The Harlem Globetrotters
I remember repeatedly asking my dad while we watched one throw after another, "It's real, isn't it, Dad?" He would never commit to anything solid but would answer that it certainly looked real and it was a lot of fun to watch.
We didn't need to ask Dad if the Globetrotters were real. Without question they were .
As much as I enjoyed watching the Harlem Globetrotters mastery of the basketball as I sit here right now I know nothing about that organization except that they can do some mean tricks with a basketball. I think it is high time that I research the Globetrotters and find out how they came to be. With the amount of money and fame to be earned in professional basketball why would you choose the Globetrotters? It certainly seemed to me watching their performance that they would be top draft picks for any team in the NBA. Off to find out more and share what I learn with you.
http://www.harlemglobetrotters.com/
Here are two men whose names I remember from basketball but I don't think I knew that Wilt Chamberlain started his career with the Globetrotters. I feel pretty sure that we actually saw Meadowlark Lemon play when we went to the Globetrotters' event.
WILT CHAMBERLAIN
One of the most famous and dominant players in Harlem Globetrotters history, Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain began his professional career in 1958 when the Globetrotters signed the University of Kansas standout to one of the largest contracts in sports.
The 7-1 center was often quoted that his time with the Globetrotters was the most enjoyable of his career. He was a member of the first-ever Harlem Globetrotter team to play in Moscow in 1959. The team enjoyed a sold out tour of the USSR and prior to the start of a game at Moscow's Lenin Central Stadium, the Globetrotters were greeted by General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev.
Following his Globetrotter career, Chamberlain starred in the NBA from 1959 through 1973, playing for the Philadelphia/San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Los Angeles Lakers. He totaled 31,419 points and 23,924 rebounds during his career, averaging 30.1 ppg and 22.9 rpg. Chamberlain enjoyed his finest season in 1962, averaging an NBA record 50.4 points and 25.7 rebounds per game. Highlighting the year was his 100-point effort against the New York Knicks on March 2, 1962. During his NBA career, his dominance brought on many rules changes, including widening the lane, introducing offensive goaltending and revising rules governing free throw shooting (Chamberlain would jump from behind the foul line with the ball and lay it in the basket before the rules were revised).
Chamberlain, who passed away on Oct. 12, 1999, at the age of 63, was posthumously honored by the Globetrotters on March 9, 2000, when the team retired his jersey (#13) and inducted him into the “Legends” Ring. The ceremony, which marked the first-ever jersey retirement by the Globetrotters, took place at Chamberlain's high school in Philadelphia, Overbrook High School Gymnasium.
MEADOWLARK LEMON
As the "Clown Prince" of the Harlem Globetrotters for 24 seasons, Meadowlark Lemon played in more than 7,500 consecutive games for the red, white, and blue. He played before popes, kings, queens and presidents in more than 94 countries around the world and in more than 1,500 North American cities.
In April 1952, the Globetrotters received a letter from Lemon requesting a tryout. He was given a look, and after serving two years in the Army, was signed to a contract. Lemon played his first season with one of the Globetrotter developmental teams, the Kansas City Stars. He played his first season full season with the Globetrotters in 1954.
Lemon was enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, three years after receiving the John W. Bunn Award, named in honor of the Hall of Fame's first executive director, recognizing outstanding lifetime contributions to basketball.
A native of Wilmington, N.C., Lemon received his Globetrotters “Legends” Ring and had his jersey (#36) retired as part of a 75th Anniversary black tie charity fund-raiser on Jan. 5, 2001, at Chicago's Fairmont Hotel. He joined Marques Haynes, Reece "Goose" Tatum and Wilt Chamberlain as the only four players in the history of the Harlem Globetrotters to have their jersey retired. Lemon now resides in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he serves as an ordained minister.
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The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism and comedy.
Created by Abe Saperstein in 1926 in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name Harlem because of its connotations as a major African-American community. Over the years they have played more than 20,000 exhibition games in 118 countries.
Brother Bones's whistled version of "Sweet Georgia Brown" is the team's signature song. Globie has been their mascot since 1993.
