captioning funded by cbs and ford >> pelley: about 2:00 in the morning, august 21, 2013. morning, august 21, 2013. hundreds in the suburbs of damascus were awakened by the panic of their last breath stuck in their throats. they were experiencing the horror of a sarin gas attack. no one has been held responsible, but we've been gathering evidence and much of what we found has not been public before. >> nobody knew what was going on. people were just praying for god to have mercy on them. >> this is a real human brain. >> rose: one of the earliest ted talks posted was literally about what was going on inside the

head of neurobiologist jill bolte taylor. >> and i realized, "oh, my gosh, i'm having a stroke! i'm having a stroke!" >> rose: taylor's talk went viral... >> we need mathematicians.. >> rose: ...and soon, internet users couldn't get enough of ted talks. >> every child... >> rose: a million views turned into a billion, and now it is an internet phenomenon. >> i've been to the future. >> want to join me? ( cheers and applause ) >> and now for your holland college golden knights! >> stahl: every once in a while, we come across someone with an amazing ability, a power so unusual, so unexpected and so fascinating, it becomes a story. that's why we're telling you tonight about a man named bob petrella who has used his extraordinary memory to create a fantasy world. >> at forward, a 6'9" sophomore from little rock, arkansas... >> this is really unusual. i have never heard of anything like this before, never.

>> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm charlie rose. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." >> cbs must be watch update brought to you in part by: >> >> glor: good evening. new york governor andrew cuomo and a group of business leaders will be in cuba tomorrow for trade talks. shanghai gm says it will spend $16 billion over five years to build new energy vehicles. and a deck chair from the "titanic" was auctioned off for $150,000. i'm jeff glor, cbs news.

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that's where at&t can help. we monitor network traffic worldwide, so we can see things others can't. mitigating risks across your business. leaving you free to focus on what matters most. >> pelley: if you have young children watching right now, usually that's a good thing, but this story is not for them. the pictures you are about to see are agonizing. this will be hard to watch, but it should be seen. generally, mankind does not outlaw weapons. anything a military can think of

is in the arsenals of the world. but there are a few exceptions and one of them is for a weapon so hideous that virtually every country has banned not only its use, but the mere possession of it. the weapon is sarin. it's nerve gas, and in 2013, it was unleashed on syrian civilians in what the u.n.'s secretary general calls, "a crime against humanity." a year and a half later, no one has been held responsible. for several months, we have been gathering evidence. much of what you are about to see has not been public before. none of what we found will be omitted here. about 2:00 in the morning, august 21, 2013, hundreds in the suburbs of damascus were awakened by the panic of their last breath stuck in their throats.

neighbors carried neighbors to makeshift clinics. victims were stripped and washed. everything was tried, but nothing could be done. there was no forcing life into lungs that could not accept it. their nerves, electrified by sarin, fired non-stop. muscles seized until death released them. >> kassem eid: nobody knew what was going on. people were just praying for god to have mercy on them. sir, i've seen things you won't even dream about in your worst nightmares. i'm on a tour inside the streets of moadamiyah. >> pelley: kassem eid has

recorded his nightmares in moadamiyah. four years ago, the suburb rebelled against the dictatorship of bashar al-assad. eid has shown the world the shelling and years of hunger imposed by an army blockade. >> eid: that was a close one. >> pelley: he was there in august when strange rockets pummeled the night. >> eid: and when they crashed, they didn't make the same, old- fashioned bombing sound. but it was, in a way, silent. >> pelley: the rockets hit the ground, but it didn't sound to you like they were exploding. >> eid: yes. they were... didn't sound like it was... they were exploding. with the closest rocket hit almost 100 meters away from the place that i was staying in. >> pelley: 300 feet or so. >> eid: yes. and within seconds... it just took seconds before i lost my ability to breathe. i felt like my chest was set on fire.

my eyes were burning like hell. i wasn't able even to scream or to do anything, so i started to beat my chest really hard. >> pelley: beat your chest? >> eid: yes. trying to take... a breath. just to be able to take a single breath. it was so painful. it felt like somebody was tearing up my chest with a knife made of fire. >> pelley: over the years, artillery had sheared the tops off of the neighborhoods, so women and children slept in basements. sarin is heavier than air. it slipped past doors and crept down stairwells. death was arbitrary-- it seemed that, for every corpse, there was a witness who just missed a lethal dose. a neighbor appeared at kassem eid's door. >> eid: and she had two of her kids, suffocating and vomiting this weird white stuff out of their mouths.

