Q&A with Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob

 

Mark Jacob

 

 

Mark Jacob and Matthew Jacob are the authors of the new book Globetrotter: How Abe Saperstein Shook Up the World of Sports. They are brothers, and they also collaborated on the book What the Great Ate. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write Globetrotter?

 

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 stunned 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 three-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, was finally given a shot at the majors. Saperstein’s life is a story that needs to be told.

Matthew Jacob

Q: How did you research Abe Saperstein's life, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

Matthew: Abe Saperstein died in 1966, but many of his descendants are alive today, and the stories they told us were poignant, amusing and revealing.

 

Beyond those with family ties to Saperstein, we also interviewed many others, including a player whom he recruited for the Globetrotters and a man who vividly recalled watching the team play in the 1950s.

 

We spent a lot of time on Newspapers.com, reading story after story about Saperstein and the team. These articles demonstrated Saperstein’s savvy at working the media and generating coverage for his teams.

 

We also spent days at the National Archives, wading through dozens of declassified documents. The U.S. State Department viewed the Globetrotters as one of America’s best goodwill ambassadors. And these documents showed that our diplomatic corps gave Saperstein and his team a lot more support — financial and logistical — than the public realized.   

 

Q: The historian Jacqueline Jones said of the book, “Abe Saperstein played a major role in making pro basketball the worldwide sensation it is today, breaking down racial barriers and piercing the Cold-War Iron Curtain along the way. The story of his amazing forty-year career—which includes all the ‘gimmicks’ he devised, like the 3-pointer—makes for a terrific read.” What do you think of that description?

 

Mark: Jacqueline Jones is spot-on about Saperstein’s role in giving pro basketball the stage it needed to build a fan base. In its early years, the National Basketball Association struggled to draw crowds, so Saperstein agreed to have the Globetrotters play doubleheaders with NBA teams. This arrangement introduced more people to the NBA and eased the NBA’s financial strain.

 

Jones is also right about Saperstein’s constant search for new gimmicks that would attract more fans. He believed sports should be a show, not just a game.

 

Saperstein launched a semi-pro baseball team whose catcher would change positions every inning of a game — playing first base, then second base, and so on. Saperstein wanted to show fans something they’d never seen before. He once told a reporter: “I try everything.”

 

Q: What do you see as Saperstein's legacy today?

 

Mark: The basketball league that Saperstein started in the early 1960s pioneered the three-point shot. The NBA later adopted that rule, which may be the most important rule change the sport has adopted over the past 50 years. Pro stars like Stephen Curry and Caitlin Clark owe much of their superstar status to the three-point shot.

 

Matthew: If you look closely at sports today, it’s clear that many leagues and owners have embraced Saperstein’s view that a sporting event is a show. They realize that a dose of style and theatrics can draw fans.

 

If Saperstein were alive today, he would grin ear to ear if he attended a baseball game involving the Savannah Bananas. That team marries baseball with fun.

 

Saperstein would also approve of the NBA’s decision to stop marketing its All-Star game as a single event. Instead, it’s called the All-Star Weekend, and a big part of that weekend is the Slam Dunk Contest.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

Mark: We’re considering other historical figures for biographies. One of the charms of biographies is that the authors get to know a person from the past extremely well — to the extent that if that person showed up at our front door today, we’d have a lot to talk with them about.

 

Of course, that may not be saying much as far as Abe Saperstein goes, since he could probably have talked to a tree stump for three hours.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

Matthew: Abe Saperstein took a “fake it till you make it” approach to life. His famous basketball team was formed in Chicago, not Harlem. But he chose the name Harlem Globetrotters to signal to all-white towns in the Midwest that his team was Black. This was the Jazz Age, so Saperstein probably also felt that having “Harlem” in the name conveyed a sense of style and sophistication to his team.

 

It wasn’t until 1950 that Saperstein’s team truly became Globetrotters — playing in Europe, Africa and other continents. For many years, he tried unsuccessfully to arrange a Globetrotters tour of the Soviet Union. Most people would have given up, but not Saperstein. The Soviet tour finally happened in 1959.

 

The names and slogans that Saperstein used to promote his teams showed you where he was heading, not where he was standing.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb