Globetrotter by Mark Jacob & Matthew Jacob

Author:Mark Jacob & Matthew Jacob
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2024-07-23T00:00:00+00:00

Owens considered himself to be a “public relations man,” explaining at the time, “The public seems to like my exhibition performances. And remember, it keeps my name alive.”

Later in his life, Owens justified the stunts as necessary for his family’s well-being: “People say it was degrading for an Olympic champion to run against a horse, but what was I supposed to do? I had four gold medals, but you can’t eat four gold medals.”17

The horse-racing stunts were only one aspect of the complex Saperstein–Owens relationship. Saperstein also partnered with Owens in founding the West Coast Negro Baseball Association, which lasted for only three months but raised Owens’s profile at a time when it was fading. Also, as a later chapter explains, Saperstein played an integral role in a spectacular event in Berlin, Germany, that was among the most honorable and uplifting of both Saperstein’s and Owens’s careers.

Owens’s daughter Marlene Rankin was asked in 2022 whether her father had positive or negative feelings about Saperstein. “Very positive,” Rankin said. “It was because they worked together. My father was the kind of person who was always grateful when someone extended themselves to offer him something. Saperstein offered him this position [with the Globetrotters]. He was fond of him for not only that reason, but they got along very well.”18

Rankin said her father considered Saperstein “a friend.”

Given Saperstein’s rising prominence and his fascination with show business, it seemed inevitable that he would explore the movies.

In 1951, Columbia Pictures released The Harlem Globetrotters, a fictional account of the Trotters on the road, featuring a made-up player named Billy Townsend and real Globetrotters portraying themselves. The cast included Goose Tatum, Pop Gates, Marques Haynes, Babe Pressley, Ermer Robinson, Ted Strong Jr., Frank Washington, Clarence Wilson, and Duke Cumberland. Inman Jackson played himself as a coach, but Saperstein was portrayed by Thomas Gomez, an actor best known for appearing with Humphrey Bogart in Key Largo and for an Oscar-nominated supporting role in Ride the Pink Horse. Gomez looked a lot like Saperstein, except that Gomez was of average height.19

Perhaps the most noteworthy cast member was Dorothy Dandridge, playing the supportive wife of Billy. Three years later, the gorgeous Dandridge would star in Carmen Jones and become the first Black woman nominated for an Academy Award for best actress. According to one report, Saperstein tried to persuade Chuck Cooper to stay with the Trotters instead of joining the NBA’s Boston Celtics by offering to let Cooper play Dandridge’s husband in the film.20

The movie generally steers clear of the race angle, but there is a scene in which some of the players scold Billy about his selfishness, which hurts the team. The actor playing Saperstein later tells him: “You don’t understand how Tatum felt, do you? You don’t know what Cumberland meant, do you? Well, after twenty-four years I think I know what they meant. I think they meant that in some way this team represents more than themselves. It represents your people.”

“I don’t go for that business,

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