Fred ‘Curly’ Neal just passed away at 77, but his impact on the game of basketball, and his Harlem Globetrotters’ transformative message to a nation, lingers on. Bill Whittle Now with Scott Ott looks at the legacy of an American legend.
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11 replies on “America’s Team Loses a Legend: What Curly Neal and the Globetrotters Meant”
I remember seeing them live when I was a kid. What great memories. The clip at the end was great.
Wow! What wonderful fun memories. My dad took my brother and I to see them when they came to the Central Valley. Just amazing! Of course, at the time I had no idea they and we were making cultural history. It is so sad that so many of those events and times have been squandered to what we see today. Why do we humans always find a way to mess up and tarnish the most precious and exuberant parts of life? Thank you for giving such a fine tribute to Curly and giving me a reprieve from all the doom and gloom of Covid-19.
Loved watching the Harlem Globe Trotters as a kid. Another notable celebrity from that era was the late, great Diahann Carroll, who was the first black woman to star as the lead of a TV show, “Julia”.
Curly was a great player, entertainer, and ambassador of good will. He now joins another team member and former high school classmate of mine, Billy Ray “The Dunker” Hobley. RIP. The laughter will never end.
Bill, the myth of the Tuskegee airmen (332nd Fighter Group) never losing a escorted bomber to enemy fighters was disproved by the USAAF’s own historical records. At least 25 bombers were shot down. They were a fine fighter outfit, no better than any other, but they don’t deserve to be placed on a pedestal above everyone else. To do so only denigrates them.
I never saw them live, but remember watching them on Wide World of Sports. I also remember watching when Meadowlark went over to the sideline to talk to a dad holding his baby daughter. After chatting to them for a minute he said, OK, how about a kiss?”. The dad held his baby closer, leaving Meadowlark to snap at him, “Not the baby – I meant you!”
I remember my mom & I cracking up over that one. Today the LGBQWERTY crowd would be in a rage and demand an apology.
Except in video clips, I never withnessed the Harlem Globetrotters; however, I do recall being amazed by the Harlem Clowns when they visited the small town of my youth in British Columbia.
The guy who bet against the Globetrotters was Krusty the Klown.
And The Simpsons gave us another great Globetrotters reference when Homer turned on The History Channel (back in the 90s, when it actually was a history channel) and said, “Ooooh, the Luftwaffe – the Washington Generals of Teh History Channel!”
Bill and Scott. What refreshing topic to cover. Bill, might I suggest that you may have found your next “what we saw” topic? It could be extremely powerful. “What we saw – The end of culteral racism in America”
I’m sold