Legendary Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon Dies

Legendary Harlem Globetrotter Meadowlark Lemon Passes Away At 83

Meadowlark Lemon, who made halfcourt shots and no-look behind-the-back passes with the Harlem Globetrotters for nearly a quarter-century, passed away on Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona according to his wife, Cynthia. He was 83.

Via The New York Times:

A gifted athlete with an entertainer’s hunger for the spotlight, Lemon, who dreamed of playing for the Globetrotters as a boy in North Carolina, joined the team in 1954, not long after leaving the Army. Within a few years, he had assumed the central role of showman, taking over from Reece Tatum, whom everyone called Goose, the Trotters’ long-reigning clown prince. Tatum was a superb ballplayer whose on-court gags — or reams, as the players called them — had established the team’s reputation for laugh-inducing wizardry at a championship level.

The Harlem Globetrotters organization took to Twitter to publicly mourn Meadowlark Lemon’s passing.

We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved Meadowlark Lemon. He was 83. #RIPMeadowlark pic.twitter.com/tCRWkZUD3h

— Harlem Globetrotters (@Globies) December 28, 2015