Abraham M. Saperstein was an owner and coach of the Savoy Big Five, which later became the Harlem Globetrotters

Harlem Globetrotters

The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy. The executive offices for the team are currently in downtown Phoenix, Arizona; the team is owned by Shamrock Holdings, which oversees the various investments of the Roy E. Disney family.Over...

. He was born in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 to a Jewish family.

In the 1988 Harlem Globetrotters documentary

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 6 Decades of Magic, it was noted that Saperstein chose "Harlem" to indicate that the players were African-American, even though they were actually from Chicago, and the "Globetrotters" moniker to make it seem as though the team had traveled all around the world.

Saperstein, whose stature may render him as Basketball Hall of Fame

Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, located in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States, honors exceptional basketball players, coaches, referees, executives, and other major contributors to the game of basketball worldwide...

's shortest member, was elected to the Hall in 1971. In 1979, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

The International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame was opened July 7, 1981, in Netanya, Israel. It honors Jewish athletes and their accomplishments from anywhere around the world....

. He played baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

, basketball

Basketball

Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...

, and ran track while in high school

High school

High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....

. He played as a guard for the Chicago Reds.

He was buried in the Westlawn Cemetery

Westlawn Cemetery

Westlawn Cemetery is a Jewish cemetery located in Norridge, Illinois. The cemetery covers and roughly 46,000 people are buried there.-Notable interments:*Jack Ruby, convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald...

 in Norridge, Illinois

Norridge, Illinois

Norridge is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The population was 14,582 at the 2000 census. The current Mayor of Norridge is Ronald A. Oppedisano.The village is completely surrounded by Chicago and Harwood Heights.-Name origin:...

 near Chicago

Chicago

Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

.