Marques Haynes First Harlem Globetrotter player enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame |
Marques Haynes
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During most of his 40-plus-year career, Marques Haynes, one of the world's finest ballhandlers, flashed his style on court with both the Harlem Globetrotters (from 1947-53 and 1972-79) and the Magicians (from 1953-72 and 1983-92). Haynes started as a collegiate star at Langston University (1942-46) where he was a four-time All-State, All-Conference, and team MVP selection. He led Langston in scoring all four years and led the University to a 112-3 |
record, a mark that included a 59-game winning streak. With the Globetrotters and the Magicians, Haynes became an internationally famous athlete and basketball entertainer. Haynes played in more than 12,000 games, traveled more than four million miles, and captivated fans in 97 countries around the globe. His dribbling style confused and confounded opponents and became one of the Globetrotters' most potent offensive weapons.
(Source: http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/tag/marques-o-haynes)
Legendary Harlem Globetrotter Marques Haynes considered by many to be the greatest basketball dribbler of all-time passed away in Plano, Texas, on May 22, 2015, at the age of 89.
In a four-decade career, Haynes played in more than 12,000 games, traveled more than four million miles and entertained fans in nearly 100 countries during two stints with the Globetrotters (1947-53, 1972-79). His dribbling style would confuse and confound opponents and became one of the Globetrotters' most potent offensive weapons.
“The game of basketball has lost one of its most iconic figures,” said Globetrotters CEO Kurt Schneider on the day of Haynes' passing. “Marques was a pioneer, helping pave the way for people of all races to have opportunities to play basketball and for the sport to explode on a global scale. His unique and groundbreaking style of play set the tone for modern basketball as we know it; anyone involved with basketball worldwide is indebted to Marques. He was the consummate Globetrotter."
The acrobatic Haynes caught the attention of Harlem Globetrotters owner Abe Saperstein in 1946, during a game in which Langston university defeated the Globetrotters, 74-70. Following graduation, Haynes joined the Globetrotters and starred for the team when it defeated the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers in 1948 (61-59) and in 1949 (49-45).
In 1998, Haynes became the first player ever to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a Globetrotter. He has been enshrined into a total of six Halls of Fame, including NAIA (1985), Jim Thorpe (1993) and Langston University (1995). On Dec. 8, 2007, Langston University honored Haynes by dedicating its basketball court as “Marques Haynes Court.”
Haynes received a Globetrotters “Legends” Ring and had his jersey (#20) retired as part of a 75th Anniversary black tie charity fund-raiser on Jan. 5, 2001, at Chicago's Fairmont Hotel.
Haynes' basketball career began at Booker T. Washington High School in his hometown of Sand Springs, Okla., where he led the school to a high school national championship in 1941 and was named a Second Team Scholastic All-America that season. Haynes then starred collegiately at Langston University in Langston, Okla. (1942-46), where he was a four-time All-Conference selection and team MVP. Haynes led Langston in scoring all four years and guided the team to a 112-3 record, a mark that included a 59-game winning streak.
(Source: http://www.harlemglobetrotters.com/harlem-globetrotter-legend/marques-haynes)
Haynes unveiled his gift publicly for the first time in a tournament game against Southern University in February 1945. In a previous round of the tournament, Haynes had watched Southern humiliate an outmanned squad from a tiny school, Samuel Huston College (now Huston-Tillotson University), whose coach, fresh out of the Army before he signed with the Dodgers, but after he had achieved fame as an athlete at U.C.L.A. was Jackie Robinson.
Langston whipped Southern, and for the game’s last two minutes or more, to pay Southern back for its poor sportsmanship and to avenge Robinson, Haynes dribbled out the clock.
“He dribbled behind his back and between his legs, dribbled the ball two inches off the floor and higher than his head,” Ben Green wrote in his 2005 history of the Globetrotters, “Spinning the Globe.” “Two Southern players chased him, but he dribbled right through them. He circled around the key in one direction, then back the other way, weaving in and out of the Southern players. Just when they seemed to have him boxed in, he would feint in one direction and slam on the brakes so suddenly that they’d slide right past him, falling over themselves.”
The crowd of 2,500 bellowed and cheered, rose to its feet and showered the floor with programs and small coins. “They threw their hats, and even their shirts,” Mr. Green wrote. “No one had ever seen anything like this before on a basketball court. And, in truth, there had never been anything like this on any basketball court. Not on any court, anywhere, since Dr. Naismith invented the game. What Marques Haynes was doing with a ball had never ben done.”
After graduating from Langston, Haynes played for the Globetrotters for several years, a time when the team was so popular that the fledgling N.B.A. often scheduled games on the same bill as Globetrotter games in order to help draw fans.
The Magicians were successful enough in the early days that Haynes turned down two offers to play in the N.B.A., from the Philadelphia Warriors in 1953 and the Lakers in 1955.
Career Highlights
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First Harlem Globetrotter player enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame |
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Played before 75,000 fans in Berlin, Germany (1950), the largest basketball crowd in history |
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The Haynes-led Globetrotters defeated the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers in both 1948 and 1949 |
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Enshrined in five other Halls of Fame: NAIA (1985), Oklahoma (1990), East Hartford (CT) Hall (1992), Jim Thorpe (1993), and Langston University (1995) |
In two stints with the Globetrotters (his second was in the 1970s, a more showmanlike incarnation of the team), over decades with his own team, the Harlem Magicians (also called the Fabulous Magicians) and with a few other squads, Haynes traveled an estimated four million miles and played in an estimated 12,000 basketball games in 100 countries, give or take a few — in racially hostile Southern towns, in dim school gyms, on dirt courts in dusty African villages, in bullrings, soccer stadiums and emptied swimming pools, not to mention in Madison Square Garden, the Rose Bowl and other celebrated arenas all over the world.
Haynes was a brilliant player a fine shooter, a tenacious defender and an expert passer. But as a dribbler he was nonpareil, and it was that skill that made him an ace entertainer.
Able to bounce a ball three times a second, to control it just an inch or two off the floor, to tease defenders with a now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t legerdemain, he befuddled opponents and thrilled fans night after night with his dexterous displays dribbling from his knees, lying on his side or sitting, and weaving in and out of court traffic, playing a solo game of keep-away within the larger game.
Once, at a game in Chihuahua, Mexico, when two teammates fouled out in the third quarter and only four men were left on the floor, he dribbled out nearly the whole fourth quarter to exhaust the clock.
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