Throwback Thursday – Horse Cave’s Harlem Globetrotters

Horse Cave has a Harlem Globetrotters connection. The most famous basketball team in the world once had two players from nearby Hart County, Clarence Wilson and Carl Helem. Today’s Throwback Thursday is the story of the Harlem Globetrotters and their native tie to Southern Kentucky.

Founded by Abe Saperstein in 1926, the team pioneered the entertainment aspect of the game, including popularizing the slam dunk and figure eight weave. For nearly a century, the Globetrotters players have been the best of the best. 

In the 1940s and 50s, a couple of Horse Cave natives were star players on the team. First was Clarence “Cave” Wilson, then was Carl “Kingfish” Helem. In the early ‘40s, both Wilson and Helem attended Horse Cave Colored High School, where professor Newton Thomas doubled as principal and basketball coach. Wilson and helem are credited with asking Thomas to start a basketball team, which proved to be trailblazing, as the school had no gym and the game had to be played outside on clay courts.

The 1944 team went undefeated and won the championship for the All-Black Kentucky High School Athletic League. Many in Horse Cave believe the success of Wilson and Helem were key community-pride drivers when Horse Cave schools were desegregated. 

Wilson and Helem both went to play college basketball at Tennessee A & I, which is now Tennessee State University. Following those years, they both signed up to be Harlem Globetrotters. Playing gave them celebrity status, even appearing with the Globetrotters on the famous television show, “What’s My Line?”

Clarence Wilson became a Globetrotter coach within his first two years of play, and was in the Harlem Globetrotters 1951 movie. He eventually retired to Louisville, passing in 1996. Carl Helem is being inducted to the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame this year. He retired to Ashland, passing away in 2001.

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Throwback Thursday is brought to you by Hart County Tourism.