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Revision as of 16:51, 4 July 2006
Eric "Hank" Gathers (February 11, 1967 in Philadelphia – March 4, 1990 in Los Angeles) was an American college basketball star at Loyola Marymount University who collapsed and died during a game. He originally played at the University of Southern California, but transferred with teammate Bo Kimble to LMU after his freshman year.
In the 1988-89 season, he became the second player in history to lead NCAA Division I in scoring and rebounding in the same season, averaging 32.7 points and 13.7 rebounds per game. Although he was unquestionably a strong NBA prospect, his statistics were to a degree inflated by the offense Loyola Marymount employed. LMU's coach at that time, Paul Westhead, had instituted an extraordinarily fast-paced game plan. On offense, the Lions took numerous three-point shots and typically shot the ball within 10 seconds of gaining possession; their defense was a full court press designed to force their opponents into a frenzied up-and-down game. Loyola Marymount still holds the place in the NCAA record books for being involved in the five highest scoring games in Division I history.
Gathers's first sign of weakness came on December 9, 1989, when he collapsed during an LMU home game against UCSB. He was found to have an abnormal heartbeat, and was prescribed a beta blocker. However, he felt that the medication adversely affected his play, and soon cut back on his dosage, against medical advice. On 4 March, he collapsed again with 13:34 left in the first half of a West Coast Conference tournament semifinal game against Portland, just after scoring on an alley-oop dunk that put the Lions up 25-13. This time, he never got up, and was declared dead on arrival at a nearby hospital. An autopsy found that he suffered from a heart-muscle disorder, cardiomyopathy.
Legacy
As a result of Gathers's death, the 1990 WCC tournament was suspended, and Loyola Marymount was given the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament (as a #11 seed) due to their regular season championship. During LMU's subsequent run to the Elite Eight before falling to eventual national champion UNLV, Gathers's best friend and teammate Bo Kimble (a right-handed player) shot his first free throw of each game left-handed in memory of Gathers (who struggled at free throws so much that he tried shooting them left-handed for a period of time), making all four attempts.
In 1992, Gathers's life was dramatized in a TV movie, as Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story.
Gersten Pavilion, LMU's on-campus athletics facility, is known to Lions fans as "Hank's House", although that is not part of its official name. On 29 January 2005, members of Gathers's 1989-90 team, including Kimble, were inducted into the Loyola Marymount Hall of Fame during halftime of a 63-46 win over cross-town rival Pepperdine. Gathers's mother, Lucille Gathers Cheeseboro, also attended the ceremony.