Homecoming for a Globetrotter : Kelvin Hildreth Never Made a Name for Himself as a Prep, but the Former Toro Has Made a Living Playing Basketball

Kelvin Hildreth lost track of where he had been earlier in the week and momentarily forgot what day it was. Then he remembered his itinerary: Phoenix on Sunday, Vancouver, Canada, on Monday, Spokane, Wash., on Tuesday, Seattle on Wednesday and Portland, Ore., on Thursday. He was scheduled to be in Oakland today.

On Sunday, he will fly to Los Angeles and spend a couple of days at home in Inglewood.

Such is life when you’re a globe-trotter--a Harlem Globetrotter, that is.

“My schedule becomes a blur,” he said. “I just wake up when they tell me and get on the bus, plane, train or whatever.”

Hildreth, a former El Camino College basketball player, is in his sixth year with the Globetrotters, the clown princes of basketball.

He is currently in the midst of a 3 1/2-month U.S. and Canadian tour that ends in April. On Sunday, the Globetrotters will appear at 1 and 6 p.m. at the Forum. On Monday, they are scheduled to appear at the UC Irvine Bren Events Center.

“It’s rather rough,” Hildreth said. “It’s a tough schedule. It takes quite a strong person to do it.”

Hildreth, 32, travels nine months a year. Tours are similar to those of bands, with the team on the road for months at a time before returning home.

“I have set foot on every continent, and I’ve been to 67 countries,” Hildreth said. “I’ve also been in every major city. It’s almost like you name it, I’ve been there.”

The 6-foot-7, 215-pound Hildreth attended Washington, Fremont and Muir highs, but he never made a high school roster. He enrolled at El Camino and gave basketball another try. He not only made the team, he helped the Warriors win a state championship as a freshman in the 1980-81 season.

As a sophomore in 1981-82, the Warriors lost in the semifinals of the state tournament, and Hildreth led the team with averages of 19 points and eight rebounds a game. He was named to the All-Metro Conference first team.

“I went from basketball nobody to big man on the team,” Hildreth said. “It was Coach (Paul) Landreaux. He knew how to pull all the right switches to get the most out of me.”

Landreaux, who has led the Warriors to three state championships, remembers Hildreth as a dedicated athlete.

“He was an excellent basketball player,” Landreaux said. “It doesn’t surprise me that he would make it with a group like the Trotters because they like to entertain people.

“Kelvin likes that. He has that kind of personality and a perfect smile. He’s a fun person to be around and to coach.”

Hildreth played two seasons at Mississippi State, where he earned All-Southeast Conference honors as a senior and a degree in marketing. He was invited to NBA camps with the Clippers and Sacramento Kings but was cut. His agent arranged for a tryout with the Globetrotters.

“My heart just wasn’t in it,” Hildreth said. “I played well and as the week of camp went on I made it, but when it came time to sign I didn’t.”

Instead, Hildreth played in Italy for seven months. He got homesick and left before the season ended.

“I was unhappy,” he said. “There’s lots of pressure to win there, a lot more than in the NBA. Here we have fans. In Italy, they have fanatics.”

With limited options, Hildreth signed a trial two-month contract with the Globetrotters when he returned from Italy. He was amazed at how quickly he fell in love with a job he never imagined having.

“This was the furthest thing from my mind,” he said, laughing. “I had no idea at all I’d end up doing this. A lot of kids see the Globetrotters and they say they always wanted to do that. I never wanted to do that. I never saw the Globetrotters as a kid.”

Although Hildreth said he is paid well, there are no perks such as a shoe contract. Players are signed for one year at a time. They participate in a 10-day training camp in late August and never practice as a team again. Although the schedule is grueling, the job has also brought him a lot of good memories.

“If I had the opportunity to play in the NBA now, I’d turn it down because I’m having so much fun,” he said. “This is so fulfilling. The best thing is to go to a foreign country and share a smile and warm feeling and touch that goes beyond the language barrier and cultural differences.

“We don’t speak the language, but we share the universal language of laughter. It’s also memorable to have met so many different people around the world.”

Hildreth has met Japan’s Emperor Akihito, the Pope, Mother Theresa and Jordan’s King Hussein.

One of his most notable trips was a couple of years ago to La Paz, Bolivia. Hildreth says a promoter sold 30,000 tickets for a 15,000-seat arena and a restless mob stood outside the facility during the game. Fans had arrived early that morning for the evening game.

“It was almost like a riot scene outside to see us play,” he said. “We had to sneak into the arena. A couple of us went on the floor so the fans would know we were there and the crowd cheered so loud I felt like Michael Jackson for a moment. It was really amazing.”

Hildreth recalled another unforgettable moment in Ecuador. As he got off a plane, a man approached him and smiled while staring in disbelief.

“After smiling for a while, this man reaches into his pocket and gets this old photo of me,” Hildreth said. “Then he asked me to sign it. This guy I don’t even know in a country I’ve never been to.”

Hildreth has also experienced scary moments on the road. Two years ago the team was in the Mideast when the Persian Gulf War started.

“We were in Israel when they passed out gas masks,” Hildreth said. “That was no fun.”

The Globetrotters take a lot of chances. They have performed in a bullring in Spain, the bottom of a pool in England, on football and soccer fields, and on aircraft carriers.

Travel arrangements can be far from glamorous.

“We’ve taken buses, planes, trains, boats and camels,” Hildreth said. “We’ve used every means of transportation. In Egypt, we took a camel to get to the game once.”

Hildreth says 65% to 70% of his job is basketball and the rest is show. At first it was difficult to adjust, he says.

“At El Camino and Mississippi State, I always played hard and never gave up,” he said. “I had to learn how to turn the talent on and off. It really took a lot of adjusting for me.”

He says the team’s flashy tricks are “like a recipe from grandma. It’s passed down over the years.”

The fun isn’t always enough to get motivated for games. That’s where the fans come in.

“One of the things that’s important for us, that gets us up, is having a lot of people in the stands that are vocal,” he said. “We look forward to the fans cheering. It makes you forget how tired you are and how much you’re hurting.”