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sports It's just a j the Globel By SALLY WILSON Asst. Sports Editor You buy a ticket to see the infamous Harlem Globetrotters -- Meadowlark Lemon, Curly Neal and various sidekicks. You sit wide-eyed to the whistling tune of Sweet Georgia Brown, amused with extravagant basketball stunts from bouncepass baskets to behind-the-back dunks. When not pestering the referee or chatting with the crowd, Meadowlark attempts, and occasionally hits, hook shots from more than 30 feet. WHAT THE Globetrotters provide is basketball entertainment in four tenminute periods. But along with cheering on the flashy playing comedians, you kind of feel sorry for the opposing players floundering about in circles trying to keep up with the ducking and dodging Globetrotters. Those poor opposing players don't need sympathy. Chasing Globetrotters in their romping antics, having basketballs bounced off their posteriors and generally playing the patsy comes in a day's work for a member of the New Jersey Reds, the oasKeioan team wmcn travels lrom city to city to play exhibition games with the Globetrotters. The Reds, hardly a mediocre group of rjiyr** - jMP^ ^^.mj. ><*** . ' ** r "'^ 6W??l?^:,V,' ; : ^ . i(j? ?*" r' v;" yt" V(. . Two Globetrotters display the ball hj that have entertained audiences aroui The Globetrotters performed at Carol Friday night. ob to play trotters basketball players, are comprised of nine full-time employes who have played basketball at such colleges as Kansas State, Syracuse and Buffalo. For a living they compete against the Globetrotters approximately six to eight months a year, eight performances a week. "THERE'RE TIMES when it's em uui i uaauig, Oct in ouwyci, a u-yi'ar veteran of the Reds, said. "There are some tricks that I know about, but sometimes it's embarrassing when they do trieks that you don't know about." Although the Globetrotters' purpose is to entertain, Sawyer said the Reds play each game to win. "There's no other way to play," he said. "Every ball we put up there we aim to fall in. If we didn't, you could see and say, 'Hey, those guys aren't even trying out there'." The Reds, who play under different names (such as the Boston Shamrocks), actually defeated the Globetrotters in a game in the late 60's. "It was a thrill for me," Sawyer said. "It's not too much of a thrill tor the fans." The Reds more or less become programmed to the Globetrotter style of play, Dale Haase, a Reds player from Kansas, said. "You can't combine competition with comedy," Haase said. See Globetrotters, page 15 Meadowlark Lemon trie to smooch a New Jerse Reds player in the foi lane. BMeadowlark is helped u by a leammate aft? being knocked down by Reds player. m . y .. ? WMMBCI . _ _*ti ina Coliseum 2J^Jf bSAuM^vT \^KS pRjigpr Mp*; '1n9r ' p A is a f( LrnKtSBrntiP& ?& ^iMRffl > x f pyi . <n MB ^ uy* JSmRT > AY*1fc^w'' V Photos by Ms rmmh irk Alexander