On March 4, 1990 Hank Gathers Makes History
1990: As a junior last season, Loyola Marymount forward Hank Gathers was the NCAA’s leading scorer and rebounder. But early this season, he blacked out during a game. Doctors cleared him to play again, placing on medication to regulate his arrhythmia — an erratic heartbeat.
Today against Portland in the semifinals of the West Coast Conference tournament, the 6-foot-7 Gathers slams home a dunk, enthusiastically high fives a teammate and trots back to midcourt. Suddenly, he puts his hands on his knees and crumples to the floor at Loyola’s gym. He goes into convulsions, then rolls over and gets to his hands and knees before collapsing again.
Gathers is given cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the court and on his way to the hospital. While relatives and teammates wait outside the emergency room, Gathers is pronounced dead. “We tried resuscitating him for over an hour and we were unable to generate any activity,” cardiologist Dr. Mason Weiss says.
Hank Gathers was 23.
About The Author
