Harlem Globetrotters Legend Dubbed ‘Clown Prince of Basketball’ Has Passed Away at 88

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Known for combining spectacular basketball skills with on-court comedy antics, the Harlem Globetrotters have been entertaining fans for decades.

Sadly, one of the team’s fan-favorite members has passed away: Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, a member of the Globetrotters during its heyday in the 1970s. He was 88 years old.

‘He Set the Standard’

“It is with great sadness that we mark the passing of Hubert “Geese” Ausbie, one of the most influential and remarkable players in Harlem Globetrotter history,” read a Globetrotters Instagram post announcing Ausbie’s passing.

“‘Geese’ exemplified everything the Globetrotters are known and recognized for, and he set the standard that our stars live by today. He was a true Global Ambassador who combined unrivaled showmanship with trademark athleticism and an immeasurable social impact. His commitment to community, and an unquenchable desire to make the world around him better live on in our history,” the post continued.

“Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family and his millions of fans, and supporters, all over the world,” the post added. “‘Geese’ was not just a Hall of Fame Globetrotter, he was a Hall of Fame person, and his legacy of love, joy and happiness continues to live on.”

‘The Clown Prince of Basketball’

As the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported, Ausbie joined the Globetrotters in 1961, and spent 24 years with the team. According to the newspaper, Ausbie’s showmanship alongside teammates Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal earned him the nickname the “Clown Prince of Basketball.”

After Lemon left the Globetrotters in 1978 (per Ausbie’s biography at the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame), “Geese” took over as the team’s lead entertainer.

The years in which Ausbie performed with the the team were arguably its most successful, with the Harlem Globetrotters becoming a pop-culture phenomenon during the 1970s.

Wildly popular, the team was at the center of a popular Saturday-morning cartoon, with “The Harlem Globe Trotters” running from 1970 until 1973 (actor Johnny Wilson provided the voice of Ausbie in the cartoon).

The team also appeared regularly in various “Scooby-Doo” animated TV movies, while the actual team members starred in “The Harlem Globetrotters Popcorn Machine,” a 1974 live-action Saturday-morning variety show.

That was followed by animated series “The Super Globetrotters” in 1979.

The team’s status in pop culture during that era cannot be underestimated. In 1981, Ausbie and his teammates wound up stranded on TV’s most famous deserted island in the made-for-TV movie “The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan’s Island.”

Eusbie was also featured in the 2005 documentary “The Harlem Globetrotters: The Team That Changed the World.”

‘The Gospel Globetrotter’

After Ausbie exited the Globetrotters in 1985, he coached basketball and, as reported by KATV, served as a deacon at Greater Archview Baptist Church in Little Rock, Arkansas.

“I call him the gospel globetrotter because that’s basically the role that he fulfilled … spreading the gospel,” Archview pastor Kenneth Martin told KATV. “In his role as a deacon and as a Globetrotter and the opportunity to travel throughout the world, he was able to spread the gospel as well as fun and goodwill to those that he encountered.”

Ausbie was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1990 and the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame in 1995.

Ausbie’s No. 35 Globetrotters jersey was retired by the team during a halftime ceremony in 2016, KARK reported. According to Brett Meister, former communications staffer for the Harlem Globetrotters, Ausbie was one of just eight players in the team’s history to have his number retired.