New York Rens

New York Rens, American professional basketball team that was among the most accomplished and storied teams in the history of the game. The Rens, an African American-owned all-Black team based in the Harlem section of New York City during the era of segregated basketball teams, won the first world championship of basketball in 1939.

(Read Britannica’s biography of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.)

Bob Douglas and basketball in Harlem

In the United States during the first half of 20th century, when a long list of Jim Crow laws meant to subjugate and humiliate African Americans was still in place in large parts of the country, sports were much the same as any other aspect of life for African Americans. Blacks could compete against each other for “coloured” championships and occasionally against whites when the intent was to stimulate ticket sales by titillating audiences with Black versus white contests, but Blacks were never permitted to compete against whites for national championships, which put both more money and white pride at stake. That system kept Black athletes on one side of the divide barnstorming for limited compensation while whites, on the other side, collected high salaries and big payoffs.

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Although the wall of segregation in sports seemed insurmountable, it failed to deter Bob Douglas, a West Indian who moved to New York in 1901 at age 19, taking with him an entrepreneurial spirit that seemed to be more common among Black Caribbean immigrants than it was among those African Americans who had gone north as part of the Great Migration. Indeed, the ambition and success of West Indian businesspeople bred its own brand of discrimination and resentment from Harlem neighbours who refused to patronize their businesses, forcing Douglas to overcome the biases of both white America and Black Harlem.

In 1905 in a gym on 10th Avenue, a coworker introduced Douglas to basketball, the game that became his passion and that he called simply “the greatest thing in the world.” Hooked from the moment of his first exposure, Douglas went on in 1908 to cofound the Spartan Field Club, where Black children could compete in amateur sports, including basketball. Douglas also organized an amateur adult team, the Spartan Braves, for which he starred until he retired as a player at age 36 in 1918 to devote himself full-time to managing the team. Under his leadership, the Braves easily won the 1921 Eastern (amateur) Championship.

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Professional basketball became an inevitable result of the game’s growing popularity in the country as a whole and especially in Harlem. As players began jumping from one team to another, the line between professional and amateur players blurred, prompting the organization that regulated amateur basketball in New York City to sanction teams that brought in professional players. Crowds expanded, and the games, often played at casinos and nightclubs, became social events. Jazz bands and orchestras performed before, during, and after the games, when dancing took over. As the profits of club owners and teams increased, professionalism pushed amateurism aside.

The creation of the Renaissance Big Five

Not one to be left behind, Douglas made the transition to the professional ranks by forging a deal with a fellow West Indian, William Roach, who had erected the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom on Seventh Avenue, between 137th and 138th streets, in Harlem. Douglas agreed to pay Roach a significant percentage of the ticket revenue in exchange for practice and playing space. Douglas changed the name of his team from the Spartan Braves to the Renaissance Big Five, providing advertising for the facility, which, in addition to housing a casino and one of the finest ballrooms in Harlem, included a theatre and New York’s only Black-owned department store. Now on Saturday nights it would provide a home where the “Rens” could play the best teams in basketball. Portable baskets were situated at either end of the dance floor, with folding chairs set up for the spectators.

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On Saturday, November 3, 1923, Douglas’s new team and business venture got off to an auspicious start as the Rens hosted and defeated the all-white Collegiate Five, 28–22. When the game ended, the baskets came down and an orchestra filled the ballroom with music. Fans dressed in formal gowns and suits then danced for hours.

The Rens were the first Black-owned, full-salaried Black professional basketball team. Central to the enterprise’s success were the unflaggingly loyal articles written about the team in the Black Amsterdam News by West Indian sports columnist Romeo Dougherty. Still, there were the constant pressures that stalk any new business. Would the popularity of the team last, and would the smallness of its home-court venue make it impossible for the Rens to survive financially?

Time proved the Rens’ popularity to be anything but fleeting, as they constantly sold out their home games. They often played white teams principally because those “race games” brought consistently large crowds to the casino. In the process, the Rens developed an ongoing rivalry with the best team in professional basketball, the Original Celtics. At first it was not much of a rivalry, because the Celtics, led by Joe Lapchick and Nat Holman, were clearly the better team. However, as the match-ups grew in significance and as the Rens refined their passing game and team defense, they became the only team in all of professional basketball that could claim parity with the Celtics.

In the meantime, stable professional leagues had emerged. Douglas tried to join the highly respected American Basketball League (ABL) several times, but the Rens were repeatedly refused. Only in 1948, more than 20 years after Douglas’s first attempt to join the league, were the Rens welcomed into the league, and by that time Douglas was no longer actively involved in the team’s management. For their part, the Celtics had stayed out of the ABL because they could make much more money by playing any of the best professional teams on a one-off basis.