
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, March 13, 1990                   TAG: 9003133541
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From Associated Press and New York Times reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

HUNDREDS AT FUNERAL FOR GATHERS

Hank Gathers, the Loyola Marymount basketball star who died playing the game he loved, was remembered for showing children in his impoverished neighborhood that they could take control of their lives.

iDuring the intervening 23 years, Gathers moved from high school at Dobbins Tech in Philadelphia to the University of Southern California to Loyola Marymount, where he became a key player on a high-scoring basketball team that catapulted a small school to the big time.

Gathers collapsed during his team's semifinal game in the West Coast Conference Tournament and died shortly thereafter.

No cause of death has been announced, although he had been treated for an irregular heartbeat. The autopsy report is not expected to be released until Wednesday. Bob Dambacher, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Coroner's office told The Associated Press that toxicological and tissue examination reports had not been completed.

Gathers' journey ended Monday at the Emmanuel InstitutionalBaptist Church in North Philadelphia, where 1,500 mourners squeezed inside a sanctuary that seats 550 and another 1,000 stood outside to listen to the service.

"This is one of the toughest moments in all of our lives, losing Hank `The Bank' Gathers," said Bo Kimble, who was Gathers' best friend since childhood and a teammate at Dobbins Tech, Southern California and Loyola Marymount.

"There's no one I know on or off the court who was more of a perfectionist or worked harder than Hank to obtain his goals and dreams. A lot of people that thought Hank wouldn't make it. They're all wrong: He made it, he made it."

In other college basketball news:

The NCAA placed the Marshall men's team on two years probation and barred the Thundering Herd from preseason and postseason play next year, but said the school avoided stiffer penalties by turning itself in.

The university reported 10 violations to the NCAA a year ago after an in-house investigation revealed that gifts were given to recruits and players, and free housing and other benefits were provided.

In addition to self-reporting, Marshall forced coach Rick Huckabay to resign and imposed its own penalties on the basketball program.

Marshall can offer only 15 expense-paid visits for recruits, instead of the usual 18, during each of the next two years, and the school also will give up one scholarship for next season and two for the 1991-92 season. Those two penalties were self-imposed.

Marshall also must return $42,241 to the NCAA for its 1987 tournament appearence in Charlotte, N.C. The Thundering Herd's appearence, in which it lost to Texas Christian in the first round, will be stricken from NCAA records.

Louisville center Felton Spencer was arrested Sunday in Kentucky on reckless driving charges. A Stanford, Ky., police officer reported driving 90 mph to catch up with Spencer, who was jailed briefly after his arrest in Lincoln County, said Police Chief Don Young.

Spencer, a 7-footer averaging 14.9 points and 8.4 rebounds this season, is scheduled to appear in Lincoln District Court at 1 p.m. March 26. That's one day after the final of the NCAA Tournament's West Regional, where the Cardinals are the No. 4 seed.

by CNB