14/07 - The Goat dies of heart failure
Earl “The Goat” Manigault, the New York City playground basketball legend whose life was chronicled in an HBO movie two years ago, recently died of congestive heart failure at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. He was 53. Affectionately nicknamed “The Goat” because many people could not pronounce his last name, Manigault, who stood 6′1″, earned his legendary status for doing such remarkable basketball stunts as once reverse dunking a ball 36 times in a row, and his Double Dunk, where he would slam the ball through a net, catch it as it dropped through the cords and, still airborne, dunk it again. Manigault, who played basketball in city parks with NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who once described Manigault as “the best player his size in the history of New York City,” never made the transition from the playgrounds to the NBA.

Manigault battled a heroin addiction and twice landed behind bars.

He eventually kicked his drug habit and came back to Harlem as a community activist. Manigault worked in a neighborhood recreation and counseling center for teens. He also became an unofficial coach at Wadleigh High School, culminating in the school’s city championship this year.

In 1996 an acclaimed HBO movie, Rebound: The Legend of Earl `The Goat’ Manigault, directed by Eriq LaSalle of “ER” fame, chronicled his life. His autobiography, Double Dunk, was published in 1974.

Manigault is survived by a wife, Yvonne, and sons, Darrin and Earl.