PHILADELPHIA 76ERS TO HONOR LEGENDARY STATISTICIAN HARVEY POLLACK WITH TRIBUTE NIGHT ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 2
PHILADELPHIA, PA – MARCH 1, 2016 – The Philadelphia 76ers will honor the life and career of illustrious team statistician Harvey Pollack, who passed away on June 23, 2015, with a special tribute night on Wednesday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m. when the Sixers host the Charlotte Hornets. The date holds special significance to Pollack’s legacy. On March 2, 1962, Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain netted 100 points – a standing NBA record – in a victory over the New York Knicks. Pollack, then the Warrior’s head of media relations, scribbled the iconic “100” on a white piece of paper for Chamberlain’s transcendent postgame photo. “It is an honor to have had Harvey Pollack as a member of our Sixers family,” said Scott O’Neil, Philadelphia 76ers Chief Executive Officer. “The remarkable contributions he made to the game of basketball will leave an immeasurable mark on the sport forever. He was a quiet gentleman, a passionate sports enthusiast, and a trailblazer whose innovative perspective on statistics and analytics will continue to change the very nature of our game, our league, and our players for years to come. We pay tribute to him at our game with great admiration and love for a true Hall of Famer.”Pollack, who began his career in 1946, was the last original employee of the league’s inaugural season to still be working in the NBA in 2015. He enjoyed an unparalleled career that spanned eight different decades in Philadelphia. Widely considered the engineer of modern-day basketball statistics, Pollack revolutionized the use of stats in professional sports. He was the first to begin tracking many of today’s crucial statistics including offensive and defensive rebounds, steals, turnovers, blocked shots, minutes played, field-goal distances, dunks and 48-minute stat projections. Pollack is also credited with coining the phrase “triple-double” during the 1979-80 NBA season to describe the rare accomplishments of Los Angeles Lakers rookie Magic Johnson. At the Sixers game on Wednesday, March 2, the team will honor Pollack with special tributes throughout the evening. Players will wear shooting shirts emblazoned with “Harvey ‘Super Stat’ Pollack” on the back. The first 15,000 fans to enter will receive a double-sided poster, presented by GEICO, depicting Pollack at The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame podium and Wilt Chamberlain holding the famous “100” point sign. From 2003 to 2015, Pollack chased a Guinness World Record by wearing a different t-shirt each day–totaling more than 4,000 unique garments. To honor his pursuit, the Sixers will present a special “Super Stat” station in the arena’s 11th street atrium featuring a t-shirt display and memory wall. Fans are encouraged to bring and donate gently used t-shirts to be donated to the Pollack family’s favorite charities including The Bethesda Project and Project Home. Tribute videos and testimonials by NBA legends and personalities, including NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, will play throughout the game. Sixers Ambassador of Basketball World B. Free and Executive Advisor Sonny Hill will lead a special presentation for Pollack’s family at halftime. The Sixers dedicated the scorer’s table of their home arena to Pollack during a halftime ceremony at this season’s home opener on October 30, 2015.In 1946, Pollack began as the assistant director of publicity for the Philadelphia Warriors and was promoted to head of media relations after six and a half seasons. The Warriors relocated to San Francisco in 1962 and the Syracuse Nationals franchise moved to Philadelphia prior to the 1963-64 season. Pollack served as the media relations director for the renamed “76ers” from the team’s inception until the 1987-88 season after which he was named director of statistical information, a position he held to the time of his passing in 2015. He is the only person to have earned all four Philadelphia professional basketball championship rings: two with the Warriors (1947 and 1956) and two with the Sixers (1967 and 1983). In 2002, The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame awarded Pollack the prestigious John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. For nearly a half-century Pollack and his staff compiled the renowned Harvey Pollack NBA Statistical Yearbook, an annual anthology of hundreds of essential–and revolutionary–statistics, trends, trivia and observations. Some unique categories included Most Three Second Violations, Most Tattoos by Team, Leaders in Delay of Game Violations, Most Accurate Technical Foul Shooters, Heaviest/Tallest NBA Teams and Best Performers in Crunch Time, among many others. A fixture of the Philadelphia athletics landscape, Pollack led statistics crews at six major area colleges simultaneously, including a 60-year run as Temple University’s football statistician. He also oversaw stats crews for the Philadelphia Wings (Major Indoor Lacrosse League), Philadelphia Soul (Arena Football League) and the Baltimore Colts (National Football League). Pollack played basketball for Simon Gratz High School and graduated in 1943 from Temple University.Individual tickets for Harvey Pollack Tribute Night on Wednesday, March 2 at 7:00 p.m. when the Sixers host the Charlotte Hornets, as well as all single game tickets and ticket packages, are on sale now by phone at 215-339-7676, online at SIXERS.COM, and in person at the box office.
