Wilt Chamberlain’s Overbrook vs. West Philly once was the most anticipated high school basketball matchup

As conversation pieces go, Carl Lacy has had a doozy for decades.

A photo of Lacy, then a 5-foot-11 guard at West Philadelphia High School, as he’s suspended in the air occupied by Wilt Chamberlain, Overbrook’s 7-foot Goliath, still hangs prominently in Lacy’s home in West Philly.

The ball is not visible in the photo, which, fortunately for Lacy, has allowed for some ambiguity when visitors have arrived through the years.

“I say, ‘Come on in the house, I’ll show you a picture of me and Wilt,’” Lacy, now 85, said with raspy laughter. “They say, ‘Mr. Lacy was blocking Wilt Chamberlain’s shot!’”

If he didn’t give up the goods himself, his wife of 65 years, Rosalee, would ask, “Why don’t you tell them it was the other way around? He was blocking your shot?”

“I’d say, ‘Let them think what they want to think,’” Lacy added with more laughter.

It’s a memory still cherished by Lacy, who coached Philly legends such as a young Gene Banks at the Sherwood Recreation Center (now known as the Christy Recreation Center).

Presumably, more memories will be made at 2 p.m. Saturday at St. Joseph’s University when local powers Imhotep Charter and Camden High School face off in a highly anticipated matchup, featuring Justin Edwards, Imhotep’s star forward and ESPN’s No. 1 player in the nation, against Camden’s D.J. Wagner, the No. 2 player.

Both standouts, who once were AAU teammates, are bound for Kentucky next season.

In honor of the latest high-profile matchup of area high school stars, here’s a look back at a classic Chamberlain vs. Scott meeting in 1955.

Ray Scott was no plumber.

Today, the lazy-minded among us can’t fathom Chamberlain’s dominance, so their assumption is that the 7-footer simply was a Goliath terrorizing teams who beat such a hasty retreat that they left their slingshots strewn about the court.

» READ MORE: Memorable and hyped high school basketball matchups throughout Philadelphia history

Or, some assume Chamberlain played against, “a bunch of plumbers,” a familiar refrain heard through the years.

“Wilt was just that insurmountable being in the city,” said Scott, 84. “We couldn’t even get in his sunshine. He was so good he even captured the sun all by himself.”

According to Lacy, “The Dipper” was also known for capturing jump shots, even though it may have violated the rulebook.

“He goaltended back then,” Lacy said. “I think it was on the books, but they never saw anybody do it.”

“So I came down and shot a jump shot,” he added later. “Next thing I know, he’s over the rim and taking it out of the basket.”

More raspy laughter.

“I thought, ‘This doesn’t seem to be right,’” he said, adding a final guffaw.

Scott, though, was a 6-foot-8 junior when the Speedboys faced Chamberlain, a senior, in the 1955 Public League championship in front of 8,500 spectators at the Palestra.

Back then, Scott said, the matchup wasn’t about him versus Chamberlain, who averaged 47.2 points per game in 12 games that season, including 74- and 90-point performances against Roxborough.

A reminder, high school games are only 32 minutes of regulation basketball.

“We did everything we could to guard him and trap him,” Scott said, “but he was a mature player and he knew what to do.”

Chamberlain scored 33 points and Overbrook won, 78-60, claiming its third consecutive Pub title.

Scott and teammate Joe Goldenberg, who later coached the Speedboys, were saddled by foul trouble. Reese Murray and Pete Urquhart led West with 13 points apiece. (Correction: a previous version misidentified Joe Goldenberg as coaching the Overbrook Panthers. He coached West Philly from 1970 to 1990)

The Speedboys had just three losses that season, all against Overbrook. Back then, the school rivalry was the big matchup in the city.

Games were played at 3 p.m., Lacy said, so many adults took off work to attend. Regular season contests were held at Sayre Junior High School because it was the only court suitable for a crowd of that magnitude.

The following season, Scott averaged 31.7 points per game, returned to the Palestra, and led West Philly with 22 points in a 78-60 Pub title win against Northeast.

In his recent memoir, The NBA in Black and White, Scott detailed an encounter that year with Chamberlain, who was a star at Kansas.

Scott rode his bike to the Haddington Recreation Center (now the Shepard Recreation Center) to see if the courts were occupied. At least one was, by Chamberlain, who invited Scott to join.

After a strenuous workout of shooting, rebounding, and running sprints (Chamberlain “always left me behind,” Scott wrote), Chamberlain loaded Scott’s bike in his car and drove him home.

“This meant a lot to me,” Scott wrote. “He saw me as a real player but more importantly as a person. Indeed, his respect helped me to increase my own self-respect.”

The Detroit Pistons drafted Scott No. 4 overall in the 1961 NBA draft. He played 12 seasons of professional basketball, including 10 in the NBA and two in the ABA, averaging 14.3 points and 9.8 rebounds for his career.

Scott, who still lives in Michigan, also later became the first Black coach to win coach of the year in the NBA during his 1974 season leading the Pistons to a then-record 52 wins.

Chamberlain was inducted in the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame in 1979 and still holds various NBA records. He died in 1999.

Lacy and Scott still talk at least once a week.

Lacy’s sons, Carl III and David, also played in the Overbrook-West Philly rivalry, but for the Panthers. Carl died in 2014 at age 53. David is 59.

Carl was on the team that snapped the Speedboys’ record 68-game winning streak in 1978.

“Now that we’re talking about it,” he said, “I’m just having a great time just remembering it all. As I’ve gotten older, that means a lot to me now.”