Background
He was born in London, England, to a Jewish family.
basketball player sports coach
He was born in London, England, to a Jewish family.
University of Illinois system. University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
Saperstein was the commissioner of the American Basketball League, which he founded in 1961 after repeatedly being denied an National Basketball Association expansion franchise. He also owned the Chicago Majors team in that league. In an effort to differentiate the American Basketball League from the National Basketball Association and promote it, Saperstein introduced the three-point shot.
In the 1988 Harlem Globetrotters documentary 6 Decades of Magic, it was noted that Saperstein chose "Harlem" to indicate that the players were African-American, even though they were actually from Chicago, and the "Globetrotters" moniker to make it seem as though the team had traveled all around the world.
Saperstein, whose 5 ft 5 in (165 m) stature may render him as Basketball Hall of Fame"s shortest member, was elected to the Hall in 1971. In 1979, he was inducted into the International Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.
He played baseball, basketball, and ran track at Lake View High School. He played as a guard for the Chicago Reds.
He was buried in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois, near Chicago.