New York Harlemites
Location: Saint Louis, Missouri
Nickname: Harlemites
Colors: Black, Gray
The New York Harlemites were a pioneering all-Black barnstorming basketball team based in St. Louis that debuted in 1934 and played through the 1940s.
The squad toured extensively throughout the Midwest and Northwest, with annual trips that took them as far as Calgary in Canada.
The Harlemites featured Donahue “Don” Goins, a talented center who later played for the Chicago Crusaders and the Harlem Clowns, as well as Teddy Brime, Ben Hall, and Les Pearson.
Promotional materials stated that the Harlemites had won 101 games during their first season, 1934-5, and that “All Players Over 6 Feet In Height.”
The list of their victories that season included wins over teams in Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Montana, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, and North Dakota as well as in Alberta, Canada.
For more about the Harlemites and their adventures, please the book, The Black Fives: The Epic Story of Basketball’s Forgotten Era.
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