Cardinal Bob Gibson Playing With the Harlem Globetrotters?

Many people know that Cardinal pitching great, Bob Gibson, was also a great basketball player in college at Creighton during the mid to late 1950s. He also played with the Harlem Globetrotters during their 1957-58 season before turning to baseball fulltime. I've never been able to find any footage of him playing at Creighton, but I may have found some of him playing with the Globetrotters in 1958. At least 1958 is the date of this video. I know that Wilt Chamberlain played with them during the 1958-59 season, and he's obviously not in this video, so I'm guessing it's from the 57-58 season when Gibson should have been there. He was a 6'1" guard, but I have no idea what his jersey number was. I'm guessing, however, that if he's in this video at all he must be number 33.



Gibson averaged over 20 pts. per game at Creighton and was the only non-white player on the team. In fact, he was their first non-white player ever. He had great leaping ability, and even at only 6'1" he could stuff the ball backwards with both hands.

His roommate with the Trotters was actually Meadowlark Lemon who years later said, “I thought Bob was a better basketball player than a baseball player. I think Bob could have played with any NBA team. He was that good.”

Great Interview With Bob Love

Part 1


Part 2


Bob Love had the sweetest stroke I ever saw in the NBA. You could actually watch the seems spin on the ball with those high rainbow shots he did because he held the ball "just so" when he shot it every time. He's had a lot of hard luck in life actually. He talks here about meeting his father for the first time when he was 35 and the love he tried to show him. He also talks about his severe stuttering that actually got him sacked from the Bucks even though he was playing well. After leaving the NBA, that same stuttering problem kept him from finding employment, and he actually had to take a job as a busboy and dishwasher for quite a while. The owner of the restaurant did him a good turn though and paid for speech therapy classes which made it possible for Bob to get a job as Director of Community Affairs in 1993 with his old team—the Bulls. You'll notice that he still stammers, but he communicates much better than he used to. I had a severe stammering problem when I was a little boy, so I can relate a little bit.