Meadowlark Lemon

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Meadow George Lemon III (April 25, 1932 – December 27, 2015), publicly known as "Meadowlark" Lemon, was an American basketball player, actor, and minister. For 22 years, Lemon was known as the "Clown Prince" of the touring Harlem Globetrotters basketball team.[1] He played in more than 16,000 games for the Globetrotters and was a 2003 inductee of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Lemon was born in Wilmington, North Carolina and attended Williston Industrial School, graduating in 1952. He then matriculated into Florida A&M University, but was soon drafted into the United States Army, serving for two years.

Lemon made his first basketball hoop out of an onion sack and coat hanger, using an empty Carnation 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 the following year (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 highest honor given by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame outside of induction. He was inducted into the Hall three years later as a contributor to the game. On May 18, 2009, Lemon became a partial owner of the Smoky Mountain Jam of the American Basketball Association.

Meadowlark Lemon had 10 children: Richard, George, Beverly, Donna, Robin, Jonathan, Jamison, Angela, Crystal and Caleb.

In May 1974, Lemon's estranged first wife Willye pleaded guilty to simple assault after admitting to stabbing Lemon with a steak knife.

A born-again Christian, Lemon became an ordained minister in 1986 and received a Doctor of Divinity degree from Vision International University in Ramona, California, in 1988. In his last years, he took up residence in Scottsdale, Arizona, where his Meadowlark Lemon Ministries, Inc. is located. After his first marriage ended in divorce, Lemon in 1994 married Dr. Cynthia Lemon.