basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
NJ.com
NJ.com is a digital news content provider and website in New Jersey owned by Advance Publications. According to a report in ''The New York Times'' in 2012, it was the largest provider of digital news in the state at the time. In 2018, comScore r ...
, December 28, 2015. Retrieved May 7, 2017."Meadowlark Lemon Ministries." ''www.meadowlarklemon.org.'' Retrieved May 8, 2017. For 22 years, he was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team. He played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters and was a 2003 inductee into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
When basketball legend
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...
was asked his opinion on the best player of all time, he responded, "For me it would be Meadowlark Lemon."
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
Wilmington, North Carolina
Wilmington is a port city in and the county seat of New Hanover County in coastal southeastern North Carolina, United States.
With a population of 115,451 at the 2020 census, it is the eighth most populous city in the state. Wilmington is t ...
Florida A&M University
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...
, but was soon drafted into the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
and served for two years in Austria and West Germany.
Career
Basketball
Lemon made his first basketball hoop out of an onion sack and coat hanger, using an empty
Carnation
''Dianthus caryophyllus'' (), commonly known as the carnation or clove pink, is a species of ''Dianthus''. It is likely native to the Mediterranean region but its exact range is unknown due to extensive cultivation for the last 2,000 years.Med ...
milk can to sink his first 2-point hoop.
Lemon first applied to the Globetrotters in 1954 at age 22, finally being chosen to play in 1955. In 1980, he left to form one of his Globetrotters imitators, the Bucketeers. He played with that team until 1983, then moved on to play with the Shooting Stars from 1984 to 1987. In 1988, he moved on to "Meadowlark Lemon's Harlem All Stars" team. Despite being with his own touring team, Lemon returned to the Globetrotters, playing 50 games with them in 1994.
In 2000, Lemon received the
John Bunn Award
The John Bunn Award—in full, the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award—is an annual basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete wit ...
In the 1970s, an animated version of Lemon, voiced by
Scatman Crothers
Benjamin Sherman Crothers (May 23, 1910 – November 22, 1986), known professionally as Scatman Crothers, was an American actor and musician. He is known for playing Louie the Garbage Man on the TV show '' Chico and the Man'', and Dick Hal ...
, starred with various other Globetrotters in the Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon series '' Harlem Globetrotters'', as well as its spinoff, ''
The Super Globetrotters
''The Super Globetrotters'' is a 30-minute Saturday morning animated series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It premiered on NBC on September 22, 1979 and ran for 13 episodes. It was a spin-off series from Hanna-Barbera's ''Harlem Globetrott ...
.'' The animated Globetrotters also made three appearances in '' The New Scooby-Doo Movies.''
Lemon appeared alongside Fred "Curly" Neal, Marques Haynes and his other fellow Globetrotters in a live-action Saturday-morning television show, ''
The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine
''The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine'' was a Saturday morning variety show featuring players from the basketball team the Harlem Globetrotters singing, dancing, and performing comedy sketches. Broadcast from 1974 to 1975, it was produced by F ...
Avery Schreiber
Avery Lawrence Schreiber (April 9, 1935 – January 7, 2002) was an American actor and comedian. He was a veteran of stage, television, and movies who came to prominence in the 1960s in a comedy duo with Jack Burns. He acted in an array of roles ...
.
In 1978, Lemon appeared in a memorable Burger King commercial by making a tower of burgers until he found a double-beef pickles and onions with no-cheese burger.
in 1979, Lemon guest-starred in an episode of the
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
television
anthology series
An anthology series is a radio, television, video game or film series that spans different genres and presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a dif ...
'' $weepstake$''.
In 1980, Lemon appeared as the coach of the basketball team from '' The White Shadow'' in a series of guest skits for Order/Disorder week on '' 3-2-1 Contact''.
In 1983, Lemon appeared on an episode of '' Alice'' entitled "Tommy Fouls Out", and in a Charmin toilet paper commercial alongside Mr. Whipple (actor Dick Wilson).
In 1996 season 2 episode 5 of ''
Pinky and the Brain
''Pinky and the Brain'' is an American animated television series that was created by Tom Ruegger that premiered on Kids' WB on September 9, 1995. It was the first animated television series to be presented in Dolby Surround and the fourth col ...
'' titled "Brain's Song" Meadowlark Lemon was Brain's best friend in the parody of ''
Brian's Song
''Brian's Song'' is a 1971 ABC Movie of the Week that recounts the life of Brian Piccolo (James Caan), a Chicago Bears football player stricken with terminal cancer after turning pro in 1965, told through his friendship with teammate Gale Sayer ...
''.
In 2006, on episode of adult swim's '' The Boondocks'' entitled "The Itis", the name of Meadowlark was used as the name of the park that Ed Wuncler I mentions an interest in purchasing from the state.
In 2009, on FOX's TV show ''
The Cleveland Show
''The Cleveland Show'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Richard Appel, and Mike Henry for the Fox Broadcasting Company. A spin-off of ''Family Guy'', the series centers on Cleveland Brown, his new wife Donna Tubbs, and ...
'', the name of Meadowlark Lemon was used for a dog's name, a pet for the character of Rallo Tubbs. The dog died in the second episode.
Other work
In 1979, Lemon starred in the educational geography film ''Meadowlark Lemon Presents the World.'' Also in 1979, he joined the cast of the short-lived television sitcom '' Hello, Larry'' in season two, to help boost the show's ratings. In the same year, he played Rev. Grady Jackson in the movie ''
The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh
''The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh'' is a 1979 American sports/fantasy comedy film directed by Gilbert Moses and coproduced by David Dashev and Gary Stromberg. It was produced by Lorimar and distributed by United Artists.
The film was shot on loc ...
.'' It was several years before he actually became an ordained minister himself.
He recorded a song, "My Kids" which was written by Dalton & Dubarri. The song was produced by Dubarri, and released on Casablanca NB 969 in March, 1979. In The '' Cash Box'' Singles to Watch section, it was called Top 40 material by the reviewer.
In 1982, Lemon was featured in the Grammy-nominated video ''Fun & Games'', an interactive educational video produced by Optical Programming Associates and Scholastic Productions, on the then-emerging LaserDisc format.
In 1994, Lemon was referenced in an episode of the Nickelodeon show “The Adventures of Pete & Pete”. One of the characters claimed that “...you know, in a matter of moments, we’re all gonna be famous like Meadowlark Lemon.”
Personal life
Lemon had 10 children: Richard, George, Beverly, Donna, Robin, Jonathan, Jamison, Angela, Crystal, and Caleb.
A born-again Christian, Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from
Vision International University
Vision International University is an American interdenominational Christian Seminary based in Ramona, California. The university offers distance education and online academic degree programs designed to prepare people for professional ministry.
...
in
Ramona, California
Ramona is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Diego County, California. The population was 20,292 at the 2010 census.
The name ''Ramona'' also refers to an unincorporated community (with some plans to incorporate) that includes both the ...
, in 1988. He was also featured as a gospel singer in several
Gaither Homecoming
''Gaither Homecoming'' is the name applied to a series of videos, music recordings and concerts, which are organized, promoted and usually presented by Christian music songwriter and impresario Bill Gaither. To date, the ''Gaither Homecoming'' t ...
videos. In his last years, he took up residence in Scottsdale, where his Meadowlark Lemon Ministries, Inc. is located.
Death
Lemon died in Scottsdale, on December 27, 2015, at the age of 83. No cause of death was given.