06-05-2025
Harlem Globetrotters honored with street name in Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood
The Original Harlem Globetrotters exhibition basketball team was commemorated with an honorary street name on Tuesday.
The honorary street sign for Globetrotters Way is located at the corner of Pershing Road and Giles Avenue in Bronzeville, near Wendell Phillips Academy High School. It was at the school where the team that became the Harlem Globetrotters got its start in 1926.
The team of five players first played in the Negro American Legion League, and then turned professional in 1972 as the Savoy Big Five — named after the Savoy Ballroom at what would now be 4733 S. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr., according to the Basketball Hall of Fame.
That same year, Abe Saperstein bought the team and went on to change the name to the name to the Harlem Globetrotters. One might assume this meant the team moved to New York City, but such was not the case.
Multiple sources notes that Saperstein gave the team the new name simply to capitalize on the importance of the Upper Manhattan communities of Harlem in African American culture, and in particular on the Harlem Renaissance. The Harlem Globetrotters did not actually play a game in Harlem until 1968, the History Channel noted.
The Harlem Globetrotters won their first World Basketball Championship in 1940, topping the Chicago Bruins. By the midcentury, the Globetrotters were recognized as the world's best basketball team.
The legendary Wilt Chamberlain got his start with the Harlem Globetrotters, joining the team on a 1959 tour of the U.S.S.R. The History Channel also notes that in the earliest days of the NBA, the Harlem Globetrotters kept the new league afloat with doubleheader games.
The Chicago Public Schools noted that the Harlem Globetrotters' early achievements "shaped a pivotal chapter in the athletic history of both the school and the City of Chicago."
Curley "Boo" Johnson, played with the Harlem Globetrotters from 1988 to 2007, was on hand for the street sign unveiling and event celebrating the Globetrotters.
"It meant more to me because I was born at St. Bernard Hospital right up the road in 1965," he said. "I'm 60 years old, and I just recently stopped lying about that."
The street sign unveiling Tuesday also featured a drumline performance from the Phillips Academy High School Band.
