He'll tell you he's been around the world three times and played basketball in 97 countries.

He'll tell you about playing in front of more than 75,000 people when the Globetrotters visited Berlin and he'll tell about playing in front of one fan -- Pope John Paul II -- at the Vatican.

"He wanted it all for himself," Neal said of his papal audience. "We did the whole show. We even threw water on him ... but it was holy water."

And Neal will tell you that no matter where he went, no matter how many times "Sweet Georgia Brown" provided the basketball soundtrack, he always felt tied to his college days at Charlotte's Johnson C. Smith University.

"Great days," said Neal, 66, who lives in Greensboro and still does public relations work for the Globetrotters. Those obligations to the team will keep him away from the CIAA Tournament, which is playing all week in Charlotte.

While still a student at Dudley High in Greensboro, Neal was a good enough athlete to have received several dozen scholarship offers. A man named Vance Chavous, a deacon in the Presbyterian church Neal attended in Greensboro, drove the high school senior to Smith one day. That's when coaches Jack Brayboy, Eddie McGirt and Bill McCullough became a part of Neal's life.

Neal enrolled at Smith in 1959 and what would become a world-famous basketball career was born. He remembers playing against Al Attles and others during his college career, games that helped shape the player who would later add the element of showmanship to his game.

At J.C. Smith, Neal played for McGirt, who he said "was like a father to me." Neal remembers going to McGirt's house for dinner and weekends built around pick-up basketball.

"We'd go over to the basketball court in Double Oaks [community] and guys from North Carolina A&T would come down and high school guys would come over," Neal said. "That's how we got better."

As a senior, Neal averaged more than 23 points and was named to the small college All-America team. More than four decades later, he remembers the disappointment of losing a triple-overtime game to Winston-Salem State in the CIAA Tournament when Cleo Hill proved too much for the Golden Bulls.

After his college career, Neal tried out with the NBA's New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons and Chicago Bulls. He also traveled to Chicago, where he was one of 125 players invited to try out for five available spots for the Globetrotters.

"I happened to be one of the lucky five, and I've been there ever since," Neal said.

Neal became more than a professional basketball player with the Globetrotters. An extraordinary ballhandler and exceptional shooter, he evolved into a worldwide personality with his bald head and sparkling smile. The Globetrotters this month retired his No. 22 in a special ceremony at Madison Square Garden in New York.

"I came to the Globetrotters as a player who could put the ball in the hole," Neal said. "Then when I went to the Globetrotters, I learned how to do all those other things. Then I started creating some of my own things."

He played 22 seasons with the Globetrotters, retiring in 1985, when his basketball and entertainment skills had landed Neal and his teammates on the TV comedy "Gilligan's Island" and with their own weekly cartoon series.

He met Bob Hope, Henry Kissinger and Bill Cosby, each of whom became honorary Globetrotters. When Neal made a recent appearance on 'The View,' he took co-host Whoopi Goldberg a photo they had taken together several years ago.

Neal remembers trips to Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia in the 1960s and 1970s and how the Globetrotters received parades through towns upon their arrival there. There were days, Neal said, when he and teammate Meadowlark Lemon had the flu or a sprained ankle but played anyway, usually inspired by the crowds.

"You'd get out there on the court and forget about what was bothering you when you saw the people smiling," Neal said.

When he's not busy with his work for the Globetrotters, Neal said he keeps an eye on the CIAA standings -- and calls the league tournament one of his favorite events ever.

Neal will be remembered as a Globetrotter, but he remembers being a Golden Bull.

"I always carried the name Johnson C. Smith wherever I went," he said.

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