Bob Karstens, 89, the third white player for the Harlem Globetrotters and the only one under a contract, died Dec. 31 in Redlands, Calif., the team announced. He created many of the signature Globetrotter routines such as the pre-game "Magic Circle."
Other routines credited to Mr. Karstens include the team's behind-the-back backhand shot; the "yo-yo" basketball; and the "goofball," a basketball filled with weights that made it bounce erratically.
He was manager of the team until 1954 and later became a construction worker.
Guy Mattison Davenport Jr., 77, a writer known for erudite, highly original essays and short stories that he once described as "assemblages of history and necessary fiction," died of cancer Tuesday in Lexington, Ky. His unusual literary achievements earned him a $365,000 MacArthur "genius" award in 1990.
The retired University of Kentucky professor was also a respected translator of Greek texts, a painter and an illustrator, and a poet.
He wrote or contributed to more than 40 books, including The Geography of the Imagination, a 1981 collection of essays.