New York Renaissance

The New York Renaissance, also known as the Renaissance Big Five and as the Rens, was an all-black professional basketball team established February 13, 1923, by Robert "Bob" Douglas in agreement with the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom.[1] The Casino and Ballroom at 138th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem was an entertainment complex including a ballroom that served as the Big Five's home court. Following each game, a dance took place. The success of the Rens shifted the focus of black basketball from amateur teams to professional teams. Initially, the Rens played mostly in Harlem, but by the end of the 1920s, as attendance began to dwindle, the team could be found more often playing on the road, barnstorming across the country out of necessity. The Renaissance are also the topic of the 2011 documentary On the Shoulders of Giants.

New York Renaissance
NicknameThe Big Five
LeaguesMidwest Basketball Conference 1935-1937
World Professional Basketball Tournament 1939-1948
Founded1923
Folded1949
ArenaHarlem Renaissance Ballroom
Team colorsYellow, Blue
         
Championships1 World Professional Basketball Tournament (1939)

Early years

The Rens were one of the dominant basketball teams of the 1920s and 1930s. They were originally known as the Spartan Braves of Brooklyn.[2] The team played its first game on November 3, 1923. That night the Rens played a team of white players; interracial games featured regularly on their schedule, drawing the largest crowds.[3][4] In its first years, the team strove to beat the Original 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.[5] 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, who the Rens did beat eight times).[6] 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 the World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago.

The team compiled a 2588-539 record over its history. Some of the longest-serving and best-known early Rens were Clarence "Fats" Jenkins, Pappy Ricks, Eyre Saitch, Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, Bill Yancey, and "Wee" Willie Smith. In 1936, the Renaissance became the first top-level team to sign a four-year African American college star, David "Big Dave" DeJernett of Indiana Central.

1949: Move to Dayton
Main article: Dayton Rens

The Rens disbanded in 1949 after completing the 1948/49 season of the racially integrated National Basketball League as the Dayton Rens based in Dayton, Ohio. That was also the final season for the NBL, which merged with the all-white Basketball Association of America to form the also (initially) all-white National Basketball Association. The team left New York and moved to Dayton where it was renamed as Dayton Rens.

Memorials and historic recognition

References
  1. Black History Month: Globetrotters weren’t first B-ballers from Harlem "Black History Month: Globetrotters weren’t first B-ballers from Harlem," Johnathan Gaines, Call & Post, February 11, 2010 (retrieved June 27, 2018)
  2. "Legendary Hoops Player Frank Washington Honored," by Donald Hunt, Philadelphia Tribune, May 10, 2012
  3. Stephen Robertson, "Basketball in 1920s Harlem", Digital Harlem Blog, June 3, 2011, accessed August 22, 2011
  4. "The New York Renaissance Professional Black Basketball Team, 1920–1950" (PhD dissertation), by Susan J. Rayl (born 1956), Pennsylvania State University (1996), p. 65; OCLC 39618287, 299233709
    Note: Susan J. Rayl, PhD, is affiliated with State University of New York at Cortland Exercise Science and Sports Studies Department
  5. "Thousands Witnessed The Thrilling battle that Brought Victory to Renaissance Five", New York Amsterdam News, December 23, 1925
  6. Rayl, p.205
  7. "New York Renaissance (enshrined 1963) Archived 2009-08-31 at the Wayback Machine". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  8. "New York Rens Court Street Co-Naming Resolution," Brian Benjamin, Chairperson, New York City Community Board 10, May 9, 2017

Further reading
  • Peterson, Robert W. (2002). "On the Road Again". Cages to Jump Shots: Pro Basketball's Early Years. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. pp. 95–107. ISBN 0-8032-8772-0.

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