Marques Haynes

As a child, Haynes learned to dribble a basketball in the dirt yard of his home. A native of Sand Springs, Oklahoma, he attended Booker T. Washington High School and received a $25 church scholarship to play basketball for Langston University,[3] where he attended from 1942 to 1946. During his time with the Langston Lions, the team racked up a winning record of 112–3, including a 59-game winning streak.[4]

In a February 1945 conference tournament game, Haynes showed off his dribbling skills for more than two minutes, running down the clock on a solid lead to ridicule an opponent, Southern University, which had run up the score against an inferior team (Sam Huston College, later Huston-Tillotson University, coached by a young Jackie Robinson) in a previous round.[5][6] Haynes' own coach, the legendary Zip Gayles, threatened to kick him off the team for his showboating display,[7] but it got an immense response from the crowd at the game.[5]

In 1946, Langston was invited to play an exhibition game against the Globetrotters in Oklahoma City. In that game, Haynes led Langston to a 4-point win, catching the eye of team owner Abe Saperstein in the process.[8] He was invited to join the Globetrotters, and, after completing his degree, began his long professional career.[3][9] Prior to joining the Globetrotters, Haynes briefly played for the Kansas City Stars of the Black Professional Basketball League.[5]

Haynes played with the Globetrotters from 1947 to 1953. One of the exhibition games in which he played was the famous game in West Berlin on August 22, 1951, where a landmark 75,000 people were recorded in attendance—although Haynes later insisted the turnout was closer to 90,000—and Haynes met track star Jesse Owens, with whom he roomed on the tour.[5][10] He also toured South America with the Globetrotters and played a series of exhibition games against some of the top college basketball teams in the United States.[10]

In 1953, Haynes left the Globetrotters after an acrimonious split with Abe Saperstein, the team's owner. After quitting the team, he turned down a $35,000 a year offer from the Philadelphia Warriors that would have made him the second-highest paid player in the NBA to found his own barnstorming team, the Harlem Magicians, after finding out that Saperstein was a part-owner of the Warriors.[11] He also received an offer to play for the Minneapolis Lakers in 1955, but he turned down that opportunity as well.[5] Despite a series of legal battles with Saperstein, Haynes attended his funeral in 1966, although he later joked he was only there to "make sure he didn't jump out of the casket".[11]

Haynes later rejoined the Globetrotters as a player and coach in 1972. During his second stint with the team, he founded a clothing company in 1973, through which he met his wife Joan, a model.[5] He was a regular on the 1974–75 The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine TV show. After leaving the Globetrotters again in 1979, he played for Meadowlark Lemon's Bucketeers, the Harlem Wizards, and a revitalized incarnation of his old Harlem Magicians.[5]

By the end of his playing career, Haynes was estimated to have played in at least 12,000 games and visited more than 100 countries.[12]

Haynes retired in 1992 after a 46-year professional career, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998,[13] the first Globetrotter to be so honored. On January 5, 2001, he received his "Legends" ring from the Harlem Globetrotters in Chicago. The Globetrotters also retired his #20 jersey in his honor.[12]

Haynes spent his twilight years in Plano, Texas, where he and his wife moved in the mid-1990s to be closer to their daughters. His old team, the Globetrotters, "pulled strings" to get him a ticket to the 2010 NBA All-Star Game in Arlington, Texas.[10] In 2011, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame.[4] That year, he also joined the staff of the Texas Legends, a farm team for the Dallas Mavericks. At the time, he told the press that, even at the age of 85, "Basketball is constantly on my mind."[14]

Haynes died at the age of 89 on May 22, 2015,[15] in Plano, Texas.[16] His death was stated to be of natural causes.[17]

Haynes was considered to be among the greatest ballhandlers who ever lived. Wilt Chamberlain once said, "What he did was something that I could never do, and I could do almost everything on the basketball court."[18] His game influenced players such as Bob Cousy, Pete Maravich, and Fred "Curly" Neal.[19] He has been described as one of the best basketball players never to compete in the NBA.[20]

Haynes was known for his catchphrase, "I'm Marques Haynes, I'll show you how!"[2][21] He was also father-in-law to Dallas Cowboys great Drew Pearson.

• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture – Haynes, Marques
• Voices of Oklahoma interview with Marques Haynes. First person interview conducted on December 28, 2011, with Marques Haynes.
• Marques Haynes Memorial Foundation