Today is the sixteenth anniversary of the death of Hank Gathers. Gathers was one of the best college basketball players in the nation for Loyola Marymount at the time of his death, March 4, 1990. Gathers died of heart failure.His death had a profound impact on an eight year old boy, who had just lost his father in January of that year and who was just beginning to understand the finality of death. That an idol could also succumb to mortality was yet another lesson for the young boy.
Gather's high school friend, Bo Kimble, honored his fallen teammate through his play and his famous free throw technique, a left-handed shot, one which Gathers used to try to correct his game's one weakness.
While in China over this past May, in an unknown city in between Beijing and Shanghai, a jersey caught my eye. It was Bo Kimble's number 30 for Loyola Marymount, with a patch donning the number 44 on the shoulder, Hank's. I bought the jersey that falls to the floor when I put it on. But I didn't buy it to wear it. I bought to put in my room and remember a life that ended to early and a friend's noble attempt to memorialize him.
2 comments:
I don't know how long it has been since I've thought of hank gathers, but I remember he could hoop. Great reminder - Only one life, 'twil soon be past, only what's done for Chirst will last.
great post... I still don't understand how Bo Kimble didn't work out in the NBA, he had all the skill and heart to make it happen... but I guess the fact that his jersey ended up in some unknown Chinesse city is a testament to the kind of an impact he really had, NBA success or not.
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