When Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a game for the Philadelphia Warriors in March 1962, Harvey Pollack was there.
So was Ron Pollack.
When the Sixers won NBA championships in 1967 and 1983, Harvey Pollack was there.
So was Ron Pollack.
For the last 45 years, wherever Philadelphia college or pro basketball history has been made, Harvey Pollack has been there, recording it for posterity.
For the last 27 years, Ron Pollack, Harvey's only son, has been there with him.
The elder Pollack is a local sports legend who lives on Algon Avenue. He has been keeping basketball stats for the old Philadelphia Warriors and the Sixers since 1946. He is the official statistician for the Big 5 basketball teams and, with his son, is the official scorer for all Temple home basketball games.
He also has kept stats for pro and college football and lacrosse.
Harvey Pollack is obsessed with statistics. When he began keeping stats for the Warriors, only scoring and shooting percentage was kept.
Now the NBA keeps a myriad of stats on such things as rebounds, steals, blocked shots, minutes played, turnovers, points from turnovers and plus-minus ratio. All were introduced by Pollack.
He spends at least eight hours a day, outside from his daily duties as director of statistical information for the Sixers, studying and compiling stats from around the NBA. He puts them together every year in the Sixers media guide and publishes a periodical statistical guide that is sent to every NBA team and basketball journalists.
Pollack's obsession with numbers does not stop at sports. For the last 33 years, he has been the official statistician of the Mummers Parade.
"He is just so much into it," said Ron Pollack. "He lives and dies statistics."
Ron, 42, who graduated from Northeast High in 1964 and lives on Verree Road, began working for his father in his mid-teens. He continues to do so to this day, splitting his time between statistics and his business as a computer systems engineer.
Harvey and Ron Pollack are sure that their statistical tendencies will remain in the family. A third generation of Pollack statisticians, Ron's 16- year-old son Brian, is working on Harvey's crew at Sixers games.
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Because Harvey Pollack was working for the Warriors and Sixers, his son grew up around the pros.
It helped him gain popularity as he was growing up.
