The First Quadruple Double?

On October eighteenth, nineteen seventy four, Chicago Bulls center Nate Thurman scores twenty two points, has fourteen rebounds, thirteen assists, in twelve block shots, becoming the first NBA player to officially record a quad druple double, a feat that has only ever been done in the NBA four times. We're going to dive into to Nate Thurmon and how this happened and why he may have not been the first today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day. And today's trivia question is what two NBA teams retired Nate Thurman's number forty two jersey. Now, quadruple doubles are very rare. As we said before, only four NBA players have ever officially accomplished his feat. And if you don't know what a quadruple double is in basketball, it is having a statistical number of ten or more in a statistical category and it's usually done in either points, rebounds, assists, steals, or blocked shots. Now, a double double happens almost every game in the NBA, and a triple double, which is having three of those stats is less common, but has been becoming more common ever since Russell Westbrook broke the record for the most and we've seen a number of triple doubles go up as players are becoming more versatile. And we actually covered the first women's college player to actually have a quadruple double in college in Ann Myers, as she did that in nineteen seventy eight for the UCLA Bruins, and the first male player to do so didn't happen until two thousand and five, when Lester Hudson did it at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Now, quadruple doubles in the NBA were only possible after the nineteen seventy three seventy four season, as up until that point only points, rebounds, and assists were tracked, so the best you could do was a triple double. In following the nineteen seventy three seventy four season, they started keeping track of blocks and steals, and most speculate that some of the greatest players of all times, such as Oscar Robinson, Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, and Jerry West had multiple quadruple doubles in their career, which is not unheard of, especially for Oscar Robertson Wilt Chamberlain, as Wilt Chamberlain's stats in any era were crazy and would likely have had triple doubles in blocks, rebounds, in points throughout his career all the time, and Oscar Robinson, who was the triple double leader upon retirement with one hundred and eighty one in his career, likely some of those would have also included a quadruple double. Now, the reason why it's such a hard thing to do is that it requires you to be all over the court. You can't be selfish. You have to be able to pass the ball for assist. You have to be able to be there for the rebounds, and to get rebounds and blocks is hard to do, and you also have to be playing great defense, either blocking shots or stealing the ball. These are all stats that are very uncommon to do, as the highest steal leader in the NBA today usually averages around two to three a game, and the highest block getter usually averages around three or four game. So when that's your average, it's very unlikely for you to get into double digits in those statistical categories. And Nate Thurman being the first one to do. It wasn't just by accident, it was because he was a great overall player. He grew up in Akron, Ohio and went to the local Bowling Green University, where he was able to take them to the NCAA tournament, and even though he was at a small school, was the third pick in the NBA Draft in nineteen sixty three by the San Francisco Warriors now known as the Golden State Warriors. And even though he was a sinner, he had to transform himself into a power forward as they had one of the greatest sinners of all time on their team in Wilt Chamberlain. At the height of his powers. During his rookie season, Thurman would average seven points and ten rebounds in making the All Rookie team at San Francisco made it all the way to the NBA Finals that year in a losing effort, but the next season, Wilt Chamberlain would be get traded to the Philadelphia seventy six Ers as the Golden State Warriors were having money troubles and could not afford him anymore. And when given the green light to be the Sinner, Nate Thurman showed why he was also one of the greatest sinners of all time, as he continued to improve in by nineteen sixty eight, he was averaging twenty one points and twenty two rebounds a game, as his rebounding was legendary, as he would average in two seasons between sixty six and sixty eight, he would average over twenty rebounds a game. In the nineteen sixty seven season, he would finish second to Wilt Chamberlain in the MVP voting. And he was a fierce defender as well as being capable on the offensive end, as Kareem al du Dubbar said, he was the toughest defender he ever faced in his twenty seasons in the NBA. But despite having successful teams with the Warriors, he was starting to decline and they traded him for Clifford Ray of the Chicago Bulls. And we actually covered a Clifford Ray in a previous episode where he actually helped save a dolphin well part of the Golden State Warriors. But this gave Nate a new opportunity to really showcase what he could do, and after over a month of being with the team, on October eighteenth, versus the Atlanta Hawks, he scored twenty two points, had fourteen rebounds, had thirteen assists in twelve blocks, becoming the first to officially have a recorded quadruple double. Now, though he had some success with the Bulls again, his role would diminish over time as he got older, and he would get traded again, this time to the Cleveland Cavaliers, who are a young, upstart team and had some great young guards but needed a presence down low. And the Cleveland Cavaliers team actually credits him with giving them the chance to make the playoffs, as he turned them from a losing team into a winning team just by his leadership and his mentality and because he was so loved by the team despite the fact that he only played two seasons with the team he was upon his retirement his jersey, the Cleveland Cavaliers retired his jersey as well as Golden State retiring his number forty two jersey as well, and upon retirement, just to show how good of a rebounder he was, he actually finished his career with thirty seven more rebounds than he had points, and he would be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in nineteen eighty five. But like I said, he wasn't the only one to record a quadruple double, as Alvin Robinson did so of the San Antonio Spurs in nineteen eight, and Alvin Robinson was the only one to do so without blocks, as he did it with ten steals. Then four years later Hakeem Elijahwan he did it, and David Robinson also accomplished this defeat for the Spurs as well in nineteen ninety four. And there have been seven other NBA players that have come within one statistic away from getting a quadruple double. But it is a very hard thing to do. And there's been arguments on a quintuple double if we will ever see this, but it hasn't happened either college or professional level, but it has happened at a high school level, and it was recorded by Tamika Ketchings, who was a Hall of Fame WNBA player for the Indiana Fever. She did so at Duncanville High School where she scored twenty five points, had eighteen rebounds, eleven assists, ten steals, and ten blocks in nineteen ninety seven. Now, since then, three other people were able to accomplish a quintuple double in high school. Now will Chamberlain alleges that he had a quintuple double on March eighteenth, nineteen sixty eight, where he scored fifty three points thirty two rebounds in fourteen assists, and he claims he had twenty four blocks and eleven steals. Many historians think he likely did have a stat line like this, as his stat line was incredible and many of his games were not televised and cannot be go back to prove, including his one hundred point game was not televised or even audio recorded. But it's a hard thing to do, and it's an amazing stat line to show that you are a first utile player all around, which Nate Thurman was. If you want to learn more about Chicago sports, check out the True Chicago Sports Fan podcast hosted by Big Zi. He'll give you the laydown of all that's going on with Chicago sports, including the Chicago Bulls, so that you're ready to root for your fandom and be connect with other fans. And if you want to listen to that, you can check out the link in the description. And if you enjoy Today's Daily sports history, make sure you follow us on our socials. We'd like to post pictures and even sometimes videos of the events of the topics we're covering. You can follow us at Daily Sports History, on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube threads, macedon Pinterest, wherever you'd like to socialize, we're there and we would love to connect with you and come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History. And did you catch the answer to today's tribute question? What two NBA teams retired Nate Thurman's number forty two jersey, The Cleveland Cavaliers as well as Golden State