User:Keith Ellis

Article titled "Jackie Bethards"

Jackie Bethards was a pre-WWII Afro-American pro basketball player from Philadelphia. As a boy Bethards played at the Christian Street YMCA along with chums Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, Zack Clayton, and Bill Yancey. There they began four fruitful careers on a squad called the Tribune Men.

As early as 1927, playing alongside "Stretch" Cooper for the Philadelphia Scholastics, Bethards was reported to have been "the sensation while in New England" by the Baltimore Afro-American. Six years later, playing alongside Clayton and Yancey for the Philadelphia Giants in another New England contest, Jackie reportedly entered a contest in the 2nd quarter with the Giants on the wrong side of a 20-7 score and, described as "unquestionably one of the best semi-pro players in the business," proceeded to hit "long shot after long shot" to tighten the game. Following a Clayton fielder that brought the Giants to within a point, Bethards "let a long shot fly that registered the winning digits" in a 32-31 win over the St Joseph's Polish Hearts.

As early as 1933 Jackie Bethards was labelled the "Clown Prince of basketball," a term that came to be identified with the Harlem Globetrotters' biggest names like Goose Tatum and Meadowlark Lemon. Within a year the nickname of "Clown Prince" had followed Bethards to Chicago, whence he starred for the Savoy Big Five (also known as the Chicago Crusaders) along with such teammates as Jack Mann, Clayton, and Billy Yancey's brother John Yancey.

Following his successful foray as a Chicagoan Jackie Bethards reunited with Bill Yancey and Tarzan Cooper on the New York Rens. Along with David "Big Dave" DeJernett Bethards received top billing as a new Rens' star for the fabled team that had recently suffered the loss of sharpshooter Pappy Ricks. According to the Sheboygan Press, "Jack 'Rabbit' Bethards and 'Wee Willie' Smith play the leading roles in the comedy as they clown and burlesque with players and fans as well."

While he undeniably was a star with the Rens, earning the monicker "ShowBoat," Bethards only played for the club in 1935-36 and 1936-37, before being replaced in a sense by high school-to-pros phenom Johnny Isaacs. Bethards clearly kept good relations with Tarzan Cooper. Cooper once described a memorable 4th-quarter duel in 1928 between Bethards, playing for the Philadelphia Giants, and the Rens' star guard Clarence "Fat" Jenkins, saying "We gave the ball to Jackie. Fats, a master at the art of freezing, tried to take the ball away from him.  I will never forget the things Jackie pulled...and he kept the ball in his possession for three minutes, kept it away from one of the greatest players the game has ever known". en route to the Giants' tense 31-29 win over the Rens in Boston.

The following year, in 1929, the outcome was similar: "Gorilla" Bethards was described as the Giants' brightest star, his "humorous antics" keeping the crowd on edge and his "all-around playing ability on a level with the best in the business" as the Giants again beat the NY Rens in Boston, 25 to 23.

In one of Bethards' last performances as a Ren, the story ran, "Jack Bethards, Ren forward, had the fans in thunderous applause every minute he was in the game, putting on a great basketball exhibition. He was by far the fastest man on the floor, and his handling of the ball was uncanny" to spark the Rens' 51-38 win over the Art Imigs (later the Sheboygan Redskins of the NBA).

That same year the Chicago Defender's Dan Burley wrote in his trademark homey fashion: "Influence of Bethards' style of basketball playing was shown in the Gladiator/Rival Dog Food clash at the Armory.  George Darden, Red Bolton, an' others on th' team are perfecting th' clown formulations to a nicety.". Two days after Burley's column appeared the Sheboygan Press again weighed in, saying "The clown of the Rens is Jackie Bethards, who travels around the floor so fast fans only see a dark streak flitting about the court. A showman through and through, Jackie drives his opponents crazy with his speed and antics on the floor.  A great shot, Bethards is content to thrill the fans with his speed and ball handling, leaving the scoring end of the game to the rest of his mates.".

