By The Bemidji Pioneer
Published 7:00 a.m. on Dec. 11, 2020
A 10-word telegram thwarted some star-spangled history for the Bemidji State men’s basketball program.
Eighty-five years ago today, the Beavers were scheduled to play against the Harlem Globetrotters in a showcase of what the Bemidji Daily Pioneer declared “one of the feature games of the season.”
The Globetrotters, formed in 1926 and then known as the “Globe Trotters,” were famous for their savvy play and had a reputation for their talent. In fact, the team was so unbeatable that players started clowning around on the court to make the game more interesting.
A collection of Black players, the team perfected a winning style of “fast, clever and clean basketball” that made them a premier attraction in a still-segregated America. So much so that the Daily Pioneer gushed about their anticipated trip to Bemidji.
The Dec. 10, 1935, paper headlined “Peds to meet famous quint,” describing that Bemidji State Teachers College would be up against a fearsome starting five. The game was to be a celebration of a talented Beavers squad and a world-class opponent.
Embracing the era’s common practice of run-on sentences, the Daily Pioneer read, “The best prospective basketball team the Bemidji State Teachers College has had for several years will be pitted against one of the best and most famous traveling teams on the road in tomorrow evening’s opener of the week’s cage schedule at the high school gymnasium where the Beavers will meet the Harlem Globe Trotters.”
According to the Daily Pioneer, BSTC had assembled “one of the outstanding teams in the history of the local institution, a team of stars most of whom are well known to local cage fans.” A year prior, the Beavers had gone 1-9, although the 1935-36 squad did finish 5-6 to rank fourth-best in the program’s 15-year existence.
Harlem boasted “a team of colored artists of the court” so popular that imitators began popping up using the same moniker. The team en route to Bemidji assured BSTC head coach Rueben “Jack” Frost that they were the true Globe Trotters, though, and that was good enough to book them for a Dec. 11, 1935, showdown at 8 o’clock sharp.
The price of admission: 25 cents.
The telegram
On the day of the Beavers-Globe Trotters matchup, coach Frost received a telegram from Soup Graves, the booking manager for Harlem on its northwest tour.
The 10 fateful words read: “Wreck near Mankato. Three players serious. Postpone game. Letter following.”
The Globe Trotters never reached Bemidji, and the game was called off.
Although the initial plan was a postponement, not a cancellation, there is no record of a game between the two teams -- in 1935 or otherwise.
The Beavers found a replacement opponent in Itasca Community College, whom Bemidji Teachers had defeated 55-29 two weeks prior in the season opener. In the last-minute rematch, Itasca won 27-26.
Perhaps it was best that the Globe Trotters never came to town. In a brutally honest review of his team, coach Frost told the Daily Pioneer that “the players on the squad look good individually but they have not yet had time to develop into a closely-knit aggregation and as a consequence probably will not look as well as they might in team play.”
In other words: They were no Globetrotters.
Written by Micah Friez
