High School Teammates Pay Tribute to Gathers’ Life

Hank Gathers was remembered by former teammates at a memorial gathering today as a hard-working player who loved the game of basketball.

About 500 Murrell Dobbins Technical High School students attended the memorial for Gathers, a standout for Loyola Marymount, who collapsed and died during a game Sunday. He was 23.

“He didn’t back down from no one, he didn’t walk behind no one,” said Doug Overton, who was a teammate of Gathers when Dobbins won the Philadelphia Public League championship in 1985.

Overton now plays at La Salle.

Another former teammate, Horace Owens, talked of the love Gathers had for basketball.

“No game was too big for him to play in, no game was too small for him to play in. ‘Let’s play one more game’--that was Hank” Owens said.

La Salle player Lionel Simmons dedicated the rest of his season to the memory of Gathers. LaSalle has finished the regular season and won a berth in the NCAA playoffs.

“He was definitely the hardest working player I have ever seen,” Simmons said. “He always wanted to do better, not just in basketball but in life.

“I can’t believe this could happen to someone who worked so hard. . . . It makes you think about life,” he said. “It shows that someone so good, so great can still have it all taken away.”

LaSalle Coach Speedy Morris and Temple Coach John Chaney called Gathers an example of what Philadelphia’s youth can be if they apply themselves.

Chaney said it was a joy “to watch Hank at the mini-camps, the way he expressed himself while hoping to create a better life for others.”

None of Gathers’ immediate family attended the morning ceremony, but about a dozen cousins accepted several school and city plaques in his honor. Gathers’ great aunt, Doris Neal, also attended the memorial.

Members of the audience, many wearing Dobbins’ colors red and gray, were solemn, many breaking into tears when the school’s gospel choir sang, “It’s so hard to say goodby to yesterday.”

Gathers’ immediate family arrived with his body from the West Coast late Thursday night but declined to comment at Philadelphia International Airport.

Most of Gathers’ teammates at Loyola-Marymount plan to fly to Philadelphia Sunday for his funeral services Monday.