OT: Write-up of Wilt's only loss in high school to Farrell
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If I remember correctly overbrook played in the Johnstown war memorial tournament first then on to Farrell.I also have a write up of the game thanks to a man named Jim hatheway who attended the game. He was the game announcer at meadville high for over 40 years.His best stories were about West Virginia where he attended college and served as the bb team manager. A player from meadville was on the team named Lloyd sharr a6’11 center. Oh yea some else was on the team as well a Jerry something. Mr. hatheway had some great stories. It always amazed me that a high school team in 1958 did that amount of traveling. I believe I heard they traveled by train.I wonder who paid the expenses?
OK, I found a list of all his high school scores. They lost the Philly championship game when he was a sophomore 54-43. That was the lowest scoring game of his high school career. They also scored 55 in a public league game that season. When he was a junior their lowest scoring games were 52 and 55. As a senior though that 58 was their lowest scoring game of the season. Their next lowest game was 68, and their third lowest scoring game was 75, oddly enough against McKeesport.
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Another Wilt high school fun fact. As a senior his lowest scoring game was 16. But his team won the game 93-46, so if that was the result of a "let's triple team Wilt all night" strategy it failed miserably. His second lowest scoring game that season was 26 (when they won 89-22), and he scored at least 33 in all their other games. His high that season was 90. Which in a 32 minute high school game means that he was scoring a lot faster than the the night in Hershey when he went for 100. Six times (in 19 games) as a senior he outscored the other team all by himself.
You have it reversed. Overbrook played at Farrell on Friday then in Johnstown on Saturday. It was the only time the War Memorial changed their format. Two teams played on Friday and the winner, McKeesport played Overbrook on Saturday.They wanted to accommodate Overbrook, for good reason.
Farrell was an outstanding program. And they managed to hold Wilt to 33 points. Jim McCoy was the star on that Farrell team.
Trivia: Paul Westhead (more famous as a coach) played for the other team.
Was the loss as a sophomore to West Catholic? They had a 6-3 guy playing him, Bobby Devine (I think). Played at ND
Yes, it was. They also lost to Franklin that season, 77-72. So Wilt's total record in high school was 59-3.
My older brother went to West. Bobby Devine was his hero. He took me to a couple games. Best fight song ever.
Wow, that's pretty awesome! My father-in-law went to school there same time as Jimmy Lynam, Herb Magee, Paul Westhead, and Jimmy Boyle.
Small world isn't it??
What changed a bit later was the suburban kids started to fill the new schools like Bonner, Judge, etc. My brother went to West from Upper Darby, the younger 4 went to Bonner and Prendergast (Now merged)
The game is on YouTube with commentary by Wilt's coach from Overbrook. The refs were quite favorable to Farrell but props to them for pulling off the upset.
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