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This Day In Sports…February 11, 1970, 55 years ago today:

Elgin Baylor, the former College of Idaho star, and Jerry West score 43 points each for the L.A. Lakers—but it takes a 41-16 fourth quarter blitz to beat the Golden State Warriors 125-115 in the Cow Palace. That was far from the career-high for either player, though. About 11 years earlier, Baylor scored a then-NBA record 71 points (and pulled down 25 rebounds) in a 123-108 Lakers road win over the New York Knicks. His record would be broken in 1961 and reset several times by Wilt Chamberlain, capped by his legendary 100-point game in 1962.

West’s career-best was 63 points in a 1962 win over the Knicks. So enduring is his legacy that the NBA logo, designed back in 1969, is based on a photo of West (according to designer Alan Siegel). Baylor’s 71-point ledger is still tied for ninth in NBA history and is second in Lakers history to the amazing 81-point game by the late Kobe Bryant in 2006. West’s 63-point performance is fourth on the Lakers’ all-time list.

It’s always awesome to talk about Baylor, who played at College of Idaho in 1954-55. He was wildly successful in high school in Washington, D.C., but according to historians, major colleges didn’t recruit at all-Black high schools in the early 1950s. Baylor landed a football scholarship at C of I but only played hoops, averaging 31 points and 20 rebounds per game in his one season in Caldwell before transferring to Seattle University (after sitting out a year). Baylor was ultimately named MVP of the 1958 NCAA Tournament after leading Seattle U. to the championship game.  

And now comes the Monday announcement that the Coyotes’ home court is going to be renamed “Elgin Baylor Arena at the J.A. Albertson Activities Center.” The dedication ceremony is set for the Yotes’ game against Evergreen State on Friday, February 21. The release notes that at C of I, for the first time in his life, Baylor attended integrated classes, lived in shared dormitories, and ate in the same dining halls as his white classmates. In his autobiography, “Hang Time,” Baylor recalled, “It’s as if I have wandered into a private and exclusive members-only club, except that rather than feel intimidated and excluded the way I do in DC, I feel invited.”

(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.) 

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