she was begging us to help her to get her children to the field hospital. this field hospital is just a basement in a building with almost zero medical equipments. >> pelley: it's not a real hospital. >> eid: it's not a real hospital. it felt like judgment day for me. >> pelley: sarin has no color, no odor. often, the dead drop never knowing what happened. but their eyes bear witness. the seizures draw the pupils tight, and the world goes dark which might be a blessing. this father had willed his daughters through months of hunger. now, he's shouting, "do you know what they said before going to sleep? i gave her food. she said, 'dad, it's not my turn to eat, it's my sister's.'" he goes on, "what should we do good people?

what are we to do? look at that face, look at that face." you were being exterminated. >> eid: i know. i cannot imagine how anybody can do this to people, to other people. dying this way is one of the most ugliest ways of death people ever knew through history. >> pelley: the history of sarin begins in the 1930s. it was a nazi weapons program. the name is an acronym of the scientists' last names. in 1997, sarin and other chemical weapons were outlawed and the world set up the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons. scott cairns is a chemist and lead inspector for that organization. a person who is exposed to sarin, what do they experience?

>> scott cairns: a number of physical symptoms and some psychological effects. you get this overwhelming sense of doom and hopelessness and fear. >> pelley: and what causes death? >> cairns: typically, it's the paralysis of the respiratory system, eventually. your muscles don't work, you lose the oxygen to your brain. it just puts you into overload. it's a very horrible way to die. >> pelley: as fate would have it, scott cairns would see evidence of that for himself. he was in damascus with a team the day of the assault. they'd arrived days before to investigate other alleged chemical attacks. >> cairns: i'd just gotten up, and what i thought i'd heard was another regular bombardment of conventional weapons to the east of damascus. >> pelley: he had heard the rockets en route to the largest sarin massacre of civilians since saddam hussein in iraq in

1988. cairns demanded access. they raced in in u.n. trucks and the shooting started. what happened? >> cairns: the gunman was firing on the first two vehicles. >> pelley: so, the vehicles were hit? >> cairns: oh, the vehicles were hit. the first vehicle was disabled. >> pelley: did you find out who was shooting at you? >> cairns: no. >> pelley: why do you think they were shooting at you? >> cairns: they were shooting at us just to tell us, send us a message. if they wanted to kill us, they would've killed us. at no point was there any interest in the turning around and going back to the hotel. >> pelley: finding and documenting the truth was worth risking your life for. >> cairns: yes. >> pelley: how'd you go about your work? >> cairns: very quickly. we didn't have a lot of time. we had places where we could set up our interview stations.

we could take samples, biomedical samples from people-- blood, urine, hair. we had places where we could take medical sample, blood urine, hair. >> pelley: they also collected swab samples from mangled rockets. days later they discovered the rockets were much larger and had delivered even more gas. never before had investigators arrived at a chemical crime scene so soon. >> cairns: well over 90% of the samples that we took tested positive for sarin. >> pelley: what witness sticks in your mind as the person you cannot forget? >> cairns: there are several. a child of seven or eight who lost most of his family. a woman of... in her early 30s who lost her entire family, her husband and all her kids. a man that, out of his 20 family

members, he was the only one left alive. so interviewing these people was very difficult. >> pelley: our work to find witnesses took us out into the desert. the refugees we found were on the run from the regime of bashar al-assad. millions of syrians have fled the country into desolate refugee camps like this one, and over a period of weeks, we have been able to find more survivors of the nerve gas attack. these people asked us to not show you their faces or tell you their names because they have family back in syria, and they are quite certain the dictatorship would hunt them down. even at that, they told us some risks have to be taken to tell this story. this man told us, "assad gassed people. he killed people. he's killing women. what he did could not be done by any other human being.

he killed everything, even the trees." he and his son, who is a nurse told us that they were among those who had given first aid. how many patients did you treat that day? he told us, "people were being brought in on ambulances motorcycles, pickup trucks, a tractor, and a semi. there were people rushing in with their kids, crying out, 'help him, help him. he's about to die.' i didn't have a chance to count." this woman was three months pregnant with her son when the gas entered her lungs. she came to in an aid station. her brother was carried in next. "he was calling my name before he died," she said. "'take care of your mother,' he told me." how did you survive? "i lived by god's will. but i wished i had died."

