Meadowlark Lemon, the "Clown Prince of Basketball" who entertained fans as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters for 22 years, died Sunday, his wife confirmed to the New York Times. He was 83.
Lemon, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2003, is one of only five Globetrotters to have their numbers retired since the team was founded in Chicago in the 1920s.
He joined the Globetrotters in 1954 at the age of 22 and stayed with the traveling show until 1978, appearing in more than 16,000 games in 97 countries.