Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon Dies, Globetrotter’s Clown Prince Dies at 83

Lemon was also known for appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show, Diff’rent Strokes and in animated form as part of a Harlem Globetrotters animated series and in episodes of Scooby Doo.

Lemon ended up becoming arguably the team’s most popular player, a showman known as much for his confetti-in-the-water-bucket routine, on-the-court comedy antics with referees, and even his half-court hook shots and no-look, behind-the-back passes.

Lemon left the Globetrotters over a contract dispute and formed his own traveling teams – the Meadowlark Lemon’s Bucketeers, the Shooting Stars and Meadowlark Lemon’s Harlem All-Stars – with which he played well into his 70s. After serving two years in the Army – where he played a few games with the Trotters on an overseas tour – Lemon was given a tryout by Globetrotters’ owner Abe Saperstein and made the cut.

Outside of basketball, Lemon was a regular guests on talk shows and news programs.

The sportsman found fame with exhibition basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters, joining them in 1955 and touring with the sporting entertainers for 25 years. But many forget that in their earlier days, the Globetrotters won games in more conventional ways – barnstorming the U.S.to play local all-star teams and college teams and the like. So in an effort to celebrate his life, we put together a list of things you should know about this basketball great.

After his military service was completed Lemon officially became a Harlem Globetrotter.

“He did what he had to do to survive”, said Carl Green, 83, in an interview Monday about Lemon, who was Green’s roommate during some of their global barnstorming tours.

“My destiny was to make people happy”, he said as he was inducted into the basketball hall in 2003.

Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and spent the last years of his life trying to spread a message of faith through basketball.

“I said, ‘That’s mine, this is for me.’ I was receiving a vision, I was receiving a dream in my heart”.

He played an astonishing 16,000 games overall in his career, according to his website, including some 7,500 consecutive Globetrotter games.