By deliberately fouling Wilt Chamberlain six times in the fourth quarter, the expansion Chicago Bulls stay close to eventual-champion Philadelphia – way back on November 13, 1966. Only when 76ers’ coach Alex Hannum REMOVES Chamberlain from the game (a rare event in those days) does Philly manage to escape with a 132-126 victory. The strategy – employed by Bulls’ coach Johnny Kerr and his assistant, Al Bianchi – pre-dated by more than 30 years Don Nelson’s “modern” revival of the maneuver against Dennis Rodman and, later, Shaquille O’Neal.

Yes, Virginia, there was “Hacka Wilt” long before “Hacka Shaq,” “Hacka Howard” and “Hacka Jordan.” And back then, it angered “traditionalists” to the point they wound up instituting rules to protect Chamberlain. All this hubbub, past and present, will be covered extensively in my forthcoming book – including Wendell Smith’s Pittsburgh Courier analysis of the above-cited 76ers-Bulls game.

Harry S Truman said it as well as anyone: “There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.” Newspaper people of my acquaintance put it another way when a