There is no clear consensus as to the very beginnings of the Globetrotters. The official history contains several details which are clearly untrue, such as the team being organized in 1926 in the Savoy Ballroom, which opened in 1927. What is clear is that the genesis of the Globetrotters takes place in the South Side of Chicago in the 1920s, where all the original players grew up. Most of the players also attended Wendell Phillips High School. When the Savoy Ballroom opened in November of 1927, one of the premier attractions was the Savoy Big Five, a basketball team that played exhibitions before dances. In 1928, several players left the team in a dispute over bringing back other players who had left the team. That fall, several players led by Tommy Brookins formed a team called the "Globe Trotters" which would tour southern Illinois that spring. Abe Saperstein became involved with the team, though to exactly what extent is unclear. In any event, by 1929 Saperstein was touring Illinois and Iowa with his basketball team, called the "New York Harlem Globe Trotters". Saperstein decided to pick Harlem as their home city since Harlem was considered the center of African-American culture at the time, and an out of town team name would give the team more of a mystique. After four decades of existence, the Globetrotters played their first "home" game in Harlem in 1968.
The first star player of those early Globe Trotters (the name would be merged into one word later on) was Albert "Runt" Pullins, an adept dribbler and shooter. Soon he would be joined by 6'3" Inman Jackson, who played center and had a flair for showboating. They would originate the two roles that would stay with the 'trotters for decades, the showman and the dribbler.
The Globetrotters were initially a serious competitive team, and despite a flair for entertainment, they would only clown for the audience after establishing a safe lead in the game. In 1939, they accepted an invitation to participate in the World Professional Basketball Tournament, where they met the New York Rens in the semi-finals in the first big clash of the two greatest all-black professional basketball teams. The Rens defeated the Globetrotters and went on to win the Tournament, but in 1940 the Globetrotters avenged their loss by defeating the Rens in the quarterfinals and advancing to the championship game, where they beat the Chicago Bruins in overtime by a score of 37–36.
The Globetrotters beat the premier professional team, the Minneapolis Lakers (led by George Mikan), for two years in a row in 1948 and 1949, with the Lakers winning later contests. The February 1948 win (by a score of 61-59, on a buzzer beater) was a hallmark in professional basketball history, as the all-black Globetrotters proved they were on an equal footing with the all-white Lakers. Momentum for ending the National Basketball Association's color line grew, *and in 1950, Chuck Cooper became the first black player drafted by an NBA team, the Boston Celtics. From that time on the Globetrotters had increasing difficulty attracting and retaining top talent.
Tony Peyton was the last living member of the original Globetrotters. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1996. He died in Midland, Texas, on July 23, 2007, at the age of eighty-five.
The Globetrotters gradually worked comic routines into their act until they became known more for entertainment than sports. The Globetrotters' acts often feature incredible coordination and skillful handling of one or more basketballs, such as passing or juggling balls between players, balancing or spinning balls on their fingertips, and making unusual, difficult shots.
Among the players who have been Globetrotters are NBA greats Wilt "The Stilt" Chamberlain, Connie "The Hawk" Hawkins and Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, as well as Marques Haynes, George "Meadowlark" Lemon, Jerome James, former Temple coach John Chaney, Reece "Goose" Tatum, and Hubert "Geese" Ausbie. Another popular team member in the 1970s and 1980s was Fred "Curly" Neal who was the best dribbler of that era of the team's history and was immediately recognizable due to his shaven head. Baseball Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Ferguson Jenkins and Lou Brock also played for the team at one time or another. In 1985, the Globetrotters signed their first female player, Olympic gold medalist Lynette Woodard, and their second, Joyce Walker, just three weeks later.
Because virtually all of its players have been African American, and because of the buffoonery involved in many of the Globetrotters' skits, they drew some criticism in the Civil Rights era. The players were derisively accused of "Tomming for Abe", a reference to Uncle Tom and white owner Abe Saperstein. However, prominent civil rights activist Jesse Jackson came to their defense by stating, "I think they've been a positive influence... They did not show blacks as stupid. On the contrary, they were shown as superior."
*********************I am glad that I had the reaction that I did when I realized after reading it on Wikipedia that there was a "color line" in basketball and the first Black player signed to the NBA was in 1950. Until I read that it hadn't dawned on me that the Globetrotters were formed because it was the ONLY place excellent Black basketball players could play in a professional way. Well, now I know and can be very thankful that we have come a long way from out and out racial prejudice and seem to be diligently working to eliminate the last vestiges of it.
Here is a link to a compilation of Globetrotter's performances - Be sure to whistle "Sweet Georgia Brown" as you watch the video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyyZaJag2Fc&feature=related
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