1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall vs WILT CHAMBERLAIN ?!?!!

Today our journey through the Rookie Cups takes us to the 1961 AL Rookie of the Year and 1962 Topps RHP Rookie Cup representative Don Schwall

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall (RC)

A fine card with the familiar 1962T wood panel design that I have always liked and the old school Rookie Cup tophat. I have place Schwall on a page from Robby Incmikoski and Kyle Fager coffee table book "Sacred Grounds". The time has a bunch of large full page photos of stadia that should make for good card backdrops. 

But things get real interesting on the back...

flip

1962 Topps #35 Don Schwall (b-side)

First off I want to briefly cover that we have Don's Rookie of the Year Award mentioned in the comic.

Schwall earned the award by posting a 15-7 record with a fine 3.22 ERA (129 ERA+!!). The righthander's 15 Ws led all rookies while his W-L Pct and ERA both ranked 2nd. The most marginal number was Don's 92 strikeouts (5th). Perhaps Ken McBride has a complaint about Schwall's selection but that will need to be left to another column.  

Hoop

Now, lets move onto the juicy first line of the text:

"A former basketball star in college where he once OUTSCORED WILT CHAMBERLAIN" 

Yes, prior to signing a MLB contract with the Boston Red Sox Don Schwall was a lauded collegiate basketball player.

As a forward for the 1956-57 Oklahoma Sooners Schwall led the team in free throws while finishing 2nd in scoring overall. During Schwall's only full season with Oklahoma they faced the Kansas Jayhawks, who were led by future NBA HOF legend Wilt Chamberlain, three times.   

1961 Fleer #47 Wilt Chamberlain (IA/rc - image stolen from psa)

Wilt and the Jayhawks (24-3, AP #2 Overall) won all three contests, but the Sooners held their own. Specifically Don Schwall did quite well vs Kansas and outplayed Wilt in the season series: 

Above we have comparisons between the three meetings with the totals in the final column. at the Bottom right of Schwall's data we have enlarged Don Schwall's point total for the 3 games 73 which eclipsed Wilt by 4 points. By coincidence the two players had the exact same Foul Shooting numbers. 

Boxes

Thanks to the Des Moines Register  we have Columns & Box Scores from the three games:

Newspaper clippings from Des Mones Register (1957 Feb 19 via Proquest)

These first two clippings are from the February 18 1957 game where Don Schwall scored 30 points, Wilt Chamberlain fouled out with 11. It's blurry Oklahoma is the away team listed first, Schwall the fourth name "Schw'l". His line stands out with the 11 field goals as the only one in double digits. On the Kansas side we see Wilt listed 5th with the 5 fouls in the final column. 

 

 Newspaper clippings from Des Mones Register (1956 Dec 29 & 1957 Feb 19 via Proquest)

These are clippings also from the Des Moines Register for the other two games. Fortunately both of these boxes are clearer. 

1957+

Schwall returned to Oklahoma in the fall of 1957 but only played 3 basketball games before...

Newspaper photo and caption from New York Daily News (1957 Dec 12 via Proquest)

On December 10th Don Schwall withdrew from Oklahoma after signing a professional contract with the Boston Red Sox. The 50k listed in the above caption is $595000+ in 2026 dollars.  

Within four years Don Schwall would be pitching for the Red Sox. The following spring he appeared on his first baseball card - a Rookie Cup Card!

Sources & Links
1962 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index
Wilt Chamberlain HOF Index

ProQuest: Des Moines Register 

ProQuest: New York Daily News

SABR Bio - Curt Smith

BallNine

baseball-reference

Sacred Grounds - Incmikoski & Fager

psa

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Inflation Calculator

Wilt Chamberlain HoF Index

This is an Index of our postings related to Overbrook alum Wilt Chamberlain

1961 Fleer Wilt Chamberlain (IA/RC - image swiped from PSA)

Wilt Chamberlain HoF Index

100 point game random thoughts

Don Schwall vs Walt Chamberlain 

Philly Sports HOF inaugural class (2004)

Hoop HOF Index

Random Thoughts on Wilt's 100 Point Game

Here in Philadephia and througout the sporrts world we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Wilt Chamberlains 100 point game. 

I am not a big basketball historian but because of the heroics and oddities surrounding that game I tend to retain trivia regarding the Willt 100 game in the rolodex of my brain. 

Personal Connection

The game was played in Hershey rather then Philadelphia which makes the game an anomaly for that fact alone.  Hershey was the closest thing we had to an arena in south central PA - I probably was there for a dozen or so events as a youngster and the place holds a lot of memories.  My first Hockey game was certainly there, First College Hoop gm - Penn St v Maryland - Greg Manning shot out hte lights as the Terps romped.  And also I saw One of my first concerts there, Crosby Still and Nash.  In the last 20 years I think I have only seen my alma mater play in one game and that was a Basketball State Playoff game in Hershey Arena - They lost.  

But they may have played on the same court that Wilt had his 100 point game on.  I don't think Hershey Arena is in use as a basketball stadium anymore. 

Apparenlty the basketball floor was salvaged.   

And tonight you can get a piece of it at the Sixers game.  pretty cool promotion.  everyone admitted gets a 2"x2" square from the floor.  I checked this AM and tix were still available.  StubHub had tix for as little as $20.  Pretty nice promotion - you can get a pretty nice piece of history for the cost of a blaster.   

Random Info on Wilts 100. 

There is apparently no Video of the game and the only audio of the game, which feature Bill Campbell, was "discovered" relatively recently. 

No one knows how the 99th and 100th points were scored 

According to Elias the highest 2 teamate scores in any one game doesn't break 100 in any other game. 

Kobe's 80 pt performance a few years ago is the 2nd highest point total in a game - this means the 1 and 2 highest scoring games were accomplished by Philadelphians. 

The 100 written on a piece of paper and held by Chamberlain in the iconic photo was written by
Sixers Statistician Haarvey Pollack.  Pollack is accepted as the father of basketball statistics and came up with many of the stats in use today.  He was honored the 76ers with a bobblehead a few years ago, I think he may also hold the Wordl Record for consecutive days wearing different T-Shirts or something like that.

Sources and Links

Wilt Chamberlain HOF Index