Redlands Connection is a concoction of sports memories emanating from a city that once numbered less than 20,000 people. From the Super Bowl to the World Series, from the World Cup to golf’s U.S. Open, plus NCAA Final Four connections, Tour de France cycling, major tennis, NBA and a little NHL, aquatics and quite a bit more, the sparkling San Bernardino County city that sits between Los Angeles and Palm Springs on Interstate 10 has its share of sports connections. It is a reality that almost every major sport, plus a bunch of others, can be connected to Redlands. This story’s connector has connected in a far away expectation anyone could imagine. – Obrey Brown
BACK IN THE LATE 1990s, an older man was spotted shooting baskets at the outdoor courts at Redlands High School. A few feet away, a high school baseball game was about to take place. The man shooting baskets, who looked around his 80s, was shooting hook shots from half court. Repeat that: Hook shots from half court. A man in his 80s? Remarkably, if they didn’t swish through the net, his shots at least hit the rim.
It was startling to meet Bob Karstens.
There he was, from the top of the key, he hiked the ball through his legs – in the manner of a football center – at the hoop. Again, if his shots didn’t go in, they were close.
At one point, he broke out three basketballs, dribbling them simultaneously, as if he were a hoops-playing magician. I was waiting to cover a high school baseball game a couple hundred feet away. Something was up with this elderly man, though. I couldn’t take my eyes off his activity.
Friendly. Outgoing. Gentle. The man spoke in respectful terms.
“I’m Obrey Brown. I write for the local newspaper, about to cover that baseball game over there. Saw what you were doing and decided to come over.”
Yes, he introduced himself. “Bob,” I told him, “it’s nice to meet you.”
“Thanks. Likewise.”
There was something different. I had an eerie, inner sense. We continued to chat, this smallish man who stood a couple inches shorter than my 5-foot-10 height, seemed to brighten up when I told him I was from the local newspaper.
“You might be interested in this …” he started saying.
After three decades in the newspaper business, it’s a phrase I heard often enough from folks seeking publicity. Usually, it might come from a pushy parent, or a publicity-seeking coach, or a public relations/Sports Information Director informing me about a once-in-a-lifetime story that I just couldn’t miss. Hey, I came after him, though. Okay, Bob, finish what you were saying. “I might be interested in this – in what, Bob?”
Karstens, who was standing in front of me, was not Black. As a matter of fact, without his shirt on, I could tell that he needed a little sun. It pays to listen, though. Outwardly, his sunless white guy mentioned he spent a season playing for the Harlem Globetrotters.
In case you’re wondering, the Globies were a dedicated Black man hoops squad.
“I spent a year with them back in the 1940s,” Karstens explained, “during the war.” It was, he told me, legendary Reece “Goose” Tatum was taken into the Army. The Globetrotters needed a clown prince.
Abe Saperstein, the Hall of Fame founder and orchestrator of the ‘Trotters, apparently tapped Bob on the shoulder and said, “You’re it.”
Karstens himself had been a gifted ball handler from the House of David (Benton, Mich.), the famous traveling bearded baseball team that barnstormed the country. Not much known for anything in sports beyond baseball, Karstens told me, the House of David had dabbled in some hoops play during the late 1930s and into the 1940s.
Here’s the rub: I didn’t necessarily believe Bob, not at first. In my business, you’ve got to hold people at arm’s length when they tell you curious stories. I could, literally, share experiences about people that turned out to be half-true. Or true for a week, but not the next. Or outright false. Still, there was something genuine about Bob.
Suddenly, I placed covering that high school baseball game in my back pocket. Bob invited me over to his house a couple blocks away – down Roosevelt, across Cypress, over onto Lytle. When Bob opened his garage door, he led me to three huge boxes full of stuff.
It was full of Harlem Globetrotters’ memorabilia. Suddenly, all my doubts about this guy ended in a hurry. Karstens, I could see, was standing in photos with Saperstein, Tatum, Meadowlark Lemon, a bunch of well-known Globies … and WILT CHAMBERLAIN!
