America’s Professional Sports Grew From Farm Teams to Multi-Billion Dollar Franches Thanks to the Harlem Globetrotters Founder

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 September 2024

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The original Harlem Globetrotters weren’t from Harlem, and they didn’t start out as globetrotters. The talented team, started by Jewish immigrant Abe Saperstein, was from Chicago’s South Side and toured the Midwest in Saperstein’s model-T. But with Saperstein’s savvy and the players’ skills, the Globetrotters would become a worldwide sensation

At 5’3”, Saperstein is not who we might imagine would bring the sport of basketball to the entire world, pioneer the three-point shot, or to befriend the likes of Jesse Owens, Satchel Paige, and Wilt Chamberlain to name a few. Born in 1902 in London’s Whitechapel slum neighborhood to parents who had immigrated from Poland, Saperstein and his family then immigrated to America in 1906. He founded the team in the 1920s, steadily building a reputation for talent and comedy until their footprint covered the entire world.

Abe Saperstein’s impact went well beyond the Harlem Globetrotters. He helped keep baseball’s Negro Leagues alive, was a force in getting pitching great Satchel Paige his shot at the majors, and befriended Olympic star Jesse Owens when he fell on hard times. When Saperstein started the American Basketball League, he pioneered the three-point shot, which has dramatically changed the sport. Today’s guests, Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob, authors of “Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports” piece together the of his life.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Scott here with another episode of the History Unplugged Podcast.
0:07.0	Some of the wealthiest people in the world are professional athletes.
0:11.0	Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs recently cited a 10-year contract
0:14.2	worth almost half a billion dollars. Since his retirement Michael Jordan is
0:17.8	worth over a billion dollars and George Foreman made over nine figures endorsing
0:21.6	an electric grill.
0:22.6	But a hundred years ago, being a professional athlete was a working class job.
0:26.6	NFL players worked during the week at railroad yards or factories
0:30.2	and would play on the weekend.
0:31.6	Nobody was really rich except for a few exceptions like
0:34.2	Dave Ruth. What turned professional sports into a multi-billion dollar industry?
0:38.0	Well most of the credit can be given to a 5-3 immigrant who came to America in
0:42.2	1997, founded the Harlem Globetrotters and
0:45.1	invented the three-point shot.
0:47.0	Abe Zappersen was a sports promoter who thought that showmanship and entertainment were more important
0:51.6	than athletic ability.
0:53.1	He took the Globetrotters from an unknown touring team going through small towns in the Midwest
0:57.4	and sometimes wearing a jersey underneath his suit, if they were short a player,
1:00.9	in case he had to step into a game, and turned them into an entertainment powerhouse that went on USO tours during World War II.
1:06.5	He also formed the American Basketball League was friends with Satchel Paige and Jesse Owens, and kept the Negro leagues financially afloat and help basketball achieve its elite
1:14.9	status and become as popular as football and baseball. In today's episode I'm speaking to Mark
1:19.5	Jacob and Matthew Jacob, authors of Globetrotter, how A. Zappersen shook up the world of sports,
	...

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