BASKETBALL IN AMERICAN CITIES

While basketball was becoming institutionalized in colleges and in high schools throughout the United States, African American club teams were also dramatically altering the game. Basketball in the city became a game of innovation and style.

Some of the earliest all-black club teams, such as the Smart Set Athletic Club of Brooklyn, New York, the St. Christopher's Club of New Jersey, and the Loendi Club from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, produced high-scoring, action-packed games. Club teams in New York, New Jersey, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, dazzled crowds.

Two of the most famous African American club teams were the Harlem Renaissance Big Five (known as the Rens) and the Savoy Big Five (now known as the Harlem Globetrotters).

Playing in Harlem, New York, the Rens dominated club play for 16 years. Between 1923 and 1939 they won more than 1,500 games and lost fewer than 240.

The squad, which featured such players as Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, William "Pop" Gates, Clarence "Puggy" Bell, and William "Wee Willie" Smith, won the first black professional tournament.

Despite their tremendous success and popularity, the Rens were no match for the legendary Harlem Globetrotters.