Exhibition 5:

The New York Rens: Basketball’s First World’s Champions, 1939

In 1939, the New York Rens won the first World’s Championship of Professional Basketball. It was the inaugural year of tournament, sponsored by the Chicago Herald-American newspaper. The event brought together the nation’s top twelve professional teams, and the Rens defeated the Oshkosh All-Stars in the championship game to win the title.

The New York Rens were the first Black-owned, fully professional African American basketball team in history, formed in Harlem in October 1923. Led by future Hall of Fame member Robert L. Douglas, their 1939 tournament title made the Rens the first team to win a basketball world’s championship, and in doing so they also established New York City as the mecca for the sport.

Through photographs, documents, objects, correspondence, and ephemera from the Black Fives Archives, alongside storytelling, interpretations, and commemorations, this exhibition presents the pioneering history of the New York Rens, their players, contributors, communities, influences, and achievements, inviting visitors to explore one of basketball’s most important and enduring legacies.

(Artifacts, photographs, ephemera, and stories from the Black Fives Archives are currently being prepared and installed for each of these sections. Please visit again soon. Become a member of the Black Fives Online Museum (always free) to receive early notification when new exhibition galleries open. Thank you.)