DOTD For Monday, January 5, 2026
A Drink For The Perennial Underdogs, Who Win Once In A While..
Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is a Washington Cocktail, inspired by the first time The Washington Generals (playing as the “New Jersey Reds”) accidentally beat the Harlem Globetrotters, which happened on this date, January 5, 1971.
The Washington Generals, the perennial underdogs destined to lose every game, hit a game-winning shot on that day that shocked much of the entertainment world. The crowd was shocked & the Globetrotters dismayed in what was, at that time, the single victory for the Washington Generals, the only loss for the Globetrotters. But as Tom Petty once said, “Even the losers, get lucky sometimes.”
Everyone knows the Harlem Globetrotters as an exhibition team, with their own unique brand of stunt basketball and comedy. But the games are not entirely fixed. Their “opponents” don’t usually interfere with the Globetrotters’ shenanigans while on defense, but they do play a serious game when in possession of the ball. Some 20 to 30 percent of the game is “real.”
These days, the Globetrotters are known for stunt routines and comedy, but the Harlem Globetrotters began as a serious basketball team. The Harlem Globetrotters originated in 1926 at the Giles American Legion Post #87, on the South Side of Chicago, where all the original players were raised and went to high school. They began as the Savoy Big Five, one of the premier attractions of the Savoy Ballroom in Chicago. Starting in January 1928, a basketball team of Black American players played exhibition games before dances to prop up the ballroom’s cratering attendance numbers. But after a dispute, several players left, forming their own team & touring Southern Illinois.
Promoter Abe Saperstein became involved with the team as a coach, manager, promoter, and part-time player. By 1929, Saperstein was touring Illinois and Iowa with his basketball team, calling them the “New York Harlem Globe Trotters” as a way to glamorize & mythologize the team.
The Globe Trotters became regular participants in the World Professional Basketball Tournament and won it in 1940. In 1948, the Globetrotters made headlines by beating the National Basketball’s Minneapolis Lakers, one of the best white basketball teams in the U.S. The Globetrotters continued to easily win games because the racism of the U.S. at the time helped them monopolize the black basketball player talent pool. Even with racism, the Globetrotters were among the most famous basketball teams in the country and even included players like Wilt Chamberlain on their roster.
The Globetrotters were eclipsed in the 1950s when the NBA started recruiting black players. So they changed their game, working in comic routines. In 1952 they invited player Louis “Red” Klotz to create a stooge team, the Washington Generals, to accompany them on tours and always lose.
Which the Generals did - except that one time. It was supposed to be an ordinary day at the office. But an important Globetrotters’ player, Curly Neal, wasn’t in that game and things went amiss.
The Globetrotters didn’t usually pay much attention to the score. But suddenly they found themselves down 12 points with two minutes to go. So they stopped joking around and started to play some serious hoops. With ten seconds left the Globetrotters were leading 99-98 but it was the Generals’ (playing as the New Jersey Reds) ball.
History marks what happened next. Klotz shot and scored. The arena went wild. Meadowlark Lemon took the ball and ran down the court. The Generals stood aside, but Lemon actually missed his famous hook shot as the buzzer sounded, leading to the Globetrotter’s first lost.
Red Klotz, owner/player for Washington Generals and taker of the winning shot remarked afterward that the crowd “looked at us like we killed Santa Claus.”
Thankfully, the fans & the team didn’t kill Santa, and since then have lost a number of times. As the Globetrotters themselves state on their website, “the Globetrotters have lost 345 games over the course of nine decades. However, with 27,000 wins, the Globetrotters do own the best winning percentage (.987) in the history of professional sports.”
So, in the full scope of things, one little lost doesn’t mean much. But it definitely shocked the folks in the stands that day.
So with that, we raise a glass to the perpetual underdogs, the Washington Generals, with today’s Drink Of The Day, a Washington Cocktail.
Ingredients
Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink:
