we walked back to the Hotel Paramount, talking about the game we’d just played and everything that had happened afterwards.