Q&A with Mark Jacob and his brother Matthew about their new book Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports:

Q: Why did you write this book?

MARK: Several books have been written about the Harlem Globetrotters — the basketball team that Abe Saperstein formed in the late 1920s. But my brother and I were surprised to learn that no one had ever written a biography of Saperstein. He made a big impact on sports and race relations during the 20th century. Battling blizzards and bigotry, the Globetrotters traveled around America and built a reputation for both talent and comedy. And Saperstein helped pro basketball find its footing and grow a devoted audience. He pioneered the 3-point shot, which dramatically changed the game. Saperstein also played a key role in the racial integration of Major League Baseball. He is the reason one of the greatest pitchers of all time, Satchel Paige, finally got his shot at the majors. Saperstein’s life is a story that needs to be told.

Q: What was Saperstein’s background and how did he get started in sports promotion?

MARK: He was a Jewish immigrant who grew up in Chicago — the son of a tailor who initially went by the name “Schneider” (German for “tailor”) to dodge bigotry and find a job. Although Abe Saperstein was an outsider in many ways, he found that he got along well with Black people, especially those who shared his love of sports. In the mid-1920s, the organizer of a Black baseball club asked Saperstein to book games for his team outside of Chicago. The organizer knew that teams in all-white Midwestern towns would be more receptive to a white man. Saperstein accepted the role and quickly learned that working as a promoter and publicist came naturally to him. Years later, he used these skills to make the Harlem Globetrotters the best-known basketball team in America.

Q: Was Saperstein active in any sports besides basketball and baseball?

MATTHEW: Yes. When Olympic track star Jesse Owens fell on hard times, Saperstein was among the few who stepped forward to befriend him and hire him for different roles. In 1959, Saperstein hired tennis star Althea Gibson to tour with the Globetrotters, and he paid her $100,000 — the highest salary that had ever been paid to a Black female athlete. At one time or another, Saperstein worked as a promoter of teams or players in soccer, lacrosse and boxing.

Q: Your book contains several doses of irony, such as the fact that the Harlem Globetrotters were not from Harlem, correct?

MARK: Exactly. They weren’t from Harlem and certainly weren’t made up of globetrotters when they began. The initial players were from Chicago’s South Side. Saperstein set out with them in a Model-T Ford to play barnstorming games against local teams. He put “Harlem” in the name to signal to all-white Midwestern towns that the team was Black. It was also ironic that a Jewish man who was five-foot-three managed an all-Black team in basketball — a sport where height is at a premium.

Q: It's also ironic that at a time when Black Americans had little or no profile in mass media, the State Department helped the Globetrotters gain a global stage. Why did the Department lend support to the team’s tours abroad?

MATTHEW: The United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a propaganda war during the 1950s. But America’s pro-democracy message was undercut back home by the barriers that Black people faced in housing, education and jobs. The Soviets pointed to this as proof of U.S. hypocrisy. The State Department thought: “Let’s counter the Soviets by helping an all-Black basketball team tour abroad, entertain audiences and change their perceptions about America.”

Secretary of State Dean Acheson urged embassy staff to cooperate with Saperstein during the Globetrotters’ tours abroad. But documents we found at the National Archives show this assistance went much farther than Congress or the public realized. Behind the scenes, U.S. diplomats helped with publicity, arranged for transportation, and found suitable arenas and rented them. The embassies even acted like a bank by converting foreign currency to U.S. dollars. This currency favor was huge for Saperstein because countries typically paid him in cash but placed strict limits on how much local currency he could leave with. The State Department also discussed future destinations with Saperstein and scouted out which cities had adequate facilities for games.

Q: Did Saperstein play this “diplomatic” role with enthusiasm or reluctance?

MARK: Saperstein was proud for his team to represent his country overseas. And his experiences abroad gave him a fresh batch of stories to tell to eager sportswriters. The publicity greatly enhanced the Globetrotters’ image at home — and it certainly raised Saperstein’s reputation too. The team was a hit almost everywhere it traveled. One U.S. columnist praised the Globetrotters as “diplomats in short pants.”  An Indiana congressman told Saperstein the government should consider erecting “a big monument” to honor him for all of the goodwill his team had spread.

Abe Saperstein and Globetrotter Walter Dukes admire the pitching arm of Satchel Paige. Saperstein often served as Paige’s business agent and helped him become the first Black pitcher to play in Major League Baseball’s American League.

Q: : What were the traits that made Saperstein successful? What made him tick?

MARK: Saperstein believed that sports like basketball were not a game — they were a show. And he never stopped planning or thinking of ideas to entertain people. Whether Saperstein walked into a locker room, a board room or a newsroom, you knew he was there. He realized that sports editors had pages to fill, and he always seemed to have a story or anecdote that got their attention.

Saperstein always went the extra mile to get publicity for the Globetrotters or other clients. In 1937, he was paid to handle publicity for a British soccer team. But the Chicago Daily News threw him a curve by telling him that its reporter was sick and couldn’t cover the soccer game. The newspaper told Saperstein it would print an article if he attended the game and turned in a story. Saperstein knew almost nothing about soccer so he moved quickly. He bought several British newspapers and read their sports pages to understand the sport and learn its jargon. The story he later wrote got published, and the Daily News informed him that several readers had complimented the paper for its story.

Q: Did Saperstein invent the 3-point shot?

MARK: It’s more accurate to say he pioneered it. The 3-point shot had been tried as an experiment a few times in college basketball, but it never caught on. When Saperstein started his American Basketball League in 1961, he was looking for a gimmick to set his league apart, so he adopted the 3-pointer and decided the arc should be 25 feet from the basket. This was the first time the 3-point shot had  been used in league play in either college or the pros.

Saperstein’s league folded after a season and a half. But a few years later, another start-up league — the American Basketball Association — adopted the 3-pointer. The main pro league, the National Basketball Association, finally saw the light in 1979, and the college game did so a few years later. Stephen Curry and Caitlin Clark owe part of their fame to Abe Saperstein.

Q: What is so special about the 3-point shot?

MATTHEW: It’s the most significant rule change in basketball over the past 50 years. The 3-point shot keeps fans interested late in a game, even when their favorite team is trailing. When a team is behind by 12 points with only two minutes to go, it’s not out of the game anymore. One reason the 3-pointer appealed to Saperstein was that he felt tall players were too dominant of a force. Adopting the 3-point shot suddenly meant that defenses could not overlook smaller players who shot well from the perimeter. As it turned out, the 3-pointer did not penalize the tallest players. It actually forced defenses to move farther out from the lane. Once the lane became less congested, players who positioned themselves in the “low post” area had more room to maneuver with the ball. Still, when the NBA adopted the 3-point shot in 1979, there was a lot of blowback. One member of the NBA’s Board of Governors was so opposed to the rule change that he resigned.

The Harlem Globetrotters seemed to be even more popular overseas. Lavazza, the Italian coffee company, produced a series of collectible cards in 1951 that highlighted key sports events from the previous year. One of them featured the Globetrotters.

Q: Was Saperstein a visionary in any other sport?

Mark: Saperstein was ahead of his time in baseball as well. He was an early booster of night baseball, and and he complained about the slow pace of the game — more than 60 years before Major League Baseball adopted a pitch clock and other rules to speed up play. He also suggested variable ticket pricing about 40 years before pro baseball teams embraced this concept. Variable pricing means a ballclub’s ticket prices are higher or lower depending on the visiting team. Saperstein refused to accept hidebound concepts in sports, which is why the subtitle of our book is “How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports.”