New York Renaissance (‘Rens’)

Location: Harlem, New York City
Home Court: Renaissance Ballroom
Nickname: “Rens”, “Harlem Rens”, “Big R Five”
Colors: Navy, Gold
Manager: Robert “Bob” Douglas

Select Team Alpha P.C.C. Company E Howard U. Independent Pleasure Club Lincoln U. (Pa.) L.A. Red Devils Monticello A.A. Monticello-Delaney Rifles N.Y. All Stars Philadelphia Panthers N.Y. Renaissance Scholastic A.A. Savoy Big Five Second Story Morrys Smart Set A.C. St. Christopher Club Atlantic City Vandals Washington 12 Streeters

The New York Rens^® basketball team was the first all-black fully professional African-American owned basketball team.

The Rens were formed in Harlem in 1923.

That year, basketball manager Robert “Bob” Douglas made a deal with Harlem real estate developer William Roach, the owner of the new Renaissance Ballroom and Casino.

Douglas owned and managed an all-black basketball team called the Spartan Braves, which was a leading contender for the black national championship title.

But his basketball club had no home court. The Renaissance Ballroom, with its perfect location in the center of Harlem, its spacious floor, and its balcony seating that looked down from above, would be the ideal venue.

Douglas asked Roach if the Spartans could play their home games at his ballroom in return for changing the name of the team to the “New York Renaissance” in order to promote the dance hall far and wide.

After some negotiating, Roach agreed. Douglas, now armed with a permanent home court, next introduced full-season player contracts to lock in his players, and the Big “R” Five became America’s first all-black, black-owned, fully professional basketball team. The “Rens” attracted the best African American talent in basketball.

The team’s original lineup included future Basketball Hall of Famers Clarence “Fats” Jenkins and James “Pappy” Ricks, as well as Frank “Strangler” Forbes and Leon Monde.

All four of these men also played professional baseball in the Negro Leagues.

By 1924-25 the “Rens” had won the first of many Colored Basketball World Championships and thereafter proceeded to dominate not just black basketball, but all of basketball for the next 25 years.

During that period, the Rens routinely beat white national champion basketball teams like the Original Celtics, the Philadelphia SPHAS, and the Indianapolis Kautskys. The irony is that the leagues in which these teams played did not allow African American players or teams to join.

For more about the New York Rens, please see these articles in the Black Fives Blog and this gallery in the Black Fives Photo Archive.

Be sure to join our email list by providing your name and email address using the sign up box at the upper right.