her son was born six months later. she believes he has epilepsy. "he loses consciousness, he starts shaking, his mouth foams. the same symptoms i had." how often does he have these seizures? she told us, "approximately three a day." the rockets were types used by the syrian army, and they were launched from land held by the dictatorship. u.s. intelligence believes the syrian army used sarin in frustration after years of shelling and hunger failed to break the rebels. with the threat of air strikes president obama forced assad to give up his chemical arsenal. but if assad was the trigger man, there is one thing odd

about the timing. why would anyone launch the largest chemical weapons attack in decades while chemical weapons inspectors are in town? >> cairns: i ask myself that a lot. i don't know. >> pelley: we don't know why. >> cairns: no. i don't think we'll ever truly know. >> pelley: we also don't know, precisely, how many died, but have a look around the makeshift morgues. so many were lost, all at once that the living had to make room for the dead. u.s. intelligence estimates 1,429 civilians were killed; 426 of them children. of course, syria is dying, too. prosecution of this atrocity will have to wait for whatever civilization emerges from the ruin. but the dead will be waiting

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>> rose: it has become a place where big ideas find a global audience. it is known simply as "ted," and ted talks are little presentations that anyone can watch online for free. there are ted talks on almost every subject you can imagine-- building your own nuclear reactor; stopping cyber-bullies; exploring antarctica; a better way to tie your shoes. but what sets ted talks apart is that the big ideas are wrapped up in personal stories, and they're mostly from people you have never heard of before. and it is those stories that have captured the imaginations of tens of millions of viewers around the world. giving a ted talk can be life- changing, even if some speakers don't always realize what they're getting into. >> bryan stevenson: i'd never heard of ted and i didn't know what a ted talk was. >> rose: but bryan stevenson was exactly the sort of person the

people at ted wanted. he was an attorney who'd spent years trying to reform the criminal justice system. they thought he'd have a lot to say. he said yes, then he remembered a serious conflict on his calendar. >> stevenson: it was scheduled two weeks before i had an argument at the u.s. supreme court. and i told one of my young staffers somebody named ted wanted me to come and do a ted talk and i told them no. and my staffer went crazy, said, "what are you talking about? you have to do a ted talk." >> rose: and what did they say though, to convince you? >> stevenson: "this is really a big deal. it's an incredible platform. you should absolutely do it. everybody watches ted talks." being here at ted and seeing the stimulation... >> rose: in march of 2012, bryan stevenson took the stage at the annual ted conference in long beach, california. he was one of more than 60 speakers that week. >> stevenson: we have a system of justice in this country that treats you much better if you're rich and guilty than if you're poor and innocent. wealth, not culpability, shapes outcomes.

>> rose: he made the case for changing the criminal justice system with the same mixture of passion and logic that he uses to persuade judges and juries. he introduced his equal justice initiative in a disarmingly personal way. >> stevenson: i had the great privilege when i was a young lawyer of meeting rosa parks and ms. parks turned to me and she said, "now, bryan, tell me what the equal justice initiative is. tell me what you're trying to do." and i began giving her my rap. i said, "well, we're trying to challenge injustice. we're trying to help people who have been wrongly convicted. we're trying to confront bias and discrimination in the administration of criminal justice. we're trying to end life without parole sentences for children. we're trying to do something about the death penalty. we're trying to reduce the prison population. we're trying to end mass incarceration." i gave her my whole rap, and when i finished, she looked at me and she said, "mm, mm, mm." she said, "that's going to make you tired, tired, tired." ( laughter ) >> rose: and with that, he had them. >> stevenson: i've simply come to tell you, "keep your eyes on the prize, hold on."

