Forty reasons why the Harlem Globetrotters have been a top-40 entertainment hit for 78 years.

1. They’re cool but old fashioned. They’re established but always changing. Adults might like that the Globetrotters haven’t changed their uniforms in more than 50 years. Kids might like that those uniforms are now manufactured by FUBU.

2. Winning is always popular. All-time, they’re 21,227-342. Brewster-Boland will turn into Jerusalem stone before the Globetrotters have a losing season.

3. They average 450 games per year among a roster divided into two teams. It’s probably not even worth mentioning that they travel a lot.

4. But maybe that would change if you knew they do much of it by bus.

5. Name another sports institution that’s never the home team but always the attraction. That’s why Syracuse officials expect roughly 20,000 fans for tonight’s exhibition game against SU in the Carrier Dome at 8 p.m.

6. See, there’s something magical about the Globetrotters. The team is comprised of pro league rejects, but owner and CEO Manny Jackson thinks his group could beat half of the teams in the NBA.

7. Jackson also helped dream up the Globetrotters’ current college tour, which features games, in part, against the Division I, II and III men’s basketball champions of the previous season. Harlem is 5-0 on its current college tour.

8. When the Globetrotters lost to Michigan State in 2000, they snapped a 1,270-game winning streak.

9. Earlier this month, the Globetrotters beat the No. 3 Spartans by 15 points, even with a mostly-anonymous roster.

10. Globetrotter players earn their money, generally between $150,000 and $500,000 annually. This year, they play 15 games in December … [ITALICS] after Christmas [ITALICS].

11. Those games will feature the tricks and trinkets commonly identified with the Globetrotters. Against top college foes like Syracuse, though, the object is to win. ‘Straight hoops,’ explains Lazarus Sims, a Globetrotter guard and former SU player.

12. Why did Harlem decide to play some games more competitively? They were becoming a caricature, a circus act of stunts. They decided to leave the laughter for lay-up drills.

13. A catchy, old-time jazz tune, ‘Sweet Georgia Brown,’ is Harlem’s longtime theme song. Once, the song helped popularize the team. Now, the team popularizes the song.

14. Nobody else does nicknames like the Harlem Globetrotters. A few of those simply plucked from the mellifluous category: Nat ‘Sweetwater’ Clifton, Ron ‘Sugah’ Cole, ‘Sweet’ Lou Dunbar, LaQuency ‘Candy’ Lucas, Herman ‘Honey’ Taylor.

15. The Globetrotters define cool. Ludacris wears their apparel. Same with Nelly. Having players nicknamed ‘Sweetwater’ doesn’t hurt.

16. If you were curious, the team was founded in 1926 by Abe Saperstein. He was a Jew from Chicago. Probably the only one to ever start a black institution.

17. Today, Manny Jackson, a former Globetrotter great, owns the team.

18. He bought it in 1992 for $5.5 million, rescuing it from bankruptcy.

19. ‘Turnarounds happen in rearview mirrors,’ Jackson now says. ‘When you’re in the middle of it, you don’t know it’s happening, because there are so many little things you have to get right. Then, the next day you look back’ – Jackson gazed over his left shoulder – ‘and say, Damn, we’ve come a long way.’

20. Now the team’s worth more than $100 million.

21. Yesterday, Jackson wore a sweater with stripes of six different colors. Yup, FUBU.

22. Just a little insight into Jackson’s business mind: On the court, he sees a ‘product.’ He sells a ‘brand name.’ He calls the audience a ‘marketplace.’

23. The Globetrotters used to stage blowouts on their entertainment-based tours against the invariably incompetent Washington Generals, coached by Red Klotz, whose name, Sports Illustrated once joked, sounded like a hybrid adjective for embarrassment and clumsiness.

24. These days, the Globetrotters have a new foil, the New York Nationals. Klotz is the owner.

25. No matter the opponent or the venue, the Globetrotters stress community involvement as more than just a photo op. They make roughly 1,000 charity appearances per year.

26. Jackson calls it a part of business. ‘We reward our charities before we even reward our players or our staff,’ he says. Players trek to community centers and hospitals at many of the cities they visit.

27. ‘We’re community-friendly, we’re fan-friendly,’ Sims says. ‘It’s more about them than it is about us.’

28. Think it’s just PR mendacity? Here are a few questions that Globetrotter great Hubert Ausbie asked me when [ITALICS] I [ITALICS] was supposed to be interviewing [ITALICS] him [ITALICS].

29. Are you still in school?

30. Are you making good grades?

31. Can you send my love up to everybody in Syracuse?

32. Everybody loves the Globetrotters, but not everybody gets to see them. They weren’t televised nationally until 1998. Jackson thinks that if a product is overexposed it becomes stale.

33. Don’t think the Globetrotters have entirely cast aside their reputations as entertainers. Jackson doesn’t want to make the mistake of changing too much. ‘My wife made that mistake once,’ Ausbie says. ‘She messed around with her famous cake recipe, and it turned out to be a flop.’

34. Current Globetrotter Michael ‘Wild Thing’ Wilson owns the world record for dunking on a 12-foot hoop.

35. Wilson is 6-foot-5.

36. The Globetrotters visit between 35 and 40 countries each year. At their team headquarters in Phoenix, roughly 100 employees help book hotels, exchange currencies and secure passports.

37. The Globetrotters are American like Coke, only healthier. They target kids and entertain adults. If you buy popcorn, expect to share it with a player.

38. ‘Everyone who sees us seems to have a memory,’ Jackson says. ‘If you’re 70 years old you remember Goose Tatum and Marques Haynes; if you’re 40 years old you remember Meadowlark (Lemon) and Curley (Johnson); if you’re 10 years old you’ll remember the guys you’re seeing today.’

39. Recently, Jackson phoned a friend and asked his opinion on why the Globetrotters have stayed so popular for so long. The best entertainers, Jackson’s friend said, might evolve and survive, but they always elicit the same warm emotions.

40. Jackson’s friend? Bill Cosby, who knows a little something about entertainment.

CHICO HARLAN is a STAFF WRITER at The Daily Orange,where his columns appear TUESDAYS. E-mail him at APHARLAN@syr.edu

Published on November 10, 2003 at 12:00 pm