On this day 49 years ago, Atlanta Hawks forward Bill Bridges pulled down 36 boards in a 113-104 playoff victory over Walt Frazier’s New York Knicks.
With the feat, he became the only player besides Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain and Willis Reed to record more than 35 rebounds in a playoff game. And he did it as a 6-foot-6 power forward. (Bridges finished with 12 points and 36 rebounds that game; his teammate, Lou Hudson, finished with 35 points and 11 rebounds). Some of Bridges’ career highlights:
In 1962, in the last season of the long-gone American Basketball League, he dropped 55 points, the league record.
Over 13 seasons in the NBA, he averaged a tad under 12 points and 12 rebounds per game.
During the 1967-68 season, he set the NBA record with 366 personal fouls in a season, or 4.5 personal fouls per game over 82 games.
He was a three-time All Star, a two-time All-Defense selection, and, in 1975, won a title with Rick Barry’s San Francisco Warriors.
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