The Big E was Elvin Hayes, another all-time great.
My family had Laker season seats when I was a kid in the early ‘70s, right across the aisle from Chick Hearn. Used to go down to court side near the basket during warmups, and Chamberlain and Baylor in particular would often take a little time to engage with the young fans down there. Class acts, all of them.
Elvin Hayes also dominated Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) in the 1968 UCLA-Houston "Game of the Century," which Houston won in the Astrodome.
UCLA, coached by the legendary John Wooden, had won 47 straight games when Hayes and Alcindor met in Houston.
Alcindor and UCLA had defeated Houston and Hayes just nine months before that in the 1967 Final Four.
The Astrodome match up was nationally televised and drew a crowd of 53,000 fans.
I watched that night game with my high school crew. All of us wanted UCLA to win, mostly because John Wooden was one of the most revered coaches in American history and also because of UCLAs astounding winning streak.
Just a few months later, Hayes and Alcindor played once more in the 1968 Final Four.
Using an aggressive team defense against Hayes in that game, UCLA completely dominated Houston and Hayes.