Still trotting the globe after all these years

A look back to the tune of "Sweet Georgia Brown." Let it play while you read the post.


What do the whistled opening notes of "Sweet Georgia Brown" mean to you? For me, it means the Harlem Globetrotters are passing the basketball around a circle at center court as they warm themselves and the audience up before they play their hapless opponents once again.

I went to see them the other night and when that music came up over the loudspeakers I admit to feeling a bit of emotion. I found that strange and tried to search my database for a reason.

The first thing that came to mind was, I first saw the Globetrotters, I think, around 1955, 57 years ago. Whoa, that set me back. FIFTY-SEVEN YEARS! The second thing I realized was my father had taken me to see them. A man who had little time for sports took me to one of the very few professional sporting events I saw as a boy. The only other I can think of was an exhibition baseball game at Offerman Stadium in Buffalo with the Bisons playing the Cleveland Indians. And, get this, Satchel Paige pitched.

As I watched this new version of the team, I tried to think: I might have seen Goose Tatum, and I am sure I saw Meadowlark Lemon. Then and now I laughed at their goofiness and antics, but then and now what I really liked was their basketball, choreographed almost as ballet: their passing, the weave, their confounding of their opponents with tricky ball handling, dribbling and passing. The routines have changed. A dunk was a rarity 57 years ago. Today it is the basis for much of their scoring. But the passing on the way to the dunks, the alley-oops, the high bouncing assists, are so reminiscent of the old days the transition seems natural. And, in the old days making the basket often was a bit anticlimactic because it meant the end of the play, whereas today's monster dunk puts an exclamation mark on it.

The progress with the times hasn't been limited to the changes in the game either. A woman plays for the 'Trotters now and she is one heck of a dribbler and hit two of four four-point shots from 35 feet, a scoring opportunity the team has added to the show. There's also, gasp, a white guy, whose main job seems to be showing that he CAN jump, when given the opportunity to drive in for a dunk.

And the team still is able to make the wonderful connection with the audience, the way they have since the Forties in almost every country in the world. Five-year-olds laugh right along with 70-year-olds when a team member draws someone out onto the court for one of their comedy routines. Watching a young fellow who couldn't have been more than 7 try to mimic the dance moves of the newest generation's star, a huge man called Big Easy, brought fans to their feet at the same time almost bending over laughing. Even the players couldn't resist giggles at the youngster's be-bop.

You always leave a Globetrotters game with a smile on your face and as I walked out smiling and looking at others in the crowd, people from almost any walk of life, any age, I could picture some of these young people 57 years from now going to see the newest generation perform some of the same routines as they did this night. The Harlem Globetrotters make that kind of impression on a young mind, triggered every time you hear the first whistled notes of "Sweet Georgia Brown."