thank you very much. ( cheers and applause ) >> rose: when you ended it, did you think you'd done a good job? >> stevenson: people were very enthusiastic and responded in a really wonderful way. >> rose: that's what we call a standing ovation. >> stevenson: yes, yes. ( cheers and applause ) >> rose: the crowd also offered financial support, which was unprecedented, since ted talks are not about raising money. >> stevenson: some people came up to me and they said, "you know, we think that what you're doing is really quite extraordinary. there are a lot of people in this room who want to support you." and i had to leave. >> rose: you had another engagement in seattle? >> stevenson: i did. and so, i said, "well, i can't stay." and much to my amazement, we raised a million dollars. >> rose: a million dollars? >> stevenson: a million dollars. >> rose: and this is happening without you there. >> stevenson: without me there yeah, exactly. >> rose: and what difference did raising a million dollars at an event that you knew nothing about make for the cause that you've devoted your life to? >> stevenson: hundreds and hundreds of people were now going to have a chance to get fairer sentences. >> rose: and it didn't end at the speech, because you have this thing called the internet? >> stevenson: yes, that's exactly right. even now, i get lots and lots of

people who are responding to the ted talk. >> you're an inspiring person... >> rose: the person who put bryan stevenson on the stage was chris anderson, the man who runs ted. he chooses the speakers, he hosts ted conferences, and he decides which talks go online. >> chris anderson: there are numerous brilliant people out there, and they've come up with something really important. and so part of the way we see our... our role is to help them make their knowledge accessible. >> rose: it's a campfire, in part, isn't it? >> anderson: it is a campfire. someone stands up, everyone's eyes are upon them, they tell a story. >> rose: the story of ted began with a small conference in the 1980s... >> it can record one hour... >> rose: ...where bold new ideas were presented about technology, entertainment and design-- "ted," for short. >> ...digital likeness, visual technology... >> we've had so many people... >> rose: anderson was a successful magazine publisher. he attended his first ted conference in 1998 and fell in love with what he heard there,

and so he bought ted and turned it into a non-profit organization. in 2006, as something of an experiment, he put a handful of conference talks online. the reaction was almost immediate. >> anderson: we started to get emails that said things like "i'm sitting at my computer screen crying." >> rose: an emotional connection. >> anderson: and... and a passionate connection, like these... these talks had got inside people's heads and changed them. >> jill bolte taylor: so, this is a real human brain... >> rose: one of the earliest ted talks posted was literally about what was going on inside the head of neurobiologist jill bolte taylor. >> taylor: then i realized, "oh, my gosh, i'm having a stroke! i'm having a stroke!" and the next thing my brain says to me is, "wow! this is so cool!" ( laughter ) "this is so cool! how many brain scientists have the opportunity to study their own brain from the inside out?" ( laughter )

>> rose: taylor's talk went viral. >> we need mathematicians... >> rose: and soon, internet users couldn't get enough of ted talks. >> ...every child... >> rose: a million views turned into a billion... >> ...what... >> rose: and now, it is an internet phenomenon. there are all sorts of ted conferences being held around the world daily. ted started its own website, ted.com. it has 2,000 talks on just about every subject imaginable. >> i can tell you with great confidence, i've been to the future. >> i am 17 years old and i am a nuclear physicist. ( cheering ) >> rose: it's something of an intellectual variety show and it is free. >> thank you... >> i was patient zero... it was front-page news when monica lewinsky recently gave a ted talk on cyber-bullying. how does chris anderson decide who gets the opportunity? >> anderson: there's no formula or algorithm that says what is right.

it's basically a judgment call as to what is interesting and what is interesting now. >> countless men around the world... >> rose: anderson and his team spend much of their time auditioning... >> it's become a common complaint. >> damn! >> rose: ... and looking for the next great story. >> for the past two years, i've spent thousands of hours working with invasive breast cancer cells in the lab. >> rose: a great ted talk demands careful planning. most speakers get months of preparation and coaching. >> changing slightly that core question may make the rest of the talk land just a bit more clearly. >> rose: there are a few rules-- there is no selling of a product or a book from the stage; no pseudo-science is allowed; and there is an 18-minute time limit. why 18 minutes? >> anderson: it's a natural human attention span. it's an extended coffee break. you can listen to something serious that long without getting bored or exhausted. >> rose: the goal is to make it to a ted conference and then get your talk posted online. speakers do not get paid, yet

people line up for the chance to make a ted talk. they hope to be the next amy cuddy. >> amy cuddy: we're really fascinated with body language. >> rose: she was a largely unknown psychology professor at harvard until she took the ted stage in 2012. >> cuddy: so what is your body language communicating to me what's mine communicating to you? >> rose: cuddy's talk was about her research into nonverbal communication, but it was her personal story that captured the imagination of the audience. >> cuddy: when i was 19, i was in a really bad car accident. i was thrown out of a car, and i woke up in a head injury rehab ward, and i learned that my i.q. had dropped by two standard deviations. >> rose: she agonized about revealing she had suffered a traumatic brain injury in that car accident. >> cuddy: i felt deep ambivalence, and also "what have i done?" >> rose: ambivalence? >> cuddy: yes, have i changed my life in a way that i.. that i'll regret?

