cleveland
CLEVELAND, Ohio If you get a chance to see the Harlem Globetrotters, youre in for a treat.
Its basketball, sure, but a lot more.
Its part game, variety show and vaudeville act.
Its athletic with a strong dose of humor, antics and entertaining skills.
But all that takes a back seat to the simple reason the Globetrotters hit the court for 400 games a year in 25 countries.
The most satisfying part, said Sweet Lou Dunbar, former player and part-time coach for the team, is putting a smile on peoples faces.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the teams founding, meaning decades of smiles and laughs in arenas, civic centers and countless other venues.
Abe Saperstein founded the team in 1926, with their first organized game coming in January 1927.
The red, white and blue-clad hoopsters have entertained more than 148 million fans in 123 countries and territories.
It wasnt always flash and sizzle and victories.
A 1930 newspaper report described the team: The Harlem Globetrotters Negro basketball team from New York, composed of only five players, had its string of 39 straight victories broken Sunday when the Gates Recreation team of St.
Paul won, 34-33.
In the 30s, newspapers carried brief accounts of their games, from the burgs of Iowa to the larger metropolises.
Often, they were referred to as the colored boys, reflecting the mores and language of the day.
Newspapers didnt know what to make of them, describing their exhibition of fancy basketball shooting.
Their comic antics and clever ball passing will add a novelty to the game that is unknown in these parts.
They were a novelty, but they were good.
A 1944 Cleveland Press story noted the Globetrotters won their 100th game in Chicago, beating a team from Pittsburgh.
They faked, juked and laughed their way through games but they also scored.
In 1948 and 1949, the Globetrotters twice defeated the NBA champion Minneapolis Lakers.
Globetrotter Nathaniel Sweetwater Clifton became the first African American player to sign an NBA contract with the New York Knicks in 1950.
That same year, the Globetrotters hit the road on their first-ever international tour.
In 1951, they were tabbed the Ambassadors of Goodwill, a description that remains.
A year before he embarked on what would be a Hall of Fame career, Wilt Chamberlain spent a season with the Globetrotters in 1958-59, even traveling with the team to Russia.
Over the years, the team evolved, adding women.
In 1985, Olympic gold medalist Lynette Woodard became the first woman to ever play on a mens pro basketball team.
To this day the teams rosters multiple squads exist to cover the multitude of tour stops consist of several women.
They have playfully and skillfully taken moments within the game and ramped them up energetically.
The slam dunk, the fast break and passing are all part of basketball, but its wonderfully different when the Globetrotters are doing their thing.
Which is what about 1,500 fans saw at the Canton Memorial Civic Center in March.
The teams fan-friendly approach is one of the more interactive youll find anywhere.
Before the game, fans lined up and chatted with players.
Autograph-seeking kids tried to high-five the towering players, who taught the youngsters how to spin a ball on their fingertips.
You think zaniness started with Banana Ball? Multiple players stood in the crowd before the game, shooting underhand at baskets.
Teammates heaved three-quarter-length court shots.
What you wont see at a Globetrotters game is much defense or offensive rebounds.
What you will do, however, is laugh.
A four-point shot is activated for a specific time, giving an added point on long-range attempts.
Globetrotters hold babies.
They pants opponents.
Referees take a dancing break to YMCA.
And of course the game is stopped for the famous water-bucket act.
In the skit, a bucket of confetti lands on a fan while water douses the foil.
Another routine late in the game has the Globetrotters imitating a football team scoring a touchdown.
After a referee voids the touchdown, the team redoes the play in reverse and then in slow motion.
(Spoiler: The official reverses his ruling.) The game in Canton wound up tied at 126 and went to overtime, where a bit of more serious basketball was played.
You can figure out the ending.
As Dunbar said: Beating the Globetrotters is like shooting Santa Claus.
So I never lost.
Often, a team or company will resort to hyperbole on its website to describe what it does.
For the Globetrotters, its truth in advertising: They represent 100 years of breaking down barriers, acts of goodwill and a commitment to fans that goes beyond the game.
Dunbar knows that all too well.
After playing at the University of Houston, Dunbar competed for a year in Switzerland but returned home hoping to make an NBA roster.
He didnt, but a rep from the Globetrotters saw him play in a summer camp.
I said, Im ready, just let me know.
The rest is history.
Im still hanging around, he said.
He spent more than two decades playing for the Globetrotters and is in his 49th year with the organization - half the teams lifespan.
Now 72, he serves as a part-time coach.
He was with the greats - Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal, Geese Tatum and Marcus Haynes.
He remembers always working on his game in those early years.
They used to tell us, Take the ball to your room, he said.
When we were in the dressing room, Meadowlark and Curly would say, Hey, go in the shower before you all hurt somebody.
Till you break a couple of lamps in the hotel room you havent done anything.
He laughs as he reminisces: I learned so much from those guys.
Then there is the travel.
Back in the day when the Globetrotters came south, they had to play two games.
They had to play one game for the white audience, then they had to go across the tracks and play for the Black audience.
And not just that, they had to stay with Black families.
These guys did a lot for us.
They sacrificed a lot.
Not just for us, I think they did it for the whole country.
What they were doing, they were creating memories, they were putting smiles on peoples faces.
It doesnt matter if you are Black or white, a smile is a smile anywhere you go, Dunbar said.
Nobody in the world travels like the Harlem Globetrotters, he added.
One year these guys had a lot of days off.
I said, Man, you guys have more days off this year than I had in my whole career.
Its in and out.
Youre here one day, youre gone the next.
Its not that easy.
He called it play travel, where players get up, travel to a town, play, get on the bus, then travel to the next place because you might have a matinee.
You guys got to remember something, he said he used to tell younger players.
People dont care.
They dont realize what you had to do to get here.
They dont care how far you had to travel.
But they do know they paid their money and they want to have a good time.
You have to have that mentality.
You also have to have the mentality that you dont know if its the first time a kid is going to see the Globetrotters or the last time.
You have to make it memorable.
Once they hit that court, it doesnt matter how tired they are.
It goes away.
It just disappears, and magically they get that energy, he said.
For an occasional stunt, the Globetrotters played in crazy places.
Dunbar once played in a bullfight ring.
They also played in empty swimming pools.
The Globetrotters would always play in the deep end so they dont have to run uphill so much, he said.
He remembers traveling to Northeast Ohio, playing in Richfield (There was nothing out there but a Holiday Inn) and later in downtown Cleveland.
I tell you what, for me, the best thing, I had an opportunity to play with my childhood heroes.
Those are my fondest memories.
People say, Whats so memorable about it? I had the chance to play with guys I idolized.
They made me what I am today.
They taught me the meaning of being a Globetrotter.
Its not about you.
The Globetrotters are bigger than you.
It made me grow into this guy who wants to give all the time.
Were givers.
We sacrifice our families for millions and millions of other families.
Herschend Family Entertainment bought the Globetrotters in 2013, and their name is literal.
Their schedule has them cruising through the Cantons and Youngstowns of the world, and they have been a regular post-Christmas, pre-New Years Eve stop at Rocket Arena for years.
When you come see the Harlem Globetrotters, we make you forget your everyday frustrations.
Youre going to have a great time, from ages 8 or 80, no matter who you are, Dunbar said.