Who are the Harlem Globetrotters?

In 1952 the Harlem Globetrotters, a Chicago-based team, was founded, owned, and coached by Abe Saperstein of Chicago. While based in Chicago, it was the first basketball club to make complete playing trips around the world, first in 1952 and again in winter 1960–1961. It was also the first professional basketball team to have its own fall training camp, in October 1940. The best known and best-loved team in the world, its finest decade was the 1950s. Mannie Jackson, a former Globetrotter, became the first black to own the team in 1993. The team was founded in Hinckley, Illinois, around 1923–1924 and played its first game there on January 7, 1927. Since then, there have been five hundred team members, who have played in 115 countries. Based in Phoenix, in 1999 the Globetrotters received the John W. Bunn Award in recognition of its contribution to the game of basketball. It was the first team in the history of the Basketball Hall of Fame to receive this prestigious award.

