Marques Haynes
From Hoopedia
Marques Haynes (born October 3, 1926 in Sand Springs, Oklahoma) is an American former professional basketball player and member of the Harlem Globetrotters, notable for his remarkable ability to dribble the ball and keep it away from defenders. According to Harlem Globetrotters: Six Decades of Magic (1988), Haynes could dribble the ball as many as six times a second.
Haynes learned to dribble the basketball from his sisters, and perhaps was aided by the skill of handling the ball on the dirt courts of his hometown. A native of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, Haynes led Sand Springs Booker T. Washington High School to the National Invitational Interscholastic Basketball Tournament championship (the national tournament for black high schools) in 1941 and to the Oklahoma state championship in 1942.
He graduated from Langston University (1942-46). He led Langston in scoring all four years and led them to a 112-3 record, including a 59-game winning streak. While at Langston, he once dribbled out the clock in a conference tournament game to ridicule an opponent who had run up the score against an inferior Samuel Huston College team with a young coach. Haynes' own coach reprimanded him for the showboating display, but it helped draw the attention of the Globetrotters, always on the search for trick ballhandlers. In 1946 Langston served as a last-minute replacement as an opponent to the Globetrotters. Langston won, 74-70, and the Globetrotters offered Haynes a contract. He turned it down to finish his senior year.
After college he tried out for the Trotters and made the team. He was assigned to the Kansas City Stars, a farm team for the Globetrotters, and played for them for three months. Haynes's career with the Trotters stretched from 1947 to 1953 and again from 1972-79. Haynes left the Globetrotters in 1953 over a contract dispute. He turned down a $35,000 a year offer from the Philadelphia Warriors and another one from the Minneapolis Lakers that would have made him the second-highest paid player in the NBA), to found his own barnstorming team, the Harlem Magicians. Boxing legend Sugar Ray Robinson sometimes played exhibitions with this team. Haynes played with the Magicians 1953-72 and 1983-92.
Haynes later rejoined the Globetrotters as a player/coach. He also played for the Harlem Wizards. He retired in 1992 after a 46-year professional career and now resides in Dallas, Texas.
Many consider him the premier ballhandler who ever lived, and his game influenced players such as Bob Cousy, Pete Maravich, and Fred "Curly" Neal. It is possible that Haynes has played more professional basketball games than anyone in history, staying active well into his sixties.
Marques Haynes was inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998 as a player. He is also a member of the NAIA Hall of Fame, the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, the African American-Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame and the Langston University Hall of Fame.
