PSL Alums with Goose Tatum’s Barnstorming Teams

Spike Wilkinson 

Ramon “Spike” Wilkinson from Detroit’s Moore School played with Goose Tatum’s barnstormers and, following Tatum’s death in 1967, kept the show on the road with his Harlem Road Kings that toured through the 1971-72 season. (Photo courtesy the Ray Lebov collection)

From 1957-58 through 1966-67, Reece “Goose” Tatum owned and managed the following professional independent/barnstorming teams: Goose Tatum Harlem Stars, Goose Tatum Harlem Clowns, Goose Tatum’s Harlem Roadkings, and Satchell Paige’s New York Rens.

Tatum’s teams, like the Harlem Globetrotters, were professional teams that barnstormed around the globe. Tatum, like Globetrotters’ owner Abe Saperstein, drew heavily from Detroit’s pool of African-American stars that were overlooked by the NBA.

Players in bold-face type are PSL products; those in bold-italic type are from elsewhere in the state.

Ellis “Appleseed” Appling, Miller
Tyrone “Hands” Douglas, Miller
Raymond Dungen, Pershing
Roland Dungen, Pershing
Ron Flowers, Northwestern
Lawrence Hall, Northern
Reggie Harding, Northeastern/Eastern/Nashville (TN) Christian
Chester Hicks, Inkster
Mike “Rookie”/”Big Mike” Jackson, Eastern
Eric “Luke” Johnson, Northeastern
Webster Kirksey, Saginaw
Eugene “Torch” Lawson, Highland Park
Rabon McHenry, Highland Park
Harold “Daffy Duck” Montgomery, Northeastern
“Marvelous” Mose Montgomery, Northeastern/Northern
Rudy Nelson, Northern
Charlie North, Northeastern/Northwestern
Jimmy Reed, Northeastern
Willie Scarborough, Moore
Jimmy “Shaf Fo” Shaffold, Highland Park
Andy Shepard, Saginaw
Oscar Ulmer, Northeastern
Ernie “Daddy Wag” Wagner, Northern/Northeastern
Charles “Tiny Brown/Goose Tatum, Jr.” Ward, Capron
Donald “Zip” White, Northern
Ramon “Spike” Wilkinson, Moore
**Charles Turner, Southwestern
**-Alleged, but yet to be confirmed.

Tatum passed away January 18 during the 1966-67 season.  The next season, Wilkinson separated the word Roadkings and put the team out on the road as the Harlem Road Kings.  Wilkinson’s Harlem Road Kings toured for at least five seasons, with the last articles being found during the season of 1971-72.

“Eldoroda Bob”, Unknown
Shea Douglas, Detroit Northeastern
Willie Flowers, Hamtramck
“Big” Ben Gillery, Northeastern
Lawrence Hall, Northern
Reggie Harding, Northeastern/Eastern/Nashville (TN) Christian
“Rous” Hardman, Unknown
James Hester, Miller
Mike “Rookie”/”Big Mike” Jackson, Eastern
Maurice McHartley, Central
Willie Scarborough, Moore
Murphy Summons, Northwestern
Ramon “Spike” Wilkinson, Moore

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