Curly Neal

Frederick "Curly" Neal (May 19, 1942 – March 26, 2020) was an American basketball player known for his time with the Harlem Globetrotters. Born in Greensboro, North Carolina, he attended James B. Dudley High School before enrolling at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina, where he played from 1959 to 1963. At Smith he averaged 23.1 points per game and was named an All-Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) guard.

Neal joined the Harlem Globetrotters in 1963 and played 22 seasons through 1985, appearing in more than 6,000 games across 97 countries. Following Marques Haynes, he became the team's featured ballhandler, a central role in the Globetrotters' exhibition act. His shaved bald head made him instantly recognizable and earned him his nickname, a reference to the Three Stooges' Curly Howard.

During the 1970s, an animated version of Neal appeared alongside other Globetrotters in the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Harlem Globetrotters and its spinoff, The Super Globetrotters. The animated Globetrotters also featured in three episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.