| New York Renaissance | |
|---|---|
| Nickname | The Big "R" Five |
| Leagues | World Professional Basketball Tournament 1939–1948 |
| Founded | 1923 |
| Folded | 1949 |
| Arena | Harlem Renaissance Ballroom |
| Team colors | Gold,Navy |
| Championships | 1World Professional Basketball Tournament (1939) |
TheNew York Renaissance, also known as theRenaissance Big R Five and as theRens, were the first black-owned, all-black, fully-professionalbasketball team in history, established in October 1923, byRobert "Bob" Douglas. They were named after theRenaissance Casino and Ballroom through an agreement with its owner, in return for the use of that facility as their home court.[1] The Casino and Ballroom at 138th Street andSeventh Avenue in Harlem was an entertainment complex that included a ballroom, which served as the Rens' home court. The team eventually had its own house orchestra and games were often followed by a dance. Their subsequent financial success shifted the focus of black basketball from amateurism to professionalism. Initially, the Rens played mostly in Harlem, but Douglas soon realized they could book more games on the road, in larger-capacity venues, and took upbarnstorming across the country for more lucrative payouts. The Renaissance are also the topic of the 2011documentaryOn the Shoulders of Giants.
The Rens were one of the dominant basketball teams of the 1920s and 1930s. They were originally known as the Spartan Braves, the basketball team of the Spartan Field Club, a Manhattan-based multi-sport amateur athletic organization whose initial focus was cricket. The Rens played their first game on November 3, 1923, winning against the Collegiate Five, an all-white team. Interracial games featured regularly on their schedule, drawing the largest crowds.[2][1] In its first years, the team strove to beat theOriginal Celtics, the dominant white team of the time, and claim the title of world champions. In their fifth encounter, the Rens did so for the first time, on December 20, 1925, winning 37 to 30.[3][4] During the 1932–33 regular season, the Rens compiled a record of 120–8 (six of those losses came at the hands of the Celtics, whom the Rens did beat eight times).[5] During that season, the Rens won 88 consecutive games, a mark that has never been matched by a professional basketball team. In 1939, the Rens won the first professional basketball championship, when they beat the Oshkosh All-Stars, a white team, 34–25, in theWorld Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago.
The team compiled a 2,588–529 record from 1923 to 1948. Important players on the Rens roster includedClarence "Fats" Jenkins,Pappy Ricks,Eyre Saitch,Bill Yancey,"Wee" Willie Smith,Charles "Tarzan" Cooper,Zack Clayton,John Isaacs,Dolly King,Pop Gates, andNat Clifton. In 1936, the Renaissance became the first top-level team to sign a four-year African American college star,David "Big Dave" DeJernett ofIndiana Central.
The Rens relocated during the 1948–49 basketball season toDayton, Ohio, to replace theDetroit Vagabond Kings, who folded in December 1948. The Vagabond Kings had been playing in the racially integratedNational Basketball League (NBL). The Rens played the remainder of the NBL season as theDayton Rens, then disbanded after the NBL merged with the all-whiteBasketball Association of America to form the, also initially, all-whiteNational Basketball Association which resumed play in the 1949–50 season.
Writer and directorLayon Gray off-Broadway production Kings Of Harlem pays homage to the Rens. The play centers around the 1939 season in which the Harlem Rens won the first World Basketball Championship. The play won Best Play, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director and Best Production at the 2018 42nd annual Carbonell Awards in Miami. The play will have a regional run at Delaware Theater Company in October 2023 to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of the team.[1]
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