Louis Herman "Red" Klotz (October 21, 1920 – July 12, 2014) was an American professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
player. He was a
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...
(NBA) point guard with the original Baltimore Bullets, and he was best known for forming the teams that play against and tour with the
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name '' Harlem'' because of ...
: the
Washington Generals
The Washington Generals are an American basketball team who play exhibition games against the Harlem Globetrotters. The team has also played under several different aliases in their history as the Globetrotters' perennial opponents.
Function
...
and the New York Nationals. He was the oldest-living NBA champion.
Over Klotz's professional basketball career, he coached or played in over 14,000 games during eight decades and in over 100 countries.
Early life
Klotz was born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...
, into a
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
family. He began playing basketball at age 12. He attended
South Philadelphia High School
South Philadelphia High School is a public secondary high school located in the Lower Moyamensing neighborhood of South Philadelphia, at the intersection of Broad Street and Snyder Avenue.
The school serves grades 9 through 12 and is part of the ...
where he led the school team to city basketball championships in 1939 and 1940, both times earning Philadelphia Player of the Year honors.
He attended
Villanova University
Villanova University is a private Roman Catholic research university in Villanova, Pennsylvania. It was founded by the Augustinians in 1842 and named after Saint Thomas of Villanova. The university is the oldest Catholic university in Pen ...
on an athletic scholarship, playing on the undefeated freshman basketball team. He left college for
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, serving stateside.
Career
Klotz "played for a number of teams in those early and turbulent days of professional basketball", according to Joe Posnanski of ''Sports Illustrated''. Klotz played with the South Philadelphia Hebrew Association (the Philadelphia Sphas) of the American Basketball League (ABL) as a point guard in the 1940s. In an exhibition game, the Sphas defeated the
Harlem Globetrotters
The Harlem Globetrotters are an American exhibition basketball team. They combine athleticism, theater, and comedy in their style of play. Created in 1926 by Tommy Brookins in Chicago, Illinois, the team adopted the name '' Harlem'' because of ...
, Klotz's first game against them. He played with the Sphas until 1947.
Klotz played during the 1948 season on the Baltimore Bullets team, the year they won the
Basketball Association of America
The Basketball Association of America (BAA) was a professional basketball league in North America, founded in 1946. Following its third season, 1948–49, the BAA absorbed most of National Basketball League (NBL) and rebranded as the National Ba ...
championship. He played in 11 games, scoring 15 points. He also played in six playoff games, scoring six points.
At , he is tied as the fourth-shortest person to play in an NBA game, and the shortest to play on a championship team.
Washington Generals
Klotz played for the Philadelphia Sphas of the ABL until 1947; the team had beaten the Harlem Globetrotters on more than one occasion. He later coached and managed the Sphas. In 1953, after playing on several all-star teams against the Trotters during their first international tours, Klotz was approached by Globetrotters owner
Abe Saperstein
Abraham Michael Saperstein (; July 4, 1902 – March 15, 1966) was the founder, owner and earliest coach of the Harlem Globetrotters. Saperstein was a leading figure in black basketball and baseball from the 1920s through the 1950s, primarily bef ...
about having his team tour with the Globetrotters and play them on a regular basis. Klotz named his new enterprise the Washington Generals, in honor of Dwight D. Eisenhower. From 1953 until 1995, the Generals played exhibitions against the Globetrotters, winning only two games and only one recognized by the Trotters, the last in 1971, and losing more than 14,000.
Klotz played with the team as a point guard until the age of 68. At 50 years old, he made the game-winning shot for the New Jersey Reds with three seconds left in their final win. "The crowd wanted to kill me," he said. In 1995 Klotz "disbanded" the Generals and formed the New York Nationals to take their place, to erase their record and "change their luck". The team remained the Nationals until 2007, when they reverted to the "Generals" name. The Generals remain a separate organization from the Globetrotters. Klotz claimed the team still tried to win every game.
Achievements
Klotz was inducted into the Philadelphia Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2001. He became the first non-Globetrotter to receive the Globetrotters' "Legend" award on March 10, 2007. Red has stated he has lost over 13,000 games in his coaching career.
In 2009 the Philadelphia Sportswriter's Association presented Klotz with the "Living Legend" award, previously given to such Philadelphia notables as
Robin Roberts
Robin Roberts may refer to:
* Robin Roberts (newscaster) (born 1960), ''Good Morning America'' anchor and former ESPN anchor
* Robin Roberts (baseball) (1926–2010), American baseball player
* Rockin' Robin Roberts (1940–1967), singer
See al ...
Wilt Chamberlain
Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 years and is widely reg ...
.
The Globetrotters inducted Klotz into their Legends Ring, the team's version of a hall of fame, in 2007. He remains the first non-Trotter so honored. In 2011, the Trotters and Generals retired Klotz's number 3 jersey and raised a banner honoring him to the rafters at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Klotz's biography, ''The Legend of Red Klotz: How Basketball's Loss Leader Won Over the World, 14,000 Times'', was published in November 2013.
Personal life
Klotz was married. He attributed much of his success to his wife, Gloria.According to Author Tim Kelly's book, ''The Legend of Red Klotz''. In September 2013, Red Klotz "Dedicated the book in the honor of his wife, Gloria. She made it possible for my success in the world of Basketball."
He died at age 93 in
Margate City, New Jersey
Margate City is a city in Atlantic County, New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Margate City's population was 5,317, a reduction of 1,037 over the previous decade.