Harlem Globetrotters: Keith Dawkins on 100 Years of HBCU Roots and a Global Reinvention

HOUSTON -- The Harlem Globetrotters turn 100 years old in 2026, and team president Keith Dawkins said the milestone has prompted the organization to take a hard look at how it continues to reach new audiences. Dawkins joined me on HBCU Legends for a wide-ranging conversation on the team's roots in Black and HBCU communities, its shift from a touring act into a global entertainment brand, and the new ventures the Globetrotters are rolling out during their centennial year.

Growing Up With the Globetrotters

I told Dawkins my own history with the team goes back to childhood summers in New Orleans, when my father took my brother and me to see the Globetrotters at Tulane Stadium and later the Superdome. I saw stars such as Basketball Hall of Famer Meadowlark Lemon and Goose Tatum in person during those years. It was just one of those things my dad loved to take us to.

For Black households while I was growing up, those games carried extra weight because of what the team quietly proved on the court decades before the NBA integrated. We knew Black players could play at the highest level, but in the past black-and-white news clip of the Globetrotters defeating the Minneapolis Lakers 61-59 in 1948, everyone in our community knew it long before the mainstream record caught up. The legendary Globetrotter Marques Haynes was a member of that historic team.

A Team Built Before the NBA Looked Like the NBA

Dawkins traced that history to the era of segregation and Jim Crow that shaped the Globetrotters' early roster. He said, “The reason why they're anointed as the ambassadors of goodwill by the State Department back in the 50s is because they cut through all of that and bring everyone together, all walks of life.” The U.S. State Department gave the Globetrotters that designation in the 1950s.

Dawkins said the team's talent pool reflected the limited opportunities available to Black athletes at the time, with HBCUs serving as a major pipeline. “The Globetrotters were the creme de la creme of the place to go play,” he said. That depth showed up against opponents such as George Mikan's Minneapolis Lakers, the barnstorming-era matchups I remember from black-and-white game film passed down in my family. Of the team's broader legacy, Dawkins said, “They're kind of the best of our humanity and the best of our possibilities.”

The exact math on the anniversary is simple, Dawkins said. “We are in our 100 year anniversary right now.”

Evolving From a Tour to a Media Brand

As the Globetrotters entered their hundredth year, Dawkins said leadership examined how to reach fans beyond arena seats. “We have to meet them where they are. I like to say swim down all the pathways where the audience resides,” he said.

That approach includes a return to network television after four decades away, led by the Emmy-nominated NBC series “Harlem Globetrotters: Play It Forward,” which also aired on Telemundo and Peacock. The Globetrotters also partnered with aspireTV on “Secrets of the City,” a series that follows players as they travel to cities such as Cairo, Egypt, and destinations across Asia, Australia and New Zealand. AspireTV renewed the show for a second season, a decision HBCU Legends first reported. Dawkins said “every time our players show up in a market, they really try to involve themselves deeply in the market,” connecting with local language, music, fashion and culture along the way.

The centennial year also brought new retail and licensing partnerships, including collaborations with Walmart, Target, Zara, Lids and Drake's OVO label, plus a McDonald's campaign built around the Globetrotters in Australia and New Zealand and an upcoming video game with Acclaim. Dawkins declined to detail everything in the pipeline but said, “We're super excited about a big project that we're going to bring to bear in Q4 of this year.”

Leading With a Digital Playbook Built at Viacom and Nickelodeon

Dawkins spent 17 years at Viacom, including 14 at Nickelodeon, before joining the Globetrotters, and he said that background shaped his approach to the brand's expansion into gaming, esports and streaming. He described himself as “a digitally somewhat native executive,” pointing to a generation that came of age alongside gaming, social media and YouTube. “We were some of the early architects of how to navigate in that world,” he said.

Standing out in a crowded marketplace, Dawkins said, increasingly comes down to research, data and strategic partnerships built to reach a fragmented, distracted consumer base -- a mindset he said applies whether a brand is a century old or brand new.

HBCU Roots Still Run Through the Roster

Dawkins said the Globetrotters continue to recruit from HBCU programs, maintaining a talent pipeline that dates back generations. He pointed to the team's involvement in Chris Paul's HBCU Classic in Atlanta, where he and Globetrotters guard Spider, who has HBCU roots, were interviewed together at halftime.

For players eyeing a professional path outside the roughly 450 roster spots in the NBA or 144 in the WNBA, Dawkins said, “The Harlem Globetrotters should be top of their list, quite frankly, because we make it attractive on so many levels.” He said HBCU alumni on the current roster carry that history with them. “It's a special place in their heart,” Dawkins said.

What's Next

Dawkins pointed to the Globetrotters' international tour schedule, with stops across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Asia and South America on the calendar through the rest of 2026, as the clearest sign of where the brand is headed next, alongside the still-unannounced fourth-quarter project he teased during the interview. Fans looking to track the tour or new content drops can follow the team at harlemglobetrotters.com and across its social channels.

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