Curly Neal, Globetrotters’ Dazzling Dribbler, Dies at 77

Neal’s trickery established him as one of the team’s foremost stars, alongside the likes of Meadowlark Lemon and Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, and helped the Globetrotters’ traveling show become a regular feature of ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” in an era when the National Basketball Association did not have a robust national television presence as it does now.

At the height of the Globetrotters’ popularity in the 1970s, with Neal’s supreme ball-handling skills and long-distance shooting as prime attractions, they inspired multiple animated TV series, including “Scooby-Doo Meets the Harlem Globetrotters” in 1972.

They also performed some of their basketball tricks on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” accompanied as always by the strains of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” their trademark song. And they played themselves on television shows like “The White Shadow” and “Love Boat” and in a made-for-television “Gilligan’s Island” movie.

“His basketball skill was unrivaled by most, and his warm heart and huge smile brought joy to families worldwide,” Jeff Munn, the Globetrotters’ general manager, said in a statement on Thursday. “He always made time for his many fans and inspired millions.”

Frederick Neal was born on May 19, 1942, in Greensboro, N.C., and played collegiately at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, where he averaged 23 points per game as a senior to earn All-Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association honors. Future N.B.A. stars such as Lou Hudson and Al Attles were high school and college contemporaries, but Neal was not drafted by an N.B.A. team and struggled to land a job in the pros.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/sports/basketball/curly-neal-dead.html