March 4 marks the twenty year anniversary of the passing of Hank Gathers. Hank was a remarkable combination of scoring, size, and athleticism, yet also possessed an intelligence and charm that made it real easy to root for him and Loyola Marymount. It's safe to say that Gathers was well on his way towards a career in the NBA until his life was cut tragically short as he collapsed in the middle of a game live on TV. An hour later, he was dead of an irregular heartbeat.Deadspin found this nice tribute to him which pointed out the game where Hank had 48 points and 13 boards against LSU where he went head to head with some stiff named Shaquille O'Neal. The Boo-Yah's also had a nice tribute to him ,here and unfortunately an awful made for TV movie was made based on his life called "Final Shot : The Hank Gathers Story".
As a friend pointed out to me, Hank should be 43, a basketball network analyst, and about 300lbs by now. Instead he will serve as a stark reminder of what could have been, and how preciously short life can be. R.I.P. Hank.
Great story. The underdog in college basketball makes the sport great. Also, did he score 48 twice on Shaq? If he did, wow this kid was a player. Here is the coaches quote "Against LSU and Shaq he had 48 points and 20 rebounds."
ReplyDeleteNah Hank only played Shaq once. Paul Westhead just didn't remember the stats correctly. What isn't mentioned though, is that LSU team also had Mahmoud Abdul Rauf (the artist formerly known as Chris Jackson) and Stanley Roberts.
ReplyDeleteRoberts, believe it or not, was considered a better player than Shaq. Too bad he didn't care a whole bunch about improving as a player and liked his drugs too much. While with the Orlando Magic, Roberts broke two backboards during the same practice! Badass!