The Harlem Globetrotters Have Played for Over 148 Million People. Inside the Team's 100-Year Influence (Exclusive)

NEED TO KNOW

• The Harlem Globetrotters are celebrating 100 years
• This team, which was founded in 1926, has been through many iterations, and Keith Dawkins, the Harlem Globetrotters President, talks with PEOPLE about the past, present and future of the team
• Over the last 100 years, the Globetrotters have played in front of over 148 million people in 123 countries and territories

Keith Dawkins knows the Harlem Globetrotters still have more tricks up their sleeves. 

Dawkins, the Harlem Globetrotters & Herschend Entertainment Studios President, sees the team's 100th anniversary as a way to educate fans on its history while bringing them into the future.

The 53-year-old acknowledges that this is a precious time for the brand, as “there's only a handful of brands across industries that make it to a hundred years.”

So much has changed since the team was first founded in 1926 by Abe Saperstein. The team played its first game in 1927, and in 1940, the Globetrotters won their first World Basketball Championship, defeating the Chicago Bruins.

Looking at the current landscape, Dawkins shares that sports have become a blend of entertainment and athletics, and much of that began with the Globetrotters, from their athletic skills to their presence on and off the court. 

“I don't think it's overstated to say the Globetrotters are the founders of a lot of that stuff. The first real professional sports team to be traveling the globe, bringing basketball — bringing a sport — to areas of the planet Earth that had never heard of the sport," Dawkins shares. "Bringing American culture and Black athletes all over the globe."

In 1951, the Globetrotters played in front of over 75,000 people at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Following this trip, the U.S. State Department wrote a letter about the team, naming them “ambassadors of extraordinary goodwill.” 

Since 1926, the team has played in front of over 148 million people in 123 countries and territories.

“When I think about their history, their impact on the sporting cultures we know today, it's really just unimaginable, but it happened," Dawkins says. "Here we are a hundred years later, still celebrating all those things with this global fan base.” 

In 1985, Olympic gold medalist Lynette Woodard joined the Globetrotters, becoming the first woman to ever play on a men’s pro basketball team. 

“We currently have the most women in our roster between Globetrotters and Generals that we've ever had. We make great recruiting efforts around that because we can, right? Because of the great talent that's out there. But we are also able to honor our kind of legacy by doing that storytelling on the court in that way," he says.

Despite the team's groundbreaking gender equality efforts, Dawkins notes that the brand's history isn't widely known.

“If you ask someone who was on the first team to sign a woman player on a male team? And when was that seismic moment? That was the Harlem Globetrotters," he says.

He also points to how the elaborate play style that originated with the Globetrotters has seeped into sports today.

"I see Steph Curry or Caitlin Clark, or Luka Dončić shooting from deep, but that was never done before. Yes, it was, it was the Harlem Globetrotters," he says. "The ball handling that was never done. Yes, it was, it was Marques Haynes.” 

Dawkins notes that, during a time when Black athletes weren't allowed to play in the NBA, they would play with the Globetrotters — including Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain, who played with the Globetrotters from 1958 to 1959.

Honoring the history of the team and how the fans engage with it is an important part of understanding the past, present and future, Dawkins says.

“That history is a direct gateway and through line to what they're watching, what they're experiencing and where their fandom resides today," he tells PEOPLE. "The uniform means something, and the name means something. All of those things to tie that back to the Globetrotters. History gets forgotten by folks until you remind them or educate them the first time.” 

To this day, Dawkins notes that they still find talent around the world.

“We had a player called up to the Dallas Mavericks G League affiliate last year. We've signed players who were on the Women's National Championship team as the second-round pick for the WNBA. We just got our first Japanese player onto the team, who is an unbelievable ball handler who is all about trick shots and wizardry," he says.

"We're a global brand, meaning collegiate and or professional talent. You see that athleticism, and that type of skill, but you get a level of engagement, you really don't get anywhere else,” Dawkins shares. 

The Globetrotters are currently on their 100-year anniversary tour, and will have tour dates across the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa and India.

“What sport shows up everywhere and also doesn't have people rooting for or against, or booing or throwing stuff, that just brings everyone together?” he asks. "That's what people expect from a Globetrotters game.” 

As for the future of the team, he shares that “we can't rest on the laurels of all that great stuff we did in the past.” 

“We are the brand that brings people together, the brand that brings joy and hope and laughter and possibilities," he says. "Now we have to be strategic and thoughtful about how we are articulating that message for all of its unique, 8- to 80-year-old audiences. If we do that, then I think we're here for another hundred years."

Read the original article on People