Harvey Pollack facts for kids

Herbert Harvey Pollack (March 9, 1922 – June 23, 2015) was a very important person in American sports. He was a statistician, which means he kept track of numbers and facts about games. He was also a journalist who wrote about sports and entertainment. For a long time, he was the director of statistical information for the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.

When he passed away, Pollack was the only person still working for the NBA who had been there since its very first season in 1946–47. Because he loved statistics so much, a writer named George Kiseda called him "Super Stat" in 1966.

Early Life and Education

Harvey Pollack played basketball when he was in high school at Simon Gratz High School. He later graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1943.

A Career in Sports

Pollack started his career as a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Bulletin after serving in the United States Army during World War II. In 1946, he began working for the Philadelphia Warriors basketball team. This team was part of the Basketball Association of America, which later joined with another league to form the National Basketball Association (NBA).

By 1952, he was in charge of media relations for the Warriors. When the Warriors team moved to San Francisco in 1962, Pollack stayed in Philadelphia. He continued to work for the NBA until the Philadelphia 76ers team was formed in 1963. He then became the media relations director for the 76ers. Later, in 1987, he took on the role of director of statistical information for the team.

Historical marker for Pollack in South Philadelphia

Wilt Chamberlain's 100-Point Game

Harvey Pollack is famous for keeping score during Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game. This amazing game happened on March 2, 1962. Pollack said it was the "busiest night" of his career. There were no other reporters there, so he was the only statistician and reporter for the game. Pollack even made the famous sign that Wilt Chamberlain held in his picture after the game.

New Basketball Statistics

Pollack was responsible for many statistics that the NBA now officially records. For example, he helped make blocked shots an official stat. He was also the first person to separate rebounds into offensive (when a player gets the ball after their team misses a shot) and defensive (when a player gets the ball after the other team misses a shot). Some people think he also created the term "triple-double," which is when a player gets double-digit numbers in three different stats in one game.

The NBA Statistical Yearbook

During the basketball offseason, Pollack would carefully look at all 1,230 play-by-play sheets from every game of the regular season. From this, he created the Harvey Pollack's NBA Statistical Yearbook. This book was full of unique basketball information. It helped people understand statistics in a new way.

The yearbook included details like how far away each shot was taken. It also showed who had their shots blocked the most. Pollack even created fun categories like "working-man," for a player who contributed to every stat category without fouls or turnovers. Another was the "trillionaire club," for a player who played in a game but had zero in every stat category. This book became a very important publication in the sports world.

Pollack also believed that Wilt Chamberlain had a "quadruple-double" in one game. This means Wilt would have gotten double-digit numbers in four different stats. He also thought Wilt had a game where he got double-digits in all five main stats. However, these were not officially recorded because the NBA had not yet adopted these statistics.

Later Life and Passing

Harvey Pollack passed away on June 23, 2015, at the age of 93.

Awards and Honors

• Philadelphia Big 5 Hall of Fame, 1995 (for his work as a statistician).
• John Bunn Award, 2002 (a special award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame).
• Pennsylvania Historical Marker, dedicated May 19, 2016. This marker is located near the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.

See also

• Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point game
• Philadelphia 76ers