Howie Davis
From Hoopedia
Howard "Howie" Davis, a native of Rockaway, New York founded the Harlem Wizards in 1962. This was far from his first venture in sports, but this is the one that stuck.
At the age of 15, Davis had an offer to leave home to play semi-pro baseball, and he went. That began his journey as a professional athlete, entrepreneur, and manager.
He played baseball for many different semi-professional barnstorming teams. At some point, he got into managing and promotion, and managed/promoted all of the major sports. From the Brooklyn Dodgers football team, to the Staten Island Stapes. He created, owned, and managed the Kokomo Clowns Baseball/Basketball Team.
The clowns, modeled after the Indianapolis Clowns, actually played in clown outfits. The late Red Holtzman, former New York Knicks championship coach, and a friend of bavis's, came out to play basketball with the Clowns, but didn't realize he was expected to wear a clown outfit. The two huddled, and for an additional $2 Red agreed to wear the outfit.
Howie continued to promote events, and eventually was a scout for the San Francisco Giants.
In 1943 Davis was a sports promoter and, at the time, Sergeant and Recreation Director at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, in Dayton, Ohio. He was asked to provide an emergency 8th team for the World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago. In just one week, he put together the Dayton Dive Bombers Basketball team.
Their first round opponent was the Chicago Ramblers. who they dispatched, 46-41. In the second round the Bombers faced the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters. Davis, 24 at the time and an admirer of the Globetrotters and Abe Saperstein's fusion of sport and entertainment, was excited by the challenge. In one of the biggest upsets in sports history, the Dayton Dive Bombers beat the previous World Champions in their second game ever played! The championship run for the Bombers ended in the semi-finals when they lost, 38-30, to the Washington Bears (made up of players from the famous New York Rens), the eventual tourney champs. The Bombers lost to the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons, 58-52, in the consolation game.
However If Abe Saperstein hadn't refused to shake Howie Davis' hand after the game, would the competitive fuel for starting the Wizards ever have happened? One thing is certain, Davis was inspired that night, and nearly two decades later he launched his own traveling show team - the Harlem Wizards.
Howie was also a pioneer in breaking color barriers. Prejudice infuriated him and he believed in sport as the great equalizer, the ultimate merit system.
