Fred Neal

Who is Fred Neal?

Fred "Curly" Neal is an American basketball player best known for his career with the Harlem Globetrotters, instantly recognizable with his shaved head. Following in the footsteps of Marques Haynes, Neal became the Trotters' featured ballhandler, a key role in the team's exhibition act.

Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, Neal attended Greensboro-Dudley High School, a perennial power in the state. He was shortly followed there by future Atlanta Hawks All-Star Lou Hudson, and NFL Hall of Fame tight end Charlie Sanders. Unlike Hudson and Sanders, who attended the University of Minnesota, Neal went to Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina. At Smith, he averaged 23.1 points a game and was named All-CIAA guard.

Neal played for 22 seasons with the Globetrotters, appearing in more than 6,000 games in 97 countries. His shaved head earned him his nickname, a reference to the Three Stooges' Curly Howard, and made him one of the most recognizable Globetrotters. In the 1970s, an animated version of Neal starred with various other Globetrotters in the Hanna-Barbera animated cartoon, Harlem Globetrotters, as well as its spinoff, The Super Globetrotters.