The commercial airline flight was scheduled to go from San Diego to Los Angeles, then on to New York. The L.A. Lakers boarded in the City of Angels. And when they did, someone from San Diego was sitting in Wilt Chamberlain's seat.
First class, front row, on the aisle."He said to me, 'Hey, baby -- that's what he called everybody, baby -- why don't I have that seat?' I said, 'Because there's a guy sitting in it,'" said Jazz broadcaster and former NBAer Hot Rod Hundley, who was working as traveling secretary and man-behind-the-mike for the Lakers at the time.
Hundley feared Chamberlain, all 7-1 of him, might grab the guy by his shirt and relocate him to coach class.
But no.
"He just said, 'Oh, OK,'" Hundley recalled Tuesday night, just hours after learning NBA-great Chamberlain, 63, had died of an apparent heart attack earlier Tuesday in his California home.
Despite his imposing stature and game-changing accomplishments, former NBA adversaries from the Salt Lake area remembered Wilt the Stilt as a regular fellow.
"Naturally, I was devastated. I mean, not only was he a great basketball player, but he was also one of the nicest persons I've ever met in basketball," said ex-Atlanta Hawks star Lou Hudson, a Park City councilman who ranks 45th among all-time NBA scorers. "I was in awe of him, but at the same time, he was a genuine person -- and one of the most-dominant players you'd ever play . . . He was bigger than life, but he was still a great person."
Hudson last saw Chamberlain about four months ago, at a celebrity golf tournament in California. Chamberlain was there even though golf was one sport the celebrated athlete did not play.
"He was a well-conditioned person . . . he looked great," Hudson said.
"Wilt always worked out," said Hundley, who first met Chamberlain in 1957, when the two were named to an AP All-American college honor squad that appeared together on The Ed Sullivan Show. "He had a great body from the waist on up. He was the strongest basketball player to ever live, in my opinion. He absolutely could have played until he was 50, because he was so strong."
Both Hundley and Hudson have fond recollections of Chamberlain, on the court and off:
THE RULES CHANGER: "He could jump over the (free-throw) line and dunk the ball," Hundley said. "Lobbing the ball over the backboard from out-of-bounds was made illegal because of him, because he would just slam the ball down. They widened the lane because of him."
Said Hudson: "No other person dominated to the extent that they changed the rules for him, which says it all."
THE POKER PLAYER: "He'd try to buy (a prize pot) with a pair of deuces," Hundley said.
THE JUNKFOOD JUNKIE: Hundley also recalls Chamberlain's voracious appetite: "He drank a ton of 7-Up, even during a game. He ate hot dogs and cherry pies at halftime. He'd drive coaches crazy."
THE FAN: Once, Hundley asked Chamberlain what he imagined it would be like if he were to have played with Jazz guard John Stockton, the NBA's all-time assists leader: "He said, 'I would have gotten 100 (points every night).' He loved Stockton."
THE SCORER: Hundley played for L.A. in the Dec. 8, 1961, triple-overtime game in which Chamberlain, then with Philadelphia, scored 78 points. It is the No. 2 single-best individual scoring effort in NBA history, second only to Chamberlain's famed 100-point game against New York in '62. "He was unstoppable," Hundley said.
THE COMPETITOR: Who is the NBA's greatest center? Debate rages. Chamberlain? Bill Russell? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? Bill Walton? "I think the only guy who ever got to him was Russell," Hundley said, "because Russell won 11 world championships, and Wilt only won two."
THE GUARDED FRIEND: "He was the guy that recognized everybody," said Hudson, recalling when Chamberlain recently spotted ex-Buffalo Braves star Randy Smith in a crowd. "Somebody shouted, 'Hey, jive turkey, you haven't changed a bit.' It was Wilt." Some who knew him casually have described Chamberlain as a loner; others, over the years, have described him as lonely. Neither is true, said Hudson: "He choose his friends rather than his friends choosing him. And, for some reason, he always liked me. It was mutual, and I'll never forget him."
As for Chamberlain's much-publicized confession to countless encounters with women, Hundley has his doubts.
"That was Wilt," he said. "He exaggerated everything."
On the court, and off.
"At halftime of games, he used to come to over the scorer's table and look for the stats sheet," Hundley said. "He'd say, 'Hey, baby, you only got me for 15 rebounds. I have 25.' At the half."