The Green Bay Packers once lost a basketball game against Wilt Chamberlain. No, seriously.

The stories about Wilt Chamberlain always seem larger-than-life.He once scored 100 points in a NBA game? And pulled down 55 rebounds in another? Yup, those are in the record books.Did he really play professional volleyball? Indeed, after his pro basketball days he appeared in his 40s! in the short-lived International Volleyball Association.What about the more salacious claims from one of his autobiographies? Well, lets not get into fact-checking that.How about the time Chamberlain overwhelmed several members of the Green Bay Packers vaunted offensive line from the Vince Lombardi heyday at Brown County Arena?Wait ...

what?Like many Paul Bunyan-esque tales about The Big Dipper, this one also checks out.Its also a fascinating snapshot of a much different era of professional sports.Wilt Chamberlain joined the Harlem Globetrotters for the 1958-59 seasonThe folk tales about Chamberlain started during his teenage years in Philadelphia while he grew to an unstoppable 7-foot-1 basketball star and, unbelievably for his size, a standout in track and field.

He was bestowed the cartoonish nickname "Wilt the Stilt," though he hated that and preferred "The Big Dipper."At the University of Kansas, Chamberlain played two seasons (freshmen were ineligible for the varsity back then) before growing tired of college basketball.The problem was that players at the time couldnt join the NBA until their college class graduated.Ever resourceful and aware of the publics fascination with him, Chamberlain joined the Harlem Globetrotters for the 1958-59 season.The Globetrotters lived up to their name with Chamberlain in tow, even traveling to the Soviet Union.

Back in the United States, the team supplemented its usual circuit stops with exhibitions against all comers.Thats how Chamberlain ended up coming to Green Bay for two engagements during his time with the Globetrotters.Green Bay Packers had basketball teams from Johnny Blood through Bart StarrIn their early years, the Packers had a similar barnstorming philosophy.Dating back to the 1930s, Green Bay players would put together a basketball team in the off-season to drum up interest in the team and raise some much-needed money to keep the franchise afloat.You could catch legends like the perfectly named Buckets Goldenberg and Johnny Blood hooping it up against pieced-together amateur teams in crackerbox gyms in Sturgeon Bay and Cudahy.The basketball team was sometimes billed as the Packerderms and the players continued the tradition even into the football glory days of the early 1960s.Packers defensive backs coach Norb Hecker played on the Packerderms while often acting as the team's manager.The games seemed like light-hearted exhibitions.

Its hard to imagine a guy from the Fond du Lac Athletic Club or the Algoma High School faculty wanting to get too physical while trying to box out Ray Nitschke when he suited up in 1961.Fuzzy Thurston is our clown, Hecker told the Green Bay Press-Gazette that year.

He yells and races around like (the Globetrotters) Meadowlark Lemon.We put on some football and Fuzzy kicks the extra points with Bart Star holding the ball.

Starr also passes and Gary Knafelc catches.Wilt Chamberlain had history in Milwaukee, including beating Marquette at the ArenaMany basketball fans in the state already had the experience of seeing Chamberlain in the flesh.Second-ranked Kansas came to the Milwaukee Arena on Dec.

9, 1957, to face Marquette.To be quite frank about it, I just dont know what well do about him, MU coach Jack Nagle said before the game.He didnt find many answers during the game with a beleaguered frontcourt that included MU character John Glaser.

Chamberlain scored 40 points, an Arena record at the time, in the Jayhawks 82-62 victory.Milwaukee residents also glimpsed Chamberlain in a Trotters uniform on Jan.

3, 1959, when he scored 28 points in a 77-66 victory over the Hawaiian 50th-Staters, a frequent foil for the Globetrotters.Over a month later on Feb.

27, 1959, Chamberlain made his Green Bay debut, also against the 50th-Staters, scoring 26 points.

In the undercard of the doubleheader, a female team called the Texas Cowgirls beat a ragtag team called the Packer-Bobcats, which included Knafelc.

The action seems embarrassingly dated, with the newspaper account stating that Packers defensive end Jim Temp was whistled for pinching.In vaudevillian fashion, there was also a table-tennis match between English and Japanese stars as well as a unicyclist entertainer that can be seen as a precursor to the popular Red Panda act of today.A record crowd of 5,413 fans packed Brown County Arena to take in the show.Wilt Chamberlain beats Packers at Brown County ArenaOn April 13, 1959, as the bedraggled Globetrotters stumbled toward the end of their exhausting season, they were back in Green Bay.This time, the Globetrotters would face off against the Packers hoopers.Knowing that Chamberlain would be a handful, the Packers recruited ringers: Notre Dame basketball All-American Tom Hawkins and Michigans M.C.

Burton.The Globetrotters were stocked with talent beyond Chamberlain, with ball-handling wizards Lemon and Leon Hillard.The size of the Packers with linemen Knaflec, Bob Skoronski and Bill Austin didn't deter Chamberlain.

He scored 20 points without breaking much of a sweat in the second half of the Globetrotters 80-54 victory.The Packers got through the show without an injury, although the fast pace they tried to keep left the footballers pretty well exhausted, the Press-Gazette reported.The Globetrotters met the Packers team again the next day at Mary E.

Sawyer Auditorium in La Crosse, with the Globetrotters winning despite the La Crosse Tribune noting that the Packers "found their best play was a football-like charge down the court with linemen Temp, Tom Bettis and Bob Skoronski leading the way.

The Globetrotters cleared out of the way in a hurry when they saw the beef trust coming."A few days later, the Globetrotters ended their season in Minneapolis, and Chamberlain was free to join the Philadelphia Warriors.

He made many more memorable stops in Wisconsin during his 14-season NBA career..oembed-frame {width:100%;height:100%;margin:0;border:0;}Green Machine basketball team makes appearances in 2008 with James Jones, Tramon WilliamsThese days, with lucrative contracts and massive fame, there is little incentive for a member of the Packers to risk injury by participating in a basketball game against amateurs.Players appearing in other sports for charity are usually limited to limited-contact endeavors such as golf or softball.Despite the dangers, in 2008 there was a resurgence in a Packers basketball team.

Wide receiver Ruvell Martin spearheaded the Green Machine, which played 24 games around the state.James Jones and Tramon Williams showed off their dunking prowess in far-flung outposts like Hammond, near the Minnesota border.

In Stoughton, the Green Machine played against former UW players Greg Stiemsma and Charlie Wills.The Packers players probably had no idea they were harkening back to a long-ago franchise tradition, though Martin understood the spirit of it."We try to turn it into a Harlem Globetrotters deal, doing crazy passes and dunks and shots and everything, he told the teams website.

Just put on a good show and maybe they'll let you come back another year."But the Green Machine never saw anything like the legendary Chamberlain.This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: The Packers once had a basketball team that faced Wilt Chamberlain.

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