In 1972, American basketball players did something that had never happened at an Olympics before or since — they refused to accept their silver medals, so certain they’d been robbed of gold that some of those medals are reportedly still sitting, unclaimed, in a vault in Switzerland decades later

What happened in the final three secondsA horn sounded while Collins was releasing his second free throw, and nobody on the floor knew why. Olympic regulations gave him no power to rule on a game in progress, a point he later conceded. The appeal, and the refusalHank Iba, the American coach, charged the scorer’s table demanding an explanation and got nowhere. Jerry Colangelo, who chairs the Hall’s board, has acknowledged the players’ wishes and said the question remains unresolved. The medals themselves stay sealed in boxes in two countries that nobody may open on the players’ behalf.