Kinder got first-hand look at magic of Globetrotters

                                                     
       Dick Kinder pictured above                                           A copy of Dick Kinder's Harlem Globetrotters membership card from 1956-1957 season.

Dick Kinder After playing for Winslow High School, Memphis State and Murray State, the Pike County man spent 1957 and 1958 with the Washington Generals.

PETERSBURG, Ind. — In 18 months of dropping hundreds of games to the Harlem Globetrotters and pretending to fall for the rubber band free throw trick six nights a week, Dick Kinder's most vivid recollection of his barnstorming days is playing gin rummy with Meadowlark Lemon.

"We'd start a game at halftime and pick it a day or two later or whenever we had some time," says the 74-year-old Pike County man, a member of the Washington Generals in 1957 and 1958. "Meadowlark was a wonderful entertainer on the court, but really rather quiet when the lights weren't on."

In high school, Kinder played for the Winslow Eskimos, winning 71 of 77 regular-season games. The 5-11 guard earned a scholarship at Memphis State where he played two years before transferring to Murray State.

"I got a better deal. Murray gave me a car and let me be lifeguard at Kentucky Lake in the summer."

Kinder averaged in double figures all four years and connected on 22 of 26 field goal attempts in one game for Memphis State.

"I was pretty decent."

Benny Purcell, a teammate at Murray State, recommended Kinder to the Globetrotters.

"I joined the Generals the night they came to at the new Roberts Stadium. I remember the slick floor and hitting two shots from the floor."

The Generals, who were all white, traveled in two station wagons, eight to a car. The African-American Globetrotters had a bus.

"It had to be that way. Because of their race and the times, they couldn't stay at some of the places we did. A lot of the cities just wouldn't let it happen. Many times they would get something to eat and pile in the bus and take off for the next game."

Kinder says the Trotters never protested the treatment.

"I was young and didn't understand. When they couldn't stay at the same hotel, you just looked at it as that's how things were. When I was at Murray, if blacks wanted to go to a game, they had to sit in a roped-off place on the stage."

Kinder earned $200 a week for chasing after Leon Hilliard, the Trotters' master dribbler, and letting the basketball clowns bounce the ball between his legs for easy layups.

"That was good money back then, but we still washed our uniforms in the sink after the game. We'd get the schedule about a week ahead of time. I'd ship my laundry home and tell my parents where to send it back."

Kinder says the Generals rarely had contact with the Trotters between games.

"The losing never bothered me and neither did the stunts. Our job was just to play. We knew when Meadowlark was gonna take the hook shot from midcourt, and when they were gonna run their weaves, and when they were gonna throw the bucket of confetti into the stands."

Did the Generals ever practice?

"Hell, no," Kinder says in high-pitched voice. "As often as we played, do you think we'd get out there on a day off."

The Trotters played in every state during Kinder's tour of duty and several foreign countries to include Norway and Finland. Sometimes the travel party included singers Cab Callaway and Lena Horne.

After his stint with the Trotters, Kinder was drafted by the St. Louis Hawks of the National Basketball Association.

"There was a tryout at Loogootee for about 10 of us including me and Jack Butcher (the Indiana Hall of Fame high school coach and one of Kinder's best friends). I was all excited and everything, but never got to play because I had two years of Army to take care off."

Not that Kinder's service was all that arduous.

"They found out I could play basketball a little bit and I made the base's team. We played other Second Army squads from Fort Knox, Fort Dix and Fort Belvoir. One night I scored 57 points."

He taught at Winslow until the county consolidated schools in 1973. He retired at Pike Central in 1992.

"The Globetrotters were always talking about how they were good enough to play in the NBA, Meadowlark especially. In my mind, they weren't at that level."

Dick Kinder searches his wallet until he finds the card given to him years ago by Abe Saperstein, the founder of the Globetrotters. It gives him free admission to any of the troupe's games.

He laughs.

"Never mind the card. I've seen enough and done enough. When they come to Evansville, I don't even think about going. There's nobody with the team that I know."

These days, the onetime basketball great has diabetes and can expect an insulin reaction "at least twice a year." His hip hurts and he has bouts when he can't catch his breath. "I was a hell of a pool player, but I had to quit. Not in good enough shape."

But Kinder laughs often and there's nothing wrong with his memory. "I was in the Pike Central gym one day when some sixth-graders were playing. The ball rolled to me. I drop-kicked it against the backboard and into the basket just like the Globetrotters used to. I pretended to be mad and told the boys, 'Dang, I meant for the ball to go straight in.' The kids thought I was being serious. I really got 'em on that one."