Savoy Big Five

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The Savoy Big Five was the early version of the Harlem Globetrotters. The team started as a Negro American Legion League team called the "Giles Post". On January 3rd, 1928, the team started playing in the Savoy Ballroom which sponsored team owner [Abe Saperstein] in return for renaming the team the "Savoy Big Five". The hope was to help bring in people so they could dance after the game. The arrangement was never very successful and only lasted 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.

Globetrotter team history often mentions the team being known as the Savoy Big Five from 1926 or early 1927, but the Savoy itself opened in November of 1927.[1]