Care to share fond memories of Meadowlark Lemon, the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team, dead at age 83?

I saw the Globetrotters when I was growing up. They were wonderful! Better than the circus.

I saw Meadowlark Lemon and the Globetrotters live in the early 1970s. It was beautiful.

In my memory I was court-side and someone bounced a ball off my head as a gag, But I was a little kid and I might be mixing up real life with also watching them on TV.

He was a fantastic player- glad to see the team (he was the best) in the Seventies also. @jaytkay- You had a better time it sounds. Or better tv….one of the two.
Meadowlark- one of a kind. Cheers clink

One of the most memorable highlights of my childhood was going to Boston Garden to see Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal, and the rest of the Globetrotters perform. They were wonderful, both talented athletes and true performers.

Hard to fathom he was so old.
What great performers he and the team were.
Does anyone know who, what, how, the Globetrotters came to be?

@Here2_4 Does anyone know who, what, how, the Globetrotters came to be?
They started in the late 1920’s in or near Chicago, and played their first game in Hinckley, IL. a small northern Illinois town just west of Chicago.

I remember him from when I was a kid, in the 1950’s and -60’s. Athlete, comic and good-will ambassador. He will be missed.

I remember him from when I was a kid in the 70’s. I didn’t even like basketball, but they seemed to have so much fun and the athletic stunts they did were so outrageous you jusy had to have a good time.

A number of professional athletes named Meadowlark the greatest basketball player of all time, but he preferred to ‘make people happy.’

I saw the Globetrotters with my dad and brothers at the Cow Palace in San Francisco in 1963. He stole the show. I watched him for only a couple of hours 52 years ago and still remember his antics, his yo-yo ball, etc. That’s amazing if you consider that I had spent entire years with teachers the names of whom I can’t remember, but I’ve always remembered Meadowlark.

Filmfann is right. I grew up just north of the Barnum & Bailey winter quarters and I don’t remember one specific circus act that could compare to the Globetrotters during the Meadowlark years.

Wilt Chamberlain, who played with the Globetrotters for one year in 1958–59 before he qualified for the NBA, said that Meadowlark Lemon was the best basketball player in the world, ever. You can’t do better than that.

I saw the Globetrotters and Meadowlark Lemon in (I think) 1955 playing against the L. A. Rams football team. We were in the second row center court, I remember the water bucket and being covered in confetti. “Goose” Tatum was still playing for the Globetrotters.
Both Goose and Meadowlark were hamming it up on court with the ball under the jersey, and handing the ball to the ref another player would run by and pick-up the ball from the ref like a pass.