Why Does Grandma Have So Many Old Pictures With Wilt Chamberlain?

When my editors asked me to write a piece on NBA fandom throughout the decades, I interviewed my father, and together, we looked through hundreds of photos and uncovered something truly exciting.

It turns out my grandmother used to be a huge basketball fan. In fact, she has hundreds of pictures with Hall of Fame center Wilt Chamberlain. She must have been a huge Sixers fan or something. I know my grandpa used to take her to games, but I found it odd he isn’t in any of these photos.

The other fascinating revelation is that my grandma had a whole network of friends with Wilt. Dozens of photos feature Wilt, my grandma, and a third female whose identity always changes. It’s so cool to think that my “Nan” was so close with “The Big Dipper” that he was okay with her bringing girlfriends to meet him after games. That amount of excitement certainly explains why everyone looked so sweaty and worn out.

Between 1968 and 1973, my grandma kept taking “Grandma Vacations” to Los Angeles,  I had no idea she cared about basketball so much.

The biggest haul from this piece of family history is the original “100” photograph, depicting the night Wilt shattered the NBA scoring record. It turns out my grandma was there, standing right behind Wilt, holding a bottle of champagne, and ready to celebrate what her longtime pal just accomplished.