will people be judging me? will my colleagues think i'm stupid? the head injury story was really, really personal, and it was something that i had mostly kept locked away. >> rose: this is the most watched ted talk in the last two years. >> cuddy: that's what chris tells me, yes. >> rose: according to chris anderson, she's had more than 23 million views. it has turned amy cuddy into a star in this new ted-created universe. she's hot on the lecture circuit and has a new book coming out. chris anderson and ted can make someone's career. do you like the power that it gives you? >> anderson: i don't think in terms of power usually... >> rose: it does give you power. you can sit there and change somebody's life by putting... making them a ted speaker. if you make those choices, then you have power. >> anderson: well, i would phrase it more as responsibility, but a joyful one. i do love the fact that someone can give a talk, and a few

months later, can be known by millions of people around the world. ( laughter ) >> reporter: but for maysoon zayid, the fame she received was not the fame she was looking for. >> maysoon zayid: i got 99 problems, and palsy is just one. >> rose: she's a comedian, and when she appeared on the ted stage a year and a half ago, she had a punch line... >> zayid: i'm palestinian, muslim, i'm female, i'm disabled, and i live in new jersey. ( laughter ) >> rose: ...and she had a serious point. >> zayid: people with disabilities are the largest minority in the world, and we are the most underrepresented in entertainment. ( cheers and applause ) >> rose: she also had an agenda. >> zayid: i actually thought that once the talk was done, my career would skyrocket. i want to be on tv, and i thought that the ted talk would open the door for more real-life opportunities with me. >> rose: and that's what ted did not do? >> zayid: and that's what ted didn't do.

but what it did do is it amplified my voice worldwide. >> rose: with more than six million views of her talk, which was translated into several languages, she believes she's succeeded in a different way. >> zayid: i didn't expect to hear from so many people that felt the talk was about them. >> rose: how did you change the lives of people who are disabled? >> zayid: i think the change occurs mostly on an individual basis. what i think i've done is help people go out there and say, "i have a disability. i shake all the time. it's totally fine. you need to treat me as an equal even if, physically, i'm different than you." and i think what i've done is really empower people to be proud of who they are. a lot of people with c.p. don't walk... >> rose: critics of ted-- and there are some-- believe that this emphasis on the personal stories has turned ted talks into infotainment, offering easy answers to serious problems.

but don't count bryan stevenson among the skeptics. he traces part of the current public debate about reforming the criminal justice system back to the ted talk he gave in 2012. and while he is grateful for the money that ted raised, he's even more appreciative of the platform. did your experience at ted change you in any way? >> stevenson: well, it did. it made me more hopeful about what can be achieved if you change the narrative. >> rose: is there something about ted you want to change? >> stevenson: i think the challenge is getting people who consume all of this wonderful stuff that ted provides to not just be consumers, but to take what they learn and know and hear, and turn it into some kind of action that may be a little uncomfortable, that may be a little inconvenient, but will absolutely be transformative, to making these great ideas... really ideas that not only spread but create a greater world.

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>> stahl: every once in a while, we come across someone with an amazing ability, a power so unusual, so unexpected, and so fascinating, it becomes a story.

that's why we're telling you tonight about a man named bob petrella, and a college basketball team that gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "hoop dreams." bob petrella is one of the only people in the world who possess the extraordinary ability to remember virtually every day of his life. but it turns out there's something else in bob's memory too-- a basketball team whose history he has charted for more than 50 years called the holland college golden knights. holland has played in ten ncaa championships and won five. never heard of them? well, there's a reason why you haven't. how old were you when you first created the basketball team? >> bob petrella: i was 13. january 3, 1964-- it was a friday. holland coming down. up by only two. >> stahl: you haven't heard of holland college because it doesn't actually exist. >> petrella: 28 seconds left in the game. >> stahl: they're an imaginary

