RIP Red Klotz

Best know as coach of the Washington Generals, New Jersey Reds, or whatever name they came up with for the Globetrotters' foils:

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/11213311/harlem-globetrotters-mourn-death-foe-red-klotz-93

 

He's losing games in heaven, now.

One of my favorite SI pieces ever, from 1995 (the swimsuit issue, actually), on the life and times of Red Klotz:

http://www.si.com/vault/1995/02/20/133337/the-general-whose-army-never-wins-in-a-life-of-losing-to-the-globetrotters-coach-red-klotz-of-the-washington-generals-has-won-over-the-world

 

Lets Lose this one for the Klotz!!!

 

Poz linked to this piece on his blog:

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/rip-red-klotz/

 

RIP

 

That story is one of my faviorits, too. But I disagree. In heaven, he has the best team ever and is going to win a bunch.

Takes a real special person to have kept playing that role day after day, year after year. I had a Globetrotters book as a kid and they had a chapter on Klotz, and talked about how hard it was to find players who knew their role, so to speak. One guy he had brought on board kept trying to screw up the Trotters' routines because he wanted to play seriously, and eventually punched Meadowlark Lemon. He was gone after that.


RIP, and thanks for being such a great loser.

 

What a loser. RIP

 

RIP, but I guess I don't understand what was so hard about it. It's just a show, right? Lots of people play bad guys or are regularly the butt of the joke in TV series or movies and seem to survive.

 

From numerous reports, a lot of people wanted to punch Meadowlark Lemon, mostly with very good reason.

Supposedly after Klotz's lone win over the Trotters, as he was coming off the floor, Meadowlark was ripping into his ass bigtime, threatening to fire him on the spot, etc etc., and at one point, Klotz fires back, "What the hell was I supposed to do?"
Lemon: "You were supposed to lose, motherfucker!!"
Klotz: "Well, if you'd play worth half a shit, it wouldn't be so hard, asshole."

 

Yeah, but for 50 years? And the story said he missed an awful lot of time with his wife and kids because they were on the road all year. You'd think at some point he'd seek a different line of work.