A few days ago, I received a phone call from the Harlem Globetrotters. To be more precise, the call was from my old friend Governor Vaughn who is in charge of Alumni Affairs for the Trotters. I was thrilled to hear from him as we had lost touch with each other after he retired from the Totters in 2005.

œGov just recently returned to work at Trotter Headquarters in Phoenix, AZ. I guess retirement was not as great as it purported to be. Ill have to ask him to join our next call. This last call was mostly an expression of how happy we were to be talking again. Thank you, Manny Jackson (the Trotter owner) for bringing your lifetime friend back.

Governor Vaughn was a great player along with Manny Jackson at the University of Illinois in the early 60s. But that is not what this is about.

In 1962-63, I was playing for the Oakland Oaks of the American Basketball League. This league was started by Abe Saperstein, the Globetrotter owner, to compete with the NBA. The original cities in 1961-62 were Los Angeles, San Francisco, Kansas City Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, New York, Cleveland and Chicago. New York was actually in White Plains. In 1962 the NBA moved the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco in order to break up the ABL so the franchise moved to Oakland. The ABL was the first to use the 3-point shot.

But again, I digress. Going back to Oakland, just before our first road trip the Oaks coach, Ermer Robinson called Gov and I into his office. Coach Robinson was a star on the Original Trotters before black players were allowed to play in the NBA.
We both noticed that Coach was fidgety and not his usual calm self. He had a question he wished to ask us. The question was, œWould Rolland Todd and Governor Vaughn be willing to be roommates on the road? You see we had 7 black players and 5 white players, an uneven number.

That question posed to the two of us was a œno-brainer. We would have chosen each other as roommates anyway. However, you want to keep in mind that it was 1962. We were the first black/white roommates in professional sports.

I didnt know it at the time but it was a big deal throughout the league. For example, the fabled relationship between Brian Piccolo and Gayle Sayers on the Chicago Bears didnt happen until around 1967. Go to your video library and check out œBrians Song.
In that same meeting Coach Robinson named me Captain of the Oaks. Again, a black coach with a black majority of players and a white captain. I was honored and I really didnt get the significance until much later.

For that season, Gov and I were inseparable. We played cards (Casino was our favorite), basketball and had an occasional night out at the Sportsman which was owned by Don Barksdale. Mr. Barksdale was one of the very first black players to play in the NBA.

Mostly what we did was talk about the misconceptions that whites had about blacks and vice versa. There were things I knew already and there were many I learned from my friend. Thanks Gov for the education.
I have learned and lived over time that the differences in people are mostly cosmetic, cultural or survival orientated. We all want the same things. We want to be treated with respect. We want to love and be loved. We want to be happy.

The Harlem Globetrotters are very special to me. It was seeing the Original Trotters perform in 1946 that inspired me to be a great basketball player. Perhaps I shot too high but loved the experience as a player and for 25 years as a coach.

I also was exposed to bigotry and hate at that first game and vowed to never express either to any human being. I hope it will be proven over time that I kept that vow. Gov, thank you for being my friend. I love you.