Earlier today, news broke that Meadowlark Lemon, the famed Clown Prince of Basketball of the Harlem Globetrotters, passed away over the weekend. Although by the time I finally saw my first Globetrotters game on their 1983 tour, Meadowlark had long left, but I had obviously grown up with him on a steady diet of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, the team’s own cartoon series, and the guest appearances on Scooby-Doo.
A quote from Wilt Chamberlain – “Meadowlark was the most sensational, awesome, incredible basketball player I’ve ever seen,” Chamberlain said in a television interview not long before he died in 1999. “People would say it would be Dr. J or even Jordan. For me, it would be Meadowlark Lemon.” – prompted me to dig into the KU BALLS archives for an item that tied together Meadowlark and Kansas basketball.
Above is a program from the Globetrotters’ 1958 European tour signed by Wilt (upper left) shortly after leaving the University of Kansas to join them. There are also signatures from former Globetrotters Bob Milton, Clarence Wilson, Andy Johnson, Bob Hall, Tex Harrison (who later became the team’s coach), and – in the upper right hand corner – Meadow (sans the “lark”) Lemon.
Below are some pictures of the Harlem Globetrotters souvenir program for that season:
Other Jayhawk Globetrotter artifacts housed at KU BALLS:
(Apologies to Kansas Jayhawks Bryant Nash and David Nash, who both also played for the Globetrotters. KU BALLS is still on the hunt for memorabilia from their tenures.)
No one will ever have a shot that compares to Meadowlark Lemon’s half-court hook. A tip of the cap from KU BALLS to Meadowlark upon his passing.
Hello
If this is indeed the David Nash who played at KU as well as for the Globetrotters – Hello! I hope you found the post entertaining.
I have a Harlemglobetrotter action photo to donate .
Please give me a mailing address.
Here is email address
dn19i@nih.gov, also my
cell#240-271-7457/240-425-2694