By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Good memories came back in recent days for many Otter Tail County residents when learning that the renowned Harlem Globetrotters are celebrating their 100th anniversary this year. These basketball players combine athleticism, entertainment and comedy.

The Globetrotters feature skillful handling of basketballs such as juggling balls between players, balancing or spinning basketballs on their fingertips and making difficult shots.

This reporter first saw the Globetrotters in 1959 at the Concordia College Fieldhouse in Moorhead. As a 12-year-old kid it was fun to see Globetrotters’ star player Meadowlark Lemon and his teammates perform before a full house in the college gymnasium.

The Globetrotters also performed in the Roosevelt Gymnasium in Fergus Falls in December 1967. That game, with the Trotters playing the New York Nationals, attracted 2,600 fans at the high school gym. The next appearance for the Globetrotters was a game in Valley City, North Dakota.

During the past 10 decades the Globetrotters have served as U.S. ambassadors of good will. They have performed in more than 26,000 basketball games in 124 countries. The team has played against deliberately ineffective opponents such as the Washington Generals who played against the Globetrotters in the 1959 game at Concordia College.

The Globetrotters did not originate in New York City’s Harlem area of Upper Manhattan. They originated in 1926 in Chicago where all the original players attended high school. 

Three years later team manager and promoter Abe Saperstein named the team the Harlem Globetrotters. He selected the name Harlem because it was considered the center of Black American culture.

Ed Darby, Fergus Falls High School Class of 1960, remembers the Trotters playing in Fergus Falls at the Roosevelt Gym during the 1950s.  

“It was a father-son outing for me and my father, Don Darby,” he said. “I also recall the Minneapolis Lakers playing at our Fergus gym in 1960.”

Stuart Klovstad, 1976 FFHS graduate, has great memories of seeing the Harlem Globetrotters perform in Fergus Falls in 1967.

“I loved their water bucket trick,” Klovstad said, “thinking a person was going to be doused with water and was confetti instead. I also remember Meadowlark Lemon and the point person for the weave passing. They were the number one entertainers.”

Other star players over the years included Fred “Curly” Neal, “Sweet” Lou Dunbar, Goose Tatum, Charles “Tex” Harrison, Hubert Ausbie and future NBA star Wilt Chamberlain.

Bruce Ritchey, 1966 FFHS graduate, well remembers Globetrotter players Curly Neal and Goose Tatum.

“Curly dribbled like a magician around the poor Washington Generals who tried to guard him,” Ritchey said. “Goose was The Clown Prince of basketball, the fan favorite and at the center of most of the hyjinx.”

Ritchey recalls, along with Klovstad, one of the Globetrotter trademark pranks when Goose would fill a pail of what many thought was water and then chase a referee around the floor until he threw the contents of the bucket at the referee. “Luckily the bucket turned out to be full of confetti instead of water.”

He recalls another Globetrotters highlight of watching the team come out and perform their warmups to their signature anthem, “Sweet Georgia Brown.”  Ritchey adds, “Their layup drill was a sight to behold.”