No Laughing Matter

The Harlem Globetrotters, pro basketbailers, are so good that they spend most of their time playing for laughs. Up to last week they had won 101 games this season and lost none. Usually, they so far outclassed their opposition that spectators seldom glanced at the Scoreboard. They paid to see the famed Negro team do their tricks (rolling the ball down their arms, through the enemy's legs, or lining up in formation like a football team). The team's star: Reece ("Goose") Tatum, whose huge hands dangle gorilla-fashion almost to his knees, and who handles a basketball the way most people handle an orange. The problem was to find a good enough team to make Tatum & Co. settle down to serious basketball.

Last week they found one--the Minneapolis Lakers, one of the best white pro teams in the U.S. A crowd of 17,823 jammed into Chicago Stadium to see the fun. At halftime, the Trotters were trailing 32-23, and blamed it on being "tensed up"; they had played five games in five nights and were a little tired. Goose Tatum wasn't having much luck against towering (6 ft. 9) George Mikan, the glamor boy of college basketball two years ago. But in the third quarter, Tatum and his mates began to loosen up.

Only once did the Trotters try any of their tricks. A Trotter rolled the ball between a Minneapolis player's legs to Tatum, who snatched up the ball, whirled and scored a basket. Otherwise they were too busy trying to hold off Mikan (reportedly a $15,000-a-year man), who scored 24 points.

With 90 seconds to play, Tatum was put out on fouls. The score was tied at 59-all and the crowd held its breath as the Globetrotters weaved nearer & nearer the basket. Just before the gun ended the game, the ball was flipped to dead-eye Ermer Robinson, who was in the clear. Ermer didn't miss. Score: Globetrotters 61, Minneapolis 59. Had they tried, the Trotters couldn't have written the script better.

In college basketball, Columbia and New York University were the nation's two undefeated teams. Last week Columbia was tripped by Princeton (59-54), and then there was one.

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