When the Harlem Globetrotters came to Lowell, Massachusetts in 1949 fresh from big wins over both the Boston Celtics and Minneapolis Lakers, Jackie Bethards' comedic influence was recalled: "The last time a team appeared in Lowell the likes of this club was when the Sacred Heart team had the famous Philadelphia Colored Giants in town featuring the great 'Gorilla' Bethards.  The big interest will be in the trick style of ball the visitors play."

Whether he parted company with the Rens for stylistic or other reasons, for several seasons after 1937 little is known of Bethards' playing career until he resurfaced in 1942 joining John Isaacs, Cooper and Clayton on the Philadelphia Toppers in games against the Detroit Clowns and Long Island Pros. In 1942-43 Bethards also played alongside Tarzan Cooper and several other ex-NY Rens for the Washington Bears club that won the World's Pro Championship tourney in Chicago. True to reputation, Bethards was credited with freezing the ball to clinch the Bears' 27th consecutive win in a January 1943 match against the New York Clippers that ended 36-29.

For several years afterwards both Bethards and Tarzan Cooper remained associated with the Washington Bears until the fall of 1946, when Bears' owner AE Lichtman retired. Cooper, billing Bethards as one of his stars, started another team called the "Bears" back in Philadelphia but was threatened with lawsuit by the Washington Bears' new owner Harold Jackson for forging the team name. Jackson appealed to NBL commissioner Ward "Piggy" Lambert so that the National league would not book the Cooper/Bethards team for games. That is where Jackie Bethards' pro basketball playing career ended.

In 1960 Philadelphia native Wilt Chamberlain announced he was fed up with the NBA and would retire after his rookie season. Comparing Wilt to his Philadelphia predecessors, the Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel editorialized: "The stars of the New York Rens and Philadelphia Colored Giants were that incomparable clown Jackie Bethards, a one-man predecessor to the Harlem Globetrotters, and Zack Clayton and Tarzan Cooper, remember?  We certainly don't wish to insinuate that the "Stilt" should be forced to undergo indignities on any kind, but neither do we feel that Bethards, Clayton, or Cooper would have hustled for cover as Wilt obviously has if his retirement is on the level.  The major difference between then and now is that Chamberlain has somewhere to hide -- back with the successful Globetrotters or as the backbone of a new major league -- while the other poor guys merely headed dog-tired into the next town.".

ARTICLE entitled Jack Mann (black pro basketball player)



Jack Mann (born in Tennessee in 1914, died 8 June 1983) was an early Harlem Globetrotter who gained fame in the Indiana high school state basketball tournament in 1930. As a 6-7 sophomore center for the Muncie Central BearCats Mann started in the 1930 final game against rival David "Big Dave" DeJernett's Washington High Hatchets and lost in the celebrated matchup. Mann avenged that loss with Muncie's 21-19 win over Washington in the 1931 state finals en route to a state title. His BearCats made the finals again in 1932 and finished runnerup.

After high school Mann signed with Wilberforce University, an historically black college, along with celebrated Chicago schoolboy star Agis Bray of Phillips High of Chicago. He shortly afterward quit to turn pro with the influential Wheatley Center of Detroit. Mann then played with his hometown Muncie Monarchs and later with Detroit's Central Big Five in December 1933 before joining Dick Hudson's Savoy Big Five later that same season. In early 1935 the Harlem Globetrotters reported that Jack Mann had "broken his contract" to play for another team, which was surely the enigmatic Chicago Crusaders. Mann was a Crusader/Savoy from 1934 through 1937, except for the stint with the Globetrotters.

In 1937 Mann not only played as a Crusader/Savoy but also as a Palmer House Indian and a NY Ren for some contests in Wisconsin, where he impressed so much that the Sheboygan Art Imigs (later to be renamed the Sheboygan Red Skins of the NBA) signed him as one of the first African Americans to integrate the pro ranks. As the Depression deepened Mann lost interest in Sheboygan after 1938 and became a fulltime police officer and later a bail bondsman. In 1974 Mann suffered a tragic accident on a golf course that left him practically 100% paralyzed. Mann's scoring and ballhandling expertise made him one of early pro basketball's greatest showmen.

