Founded in 1926 by Abe Saperstein, the Globetrotters played their first-ever road game on Jan. 7, 1927, in Hinckley, Ill. The 2005 tour marks the organization's 79th consecutive year of playing basketball and entertaining fans around the world. On Jan. 12, 1998, the Globetrotters played their historic 20,000th career game, a feat unmatched by any other professional sports team in the world. On September 27, 2002, the Globetrotters were only the fifth team inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
On July 5, 2000, the Globetrotters etched their name into the Guinness World Records with the acknowledgment of a successful 12-foot dunk by Harlem Globetrotter forward Michael "Wild Thing" Wilson. Wilson broke his old mark on a goal designed by Goalsetter Systems in the vertical slam dunk (11 feet, 11 inches) with a leap of 12 feet on April 1st at Indianapolis' Conseco Fieldhouse during Final Four Weekend. The specially designed and engineered goal, which is height adjustable up to 13 ft., will continue to be used by the Globetrotters at exhibition events and in further attempts to break their own slam dunk record.