The Savoy Big Five was the early version of the Harlem Globetrotters. This basketball team was created by Abe Saperstein in Chicago, 1926. It was named after Chicago's Savoy Theatre which sponsored Saperstein in return for naming the team the "Savoy Big Five" to help bring in people so they could dance after the game. The teams players were William Grant , Lester Johnson , Tommy Brookings , Inman Jackson , Joe Lillard , Walter Wright , Randolph Ramsey , and William Watson. However, it never brought much attention to the Savoy Theatre, and the sponorship fell through. However, Saperstein continued to promote the team under that name until he changed it to Saperstein's New York Globetrotters in 1927.