Article titled "ICC AllStars"

The ICC AllStars were an early integrated professional basketball team of the Barnstorming Era led by David DeJernett. In 1935 DeJernett finished his fourth year of eligibility at Indiana Central College (now the University of Indianapolis) and started a pro career with former teammates from Indiana Central as well as Washington (IN) High School. The ICC All-Stars also featured Burl Friddle, a Franklin Wonder Fiver and Twenties pro who had coached DeJernett in high school.

The ICC AllStars' most prominent win was a 40-35 decision over the Jasper Coca-Colas in late March 1935, behind DeJernett's 18 points. The Coca-Colas had beaten the AllStars 33-31 in an earlier match and the next year would upend the powerful New York Renaissance 57-53.

Another article entitled "Chicago Crusaders"

The Chicago Crusaders were an all-black barnstorming basketball club whose history ran from 1933 thru 1947. Commonly billed as the "Western World's Colored Champions" the team's roster over the years featured about a dozen players who also were members of the better-known Harlem GlobeTrotters and New York Renaissance, both enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame.

In the 1933-34 season Dick Hudson, who had previously managed the seminal Giles Post Legion and Savoy Big Five squads that had helped birth Abe Saperstein's GlobeTrotters, converted his Hottentots into the Chicago Crusaders as something of a travelling name for the Savoy Big Five. Players that season included Jackie Bethards, Al Johnson, Big Jack Mann, and Zack Clayton.

In the 1934-35 season the Crusaders made a highly-successful barnstorming tour of the Eastern USA, in contravention of the more-common practice of Eastern Seaboard clubs such as the Original Celtics and Rens touring the cavernous MidWestern gyms. Their record that year was reported to be 112-10, including wins over such clubs back East as the Honey Russell All-Stars and Clarksville Oilers.

After another successful season in 1935-36, the 1936-37 Crusaders, now managed by Mahlon Roles, adopted the monicker of the Palmer House Indians, competing locally in Chicago's Windy City League. The Indians played their home games at then-brand-new DuSable High School, winning a dozen straight to start the season before dropping a disappointing 53-31 decision to the visiting Rens. In this season the Crusaders notably added David "Big Dave" DeJernett to their squad, making an early "Twin Towers" between DeJernett and former schoolboy rival Jack Mann. Bob Bolton of ColGate University was another high-profile addition at guard.

In 1939-40 the Crusaders presented perhaps their strongest edition ever, as DeJernett and Al Johnson continued to start along with legendary Rens star Fats Jenkins plus Agis Bray and Hillery Brown, both former Chicago Collegians. The Crusaders that year were reported to have been "sidestepped" by the promoters of the Chicago World's Pro Tourney, which had been inaugurated the season before & won by the Rens. The Pro Tourney took great pains to seed the Rens and GlobeTrotters in the same semifinal bracket to ensure that two black clubs would not meet in the Final for the World's title. This may have been a decisive factor in "sidestepping" the Crusaders' chances to compete in the local Tourney.

In November of 1940 the Harlem GlobeTrotters, who had won the '40 World's title, announced that they had entered a type of player-exchange agreement with the now-redubbed Savoy Big Five. Most of the 1940 Crusaders -- DeJernett, Bray, Johnson, Brown -- were listed as parties to this exchange agreement. Although Abe Saperstein had spoken for years of his "farm team" this was the first verifiable instance of the Crusaders' taking a subordinate position to the GlobeTrotter unit. Within a few months Brown and Bray were regularly starting and leading the Trotters' first unit in scoring. The Savoy Big Five by the winter of 1941 was regularly playing games billed as the Harlem GlobeTrotters -- effectively becoming the Trotters' first official second touring unit.

Over the next six years the Crusaders occasionally played with one of their oldtime names such as Bray or Johnson as stars. Crusader-related players such as Brown or Mann also were commonly found to play for Thirties-reminiscent squads called the Chicago Collegians, the Olde-Tymers, or under the new monicker of the Chicago Monarchs.