Last summer my daughter was graduating from high school and literally had her pick of schools, and was down to USC and Loyola Marymount, both great local schools with great academics. In the end, she felt more comfortable with the shorter drive to LMU (12 miles) and smaller campus, and, the extra funding she got from the school didn’t hurt, either…
She has really gotten into the college life, and while LMU doesn’t have a football team, they do have a basketball team, well, kind of. The last two seasons of LMU basketball produced less than 10 wins total, but this season, in a very good West Coast Conference, the Lions were picked to finish last, and are 2-6, but overall have 11 wins and have posted upset wins on the road against USC and Notre Dame, and start a very young team so the future looks bright…
But the glory in LMU basketball is in the past, specifically 20 years ago when they became the nation’s darlings scoring 122 points a game, including 181 points in a single game. Of course their fast break offense was one of a kind, but, sadly, what drew the national attention was the death of Hank Gathers in the conference semifinals. Gathers was a perfect player for the “system”, a 6’7 flyer who in 1989-1990 once scored 48 points against an LSU tam that included Stanley Roberts and a guy named Shaquille O’Neal. Imagine that, a smaller, hustling guy taking advantage of Shaq—who would have ever thunk it? Gathers was a notorious bad free throw shooter who started shooting free throws left handed to try to get better, and as a tribute in the tournament, his best friend, Bo Kimble, shot every first free throw left handed left handed—and made every one of them. There were definitely moments that made the eyes tear up.
In one of the most exciting games I’ve ever seen, eliminated defending champion Michigan in the second round of the NCAA playoffs by a whopping 149-115 count. The frenetic style and three point barrage was everything a basketball junkie enjoys. They were so good that a far superior athletic team, Alabama , chose to slow the pace in the Sweet 16, and ended up losing to LMU, 62-60. Unfortunately, the magical run ended there as eventual national champion UNLV was too good and beat LMU, but the Lions got their 100 points.
I read an article recently about the 1989-1990 LMU team, and a national sportswriter noted that only two teams that he had covered in his career really caught the imagination of the national sporting public, the 1980 US Olympic hockey team and 1990 LMU Lions basketball team.
Last Saturday, as LMU took on a really good St. Mary’s team at Gersten Pavilion, there was a halftime reunion of the 1989-1990 team, and it was truly special. All the familiar names were there, a little less hair on top and a little more paunch around the middle, There was the star, Kimble, all smiles recalling his buddy Gathers. There was the hustling Finn, Per Stumer, the human body bruise, Tom Peabody.The Mad Bomber, Jeff Fryer, brought huge applause as did the super sixth man, Terrell Lowery. They all stayed around after the game to mingle, and it was great to hear them recount that season.
But the biggest applause was saved for Gather’s mother Lucille, who raised her arms to the sky and cried as the student section joined with the rest of the crowd and yelled, “This Is Hank’s House! This Is Hank’s House!” You looked around the pavilion and the emotion was palpable, you just don’t get special times like these…
Loyola Marymount lost by 18 points that night and might never experience the success that the 1990 Elite Eight run brought. It was probably a blip on the radar screen never to be seen again. But that’s what made it so memorable and special. And at the end of the night, my daughter, with a “HANK” headband on said, Now I do feel like a Lion”. Oh, the college experience…
