The Harlem Globetrotters are celebrating an anniversary today of 85 years of playing basketball and entertaining people all over the world. The Globetrotters got their start in 1926 as the Savoy Five playing their first game on January 7th, 1927 as the Globetrotters. The ‘Harlem’ in the Globetrotter name came from the neighborhood in New York City but the Globetrotters played in Chicago.

By 1936 the Harlem Globetrotters had played more than 1000 games throughout the mid-west, winning 101 games and losing only 16 in their first year. The Globetrotters finally played in Harlem in 1948. Since then, they have entertained all over the world in more than 115 countries. The Harlem Globetrotters are not an official professional basketball team, none the less, they were inducted in to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002.

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