They've been called America's court jesters, though they thrilled audiences around the world with their amazing skill, antics and theater. The Harlem Globetrotters basketball team turns 100-years old this year.

Founded in Chicago, 20 years before Black men were allowed to play on American professional basketball teams, the Globetrotters shocked the sports world in 1948 by defeating the Minneapolis Lakers, champions of the all-white National Basketball League.

The all-Black squad played to sellout crowds in the early 1950s while the emerging National Basketball Association struggled to draw fans. The NBA scheduled double headers showcasing the Globetrotters to book audiences and stay afloat.

Eventually, some Globetrotters went on to star in the NBA, including one of the best players to ever hit the boards, Wilt Chamberlain.

The Globe Trotters originated in 1926, when a group of former basketball players from Chicago’s Wendell Phillips High School barnstormed the Midwest as an American Legion team. The next year they were hired as an opening act at the Savoy Ballroom and the following year several players split off with a new vision.

A guy from Chicago's north side, Abe Saperstein, was a skillful promoter and manager. He changed the team's name to the New York Harlem Globe Trotters, hoping the all-Black basketball team could capitalize on the Harlem Renaissance. 

In these early days, the Globetrotters played straight basketball for the first ten years, gradually add ball tricks and dribbling exhibitions into their games. After it's 40-year heyday the team struggled to remain popular. By the mid-1980s, the team had a new owner looking for a new vibe to revitalize the team.

In 1985, the Globetrotters advertised in the newspaper for women players. Sixty applied and the team invited 20 to training camp. One woman would be chosen to make history as the first female Harlem Globetrotter.

The road to the Globetrotters required a lot of preparation for Lynette, a lot of hours on the court, a lot of shots through the net. She delivered. Leading Wichita North High School to win two state basketball championships.

Playing at the University of Kansas, she averaged 26.3 points per game of her four year college career. She became the all-time leading scorer in women's college basketball with 3,649 points. A record only just broken in 2024 by Caitlin Clark (Iowa), though Lynette's record was set under different rules (such as no 3 point shots) before women's basketball joined the NCAA.

Lynette Woodard played for the Kansas Jayhawks, 1977-1981, leading the team to   Big Eight Conference Tournament championship her final year.

In 1984, Lynette played on the world sports stage at the Los Angeles Olympic games. She captained the team that captured the gold medal. The following year, her dream came true when she was selected the first woman to take the floor with the Harlem Globetrotters.

Then came what Lynette calls a "crowning moment of my career," as she lined up with nine other women finalists after the day's practice.

"I standing there, I was nervous," Woodard says "And he said, 'And now, the first lady, from the University of Kansas' and he called my name out. And it hit me, you know, I'm the one...I got chills. I just shook my head and I said: ‘It’s me.’”

Her dream coming true was especially sweet because of the connection with her cousin Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, who played for the team for 24 years, retiring as Lynette took to the floor. He appeared in numerous national TV commercials and was immortalized in animation on “The Harlem Globetrotters” cartoon series and on episodes of "Scooby Doo."

At the first tryouts for women, some of the men on the team felt a bit uncertain about the addition, but Lynette says that didn't last long.

"When we went to training camp and we joined the full team, they got a glimpse of women’s basketball like they never saw. Women had improved. We were able to play the game. 

If you know the fundamentals of the game, and you know them well, [you can be taught] the rest. So I don’t think they had any fear about what could be learned once they saw that we were, you know, fundamentally sound.

Lynette played with the team for two years before leaving to play basketball in Italy and Japan until 1993, when she retired and became director of director of athletics for the Kansas City, KN, school system.

The WNBA, founded in 1996, drew her out of retirement and she played two years professionally in the US with the Cleveland Rockets and the Detroit Shock.

Among the many honors Lynette received in her phenomenal and pioneering basketball career were induction into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame  and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Lynette Woodard named Ms. Magazine Woman of the Year, 1986.

Widely considered one of the greatest female players of all time, Lynette continues to inspire young women with her magnetic personality, warm smile history of competition. 

https://blog.newspapers.com/more-than-a-game-the-harlem-globetrotters-turn-100/?
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-sioux-city-journal-lynette-woodard/188408067/

https://www.history.com/articles/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-harlem-globetrotters

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