Loving The Game. Pete Hines

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СКАЧАТЬ Charles about Ralph. After about 40 minutes, Lauritsen interjected, “You know, my father played in that gym as a kid.”

      Nodding, Charles said, “The gym is full of history.” Those names etched on the shower stalls flashed in his mind – Wee Willie Smith, Charles “Tarzan” Cooper, Clarence “Fats” Jenkins.

      Lauritsen continued, “I thought the city was going to condemn the building since it had deteriorated so much, and that seemed a shame. My father said that in the early 40s professional teams played there.”

      Charles wondered which teams, but Lauritsen had no idea. This was a question for Ralph. A puzzle. Who were “Tarzan” and “Fats” and the others? Charles felt his face redden as he remembered the officers approaching him at the gym with the jersey stuffed up his shirt.

      “Well, I’ll see it when I believe it,” said Lauritsen, who obviously was the more skeptical of the two. “By the way, your new friends are in trouble for stealing a car.”

      Charles’ thoughts were now on the boys and that pickup game of basketball.

      “I just played ball with them,” Charles said, “and they didn’t mention anything about that.”

      “Why would they?” answered Murphy.

      “I’ll see what I can find out the next time I see them,” promised Charles.

      Murphy shook his head and said they had a call they had to check out and would probably see Charles later. Charles asked Maxine for the pie and coffee tab. When he got into his car, Charles requested Ralph to play some 60s tunes. Ralph suggested the Beach Boys and immediately “California Girls” was reverberating throughout the Porsche. After Charles finished singing along with “I wish they all could be California girls,” Ralph told his boss he needed to call Julie and Samuel Jacobsen.

      Ralph’s Research: The Rens

      There were plenty of uses for Ralph. He was savvy and plucky, obviously smart, and could quickly complete any given task. Since Charles liked history and basketball, it was fortunate that Ralph was programmed with those interests.

      “Ralph, I’ve got some names for you to look up,” said Charles, thinking about the names on the shower stall. “Let’s see, there’s Wee Willie Smith, Bill Yancey, Eyre ‘Bruiser’ Saitch, Clarence ‘Fats’ Jenkins, and Charles ‘Tarzan’ Cooper.” Charles didn’t have a great memory, except when it came to basketball.

      “OK, boss, will do,” said Ralph, whose motor was already running on overload trying to crank out information on the names.

      In a few minutes, Ralph printed a sheet. “You’re talking about two early basketball teams,” said Ralph, clearly proud of himself and the work he presented. “Boss, these are players for the early Celtics and a team called the Rens. I’ve organized it for you. Just take a look.”

      The Rens (A Paper Researched and Written by Ralph)

      The year was 1930 and there was a new kid on the block. The kid was an all-black team called the Rens. The Rens’ basketball team was the idea of Robert (Bob) Douglas, a West Indies immigrant who coached an amateur basketball team in New York called the Spartan Braves.

      Douglas was trying to find a home for his team when he met William Roche, the owner of the Renaissance Casino and a Caribbean immigrant.

      Located between 137th and 138th Streets in New York City, the casino was a two-story red, brick building and a hotspot for dancing and listening to music. Roche suggested that the team use the second floor ballroom for its home court and practice center in exchange for giving the casino publicity.

      This was a common arrangement – basketball teams frequently played in dancing halls or bars. It may seem peculiar now that teams would play in such slippery, awkward places, but that was just how it was in the early days of basketball. Douglas decided to call his team the Renaissance.

      The Renaissance Casino was in its zenith from 1915 to the 1960s. The first floor of the casino housed an event center for regular meetings of Harlem social clubs, charities, and unions. Notable social clubs using the facility included The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Harlem Dukes, and The Dominican Benevolent Society.

      The ballroom on the second floor was home for the orchestra led by bandleader Verno Andrade. His orchestra members included world-famous Louis Armstrong, Louis Metcalf, Happy Caldwell, Al Morgan, and Zetty Singleton. There were other jazz bands and orchestras that had short engagements at this elegant entertainment venue. Some of the more famous bands were Fletcher Henderson, Louis Armstrong, and Elmer Snowdan.

      In the 1990s, the Renaissance Casino had deteriorated; however, it was identified as one of 25 buildings that the New York Landmarks Preservations Commission determined should have landmark protection status.

      Douglas had to secure portable baskets to put on the dance floor. One was positioned right in front of the bandstand. Rows of folding chairs were lined up for the sidelines. The floor was slick, making it hard for players to cut.

      “It was twofold: People came to see the team and came to dance,” said John Isaacs, who played with the Rens from 1936-41. Isaacs roomed on the road with Hall of Famer William “Pop” Gates, one of the nation’s finest all-around players. “Once the game was over, people stayed. It was like, ‘Let’s go back to dancing.’”

      Gates remembered the playing conditions: “It was a very slippery floor. They had baskets they put up before every ball game and markers they put down for the foul lines and so forth. The spectators were seated at tables in rows on the second floor and in boxes in the third tier. That was supposed to be an elite area. The ballroom had a high ceiling, so you didn’t have to worry about your shots. All you had to worry about was running into that hard wooden barrier around the floor because it had sharp edges. Sometimes when the game got rough, the guys would be flying over the barrier into people’s laps.”

      John O’Brien Jr. played at the Renaissance Casino many times with the Brooklyn Visitations. “The fans were the wealthiest black people in Harlem, dressed, believe it or not in tuxedos. A good-looking crowd – handsome women, good-looking guys – and they loved the basketball game, but they loved to get the game over for dancing afterward.”

      The Rens had a busy schedule. They played 120 games a year or more, usually playing one game a day and twice on Sundays. In order to meet their payroll and expenses, they had to play that much. The Rens weren’t picky and played all teams – semipro, black colleges, and other professional teams including the Celtics. They usually won.

      They had a formidable lineup of players including Frank Forbes, Clarence “Fats” Jenkins, Leon Monde, Wee Willie Smith, Chuck “Tarzan” Cooper, Bill Yancey, Eyre “Bruiser” Saitch, John Holt, and James “Pappy” Ricks. All were outstanding athletes.

      Jenkins was considered the fastest man in basketball. “Fats” actually wasn’t fat at all. He was muscular and one of the shortest players on the team. At 5’7”, he could run around anyone and was elected Rens’ team captain. He had played as an amateur on the Saint Christopher’s Club that won the Colored World Championship title in 1914 and also from 1917-19.

      When Jenkins went pro, he first played for the New York Incorporators. He then played on the Loendi Big Five, the team that won the Colored World Championship, from 1920-23.

      He СКАЧАТЬ