Washington Generals Dead at 63 ... RIP

[Olympic Fan]

http://espn.go.com/espn/story/_/id/1...imary-opponent

Final record -- an estimated 3-1,600, Just one of the wins came vs. the Globetrotters (in 1971, when the immortal Red Klotz hit a buzzer beater for a one-point win).

I think there's a very interesting aspect of the Globetrotter-Generals dynamic that I wish somebody with more training in sociology than I have would explore.

For years, it was the all-black Trotters against the almost all-white Generals. That might not be too big a deal today, but back in 1952, when the "rivalry" started, that was a huge deal. Segregation was just beginning to break down in American sports. The first integrated basketball game in North Carolina was Temple at Duke on Dec. 1, 1951. Six months earlier, the Trotters put on a performance at Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh (not sure who they played ... it wasn't the Generals).

Mostly-white audience would pack arenas in the '50s and '60s to watch the black team dominate the white team. I wonder what they were thinking.

But there is an aspect of it that goes even deeper. The Trotters comic routine was an outgrowth of a long sports tradition, where black athletes would act the fool for white audiences. In the early part of the 20th century there was a black baseball team known as the Ethiopian Clowns (later the Indianapolis Clowns) that would entertain white audiences with their routines (and even play in grass skirts at times, wearing fake warpaint). Pretty good evidence that black audiences at that time did not appreciate the humor as much as white audiences.

Other black baseball teams and stars sometimes put comedy into their pregame routines, including the widespread "Shadow Ball" routine.

There is a direct link between the Clowns and the Globetrotters ... in the person of Abe Saperstein, who managed the Trotters for half a century, but also served as a booking agent for Negro baseball. Quite a few Negro league stars played for the Trotters in the '30s and '40s, when they were a real semi-pro basketball team that would just occasionally insert a little humor. They only evolved into a full-fledged comedy troupe in the 1950s -- and the Generals were there to help them do it.

Sorry to see the tradition go ...

[pfrduke]

Joe Posnanski wrote a nice piece about this today:

http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/was...or=SportsREDEF

[bjornolf]

So sad. I saw them a couple times as a kid. It was so much fun. I never realized the Generals were trying to win. I thought they were tanking on purpose. Now I feel kinda sorry for them.

[-jk]

So sad. I saw them a couple times as a kid. It was so much fun. I never realized the Generals were trying to win. I thought they were tanking on purpose. Now I feel kinda sorry for them.

I think they played under different rules...

-jk