Renaissance Big Five (Harlem Rens)

The premier African-American professional basketball team of the 1930s, the Harlem Renaissance (nicknamed the Rens) was founded by Robert L. Douglas (1884–1979) in 1922, and named for their home court, the Renaissance Casino Ballroom in Harlem, New York. The original team consisted of former Negro League baseball player Clarence (Pat) Jenkins, Bill Yancey, John Holt, James (Pappy) Ricks, and Eyre Saith. Later Charles "Tarzan" Cooper and "Wee" Willie Smith joined the team. The Rens were noted for their flashy, quick passing attack, and players seldom dribbled. While the 6'4" Cooper and 6'5" Smith were inside shooters, most of the players relied on outside shots.

In the early 1930s the Renaissance Casino closed, and the Rens were forced to play all their games on the road as the visiting team. The team bought a $10,000 custom-made bus for travel for the long rides. More importantly, the Rens had just seven players, and members of the team were thus forced to play games virtually without breaks. Still, the Rens reached the peak of their strength during these years. In 1931 the Rens beat their archrivals, the Harlem Globetrotters, in the World Championship Tournament in Chicago. From 1932 to 1934 the team won 473 games out of the 491 it played, including 88 straight in 1934. In 1933 the Rens played a series of games with the original (Boston) Celtics, a champion white team, in Cleveland and Kansas City. The Rens won seven of eight contests. In 1939 the Rens achieved a record of 112–7 and were one of eleven teams invited to the World Tournament in Chicago. They were unbeatable in the tournament and defeated the Oshkosh All-Stars, champions of the National Basketball League (ancestor of the National Basketball Association), to take the world title. The Rens ended their existence in 1944 when professional basketball integrated. Their record was reportedly an estimated 2,300 victories against 500 losses. In 1963 the Harlem Renaissance was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts.

See also Basketball; Sports

Bibliography

Dickey, Glenn. The History of Professional Basketball since 1896. New York: Stein and Day, 1982.

greg robinson (1996)