Education
Pollack played basketball for Simon Gratz High School and graduated in 1943 from Temple University in Philadelphia.
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Harvey Pollack
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Career
At the time of his death, Pollack held the distinction of being the only individual still working for the National Basketball Association since its inaugural 1946-1947 season. Because of his proclivity to statistics, then Philadelphia Bulletin writer George Kiseda pinned the moniker of Super Stat on him in 1966. He took his first job as a sportswriter for the Philadelphia Bulletin after serving as a soldier in the United States Army during World World War World War II In 1946-1947 he started as the assistant publicity director for the Philadelphia Warriors of the Basketball Association of America, which later merged with the National Basketball League to form the National Basketball Association.
Midway through the 1952-1953 season, he became head of media relations for the Warriors.
Pollack then served as the media relations director of the Philadelphia 76ers until the 1987-1988 season, when he assumed the duties of director of statistical information for the team Pollack holds the distinction of keeping score during Wilt Chamberlain"s 100-point game, on March 2, 1962.
Pollack made Chamberlain the sign which he holds in his famous post-game photo. Pollack was responsible for many stats that are now officially recorded by the National Basketball Association, such as blocked shots, and he was the first statistician to separate rebounds into offensive and defensive.
Some believe he coined the term "triple-double," although others claim that it was coined by former Los Angeles Lakers public relations director, Bruce Jolesch.
During the Sixers’ offseason, Pollack analyzed all 1,230 play-by-play sheets from the previous season (every game of the regular season) to produce the Harvey Pollack’s National Basketball Association Statistical Yearbook, a book of rare basketball information that took statistical analysis to a new level lieutenant includes stats such as the shot distance of every field goal, who gets their shot blocked the most, and other creative categories like "working-man," which a player has to contribute to every category but no fouls or turnovers, and "trillionaire club" which is when player plays in a game and has all zeros across their name. This National Basketball Association publication evolved from developing the first of its kind media guides for the Philadelphia 76ers in 1966-1967 and then separated later into a new National Basketball Association publication to become among the most distinguished compilations in the sports business.
Pollack claimed that Wilt Chamberlain had not only a quadruple-double, but also a game where he recorded at least double digits in all five primary statistical categories.
However, this has not been recorded in the books because the National Basketball Association had not officially adopted the statistics yet. On June 23, 2015, Pollack died at the age of 93.
