This person died in 2020 at age 77. He began shaving his head at age 12, long before he got his nickname. He was a standout college basketball player at Johnson C Smith University in North Carolina, and an eventual inductee into the National Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2008, his number 22 jersey was retired in a ceremony at Madison Square Garden as the Harlem Globetrotters’ ball-handling sensation. Today’s dead celebrity is Fred “Curly” Neal.

Famous & Gravy is created and co-hosted by Amit Kapoor and Michael Osborne. This episode was produced by Jacob Weiss. Visit our website at famousandgravy.com and also enjoy our free mobile quiz game at deadoraliveapp.com

LINKS:

Transcript of this episode

New York Times Obituary for Curly Neal

How Curly Neal Changed the Game of Basketball tribute video

Curly Neal Legends’ page on official Globetrotters Site

Trailer for Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island

Krusty the Clown bets against the Globetrotters

Spud Webb wins the 1986 slam dunk contest

Dead or Alive quiz game

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Dazzling Dribbler (Curly Neal)

Famous and Gravy: Dead celebrity biographies