Savoy Big Five

From Hoopedia

The Savoy Big Five was a precursor to the Harlem Globetrotters.

The team started as a Negro American Legion League team called the Giles Post. On January 3, 1928, the team started playing in the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago, United States, which sponsored team owner Abe Saperstein in return for renaming the team the "Savoy Big Five". The idea was to help bring in people to watch a game, after which they would stay and dance and spend more money. The arrangement was never very successful and lasted only until the spring, when the team began traveling and adopted the Globetrotters name. The team's players were William Grant, Lester Johnson, Tommy Brookings, Inman Jackson, Joe Lillard, Walter Wright, Randolph Ramsey, and William Watson.

The Globetrotter team's official history mentions the team being known as the Savoy Big Five from 1926 or early 1927, but the Savoy itself opened in November 1927.