Sports Then and Now

BNP Paribas Open Tennis Tournament held annually at Indian Wells.

The BNP Paribas Open, a Masters Series 1000 Tournament held annually, has a rich and storied history.

Staged at the Indian Wells Tennis Gardens, the setting is lushly picturesque with its 12 courts bathed in the warm California sun.

The tournament’s roots go back to 1976 with its name changing as often as its sponsors.

The popular tennis event, however, had its beginning at its current Indian Wells locale in 1987.

Boris Becker won the inaugural men’s tournament at Indian Wells defeating Stefan Edberg in the final 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

Since that time this premiere tennis tournament has attracted the top players from the men’s and women’s field.

Following upon the heels of the Australian Open, the one-two punch of Indian Wells and Miami, closes the early American hardcourt season, pressing the players toward the upcoming clay season.

To date, only three players in the tournament’s history have won the event more than twice–Americans Jimmy Connors, pre-Indian Wells, and Michael Chang who won the event in 1992 and then consecutively in 1996-1997.

Roger Federer is the only player to have won the tournament consecutively three times from 2004-2006.

The question looming on the horizon remains–who will win the title in 2011? Perhaps one of the seasoned veterans will reclaim his spot at the top or will one of the new up-and-coming players demand the trophy on the final Sunday?

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Willie Anderson, four times winner of the US Open between 1901 - 1905.

It is hard to imagine nowadays but once upon a time Scotland dominated the US Open Golf Championship, winning twelve of the first sixteen tournaments, between 1895 and 1910. Amongst those early winners was Willie Anderson who won four times and remains only one of four golfers in the history of the event to have won that many. Anderson is also the only golfer to have won the tournament three times successively, a record that is likely to be in the books forever more.

The first American to win the prestigious US Open golf title was John McDermott, who won twice in succession in 1911 and 1912. His wins in fact sparked American dominance in their home ‘Major’ tournament and was hugely responsible for generating the sport’s popularity in the States.

Scottish success was not completely over however with Willie Macfarlane winning in 1925 becoming the last player from the ‘home of golf’ to have won; he was also the last non-American player to win until Gary Player, the great South African took the title in 1965.

Surprisingly Player only ever won the tournament once but over the years but there have been two golfers from South Africa to have achieved two wins. Firstly Ernie Els, who won in 1994 and 1997 and was followed in by Retief Goosen who claimed the title in 2001 and 2004. Other recent dual winners are the late Payne Stewart, Lee Janzen, Curtis Strange, Andy North, Lee Trevino and Billy Casper.

Tiger Woods is one of only two players to have a hat trick of wins his most recent coming in 2008 when he played his play-off round against Rocco Mediate with a serious injury to his left knee. Woods did not play again that year and has not won another ‘Major’ since. Woods also won in 2000 and 2002 and was second in 2005 and 2007. The other player with three wins is the very popular Hale Irwin, whose third win in 1990 made him the oldest player at 45 to have won the US Open. He also won in 1974 and 1975.

There are three players other than Anderson who have four titles and all three are regarded as legends of the sport of golf, they are Jack Nicklaus, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones, the latter being the last amateur to have lifted the crown. Nicklaus who last won in 1980 was also runner up on five occasions but still holds the record for the most ‘Majors’ won of 18.

In the modern golf era one player who can count himself unlucky not to have won more than once is Phil Mickelson has finished up, like Nicklaus runner up or tied runner up on five times.

The defending champion is Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, who will be looking to join the illustrious list of multiple US Open winners when the 2011 US Open gets underway on the Blue Course at the Congressional Golf Club in Bethesda, Maryland on June 15^th and the US Open betting is sure to have the Ryder Cup hero and current world number four as a strong contender to do so.

Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game on March 2, 1962.

Given his larger than life personality and talent, it is very possible that were he playing in today’s modern media era, Wilt Chamberlain would dwarf Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Shaq and the rest both on and off the court.

At 7-foot-1, Chamberlain was a scoring machine like no other. For much of his career, scoring as many as 50 or 60 points in a game wasn’t a “special” night, it was a routine. During the 1961-62 season, Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points per game and became the only NBA player to top 4,000 points in a season.

In fact, his career scoring average of 30.1 points is actually a point and a half higher than the 2010-11 average of the NBA’s current leading scorer (Kevin Durant averaging 28.5 ppg).

It was 49 years ago today that Chamberlain had his finest offensive night and one that will certainly never be duplicated.

As a member of the Philadelphia Warriors, Chamberlain scored 100 points on March 2, 1962 against the New York Knicks in a game played at Hersheypark Arena in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The late season game wasn’t expected to be overly exciting and in fact there is no known video from the game. There is a radio broadcast that I have included below.

Chamberlain scored 41 points in the first half, which wasn’t overly exciting considering he had topped 60 points 17 times already during the season and 32 times in his three year NBA career.

However, Warriors coach Frank McGuire instructed his players to keep feeding Chamberlain the ball during the second half and the points started to pile up.

As he neared 100 points, the Knicks started fouling the other Warrior players to keep Chamberlain from getting the ball. The Warriors then started fouling the Knicks to slow down the game and give Chamberlain more chances.

He finally reached 100 points in the final minute and the game was halted for nine minutes as fans ran onto the court to celebrate Chamberlain’s milestone.

What made Chamberlain’s 100 point game possible was his uncanny free throw shooting for that game. Chamberlain converted 28 of 32 foul shots (.875), which is far greater than his career average of .511 from the line. He also connected on 36 of 63 field goal attempts in the 169-147 victory.

Below are some audio and video clips that remember Chamberlain and his record setting night:
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