The New York Renaissance, also known as the Renaissance Big R Five and as the Rens, were the first black-owned, all-black, fully-professional basketball team in history, established in October 1923, by Robert "Bob" Douglas. They were named after the Renaissance Casino and Ballroom through an agreement with its owner, in return for the use of that facility as their home court. During the 1932–33 regular season, the Rens compiled a record of 120–8 (six of those losses came at the hands of the Celtics, whom the Rens did beat eight times). During that season, the Rens won 88 consecutive games, a mark that has never been matched by a professional basketball team. In 1939, the Rens won the first professional basketball championship, when they beat the Oshkosh All-Stars, a white team, 34–25, in the World Professional Basketball Tournament in Chicago.

The team compiled a 2,588–529 record from 1923 to 1948. Important players on the Rens roster included Clarence "Fats" Jenkins, Pappy Ricks, Eyre Saitch, Bill Yancey, "Wee" Willie Smith, Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, Zack Clayton, John Isaacs, Dolly King, Pop Gates, and Nat Clifton. In 1936, the Renaissance became the first top-level team to sign a four-year African American college star, David "Big Dave" DeJernett of Indiana Central.

1949: Move to Dayton

The Rens relocated during the 1948–49 basketball season to Dayton, Ohio, to replace the Detroit Vagabond Kings, who folded in December 1948. The Vagabond Kings had been playing in the racially integrated National Basketball League (NBL). The Rens played the remainder of the NBL season as the Dayton Rens, then disbanded after the NBL merged with the all-white Basketball Association of America to form the, also initially, all-white National Basketball Association which resumed play in the 1949–50 season.

Memorials and historic recognition

  • The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted the 1932–33 New York Renaissance team collectively in 1963 in recognition of their 88-game winning streak that season, the longest in professional basketball history. Seven former Rens players are individually enshrined: Tarzan Cooper, Pop Gates, Nat Clifton, John Isaacs, Zack Clayton, Fats Jenkins, and Sonny Boswell. Renaissance Big Five founder/owner Bob Douglas is also enshrined as a contributor.
  • On May 9, 2017, the Historic Preservation and Transportation Committee of Community Board 10 unanimously (6-0-0) passed a resolution formally requesting that the New York City Council and the Mayor of New York City enact legislation to support the co-naming at the southeast corner of West 138th Street and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard to New York Rens Court. -->

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Further reading

  • Gaines, Jonathan. "Globetrotters weren't first B-ballers from Harlem". Actually they were from Chicago[Cleveland, OH] Call & Post. All-Ohio edition, February 10–16, 2010. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  • Hareas, John. "Remembering the Rens". NBA Vintage Stories. No date. Retrieved 2010-06-21.
  • Kuska, Bob. Hot Potato: How Washington and New York Gave Birth to Black Basketball and Changed America’s Game Forever (University of Virginia Press, 2004)
  • Smallwood, John. "Renaissance Five". Hoopedia. NBA.com. From the NBA Encyclopedia. Retrieved 2010-06-21.