WILT CHAMBERLAIN Basketball superstar Related story: Obituary: Wilt Chamberlain

"I wouldn't say it's always been the easiest thing being 7 feet and black, but never once in my life did I ever feel like I was a misfit."

Wilt Chamberlain was a center so big, agile and dominant that he forced basketball to change its rules. The only player to score 100 points in an NBA game, Chamberlain died October 14 in Los Angeles. He was 63. The cause of death, according to his agent, was congestive heart failure.

Known as "Wilt the Stilt" and "The Big Dipper," the 7-foot-1-inch Wilton Norman Chamberlain starred in the National Basketball Association from 1959 through 1973, when he played for the Philadelphia (later the San Francisco) Warriors, 76ers and Lakers. He later stirred controversy by boasting of his sexual exploits.

Chamberlain scored 31,419 points during his career, a record until Kareem Abdul-Jabbar broke it in 1984. Chamberlain, who never fouled out in 1,205 regular-season and playoff games, holds the record for career rebounding with 23,924.

Born in Philadelphia in 1936, Chamberlain was a high school phenomenon and in college. He led the University of Kansas to NCAA tournament finals in 1957, where the Jayhawks lost to an undefeated North Carolina team in triple overtime.

Disgusted by zone defenses, he left Kansas after his junior year in 1958 and joined the Harlem Globetrotters. Extremely agile for his size, Chamberlain ran cross-country in high school and was an outstanding high jumper and shot-putter at Kansas. He joined the NBA in 1959.

Chamberlain was one of only two men to win the most valuable player and rookie of the year awards in the same season (1959-60). He was also MVP in 1966 through 1968. He led the NBA in scoring seven straight seasons, 1960-66, and led the league in rebounding 11 of his 14 seasons.

Chamberlain was such a force that the NBA changed some of its rules, including widening the lane to try to keep him farther from the basket.

His most famous record came when he scored 100 points in the Philadelphia Warriors' 169-147 defeat of the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962, in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Chamberlain also holds the single-game record for rebounds, 55, against Boston in 1960.