Sometimes there are moments of time that actually exist outside of reality. It’s almost as if the moment stands out as if it were a square sliced out of the epicenter of a giant cake. Usually it’s tough to decipher one day from the next as time steamrolls past, but every so often there are times when things pop out that it’s easy to remember just how the way the light hit the room or the way the air felt or smelled.
Life is funny like that. Ask me what I did last Thursday and I’d have to dig through some notes and calendars in order to figure it out. But ask me where I was on March 4, 1990 and I can explain it as if it happened just moments ago. It’s weird how that works, isn’t it?
Aside from personal achievements and milestones, large common moments are few and far between for us children of the 1970s. We were too young to remember Watergate and Nixon’s resignation and the fall of Saigon, but not quite old enough to put things like the Iran Hostage crisis in a proper perspective. We saw the Space Shuttle blow up, Reagan get shot and wondered why anyone would want to kill John Lennon.
Later, for those of us who followed sports, Thurman Munson’s death in a plane crash was a common memory, while Len Bias’ overdose death was a defining moment. That’s when we learned life can be cruel and vengeful if it’s trifled with. It doesn’t matter if a guy is just coming into his own as the best player taken from the NBA Draft and the one player that had the ability and mean streak to measure up to Michael Jordan.
But what we learned on March 4, 1990 was that in addition to being cruel, life can be unfair, too. That was the day North Philly’s Hank Gathers, while playing in a basketball game for Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles, caught a lob pass with two hands in front of the rim, slammed it through, took a few more strides up court and then collapsed and died at midcourt.
Gathers’ death on the court set off a chain of events that led to one of the more implausible NCAA Tournament runs by a team, ever. Missing its captain and leader, Loyola Marymount, rallied behind Philly kid Bo Kimble and coach/St. Joe's grad, Paul Westhead, who guided the Lakers to an NBA title before Magic Johnson ran him off. Among the most lasting images in NCAA Tournament history was Kimble shooting a foul shot with his left hand as a tribute to his dearly departed pal.
Then, of course, Loyola Marymount hit the court on poured on 149 points against defending champion Michigan.
Obviously, the world was different 20 years ago. Aside from Gordon Geko, no one had a cell phone and even ol’ Gordo had to carry his around in a suitcase. There was no ESPN News or HD TVs mounted to the wall in every public space. The Internet? Nope, that was just for the government at the time. So when Hank Gathers died we heard about it as if it was a rumor. We got the news at 11 p.m. and in the early hours of the morning back in those arcane days, so Gathers’ death spread like a sadistic game of whisper down the lane.
At the Palestra, where we sat watching the Atlantic-10 Tournament, word spread like the building was on fire. Thing was, no one knew what to believe. How could Hank Gathers die in the middle of a game? He was so strong and fit. He wasn’t even a month past his 23rd birthday and had an NBA career looming in the not-so far off distance. Here was a kid from North Philly who was about to live the dream and then just like that, he was gone.
Later, we learned he had a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy which is a condition where a portion of the myocardium (the muscle of the heart) is thickened without any obvious cause. It’s the same thing that killed Celtics star Reggie Lewis and American marathoner, Ryan Shay. Coincidentally, North Philly’s and former Cardinal Dougherty and Houston Rockets star Cuttino Mobley had his NBA career short by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
But back at the Palestra in 1990 when didn’t know it was real until we saw the TV where Lionel Simmons checked out of the game and get the news. No, we didn’t hear what Simmons was told because it whispered to him, but we knew from the jolt that weakened his knees and the tears that flowed that it was all too true.
Hank Gathers’ basketball career likely would have ended a while ago had he lived to have one. He’d likely be involved with something important in Philadelphia as a 43 year-old with his life experience and background. Instead, 20 years after he collapsed and died on the court we hold that sliver of time and our hands with memories that are so vivid and alive.
Like it was just a moment ago.