Abe Saperstein
Abe Saperstein | |
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Saperstein, circa 1950s
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Born | London, England |
July 4, 1902
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. |
Occupation | basketball executive |
Known for | principal owner of the Harlem Globetrotters commissioner of the American Basketball League |
Awards | elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1971 |
Abraham M. Saperstein (July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was an owner and coach of the Savoy Big Five, which later became the Harlem Globetrotters. He was born in London, England, to a Jewish family.[1]
Saperstein was the commissioner of the American Basketball League, which he founded in 1961 after repeatedly being denied an NBA expansion franchise. He also owned the Chicago Majors team in that league.[2] In an effort to differentiate the ABL from the NBA and promote it, Saperstein introduced the three-point shot.[3]
In the 1988 Harlem Globetrotters documentary 6 Decades of Magic, it was noted that Saperstein chose "Harlem" to indicate that the players were African-American, even though they were actually from Chicago, and the "Globetrotters" moniker to make it seem as though the team had traveled all around the world.[4] Saperstein sewed the team's first red, white and blue jerseys himself, presumably having learned this skill from his tailor father.[5]
Saperstein, whose 5 ft 5 in (1.65 m) stature may render him as Basketball Hall of Fame's shortest member, was elected to the Hall in 1971.[1] In 1979, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.[6] He played baseball, basketball, and ran track at Lake View High School. He played as a guard for the Chicago Reds.
He was buried in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois, near Chicago.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Association for Professional Basketball Research American Basketball League page
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.[dead link]
- ↑ http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/harlem-globetrotters-play-their-first-game
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- Articles with dead external links from September 2010
- Articles with hCards
- 1902 births
- 1966 deaths
- Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- English Jews
- American Jews
- Harlem Globetrotters executives
- American Basketball League (1961–63) executives
- Jewish American sportspeople
- Sportspeople from London
- University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign alumni
- 20th-century American businesspeople
- American basketball biography, pre-1910 birth stubs