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Meadowlark Lemon. Photo courtesy of Hunt Auctions.
Abe Saperstein, founder and coach of the Harlem Globetrotters got a letter in the mail from a Wilmington, North Carolina teenager one day he couldn’t ignore.
“My ambition is to become a Globetrotter…I have the spirit and go-getiveness it takes to become a Globetrotter,” the 18-year-old wrote.
Everything in the youngster’s letter reeked of an unwillingness to take no for an answer. Saperstein’s sensed hunger that ran deep.
Meadow George Lemon had been in love with the Globetrotters basketball team since he was 11-years-old. He got hooked for the first time at the local cinema house when he saw a short news reel feature about the team.
“They flew up and down the court, passing, dribbling, shooting, rebounding," Lemon said in his autobiography, “Meadowlark”. “My heart raced. My head nearly ached. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The athletic ability was fantastic, of course, but there was something else. It was the joy, the teamwork, the sense of family.” Coming from a fractured family it looked like a second chance.
Saperstein asked Globetrotter Marques Haynes to take a look at the kid the next time the team played in Raleigh. Just as the Raleigh game was about to start Haynes took Lemon into the locker room and tossed him a Globetrotter jersey.
“Suit up,” Haynes said. He didn’t have time after the game to give Lemon a try out so he would have to show his stuff on the court right then and there.
Lemon was so nervous he could hardly lace up his sneakers. Then he went out and showed why he belonged on the team.
“You’re a good-lookin ballplayer, Lemon,” said his idol Goose Tatum after the game.
Lemon’s career was delayed by a stretch in the armed services in 1952. He actually joined the Globetrotters in 1955. By the end of his rookie season he earned the nickname “Meadowlark” and a shot at being head clown.
“From somewhere deep inside me came a joy and even a voice that I can only use while I’m on the court in the heat of the game,” he said.
The Globetrotters basketball wizardry and clowning embraced everything good about the sport. With his half-court hookshot that never seemed to miss, roguish smile and contagious laugh, Lemon enchanted fans.
“I was making people happy,” he said. “I felt the capacity crowd having fun because of me. But no one was having a better time than I was.”
During his 23 seasons and 9,925 consecutive games with the Globetrotters the “Clown Prince of Basketball” made millions laugh. In 2003, Lemon was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
The Globetrotters and their star-spangled uniforms have become a part of sport’s history as well as American pop culture. Their gift of love, laughter and basketball continues today.
On April 18, Hunt Auctions featured a selection of Globetrotter memorabilia in its Basketball Memorabilia at Public Auction sale held in Chicago at the National American Sports Hall of Fame. Here are some current values.
Globetrotters
Souvenir Pennant; original blue pennant; player graphic at left; circa 1940s-50s; $115.
Warm Up Suit; red, white and blue knit jacket and pants; issued for traveling team; includes authentication certification; circa 1970s; $161.
Souvenir Nodder; depicts player in Globetrotters uniform; straddling globe with suitcase and basketball in hand; circa 1960s; $230.
Wristwatch; Harlem Globetrotters College All-Stars; presentational; Elgin; red and blue titling on face; unused working order; 1955; $2,875.
Uniform; Meadowlark Lemon; game-worn full uniform; includes jersey, shorts and socks; dates from Lemon’s earliest seasons with the team; Lemon’s number 36; scarce early uniform; Wilson’s manufacturer’s tag; size 42; early-1960s; $8,280.
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