Cleveland Harp

It was a veritable pantheon of stars that played for the late, great Ray Crowe at Indianapolis Crispus Attucks High School from 1950 to 1957. The two most notable were Indiana Mr. Basketball recipients Hallie Bryant and Oscar Robertson. Bryant went on to a stellar on-and-off-court career with the Harlem Globetrotters that blossomed into a second career as a motivational speaker. Robertson, of course, only became one of the greatest college and professional players of all time. But when discussion turns to those legendary Attucks teams, one name is often overlooked. In fact, when Crowe used to substitute a gangly, 6-foot-6 second-stringer into the game, the Attucks fans would grumble, "What's Ray trying to do ... lose the game?" There were times Cleveland Harp couldn't disagree. "When I started out, I was terrible," he recalls. "My coordination hadn't caught up with my height. But Coach Crowe saw something, and he stuck with me. He made the decision to put me on the team and when Coach Crowe made a decision, he stuck with it. And look where it led." Look where it led, indeed. Though Harp didn't start playing basketball until he was a sophomore, he didn't make the team until he was a junior and played behind stars such as Bryant, Bailey "Flap" Robertson (Oscar's older brother) and Willie Gardner (whose budding NBA career was later shortened by a heart ailment). Later, Harp tried out for and made the Harlem Globetrotters on the first try three months out of high school. That, in turn, spawned a 13-year barnstorming career that took Harp from the Globetrotters to the Harlem Magicians, the Harlem Clowns and finally the Harlem Satellites. Along the way, he played with and against the likes of Goose Tatum, Marcus Haynes, Curly Neal and Meadowlark Lemon. Playing seven nights a week from September through April in big cities and small towns across America, Harp estimates he took part in about 200 games a season. "By January or February you'd put on that uniform, and it felt like lead," he says. "And remember, we weren't traveling by airplane, either." But the money was good for the times. The Globetrotters paid him $500 a month as a rookie. By the time he got to his last barnstorming team, the Satellites, the pay had increased to $700 a month. No, he didn't get rich, unless you're talking about the wealth of the experience. Harp retired from basketball in 1966 and returned to Indianapolis briefly. He then moved to Detroit, where he managed both apartments and food concessions at Cleve's Kitchens. He came back to Indy for good in 1979, married and settled down, working in the restaurant business. Following a divorce that left him with time on his hands, Harp responded to a friend's message urging him to apply to become an usher for events at Market Square Arena in 1998. He got the job. So where is he now? Ushering aisles 9 and 11 at Conseco Fieldhouse and serving as a familiar face to those who frequent Pacers games. "God is good," says Harp, now 74. "Only He could bring me back to what I really love, basketball. I just love being around the action." Rather than talk about himself, Harp would rather talk about his teammates at Attucks, especially Gardner, whom he declares was the best basketball player in the country when they graduated in 1953. Gardner also went to the Globetrotters straight from Attucks. Abe Saperstein, Globetrotters owner, later sold the rights to Gardner to the New York Knicks, but Gardner's career was cut short when doctors detected a heart murmur. "One day we were scrimmaging with the Globetrotters when Willie took a pass, did a 360-spin and dunked backwards," Harp remembers. "Goose Tatum was watching from the sidelines and went crazy, shouting, 'Where did you get that boy from?!' " Harp wouldn't trade those kinds of memories for anything. "I traveled 13 years, lived out of a suitcase and loved it," he said. "When you look at me, you see a lot of life." -