Two popes have been named honorary members of the Harlem Globetrotters.
With their gravity-defying basketball trick shots, the Harlem Globetrotters can make a school assembly feel like the final matchup in 1996’s Space Jam. Promoter Abe Saperstein founded the legendary exhibition team in 1926 as a way to showcase the talents of Black athletes, who were not yet allowed to play on professional basketball teams. For 12 years, the Globetrotters played standard basketball, but then began adding the comedic routines that would earn them the title of “Clown Princes of Basketball.” Today, the team doubles as goodwill ambassadors, constantly speaking out on the importance of bullying prevention and mental health, among other topics. In their 97-year history, the Globetrotters have drafted 10 honorary members, including Henry Kissinger, Bob Hope, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Whoopi Goldberg, Nelson Mandela, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Jesse Jackson, and Robin Roberts. Two others — Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis — added the title to what may already be the most famous job in the world.
In fact, both popes were literal globetrotters well before receiving the honor. During his more than 27-year papacy (1978–2005), polyglot Pope John Paul II visited 129 countries, more than all his predecessors combined. Yet Pope Francis, the first Latin American to lead the Catholic Church, is accruing frequent flyer miles at a faster pace — 10 years into his term as pontiff, he has greeted crowds in at least 53 nations. The Globetrotters, meanwhile, remain the best-traveled basketball squad in history. Pope John Paul II welcomed the team to the Vatican in 1986 and 2000. The latter meeting fell on the eve of the Globetrotters’ 75th anniversary, so they presented His Holiness — then aged 80 — with an autographed “75” jersey and basketball. Pope Francis was slightly younger when he became an honorary member, in 2015. Player Flight Time Lang even helped Pope Francis briefly spin a basketball on one finger, to the delight of revelers in St. Peter’s Square.
Gilligan’s Island has spent so many decades in syndication that it’s easy to forget CBS canceled the show in 1967, after just three seasons. Yet creator Sherwood Schwartz believed more hijinks awaited the S.S. Minnow’s stranded passengers, so he co-wrote a trio of TV movies that aired on rival NBC between 1978 and 1981. For the final installment, NBC executives successfully pitched Schwartz a plot where the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders find themselves stuck on the island with Bob Denver (Gilligan), Alan Hale Jr. (Skipper), and the rest of the returning ensemble. However, the Harlem Globetrotters were chosen to replace the cheerleaders because the latter had already committed to a competing special. In the end product, Gilligan and the rest of his former shipmates run an island resort called The Castaways, where the Globetrotters find shelter after their plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean. Somehow, the plot also involves the discovery of a new element called Supremium, robots, and (of course) a winner-takes-all basketball game, in which — spoiler alert — Gilligan scores the winning shot.
