THE DEATH OF HANK GATHERS : First Fall Similar : Review of Gathers’ Dec. 9 Collapse Frightened Santa Barbara Coach

Although the death of Loyola Marymount star Hank Gathers had UC Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm expressing shock and sadness, it also had Pimm recalling his team’s game against Loyola Dec. 9.

During that game, a 104-101 Loyola victory in the Lions’ Gersten Pavilion, Gathers collapsed in much the same way he did shortly before his death Sunday in a West Coast Conference tournament game against Portland in the same arena.

“The way he fell (Sunday) was similar--in fact, almost identical--to what happened against us,” Pimm said. “He went down without anything to break the fall. Then he started to get up again, like he did in our game. But then (Sunday) he went into convulsions. I was very frightened then.”

Gathers fainted at the free-throw line early in the second half in the December game against Santa Barbara.

Pimm, sitting at the opposite end of the court, did not immediately think anything was seriously wrong with Gathers, who left the game at that point and did not return.

“I thought it was the heat,” Pimm said. “It was really hot in there. I was sweating like crazy. I thought it was heat prostration.”

But while watching a videotape of the game later that night, Pimm saw Gathers’ fall from a different perspective and got a scare.

“Our camera was set up on the end line, under the basket (Gathers was shooting at),” Pimm said. “On our tape, you could see that his eyes were closed and that he just crumpled. I was surprised that it wasn’t something more than an irregular heartbeat. I mean, the way he went down--boom. . . . His eyes closed, and he went down in a hump, quickly. It was frightening, like his brain just shut off.”

Pimm said he talked to Loyola coaches the next week and sent a note to Gathers, who underwent a series of medical tests before returning to the lineup on Dec. 30.

“When I saw that he was in the hospital getting those tests, I thought to myself, ‘Good. If he does have a problem, they’ll find it,’ ” Pimm said. “I mean, Los Angeles is a big city and it has great medical people.”

His thoughts now?

“This sure makes you think,” he said. “I mean, we give kids physical exams, monitor their food and rest. I’m sure Loyola was doing all of those things. It’s just that sometimes you don’t have control. . . . I’m just really shocked, because of the type of kid Hank was. He played so hard. He was a thoroughbred.”