Jason Bean
Gene Pascucci, a 9-year-old kid with an unnatural love of basketball who lived on the edge of Nevada’s campus, hopped in his father’s 1959 Volkswagen Beetle and headed to the university’s gym.
Pascucci was a basketball junkie who spent hours in the gym shooting with his friends. But, this night – Oct. 13, 1962 – was special. It was the first time a pro basketball game would be held in Reno as Wilt Chamberlain’s San Francisco Warriors faced Elgin Baylor’s Los Angeles Lakers.
“It was such a big deal because guys like that didn’t come here in those years,” Pascucci said.