The term "Harlem Globetrotters" is something of a misnomer; the organization was established in Chicago in 1927, and didn’t actually play an official game in Harlem until 1968. The team’s legacy, however, not only encompasses the entire globe, but has significantly effected the development of basketball. Columnist Jim Murray wrote in the Los Angeles Times, "No team in history has done more for their sport. Not the ’27 Yankees, the Four Horsemen of Notre Dame, the Dream Team or the Lombardi Packers." Brad Herzog, author of The Sports 100, provided the following assessment:
[The] Globetrotters may rank as the most famous and beloved team in American sports
history. They have played before an estimated 100 million spectators in more than 100
countries; they have their own star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame; and they are listed in
the Guinness Book of World Records for drawing 75,000 fans to a game at Berlin’s Olympic
Stadium in 1951.
The team’s founder, Abe Saperstein, was born in London, England on July 4, 1903 and spent his childhood years in a working class section of Chicago. After a brief flirtation with semipro baseball and basketball, he began a business career. At the time, an all-black team known as the Savoy Big Five played games on Sundays at Chicago’s Savoy Ballroom. Saperstein took on the management of the squad when it became apparent that a white man would have an easier time booking games outside of Chicago. The team’s famed moniker arose out of Saperstein’s realization that there was room for another black team to compete with what was perhaps the most talented unit in the nation, the Harlem Rens.
The Globetrotters compiled an impressive 361-32 record during their first three seasons of barnstorming in the late 1920s. By 1940, the team had secured the professional basketball world title. During that decade, the Globetrotters defeated a series of college All-Star aggregates as well as the NBA-champion Minneapolis Lakers. The Globetrotters were instrumental in keeping the then struggling pro league afloat; an NBA game would provide the opening act for a double-bill featuring Saperstein’s team.
The prowess and drawing power accorded the Globetrotters helped facilitate the integration of the National Basketball Association. However, this development also made it impossible for Saperstein to acquire the best African American players for his team. Unable to showcase the world’s top talent, humor became the focal point of the Globetrotter’s persona. Clowning around had begun as early as 1929, when center Inman Jackson joined the squad, providing the blueprint for famed jesters such as Reece "Goose" Tatum and Meadowlark Lemon.
The Globetrotters’ legacy in the post-World War II period, however, encompassed far more than comic antics on the court. The team played a major role in developing—and disseminating through its travels—the modern version of basketball, a game built around elements pioneered by the Globetrotters: the fast break, the slam dunk, the behind-the-back pass, the between-the-legs dribble, and the weave as part of playmaking. Elite athletes such as Wilt Chamberlain, Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, dribbling wizard Marques
Haynes, and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Bob Gibson have played for the organization at one time or another.
The rise of the NBA on the backs of superstars such as Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, and Michael Jordan as well as revisionist assessments of the Globetrotters as a pervasive case of racial stereotyping (Nelson George’s statement that the team was "a def initive example of white paternalism and black male submission" typifies this perspective) have diminished the luster of the team’s accomplishments to some degree. However, the Globetrotters—under black ownership (Mannie Jackson) since 1993—have continued to inspire goodwill--and gain fans--around the world while dispensing their unique blend skill and humor.
The Globetrotters teamed with Warner Bros. in the mid-1990s for the "Space Jam" tour which celebrated the overseas video release of the hit film garnering over 100 mllion media impressions in Europe alone. In 1996, the Globetrotters formed a five-year entertainment alliance with Disney's Wide World of Sports. Besides utilizing the Orlando complex as its official training and development site, the team hosts a special nine-game Christmas holiday series enjoyed by tourists from around the world. Also in 1996, they became the first professional team to tour in a South Africa no longer under apartheid. The tour's success--in addition to entertaining 300,000 spectators there, the team presided over instructional clinics, raised almost $500,000 for charity, and gave away 50,000 basketballs and 5,000 hoops--provided the impetus for another visit in the summer of 1997. The April 19, 1997 edition of the World Series of Basketball (originated by the Globetrotters in the 1940s) featured Earvin "Magic" Johnson as a member of the team in competition with the College All-Americans..
By early 1998, the team had performed in 114 countries, from Algeria to Zimbabwe. After seventy-two seasons, the Globetrotters are not only the "winningest" team ever (they hold the world's longest victory streak at 8,829 games) but are on the verge of the unprecedented accomplishment of playing in 20,000 games--games which have taken place in bullrings, dance halls, empty swimming pools, and stop aircraft carriers. Perhaps more than mere statistics, however, a sampling of media comments best illustrated the impact of the team:
"They brought more good will to this country than the Marshall Plan."--Los Angeles Times
"The Harlem Gloetrotters, still the most widely traveled humans on the planet."--New York Daily News
"Basketball knows no boundaries today, thanks in large part to the Trotters."--New York Newsday
Bibliography
Herzog, Brad. "Abe Saperstein," In: The Sports 100: The One Hundred Most Important People in American Sports History. New York: Macmillan, 1995. pp. 284-286.
Mannie Jackson Presents: Harlem Globetrotters; World Tour 1998 [Souvenir Program]. Phoenix. AZ: Harlem Globetrotters International, 1998.