Abe Saperstein
Abraham M. Saperstein (July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was the founder and coach of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters. In an era where basketball hadn’t yet found its niche, Saperstein played the role of P.T. Barnum and promoted the nuances of the sport worldwide. During the latter stages of his life, he was also credited with the invention of the three point shot, without which the game of basketball would undoubtedly be slow and at best a grind. Although Saperstein does not receive the lion’s share of fame in basketball’s upbringing, basketball would not be where it is at now without his lifelong dedication and contribution to the sport.
Life
Abe Saperstein was born in London, England, but left for Chicago at the young age of six. Though he was only 5 feet tall, Saperstein competed in baseball, basketball, and track as a high school student, but wasn't even given a tryout for the basketball team at the University of Illinois. From 1920 to 1925, he played guard for the semi-professional Chicago Reds. (reference) While much of Saperstein’s youth passed under the radar, he first came onto the horizon in 1928 as a basketball coach of the Savoy Big Five, named after Chicago’s famous Savoy Ballroom. After a short lived stint as a professional baseball and basketball player, Saperstein had found his role as coach and promoter.
Globetrotter History
The Harlem Globetrotters evolved from a series of different teams, beginning with the “Giles Post” of the Negro American Legion League. The Giles Post was founded at Wendell Phillips High School in 1926. Soon thereafter, Abe Saperstein took over the team and renamed it the Savoy Big Five in return for sponsorship of his team. At the time, the Savoy Ballroom had just opened and partnered with Saperstein in an attempt to draw an audience to dance after their shows. In its early stages, the Savoy Big Five consisted entirely of African Americans and was deemed to be a failure by all. The team consisted of William Grant, Lester Johnson, Tommy Brookings, Inman Jackson, Joe Lillard, Walter Wright, Randolph Ramsey, and William Watson. One year later, he formed the Saperstein's Harlem, New York, Globetrotters, which later fused simply into the Harlem Globetrotters that we are familiar with today. The early Trotters were a serious basketball five, sporting a 101-6 record the first year, 145-13 in 1928, and 151-13 in 1929. "Finding difficulty locating willing opponents, Saperstein conceived the idea of fancy, comedic, razzle-dazzle type of play, and soon the team became a must-see attraction on the professional basketball barnstorming circuit." (reference) Not only did Saperstein manage the team, he acted as their chauffeur, trainer, as well as their only substitute player in order to manage finances in a time where profits were bleak. "All their clowning notwithstanding, the Globetrotters won the World Basketball Championship in 1940, giving substance to Saperstein's long-ignored claim that given the opportunity, they were among basketball's best." In 1943-44, the Trotters captured basketball’s International Cup. (references)
Birth of the ABL
The second coming of the American Basketball League or the ABL, was the brainchild of a disappointed Abe Saperstein. Amidst a flurry of controversy, the ABL was founded in 1961 in Chicago as a response to Saperstein’s denial of his own NBA team in Los Angeles and the move of the Lakers from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. In fact, he was more than convinced that professional basketball was ready for something new. Saperstein had spent years supporting the struggling NBA with doubleheader games featuring his Harlem Globetrotters. After the Lakers settled in Los Angeles, Saperstein went out of his way to place ABL teams in Los Angeles to rival the Lakers. He convinced the National Alliance of Basketball Leagues team owner Tuck Tapers and Amateur Athletic Union owner George Steinbrenner to take their top teams and form a league to rival the NBA. Saperstein absentmindedly placed the Jets in Los Angeles and moved a relatively successful Hawaii Chiefs team to Long Beach to create more Havoc for the Lakers. The American Basketball League played one full season, 1961-1962, and part of 1962-1963. The league actually folded on December 31, 1962, with the only crowned champion being the Bill Sharman-led Cleveland Pipers. (reference)
- The Game that Changed the Game
Up until the end of the 1940’s, basketball, like life in general, held its racial barriers and did not allow blacks to mix with whites. The fact was, at the time, that the majority of basketball fans, including the players of the NBL did not think that blacks had the talent and the smarts to play basketball. The Harlem Globetrotters, they felt, were the embodiment of a black man’s capabilities: create a circus, make people laugh, and provide entertainment. However, the face of basketball changed quickly after a game featuring the National Basketball League’s best team, Minneapolis Lakers and Abe Saperstein’s Harlem Globetrotters. The game was the brainchild of Abe Saperstein and Max Winter, an owner of the Lakers. (reference) "Saperstein's team had vastly improved over the years. By the late 1940s, the Globetrotters were taking on and beating anyone who would play them: YMCA teams, industrial league squads and a team from the NBL, the NBA's precursor. The crowds were getting bigger and by 1948 Saperstein was boasting his team had won more than 100 straight games." (reference) Some, including Chicago Tribune sportswriter Arch Ward, proclaimed the Globetrotters the world's best team - a view the Globetrotters shared. "We just felt we could beat anybody we played against," said Marques Haynes, one of the Globetrotters' stars and a master ballhandler. (reference) "I thought, 'This guy's nuts,' " said Christgau, whose 2004 book "Tricksters in the Madhouse" is about the game. " 'The Globetrotters, they're clowns, they're comedians' ... I said to myself, 'They're not ballplayers in the same category as the Lakers.' " "Still, there was no escaping the shadow that race cast over the game. Chicago was a city of deep racial divides. The Globetrotters may have been a huge draw, but they knew better than to try to stay anywhere other than a black rooming house when they came to town." (reference) On February 19, 1948, George Mikan, the legendary Lakers center and Globetrotters’ Goose Tatum took center court for a jump ball. The game was a back and forth affair in which the issue of race never came into question. Clearly, a trend was forming: in sports, racial divides would soon be shattered. Just the year before, in 1947, Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier for baseball, and this game was instrumental in doing the same for basketball. The Lakers had just tied the game on a Mikan free throw and the ball belonged to the Globetrotters with two seconds left. What followed has been lost in history; however, for those 18,000 fans at the Chicago Stadium, it was a ray of hope. Ermer Robinson received the ball 30 feet from the basket with two seconds left. He set up, and launched the ball, gracefully posing as the ball went through the net to give the Globetrotters an improbable victory. Not only did the Globetrotters ride to victory but the game drew the largest audience for a professional game at the time. As a result, two years later in 1950, the NBA drafted the first African American player in Chuck Cooper.
Legacy
Abe Saperstein will always be known for his contributions to the Harlem Globetrotters, and thus basketball. However, he was a promoter of sports at heart, and was not afraid of taking risks. In the short-lived ABL, he gave birth to the three point shot that is so crucial in today's NBA. Saperstein was inducted into the basketball hall of fame in 1971 and the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1979. His key contribution that many forget is the acceptance of African American players who had been excluded by professional leagues of baseball and basketball. He traveled around the world as the owner and coach of the Harlem Globetrotters until his death in 1966. There were many comparisons to P.T. Barnum, the eternal promoter, and rightly so. In the Harlem Globetrotters documentary 6 Decades of Magic, it was noted that Saperstein chose "Harlem" to indicate that the players were African-American, even though they were actually from Chicago, Illinois, United States and the "Globetrotters" moniker to make it seem as though the team had traveled all around the world. Saperstein was a thinking man that turned the Savoy Big Five into an international entertainment attraction, the Harlem Globetrotters, who played in more than 80 countries on five continents, on television, and in motion pictures.(reference) In fact, he is often labeled as the “Barnum of Basketball” and his team is known as “America’s Number One Goodwill Ambassadors” He was buried in the Westlawn Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.
Credits
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