MP3 of the Day

On this day in 1927, the Harlem Globetrotters played their very first game in Hinckley, Illinois. Actually from Chicago, not New York, the Globetrotters won 101 out of 117 games in their first season and introduced many Midwestern audiences to basketball. By 1936, they had played more than 1,000 games and appeared in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Michigan, Montana, Washington and North and South Dakota. (The Globetrotters didn’t actually play a game in Harlem until the late 1960s.) Their first national championship appearance came in 1939, when the Globetrotters lost to the New York Renaissance. That same year, the team began to add the silly antics they later became known for, including ball handling tricks and on-court comedic routines. The crowds loved it, so the team kept up the clowning around, but only when they had achieved a solid lead. In 1948, the Globetrotters earned a new measure of respect by beating the Minneapolis Lakers of the newly established NBA. Some of the Globetrotters who went on to become NBA stars include Wilt Chamberlain, Connie Hawkins and Nat Clifton. Today we have the song In Step by GIRL TALK.