TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- Meadowlark Lemon entertained millions of fans around the world – including Tallahassee – with his blend of style and humor as the “clown prince of basketball” while with the Harlem Globetrotters.
But Tommy Mitchell Sr., learning to craft his dribbling routine with the traveling team in the early 1960s, recalls the personal time he spent in quiet gymnasiums with the attentive, serious showman.
Lemon died Sunday in Scottsdale, Arizona. He was 83.
“I was indebted to him,” said Mitchell, 76, president of the Florida A&M National Alumni Association.
“I thought I was a good basketball player, but I certainly wasn’t a dribbling clown. But he took me into the gym and told me about the older guys and showed me some things they did. Meadowlark was responsible for teaching me the routine that I developed.”
After briefly attending FAMU and serving in the U.S. Army, Lemon joined the Globetrotters in 1954.
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