Description
While sports history records Louis “Red” Klotz as the losingest coach in basketball, due to his long and legendary career as opposing coach to the Harlem Globetrotters, his most crushing deafeat came from the Basketball Hall of Fame. One would think a 70-year professional basketball career beginning with the championship Philadelphia Sphas, followed by a stint with the NBA’s first championship team–the Baltimore Bullets–and then seven decades introducing basketball to the world with the Globetrotters, would be enough to be enshrined in the BHOF! Sadly, it’s not enough to think with common sense. Red was blackballed as the result of a personal vendetta, and while lesser lights continue to be inducted by this Hall of Shame, the slight continues.
This book details a true and inside look at the boy, man and legend that was and is Red Klotz. A scrawny youth who overcame significant health challenges to become a high school and college basketball star, even though the odds of him living into adulthood were stacked against him. Becoming the protege of Philadelphia basketball mogul Eddie Gottlieb gave Klotz the opportunity to play and shine with the Sphas, get into the fledging NBA, and then connect with Harlem Globetrottters owner Abe Saperstein, who gave Klotz the resources to put together opposing teams and travel the world building the Globies brand, a relationship that would continue for 60 years. All was smooth until Saperstein passed away and Globetrotters ownership changed almost as often as the opposing team. Klotz and his Generals, Reds, Seagulls, Shamrocks, Nationals and College All-Stars managed to survive, but it wasn’t always easy or a slam dunk, as this book vividly details.
The life and times of Red Klotz was a worldwide adventure, and a great read from start to finish!
Introduction by hall of fame coach Larry Brown
Hardcover
Coming late fall 2026
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