team that bob petrella made up. >> petrella: and the crowd on its feet now. >> stahl: this is our simulation of one of holland college's games, with bob doing the play- by-play. >> petrella: marcus hayes to demar harvey. >> stahl: he's been imagining these games for 50 seasons, and he remembers every one of them. who were the starting forwards in 1983? >> petrella: the starting forwards in '83 were otis pookie and brad jasmine. >> stahl: he can describe them. how tall were they? >> petrella: otis pookie was 6'6" and brad jasmine was undersize at 6'5", but real bulky. >> stahl: you can almost forget... tell us about the years they made it to the ncaa finals. >> petrella: they went to the final between '73 and '75. they won in '74. they went in '77, '78. '80, they lost. >> stahl: ...that none of this is real. >> jim mcgaugh: i mean, this is really unusual. i have never heard of anything like this before. never. you made that up, though? >> petrella: of course. yeah. >> stahl: james mcgaugh is a leading expert on memory and cognition at the university of california irvine. >> mcgaugh: it's not just a

series of facts that he recalls, like the memory of the names of the presidents or the alphabet. it's... it's a whole story that he has. and the story is rich in detail because you can ask him more and more questions about each of the players. >> stahl: and it's five people every year for 50 years? >> mcgaugh: that's right. >> stahl: plus the coach and the college president. >> mcgaugh: one could not do this without the kind of memory that bob has. >> stahl: the kind of memory he has is called "h-sam"-- highly superior autobiographical memory-- and bob, along with actress marilu henner, was one of the first people ever discovered to have it. we featured them in a story a few years back. >> mcgaugh: a 7.1 earthquake hit the san francisco-oakland area on? >> all: october 17, 1989. >> petrella: tuesday. >> stahl: people with h-sam, and there are still only 56 known cases, remember virtually every day of their lives the way we remember yesterday. what day of the week was august 29, 2005?

>> all: monday. >> stahl: you all know that? does it ever freak anybody out? >> petrella: people misunderstand it a lot of times. they think it's photographic. they think it's autistic. >> stahl: yeah. >> petrella: call you "rain man." ( laughter ) >> marilu henner: right. >> petrella: and i'll just go along with that. "yeah, yeah, definitely friday." >> stahl: the mystery is they're not autistic. they lead normal lives. but dr. mcgaugh says the one thing they have in common is obsessiveness. just look at marilu henner's closet. >> henner: i like my shoes a certain way-- right shoe going this way, left shoe going that way. and i have the exact same hangers because then everything slides more easily. >> stahl: and bob has a few obsessions of his own-- if he drops his keys on the ground, he feels compelled to wash them. but mcgaugh says bob is the only subject he knows of who has used his extraordinary memory to create a fantasy world. >> mcgaugh: i guess you could say that the fantasy basketball team is another form of obsession. but, you know, we use the word "obsession" as being, "oh, that's terrible, this person is obsessive." well, that's not all bad.

in some sense, it's a good idea to avoid germs. in some sense, it's a good idea to have an imaginary basketball team because it doesn't cost anything and it's a lot of fun. >> stahl: the fun started more than 50 years ago when bob was in junior high, and a devoted fan of his local high school football team in beaver falls, pennsylvania. they had gone undefeated for two full seasons. so when they finally lost, bob was devastated. his solution-- create a fictional town with its own team and run around acting out the games. >> petrella: once my neighbor's going, "what is bobby petrella doing?" ( laughter ) >> stahl: yeah. what are you doing? >> petrella: they would just see me out in the backyard, like throwing a football and catching it. and then i would narrate the game, and that was tigertown high school. >> stahl: the next year, bob gave his imaginary town, tigertown, an imaginary college, holland, with a basketball team that's been playing ever since. how does it work? you have a new team every year? >> petrella: yeah, it's just like college.

when they're seniors, they graduate, so we bring in new classes. >> stahl: oh, every... >> petrella: which is always kind of fun for me because it's kind of like having a new kid or something. >> stahl: he brings them to life as a novelist would, with personalities, back stories, and colorful names, like neil bo jagger, travis shakespeare lamar mundane, and "slappy" hill, though "slappy" wasn't actually his real name. >> petrella: "slappy" hill's real name was sean. he became "slappy" because, when he was a little kid, he would... he would run around the room and he'd go over and he'd slap everybody's thigh, and everybody started calling him "slappy." >> stahl: another favorite, 350- pound center isaac moseley, who played in the late '80s. >> petrella: very nice guy, very gregarious, had a real deep, booming voice. and his name was isaac abraham moseley, so he's called, "big mo," and he'd walk in, he'd go "big mo is ready for the big show." you know, so it'd echo, "big mo is ready for the big show." >> stahl: this is in your head? >> petrella: yes.

