Published: July 09, 2009 06:02 pm      

Globetrotters emerge as power

I had noted in one of the “jinx” columns I had written earlier for the Register that even the Harlem Globetrotters had lost a game when I was present. That loss was to a college all-star team.

The reference to the Globetrotters elicited some questions from readers who were interested in knowing more about that team. This has prompted me to do some further research on this storied organization.

As I had noted in an earlier column, the Globetrotters originated in 1927 when entrepreneur Abe Saperstein took over an all-Negro team in Chicago, renamed it the Harlem Globetrotters and started barnstorming in Illinois and adjoining states.

They took on all challengers, and they won the World’s Professional Basketball Championship Tournament in Chicago in 1940 to gain the credibility they sought.

In 1948, the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune and creator of the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, Arch Ward said, “the Trotters are the best basketball team in the world.”

However, the Minneapolis Lakers, built around 6-foot-10 George Mikan, were emerging as a contender for that title.

A game was arranged between the Globetrotters and the Lakers in Feb. 1948 as a preliminary game to a Basketball Association of America game between the Chicago Stags and the New York Knicks. But many in the record arena crowd of 17,823 were there to see the Globetrotters-Lakers game.

The Lakers held a 32-23 lead at halftime. Mikan had 18 points in the first half while holding 6-foot-3 Reece “Goose” Tatum scoreless. The Trotters changed tactics, double-teaming Mikan in the second half and held him to six points.

The Trotters tied the game at 59-59 with a minute and a half left and got the ball back. Marques Haynes used his dribbling skills to run down the clock and passed the ball to Ermer Robinson who hit a long set shot as the buzzer sounded to win the game.

The teams played again in 1949. The Trotters won 49-45 before 20,046 in the Chicago Stadium, but two weeks later the Lakers won 68-53 in Minneapolis. The Lakers moved to Los Angeles in 1960 and became the Los Angeles Lakers, the reigning NBA champions.

In the summer of 1949, the National Basketball League and the Basketball Association of America merged to form the National Basketball Association.

The NBA was integrated in 1950. This had a profound effect on the Globetrotters. Prior to this action by the NBA, the Globetrotters had their choice of the best African-American players in the country.

The Globetrotters’ star center, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, was the first African-American to sign a contract with an NBA team as he joined the New York Knicks. Two other African-American players, Chuck Cooper and Earl Lloyd, joined the NBA that year.

Although the Trotters continued to play some games against professional teams, the integration of the NBA influenced the Trotters’ decision to become primarily an entertainment show.

Wilt Chamberlain, an All-American seven-foot center from the University of Kansas, played with the Globetrotters for one year. Chamberlain wanted to turn pro after his junior year, but, at that time, the NBA would not sign players who had not finished four years of college. He signed with the NBA after one year with the Trotters and set numerous records including scoring 100 points in one game.

Oddly enough, the Globetrotters were integrated before the NBA was.

Saperstein was impressed by the skills of Bob Karstens, a white player who played against the Trotters in Iowa. When Goose Tatum was drafted into the Army Air Corps in 1942, Karstens became the first Caucasian player to sign a contract with the Trotters. Karstens took over the chief comedian role and played two years with the Trotters until Tatum returned. He stayed on as a manager for ten more years.

Karstens was credited with developing the pre-game ball-handling routine the Trotters use to the tune “Sweet Georgia Brown.” He also designed two balls which are used at some point in Globetrotter games, the yo-yo basketball and a ball with off-center weights which bounces erratically.

As it became difficult to find opponents, Saperstein asked Louis “Red” Klotz, who had played with the Philadelphia SPHAs (South Philadelphia Hebrew Association) of the American Basketball League when they had defeated the Globetrotters, to organize and coach teams to travel with and play the Globetrotters. Klotz’s teams were known at various times as the Washington Generals, New Jersey Reds, Baltimore Rockets and New York Nationals.

The Globetrotters claimed some extremely long winning streaks. A 2,495 game winning streak was ended at an Ohio Valley Conference venue. The New Jersey Reds beat the Globetrotters in Martin, Tenn., in Jan. 1971, 100-99 in overtime. Klotz, at age 50, hit the winning shot. He said he was booed afterwards, as if he had killed Santa Claus.

The Trotters claimed that they won the next 8,829 games before losing 91-85 to a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar-led All-Star team in Vienna, Austria, in Sept. 1995.

That winning streak needs to be qualified. Because there was such great demand world wide for appearances by the Globetrotters, Saperstein organized multiple units and there were as many as four Globetrotter teams playing at the same time in various parts of the U. S. and the world. Wins by all the units were included in the winning streak.

Perhaps of local interest, a more modest win streak of 288 games was ended in Nov. 2003 when UTEP, coached by Billy Gillispie, defeated the Globetrotters, 89-88 in a pre-season game. The Globetrotters had previously beaten Michigan State, Massachusetts and Syracuse during that tour.

The Trotters have appeared in several movies and TV shows including a feature film “The Harlem Globetrotters” in 1951, a second film “Go Man Go” in 1954, and in a Saturday morning TV cartoon series from 1970-73.

The amazing Globetrotters are still entertaining young and old alike more than 80 years after they started.