1 mae eaheen? - OTOy #3 rasaurreis] AF east Page 14, Febrasry 18 1979- Sunda: News The Canucks may have trouble—and deser- vedly © so—filling the Coliseum these winter evenings, but not the Harlem Globetrotters. They were back in town Friday night. for their 46th consecutive year, played to the. usual sellout house and, also as usual, won the game. You think the Canadiens _are a big, famous name? You think their 59-10-11 record last season was something special? Well, meet the Trotters. Their best ever season was 1975-76. They - were 404-0. As for being a big name? . Canadiens in . Kuwait, “Singapore, Nairobi, Montevideo, Casablanca or Ankara? They've not only heard of this basketball- vaudeville troupe in those Cities, but they've seen it in action. Also in Sydney, Tokyo, Oslo, Belgrade, oon, Buenos Aires and a few hundred other one- night stopovers. CHINA NEXT You name it, they've been there. “Oops, that’s not quite right. They haven't yet played China. But now that the U.S. and the world's most populous country have decided to be friends, they should turn up any day in Peking, Shanghai and Canton. Indeed, if Abe Sapterstein were still alive, you could bet they’d have been there long ago. Abe certainly had a way with him. Long before cultural and hockey ex- changes became fashionable, Abe’s Trotters were wowing the folks in Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev. Also Prague, Budapest, Warsaw, Bucharest and other places mot normally played by western entertainers. There was just one problem playing behind what was then the Iron Curtain. The communist countries’ currency had no and played its first ever game .at an Hlinois road junction named Hinckley. It drew a full ‘house—the gym held only 200—at 25 cents a head. The press didn’t take any notice, -wWhich is not sur- prising, Bigger things were - happening in 1927, such as Lindbergh's flight across the Atlantic, Babe Ruth's . 60 home runs and Gene Tunneys long count win over Jack Dempsey. value in the West. So_he - They spent a lot of time in made barter arrangments. The first thing he knew he _. had ~ going for him. He’ was running a big import business, too. If you wanted Czech crystal, Hungarian wine of Russian amber, Saperstein was the guy to see. The inventor of the Globetrotters died 13 years ago next month. Before moving on, he broke all world records for road trips and plane travel—39 years living out of suitcase, with an occasional stop in Chicago to pick upsome clean shirts. STARTED WITH FIVE Chicago is where it all started 52 years ago, when Saperstein, working as a $110-a-month playground physed instructor, got the idea of a barnstorming basketball team. He quit the job and, with five players and a modet T Ford, followed the bouncing ball. He didn’t play, but he fitted the scene. At an even five feet, he was built like a basketball. The team started life as the Chicago Ballroom Five that model T. It doubled as a __box ffice a2 and A OR BRIS oad or “hotels suddenly and mysteriously became filled up because these were black men approaching the desk, as sleeping accommodation, too. BLACKS BARRED Don't think that it couldn't happen here, because it did. There was, for one instance, a ‘wartime stopover in Vancouver when no hotel would accept them. They had to rent an empty store on ‘Robson, just off Gran- ville, and bring in cots. Nonetheless, this city always had a special place in Abe’s affections because it was here the Trotters first made it up from tanktown circuit. Vancouver was the first city of any size where they were given the opportunity to put on their show. Social acceptance long since has been no problem. Meetings with royalty and presidents, audiences with three different popes, first class treatment in 95 the | countries, where 85 million people have seen them play. Not only is it the longest running roadshow in history. . but the script has never changed. Little did Inman Jackson and the other originals know what they were starting, when the rigors of riding im that model T and playing every night forced them into clowning and otherwise fooling around on the court. It was an energy con- servation measure. Some nights they were- so red they just weren't up to - playing a full game of serious basketball. ALMOST ENDED . There should be a local twist to wind up today’s prose piece. And there’ is. But for some flaming good - lick and fine seamanship one stormy night on Howe Sound, the Globetrotter story would have ended in 1944. In that _ ,wartime——vea ~ ies Wey piaying the small & towns as well as the big cities, they had several games booked on the lower mainiand, including one at Woodfibre. There being no Squamish Highway in those days, they got there by motor launch from Hor- seshoe Bay. During the game a Squamish gale suddenly blew up, bringing a driving snowstorm with it. Abe and the team wanted to get back to Vancouver that night, so against his better judgment the launch operator gave it a try They ran aground five times, almost capsized twice and every guy in the boat was put to work bailing out the water. Hours later they beat a retreat back to Woodfibre. More by luck—a temporary lull in the storm— than by skill, they found the town. That's how close the Globetrotters came to finishing up on the bottom of Howe Sound, instead of going on to girdle the globe. Insulate your cold drafty windows - patio doors now ] / 9" space its the space that insulates FREE IN-HOME ESTIMATES fj . ee ee oe es WINDOWS © Twin sealed © Storm windows © Twin sesied Patio doors © Replacement windows © Inside Storm Windows Twin sealed or single glazed Also in solar bronze GUTTERS & PATIO COVERS ALL LABOUR & MATERIALS GUARANTEED IN WRITING | ANCHOR ALUMINUM LTD. 7391 Garden City Rd. Richmond 987-8320 327-9201 Race on Wh ‘One of the two men whose | job it is to prepare the course for the Molson World Cup Downhill race, March 9 at Whistler Mountain, prédicts “the hill will be. a true test and rated one of the top four downhill courses on the World Cup circuit.”’ . That prediction belongs to Dennis Waddingham. who along with Chris Garrett of the Whistler Mountain Ski Club, head up the crew that is now hard at work | preparing the downhill course. “It will be very long, very fast and very technical,"* Waddingham. ‘*By technical, I mean three or four inches in line could very well make the, difference come race day.”’ | Yn describing the course, Waddingham said there will be six really difficult spots to _ overcome. One of them is an area called Double Trouble, eth ing of a 250-foot drop where the top skiers should be travelling between 60-75 miler-per-hour. ~ Perhaps the most intrigu- 7 ing part of the course is Coaches Corner, where the racers will have to maneuver a 120 degree turn for the long run to the finish line. Waddingham figures the good skiers will be travelling between 70-85 miles-per- hour when they reach Coaches Corner. a three years Circulation 986-1337 1139 Lonadate Ave., North Vancouver said consisting of three rolls close easel, consist- * hav Have a good holiday, Paul. Paul Burritt, our News carrier of the week, is an avid skier and he's off to Vernon with his family next month for a skung holiday Skung can be an expensive sport but Paul's tather tells us that his son pays for his own equipment and lift ttckets with eamings from his paper route. Paul's a grade 8 student at Argyle and he’s had a paper route in the area near his school for close to Good work, Paul We're sending you Famous Players Gitt Certticates in the mail metres the longest’ courses’ on the World Cup dow hill circui "Waddingham, Garrett and their crew have been working on the course since the end of January, putting in a seven: hour day. seven days a week. Right now that crew totals 15, by race week that total will grow to 25. job being done “by, the work crew is Dr. Peter’Andrews of West Vancouver, - chairman of the Molson World Cup Downhill organizing com- ittee. ’ Putting together downhill courses is not new to Waddingham or Garrett. For Waddingham it’s his ith such course, for Garrett hi 12th, although: this one is the He’s dumped down snow.’ it has snowed heavily at:: Whistler during the past two | weeks and all concern over: the lack of the white stuff has” now vanished. : 2 ~ Meanwhile, : _race officials . announced that the official starting time ‘for the Molson World Cup downhill | on -March 9 jis: 12 Pacific Standard Time. 7