Tamko Roofers remember with glee 1-point victory over Harlem Globetrotters w/ link to official Harlem Globetrotter Web site

By Melissa Dunson

mdunson@joplinglobe.com

At 78 years old, Keith Adams, of Joplin, stands 6 feet 4 inches tall.

His memory isn’t as sharp as it once was, but his hands still know how to make a basketball dance.

It was 60 years ago when Adams and his teammates on the Tamko Roofers basketball team “danced” their way across the floor of Joplin Memorial Hall and beat the famous Harlem Globetrotters by one point.

“(The Globetrotters) were used to winning, but we weren’t surprised by the outcome,” Adams said. “We were used to winning, too.”

As some of the younger players on the team, Adams, then 19, and the other living team members, Bud Kite, 78, of Joplin, and Fred Daugherty, 79, of Carthage, were relegated to the bench for the big game. But despite the passage of six decades, the men said they can’t forget the looks on the Globetrotters’ faces.

“I think they were expecting to win by one point,” Daugherty said, laughing. “Their intention was to beat us a little bit, but it didn’t happen like that. They were mad.”

Kite said the Roofers were down by one point in the last three seconds of the game. Lester Cooper, a longtime Tamko employee, looked left, then launched a quick jump shot to his right. It was a long shot, but Adams heard the sweet sound of the ball bouncing off the backboard and falling through the net.

Basketball was rough back then. Kite said one of the Roofers players walked away from that game with three broken ribs. Another had blood running down both arms from scratches.

The beginning

The Tamko Roofers started as a publicity stunt. Kite said what now is Tamko Building Products Inc. struggled in its early years. In 1947, Fred Wolfson, a Tamko partner, thought a basketball team could benefit the company’s image.

The players came from the Joplin YMCA, local colleges and the Tamko employee roster. They played local and national teams two to six times a week. After three years, the Roofers had traveled 3,200 miles and played 92 games, winning 81 of them.

Memories

Beating the Globetrotters isn’t the only good memory the team members have of their years with the Roofers. There are memories of steak dinners on the corporate dime, showing up to work an hour late after a long night on the court, driving shiny 1949 Ford company cars, and the camaraderie of working and playing with friends.