Grampa Played the Harlem Globetrotters

Photo courtesy of:

 http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2002706561/

Some of my fondest memories are of going to see the basketball exhibitions of the Harlem Globetrotters with Grampa.  I remember he’d always share that he once played against them, so I asked about that recently.

In 1936, a year after he graduated from high school, Grampa (Pierre Conner) played for the Midland, South Dakota town basketball team.  The Harlem Globetrotters  would travel  and play against all the town teams in the area.  Grampa was a guard and his opposing guard could hold the whole ball in one hand and moved very fast.

As Grampa said, “They made monkeys of all of us!”

And I know he loved it!

The Globetrotters were founded in 1927 with men from Chicago.  They actually didn’t play their first game in Harlem until 1968; they thought that the mystique of the “African-American” capital of Harlem would bring more business.  By 1936, the same year that they played against Grampa, the Harlem Globetrotters had played over 1,000 games, one of which was against the Original Celtics, who walked off the court in the last two minutes of the game so as not to lose.  In 1940, the Globetrotters, won the World Professional Basketball Tournament.

The Globetrotters still come to play every year and every year it is in January when I am too poor to buy the now oh-so-expensive tickets.  But one of these years, I will go back and see them again!

Sport Center Saturday: Hole in One

When Molly was going through Dad’s papers, she came across his 15 minutes of fame.  He was so proud of this moment, that he literally had about 20 copies in sorts of blown up sizes of the newspaper article.  She also found his score card from the day.

I was thinking of him a lot today.  I hope he’s hitting a bunch of hole in ones the sky.  And WITHOUT getting his car totaled outside a bar…

Sports Center Saturday: A Rose is A Rose

As a family historian, I tend to think of my ancestors by their full names.  “William Mason Conner”  “Anton William Konst” “Elizabeth Bauhaus” “Petter Eriksson Felt”

So when you hear stories and they are “Bill”, “Tony,” “Lizzie,” and “Pete”, it’s a story and a smile all on its own. 

Also, I’d always thought that my great grandfather’s name was Thomas Orville Conner.  But it was Orville Thomas Conner.  I’d heard stories that he changed it from one to the other because he didn’t like being called “O’Conner” but when I visited my grandfather, he said that his mom and older brother Miles always called him “Orville.”  In Grampa’s papers, there was the delayed birth certificate which is listed to “Orville Thomas Conner”.  So I guess it’s official.  He was an Orville who was called, “Tom.”

Tom was a true cowboy; he broke horses and herded cattle through the Midwest.  When times were tough during the Depression, though, Great Grampa would do just about anything- from odds and ends around town to working on a bridge crew for the railroad.  He also was very well-respected in their small town of Capa, South Dakota.  Without being asked, he’d walk the 15 miles to Midland to fetch the doctor when someone needed him.  He was the first to volunteer to help out with anything anyone needed.

In those days, the baseball town teams were a very big deal.  Each town had a team and the kids played all summer.  There were two Native American railroad workers who were exceptional baseball players from Fort Pierre.  They were named Louis and Franz Franier and as they traveled their rail routes, they would teach the kids all over the Midwest to play baseball.  Tom convinced them to come to Capa and they played on the Kleven’s property by the river.  Tom was also the organizer, housing the balls and bats and arranging the games.