his initials were i.a.m., so whenever someone would ask him something they'd say, "isaac how you doing?" he'd use i.a.m.-- "i am." and he'd go, "i am delighted," you know? ( laughter ) >> stahl: i cannot believe how elaborate that story is. are they all like that? >> petrella: most of them. >> stahl: in real life, bob is 64, a bachelor, and a freelance tv producer in l.a. but unlike a tv writer or novelist, bob doesn't write his holland stories down-- with his memory, he doesn't have to. but he does record each player's stats and has for half a century. and he continues developing life stories for each player after they graduate. >> bobby simmons: bob is covering people from the time they get into this school, and a little bit before, to when they die. >> stahl: bobby simmons, nancy oey, and mark o'keefe are among the handful of close friends bob has let in on his holland college world. >> simmons: and he'll send me an email and say, "travis

shakespeare died in a one-car accident on an icy road outside of philadelphia, and it's heartbreaking." you know, it's like, "oh, no," like, i loved this guy and he's gone. >> stahl: are you caught up with holland college? >> simmons: deeply. ( laughter ) >> stahl: we caught up with them at a sports bar during halftime of a steelers game, talking holland. >> nancy oey: any controversy with this season at all? >> petrella: no, not yet. >> oey: okay, not yet? >> petrella: new coach. >> oey: it's a new coach? >> mark o'keefe: who's the coach? >> petrella: bradley hawthorne and it was a no-brainer that he was going to take over. some people thought he should have been hired five years ago because they didn't think that mcintyre was the best... >> o'keefe: so what happened to mcintyre? what's he doing now? >> petrella: he had osteoporosis and had to retire. >> oey: oh. >> simmons: wow. >> petrella: it's not funny, it's a serious disease. >> stahl: here's what's weird-- the three of you are also into this and accepting the reality of it. >> simmons: i think that goes to what a good storyteller bob is. >> oey: yes. >> simmons: and he does it without a pen or without a typewriter or without a computer. he does it in his head. it's amazing. >> petrella: uhlomi holobi-- and his first two letters of his

name was u-h and h-o. so whenever he would block a shot or have a great play, they'd go, "uh-oh." >> stahl: but how do we know as he spins these tales that he isn't just making it all up on the spot? >> mcgaugh: you and i can make up names for a basketball team right now. but i doubt that we would remember them six months from now. >> stahl: so dr. mcgaugh devised a holland college memory test for bob. >> mcgaugh: what year is he? >> petrella: he's a junior. >> stahl: ...hundreds of questions about different players and seasons. >> mcgaugh: what'd you think about the '89 team? >> petrella: well, they started off real slow. they were, like, eight and eight. >> stahl: he then invited bob back six months later and, without warning, asked the same questions again. >> petrella: they were struggling. they were a .500 team. they were, like, eight and eight. >> mcgaugh: it was seamless, and he just remembers everything about it. >> stahl: were there any questions he couldn't answer? >> mcgaugh: no. >> petrella: the main players were wally white... >> mcgaugh: and how tall was he? >> petrella: he was 6', but he could dunk. >> mcgaugh: was he tall? >> petrella: no. he's only six foot but he could

dunk. >> stahl: it's hard to fathom the seemingly limitless storage capacity of bob's brain. so what is bob's creative process? does he just sit down and imagine the games in his head? not even close. >> petrella: and now for your holland college golden knights! >> stahl: bob acts them out... >> petrella: at forward, a 6'9" senior... >> stahl: ...as he demonstrated for us in this real arena... >> petrella: from detroit, michigan, demar harvey! >> stahl: ...starting with the player introductions. oh, my god. >> petrella: and the coach of the holland college golden knights, in his first season bradley hawthorne. >> stahl: are you being the coach? >> petrella: yeah. he'll be running... and bradley hawthorne is not... not happy. well, he shouldn't be happy, that was a bad call on him. >> stahl: in case you're wondering, those last two voices