Suddenly, my notebook was produced. Pen in hand, scribbling madly, all the ramblings and utterings he’d voiced over at the high school – you know, when I didn’t originally believe him — started getting recorded. I had a lot of catch-up to do, including asking a bunch more questions.
“How long have you lived in Redlands?”
“Where’d you learn to play basketball?”
“What kind of money did you make?”
“Did you really start that pre-game Magic Circle routine?”
Truthfully, I didn’t have to ask many questions. Bob was spinning tale after tale. Just follow along, Obrey. Keep listening. Keep writing. What a story – and I had it! My pen just had to keep up with his stories. Reporters came along later and fabricated the idea that they’d uncovered this man, somehow sniffing out a story that I had handed to me by the man himself.
Karstens, who was from Davenport, Iowa, took over for that Army-bound Tatum on the ‘Trotters’ 1942-43 roster. Any memory of the ‘Trotters will instantly recall their legendary pre-game introductions at center court, dubbed the Magic Circle pre-game routine.
It’s recorded: This was Karstens’ invention. He organized this ritual. He played on the all-Black ‘Trotters eight years before even the NBA was integrated. Part of the ‘Trotters’ history is that playing doubleheaders with those early NBA teams, thus allowing this relatively unknown league to grow into prosperity.
Also this: Karstens invented the “goof” ball, the ball that bounces in all different directions because of various weights placed inside, plus he invented the “yo-yo” ball. Seasoned ‘Trotter fans know the routines well.
This guy lived in Redlands?
He loaned me some photos from his stash for my next day’s sports section. I had a gold mine of a notebook – quotes, stories, photos and prime history. I sent our photographer, Lee Calkins, over to Bob’s house for an updated mug shot of my new best friend; the guy I had originatedly cynically, though silently, doubted. I made up with myself, though.
Karstens. The Globetrotters. Tatum. Saperstein. Chamberlain. A bunch of brilliant players. Once Tatum returned from the service, Karstens returned to the sidelines. Leave it to the ‘Trotters, though, to promote someone on their all-Black team that wasn’t Black!
Karstens, for his part, stayed on as ‘Trotters’ team manager until 1954, having coached the infamous Washington Generals along the way. That team was the ‘Trotters’ nightly opponent. After leaving the ‘Trotters (changes in management, pay, plus family, always on the road), Karstens went into construction. By 1994, he was inducted into the ‘Trotters’ Hall of Fame.
At 89, Karstens died on Dec. 31, 2004. I covered his Redlands funeral that was attended by former ‘Trotter players Geese Ausbie and Govonor Vaughn. When that pair of retired Globies took their turn at Karstens’ services, Ausbie looked down at Bob’s widow, Pauline, asking, “Did anyone bring a ball?”
It was classic clowning, a special moment for a departed member of their legendary team. A wife, three sons and four grandchildren were among Karstens’ attending survivors in a fully side service. There were plenty of funeral onlookers. This man had quite a following at the Church of the Nazarene.
The ball? Vaughn smoked his former teammate, Ausbie, a shadow ball pass. To those in attendance at this church — corner of Citrus and Grove — this couldn’t have been a better sendoff. Shadow ball, incidentally, is an invisible ball. One guy pretends to throw it, another guy pretends to catch it. If the right group of guys are performing this, it’s highly entertaining. This was, apparently, Bob’s ball entry into Heaven.
Looking back, there were personal stories about track legend Jesse Owens and baseball’s amazing Jackie Robinson — Karstens right in the middle of everything. Bob told me that he ran into both of those sports legends on the railroad. A railroad conductor once asked him to depart from the Blacks-only section of the train. The Globetrotters were the most powerful basketball team in the world during the 1940s, long before the NBA produced its eventual gold mine of hoops-playing legends.
It was, of course, always a delight to watch them play. Probably few know the full history of Saperstein’s original creation from the 1920s.
The ‘Trotters are a full century old. A small portion of their rich history had surfaced about an hour’s drive east of Los Angeles, in Redlands – a long way from Harlem, a New York City suburb.
“I had the skills to fit in and do the tricks,” Karstens said.
Showed at an old age on that outdoor court at Redlands High.
