The Goose Flies High

The Harlem Globe Trotters, a barnstorming colored basketball team, have produced many a freakish player. None has been more bizarre than their latest find: Reece ("The Goose") Tatum, a 22-year-old Arkansan who stands 6 ft. 3, has a reach (from left to right) of 7 ft. 3.

Tatum never meant to be a professional basketball player. But Abe Saperstein, the sapient impresario of the Globe Trotters, happened to see him playing first base with Cincinnati's Negro American League Ethiopian Clowns last summer. Last week Tatum's extensible equipment was helping the Globe Trotters to be one of the most successful professional basketball teams in the U.S.

Comedy has always been an added attraction of the Trotters. Tatum deliberately capers around the court in a rocking chimpanzee gait, his long arms swinging, his teeth bared. Going for the ball, he often flaps his arms gooselike; when he jumps, can reach eleven feet into the air to block opponents' shots. Sometimes he hides the ball under his shirt, perches it on top of a bewildered opponent's head.

Despite such foolery, the Globe Trotters are measuring up to their standard. In 15 previous seasons, they won 2,163 games, lost only 162.

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