were longtime announcer bill tronzo, and color commentator adonis mcreynolds. you're both the announcer, and the player, and the crowd. >> petrella: right. >> stahl: and you're all the players? >> petrella: yeah. so, i'm playing about 5,500 people at once. >> stahl: but he doesn't actually play them here. >> petrella: wyatt hickok at the top of the key. wyatt hickok! >> stahl: he plays them in his living room, in real time. this game is against duke. bob says he doesn't know who'll win until he plays the game. but either way, he'll remember the outcome forever. is there any madness here? >> mcgaugh: i don't think so. this is a walter mitty-type of existence that he has created for himself, except that he knows that he has created it for himself. >> stahl: you know, children fantasize, little kids-- you see them talking to themselves the way he does and creating worlds. >> mcgaugh: yes. he has his imaginary playmates and they are all basketball players. what happens when they lose? i mean, you must be heartbroken.

>> petrella: it depresses the... the tigertown population more than me. they don't have as much to live for. they're in a rust belt city. they lost a lot of population, a lot of the factories closed. so obviously that means more to them than it does to me. i have to stop myself because i start thinking what i'm saying. >> stahl: sometimes, when you tell the stories, you smile if you know that it's funny. >> petrella: well... well, i know it's funny. i smile because i'm telling this story. and then i catch myself and go "wait a minute, that's not real." >> stahl: so, is bob like a novelist who creates a whole universe, a holland college hogwarts? well, there are no wizards at holland, but there is a mascot. >> petrella: well, it's just... some, you know, like, trojan type of person. it's... he's a knight. >> mcgaugh: do you see it? >> petrella: i don't like it. >> mcgaugh: but you do see it, though? >> petrella: yeah, i see it. >> mcgaugh: can't you get that changed? >> petrella: i'm bob petrella. i live in l.a. i have nothing to do with it. >> stahl: i'm intrigued with how

he tricks himself into thinking he's not the god of this place that he's not in control of the events in his own story. >> mcgaugh: it's a narrative that he created. and once it's created, he... he can't alter it. that's set. >> petrella: and that's it. holland has beaten duke. >> mcgaugh: it is so interesting what he can do because bob petrella has a life. he has a job. he gets along well. and then, he has this imaginary basketball team and he carries that all in his head. >> stahl: it's a big part of your life. >> petrella: oh, yeah. well, it doesn't dominate my life, but it's always there. >> stahl: could you live without it? >> petrella: i don't think i can anymore. it's not hurting anybody including me. you know, it's a nice addiction that's safe. and then the crowd goes crazy.

>> now a cbs sports update presented by pfizer. at the rbc heritage in hilton head, south carolina, jim furyk shot a 63 in the final round to win his first pga tour event in five years. furyk outlasted kevin kissner in a two-hole playoffs. in the nba playoff, kyrie irving led the cavaliers over the celtics. in the nhl playoff, the isles beat the caps in overtime and the blackhawks won over the predators. for more sports news go to cbssports.com. this has been steve overmeyer reporting. xeljanz is a small pill, not an injection or infusion for adults with moderate to severe ra for whom methotrexate did not work well. xeljanz can relieve ra symptoms and help stop further joint damage. xeljanz can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers have happened in patients taking xeljanz. don't start xeljanz if you have any infection

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>> pelley: in the mail this week, comments on the story that we called "rush to judgment." armen keteyian interviewed former duke lacrosse coach mike pressler, who lost his job as a result of a notorious rape scandal involving team members that later proved false. "truly, the duke administration got it wrong in forcing mike's sacrificial resignation.

but how much of a role did the firestorm led by both local and national media contribute?" "this was an atrocity right from the beginning. shame on the duke administration for not backing up their coach and team." but there was also this about the way our story dealt with the circumstances that led to the false charges. "your treatment of the duke boys who hired strippers is insane. in what world do we rationalize the activities of these kids?" i'm scott pelley. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." tomorrow, be sure to watch "cbs this morning," and i'll see you on the "cbs evening news." hey, girl. is it crazy that your soccer trophy is talking to you right now? it kinda is. it's as crazy as you not rolling over your old 401k. cue the horns... just harness the confidence it took you to win me and call td ameritrade's rollover consultants. they'll help with the hassle by guiding you through the whole process step

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>> announcer: new episodes of "madam secretary," "the good wife" and "battle creek" return next sunday. and now, live from at&t stadium, it's the 50th anniversary of the academy of country music awards, with superstar appearances by the biggest award winners of all time: once in a lifetime duets: