New York Renaissance

The New York Renaissance, also known as the Renaissance Big R Five and as the Rens, were the first black-owned, all-black, fully-professional basketball team in history, established in October 1923, by Robert "Bob" Douglas. They were named after the Renaissance 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 and Seventh 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 up barnstorming across the country for more lucrative payouts. The Renaissance are also the topic of the 2011 documentary On the Shoulders of Giants.

New York Renaissance
NicknameThe Big "R" Five
LeaguesWorld Professional Basketball Tournament 1939-1948
Founded1923
Folded1949
ArenaHarlem Renaissance Ballroom
Team colorsGold, Navy
   
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, 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 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.[3] 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).[4] 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 2588-529 record from 1923 to 1948. Important players on the Rens roster included Clarence "Fats" Jenkins, Pappy Ricks, Eyre Saitch, Bill Yancey, "Wee" Willie Smith, Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, Zack Clayton, John Isaacs, Dolly King, Pop Gates, and Nat Clifton. 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 relocated during the 1948–49 basketball season to Dayton, Ohio, to replace the Detroit Vagabond Kings, who folded in December 1948. The Vagabond Kings had been playing in the racially integrated National Basketball League (NBL). The Rens played the remainder of the NBL season as the Dayton Rens, then disbanded. It 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.

Memorials and historic recognition

Stage Play

Writer and director Layon 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.

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References
  1. "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
  2. Stephen Robertson, "Basketball in 1920s Harlem", Digital Harlem Blog, June 3, 2011, accessed August 22, 2011
  3. "Thousands Witnessed The Thrilling battle that Brought Victory to Renaissance Five", New York Amsterdam News, December 23, 1925
  4. Rayl, p.205
  5. "New York Renaissance (enshrined 1963) Archived 2009-08-31 at the Wayback Machine". Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  6. "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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