Today in Sports History: March 2nd
(The Joker + foliage + costume = the Stanford Tree. Kyle Terada, US Presswire)
3/02/1962 - Chamberlain scores 100 points
A million people claim to have been at a game that only about 4,000 people really got to see. Wilt Chamberlain, with his team barn-storming in Hershey, Pennsylvania, scored an NBA record 100 points, the greatest single-game performance in league history.
To read more about this story, click here for an in-depth Inhistoric article:
3/02/1972 - Stanford Indian goes bye bye
In an 18-4 decision, the ASSU (or Associated Students of Stanford University) vote to ban the university's portrayal of a Native American, stating that "any and all Stanford University use of the Indian Symbol should be immediately disavowed and permanently stopped." From 1930-1972, the Stanford Cardinal sports teams had used a man dressed as an Indian as their mascot. Native Americans were not amused, and in 1972, 55 students submitted a petition, stating that their portrayal of the Indian was an offensive one.
And thus, one of the weirdest mascots in all of sports was born. Filling the place of the Stanford Indian was the Stanford Tree, a fake mascot used by the school band that caught on with the students. Besides looking completely ridiculous, the Tree is one of the only mascots in sports based on an inanimate object -- which is unique if nothing else.
Oh and in case you were wondering, the team is actually named after the color cardinal and not the bird, thus they are the Stanford Cardinal and not the "Cardinals".
(The cracked backboard after Morris' powerful dunk)
3/02/1993 - Morris breaks backboard
With 4:21 remaining in a regular season game in New Jersey, Nets forward Chris Morris throws down a monster two-hand slam that leaves the backboard shattered. It would take 21 minutes for the basket to be replaced, and Morris was assessed a technical foul for hanging on the rim. The Chicago Bulls won, 87-80.
1993 was the year of the dunk in the NBA. In February of that year, Shaquille O’Neal brought down the entire basket in a game against Phoenix, and just one month after Morris’ jam, O’Neal ripped down the basket in a game against the New Jersey Nets. What made Morris’ dunk particularly impressive was that the NBA had installed breakaway rims and backboards that were designed to withstand impact. Shattering a backboard was pretty much impossible, and since his jam in 1993, no one has done it since (in the NBA at least).
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