IT ALL BEGAN WITH WILT

WILT CHAMBERLAIN, THE ALL TIME BEST BASKETBALL PLAYER EVER IN HISTORY COACHED BY CECIL MOSENSON

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• basketball
• cecil
• mosenson
• wilt
• chamberlain

[cecilmosenson]

its a great story

[ddenuci]

Even after Wilt left, the Overbrook team continued to dominate. They won three consecutive Philadelphia City Championships from 1957 through 1959. The 1958 team went 22-0, with players that included future pro's Wayne Hightower (Kansas), Walt Hazzard (UCLA), and Wally Jones (Villanova), who played with Wilt on the 76ers.

[ddenuci]

There was an article by the great Philly sports writer, Ted Silary, written in 1991 when Wilt returned to Overbrook. In the article, Ted writes that Cecil pulled Wilt aside and had a chance to talk to him for the first time since the 1976 Olympics, and they hadn't spoken much over the 30+ years since Wilt had graduated. "It was important that we spoke," said an obviously emotional Mosenson, ''and cleared the air about some misunderstandings that had occurred years ago, when Wilt was in college

[cmosenson]

The athletic director who was a track coach said that he does not stop his sprinters from breaking records. Therefore, Wilt was entitled to break the record.

[ddenuci]

westy: The difficulty with deciding who was the greatest is caused by no agreed-upon criteria. If it's the greatest stats, then clearly Wilt has no rival. If its leading the team to the championships, then it goes to Russell. But if it includes a combination of the two, then it goes to Jordan.

[westy40]

Thanks for the heads up on this... Great stuff..

I am going to buy the book.. seems like a great read.

I am not so sure Jordan is the best player ever.. I still think Wilt most likely was because of how he single handily forced the NBA rules to change because of his dominance.

[ddenuci]

First sentence should have been "...the record of MAKING consecutive..."

[ddenuci]

Cecil mentions (at 3;23) that Wilt holds the record for missing consecutive field goals without a miss. He puts the record at 18. This is true for a single game. Wilt did this against the Bullets on 2/24/67. But, even more impressively, Wilt holds the record for most consecutive field goals (spanning multiple games) with 35 ! This streak was across 4 games in Feb 1967 and included the game against the Bullets.

[ddenuci]

Actually, I just found a website that solves the mystery for me. Apparently, Cozen's Drexel career overlapped for two years with his 1947-54 run at Overbrook High School. So, he simultaneously coached a high school and college basketball team !

[ddenuci]

I first read about Cecil in that great book by Robert Cherry "Wilt Larger than Life". Cecil became the coach at Overbrook during Wilt's junior year. I know, again from Cherry's book, that Overbrook was coached by Sam Cozen, but Cozen left Overbrook to coach Drexel in 1952. Was there an interim coach between Cozen and Cecil, in the 1952-53 season, when Wilt was a soph? If so, why did he leave?