Mysterious Girls Athletic Club
Location: Harlem, New York City
Established: Late 1930s
The Mysterious Girls Athletic Club basketball team played during the late 1930s and early 1940s, based in Harlem, New York City.
In November 1940, the Mysterious Girls Five, as they were known, defeated the reigning Metropolitan area girls’ basketball champions, the St. Francis Athletic Club, an all-White team, by a score of 38-6. “The Harlem girls outplayed their opponents with a swift passing game that had the white girls befuddled,” wrote the Amsterdam News.
Their players included Eleanor Thomas, a 5-foot 10-inch center known as a “Harlem playground ace,” their captain and leading scorer Gloria Nightingale, whose “all-around floorwork and generalship stamps her as a natural leader,” and Beatrice Jenkins, who was “a high scoring ace.”
The team also featured a young Althea Gibson, who would soon become the first African American tennis player to win a grand slam, the French Open in 1956, then Wimbledon and the US Nationals, twice, in all capturing five singles titles, five doubles titles, and one mixed doubles title.
Though the Mysterious Girls were known for their “razzle-dazzle,” the real source of their dominating success came from working together.
“Mysterious Girls AC Feature Teamwork Above Anything Else,” a 1944 headline in the News explained. “Considered One of Top Female Outfits in Country; Individuality Submerged For Co-ordinated Playing,” read the subtitle.
And they played both ends of the court. “The girls in addition to their offensive éclat, also are excellent on defense were most female clubs fall down, and are adept at ball handling.” Yet, each player had their own ability to “score and play aggressively and defensively as well.”
The Mysterious Girls were considered Women’s Colored Basketball World’s Champions during the mid-1940s.
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