Years Later, Bo Kimble Still Honors Hank Gathers
By Ronak Patel
ronakspatel@hotmail.com
Thursday, April 15, 2010
20 years.
Even after all this time, as many Marches with NCAA tournaments have come and gone, champions remembered and Cinderella bestowed, like the 2006 George Mason team and 2008 Davidson team, and players like Mateen Cleaves, Harold "The Show" Arceneaux and Bryce Drew reminding us of why the NCAA tournament is special, one moment – encapsulated within a two week timeframe – still permeates and resonates with basketball fans.
And the moment was perhaps the most rudimentary yet difficult task in all of basketball: shooting a free throw. But Bo Kimble's three left-handed free throws (Kimble was right-handed) on his first free throw attempt in Loyola Marymount's three out of four NCAA tournament games in 1990 (Kimble didn't have a free throw attempt against Alabama in the Sweet 16) is one of the more poignant moments in tournament history. It occurred in the first round against New Mexico St., in the second round against Michigan, and in the West Regional Final against eventual champ UNLV, where LMU's stirring run ended with a 131-101 loss.
Kimble shot the left-handed free throws in honor of Hank Gathers, his best friend, who collapsed and passed away during the West Coast Conference Tournament semifinal game against Portland. Gathers was right-handed but shot left-handed.
To Kimble, who's now 43, he remembers it like it was yesterday, and even today people stop him and remind him of the shot.
"Most amazing thing is I've been to over 40 countries and people talk about it all the time," said Kimble. "I was in Ghana, Africa and people walked to me and they were all about the left-hand free throw, Hank Gathers' stats, my stats and talking to me like they do in Philadelphia."
Kimble reunited with the team earlier this year at Loyola Marymount to reflect, celebrate and remember what they accomplished.
"It was amazing seeing those guys, they are like brothers to me," said Kimble of his teammates. "We have a bond that will never be broken and we all love and respect each other and we all love Hank.
"Hank gone and we understand the importance of friendship and brotherly love; seeing those guys was amazing and when we think about what we achieved at Loyola Marymount while Hank was alive and what we achieved in Hank's death, you really realize 20 years later – we didn't know it at the time – but how amazing it was we accomplished something special and we're all part of history.
"Hank Gathers is part of history. (I'm) part of history. But no way in hell we would've achieved what we achieved without the amazing coach Paul Westhead and the rest of our teammates that made it happen."
Kimble added that everyone knew Hank the player, but his character and zest for life made him a unique person. Kimble and Gathers shared a kindred connection that appealed to a lot of people back then. They appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show during that season.
"Hank and I were very personable," said Kimble. "People knew how great he was on the court but the reason why people's hearts were heavy is they got a chance to when Hank was alive, was to identify with Hank Gathers the person and for me and Hank, with Father Hagan and my mother and stepfather and grandmother; so we were all surrounded by love and positive people in our lives. We understood the responsibility of being great on the court but also off of it. It's person first and then player second."
IN HONOR OF HANK
Kimble, along with Dr. Tamara Goode, founded the Forty-Four For Life Foundation, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to spread awareness of heart disease, which kills one American nearly every 40 seconds.
"We're in the beginning stages and we've used private money, and hasn't been any outsourcing of any money yet," said Kimble. "We are waiting to get donations to have a greater impact of what we're trying to do."
That impact includes getting defibrillators out on the market. They've given one defibrillator to Councilman Harry Thomas from Washington D.C. One of the organization's missions is to train people on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and use of Automated External Defibrillator (AED). They want to ensure every household has at least one person trained in CPR and use of AED.
"We want to target children and one of our missions is to make defibrillators more readily available in public places," said Kimble. "We have a long way to go and looking to make a positive impact on people."
Kimble points to grim statistics to validate the need and assertion for heart disease awareness.
"It's the number one killer for people aged 40 and over," said Kimble. "However, it does affect all races and age groups. In DC, a little over a year ago, a 10-year old got sudden cardiac arrest on the field, so the most important thing to do is educate people on awareness and when you have different charities, you have a foundation like ours and American Heart Association, it's a wonderful opportunity to let people know what preventive measures are: no smoking, minimize your drinking and eating better, eating a bit more healthier, those are contributors that can help minimize exposure to heart disease."
Kimble notes that people don't take account something of this nature unless it happens to someone well-known, someone they know or even themselves. He's working along with the organization to promote placement and use of AEDs nationwide.
"It should be on people's radar but unfortunately, until you have the Hank Gathers experience, until you have that experience what happened in Indiana (Southern Indiana player Jaron Lewis died on the court in January from an enlarged heart), it won't be on people's radar," said Kimble. "And what my job is to the organizations is to say to themselves you may put a value on your employees but companies look at the bottom of line, they look at return on investment per say and the cost that's involved.
"And a lot of times, you may put a cost on your employee's life, but that same CEO has to think himself what's the value of his life and is your life the one that needs to be saved. So at the end of the day, are you worth $2,000 to that CEO. Those are the type of things I like to plant in the powers-that-be that make the decisions and hopefully, we get to a point where it's not more readily available in the public, but also at homes, because we need them at homes as well."
Kimble hopes Gathers' memory will serve as an everlasting reminder to people.
"All I can do is to do the best I can in my life as I do with the foundation," said Kimble. "We lost a very extraordinary person with Hank at age 23 of life and others have succumb to this killer.
"I'm 100 percent committed to this forever, so anyone that's has a passion for it, I think everything is about preparation, so let's get the defibrillators out there before it happens to more individuals, that's something that should be on everyone's radar."
EVERLASTING LEGACY
The stats jump off the page. They look like stats from a video game.
The Lions averaged 122.4 points a game during the 1989-90 season. Kimble averaged 35.3 points and Gathers averaged 29.0 points and 10.8 rebounds a game. The Lions won 26 games, lost only six and scored below 100 just four times.
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