A Year of Success, Sadness for Loyola : School’s Banner Year in Athletics Was Overshadowed by Gathers’ Death

The 1989-90 school year at Loyola Marymount was one of athletic achievement tinged with ineffable sadness.

Loyola, with an enrollment of 3,700, cracked the Top 10 in basketball, baseball and men’s volleyball.

The school also has given notice that it is ready to get more competitive in women’s sports by hiring its first full-time coaches in basketball and volleyball.

Yet, this will always be remembered as the year campus hero Hank Gathers died, suffering a fatal heart seizure, horrifyingly, in a tournament game at Gersten Pavilion before a nearly full house of students, friends and family. An on-going lawsuit may keep the uglier aspects--the Gathers family vs. the school and doctors--in the news for a while.

Gathers’ teammates and friends prefer to continue thinking of themselves of part of his extended family. Above the floor from which Gathers hoped to springboard to professional stardom hangs a banner proclaiming it “Hank’s House.”

Gathers and teammate Bo Kimble--the Hank and Bo Show that virtually put Loyola on the athletic map--will be a tough act to follow, as will this season’s triple top 10. But Athletic Director Brian Quinn is confident the men’s program will continue to compete for conference titles in basketball and baseball, and feels men’s and women’s volleyball and women’s basketball is ready to climb to that level in the 1990s.

In the past five years since Quinn and basketball Coach Paul Westhead became the cornerstones of the athletic department, Loyola has made a steady rise in men’s sports. Westhead has led the Lions to postseason berths four of five years, and the team began to make an impact on the national level three years ago when Gathers and Kimble joined the team and the Lions began to average more than 100 points a game. “Coach Westhead’s offense is like a carnival, so many rides, so much to do” Gathers once said of Westhead’s run-and-gun offense.

The excitement created by Westhead’s offense is being reflected in ticket sales. Quinn said so many people are seeking season tickets that the school might have to go to a lottery system. Three years ago, Westhead used to joke about parking problems and ticket scalping for big games, but those problems are becoming realities.

“I remember looking in the stands my first year here and counting 30 students,” Quinn said. “We had a pretty good team--we went to the NIT that year--and nobody was in the stands. We used to get 30 to 100 students a game. Now we get 1,500 to 2,000 students. With an enrollment of 3,700 that’s a large number. Now I wish we had more VIP seats. People are begging for seats.

“I think (this year’s success) will have a positive influence on campus for a number of years. It puts people in a positive frame of mind. It affects how many alums send their children to school. I think it affects (financial) giving. More important, was just the fun on campus. When you walked around, that’s what you heard students and faculty talking about. It brought the campus together. Now you see LMU sweat shirts and license plate holders all over. I never saw those things before.”

The Westhead gang might never duplicate this past season, when the team went 26-6, set an NCAA scoring record of 122.4 points per game, won the West Coast Conference title and, riding the emotional wave of Gathers’ death, defeated New Mexico State, Michigan and Alabama in the NCAA tournament. Kimble led the nation in scoring at 35.3, including four games of 50 points or more.

The Lions made their way to the final eight before they were eliminated by eventual champion Nevada Las Vegas. It was the farthest a WCC team had advanced since 1957, and the team’s success--especially its 149-115 rout of defending champion Michigan--helped bring attention to Westhead’s program.

The Lions will be hard-pressed to match this year’s numbers. Gathers, who led the nation in scoring and rebounding as a junior, finished as one of the top career scorers in NCAA history. Kimble had the sixth-most prolific season in Division I annals. The Lions also lost three-point shooting specialist Jeff Fryer. Those three players combined to average 87 points a game.

The Lions have a solid core of returning players--notably guards Terrell Lowery, Tony Walker and Tom Peabody--and Westhead recruited five more guards and wing players. Opponents with strong inside players might present a challenge, but the Lions should be as fast as--or faster than--the past few teams. “We may not replace the 87 points but we’ll take as many shots,” Westhead said, jokingly.

Early in the season Westhead should become the school’s leader in coaching victories. With 105, he’s two behind Bill Donovan. Nobody in school history is close to Westhead’s yearly average of 21 victories.

The Lions’ schedule will start with the Maui Invitational, where national powerhouses Syracuse and Indiana will be in the field. The Lions will also play UCLA, and TV games with Oklahoma, Louisiana State and Georgia State are in the works.

The baseball team made its third consecutive appearance in the NCAA Regionals and won its first outright league title in 17 years. Like the basketball team, it maintained its reputation for offense, hitting .341 and averaging eight runs. “I’m so proud of that team,” said Quinn, who played baseball at Loyola in the early 1960s. “We had a killer schedule and still win 45 games, with such a depleted (pitching) staff.” The Lions lost 17 games.

Quinn said he thinks the baseball program will remain at its current level as long as the coaching staff of Chris Smith and assistants Rick Ragazzo and Bill Geivett is together.

“Chris has been super for us,” Quinn said. “Rags (Ragazzo) kept the pitching staff together. He’s gonna make someone a great head coach. He’s got to be one of the bright young assistants in the country. And Geivett worked with those middle infielders. That was our big weakness a year ago. The improvement was no accident. I really believe we have one of the better coaching staffs on the West Coast.”

Men’s volleyball has been improving steadily the past two years under Mike Normand, and had its best season ever in the tough Western Intercollegiate Volleyball Assn. The Lions finished fourth in a six-team division (which included NCAA champion USC), beat rival Pepperdine and upset Top 10 ranked San Diego State. The Lions finished with a No. 8 ranking and return a solid nucleus led by all-conference

hitter Sio Saipaia.

Loyola’s has struggled to upgrade its women’s teams without many resources. The volleyball team’s conference title and upset of UCLA in the 1986 NCAA Regionals might have created a false atmosphere of well-being, and the team has suffered through a series of internal conflicts and coaching changes trying to regain that success.

Quinn says that will become a reality for women’s volleyball and basketball within the next three years, thanks to a series of improvements in the program.

The school recently hired Steve Stratos out of Woodbridge High in Irvine as its first full-time volleyball coach, and a full-time assistant is expected to be hired. Stratos officially starts in July but has already been working with the team.

In basketball, Todd Corman has also received full-time status after five seasons as a walk-on coach. The Lions finished 15-15.

Quinn also wants to upgrade women’s tennis, which like volleyball, has been dominated by Pepperdine since the teams began playing a league schedule. St. Mary’s has been the top women’s basketball team the past two seasons.

“Our emphasis is on increasing the women’s programs,” Quinn said. “We’re increasing scholarships over a two-year period that will really make us competitive. Women’s basketball is on the bubble, it’s just about there. It’s probably ahead of volleyball. A full-time (volleyball) head coach and assistant will take us to the next step. (Stratos) really fits what we do here. That program’s just gonna take off. We had a very good recruiting year.”

The volleyball team returns several starters including All-WCC selection Kerry House. The basketball team, which has finished in the top three of the WCC the past two seasons, returns the starting back court of Lynn Flanagan and two-time all-conference choice Kristen Bruich, and center Tricia Gibson, the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots.

“I’d like to see our women’s teams have the same success the men have had,” Quinn said. “I’d like them to have the opportunity to win the conference and go to the playoffs. I’d like to see us vie for the possibility of league championships. I say possibility because anything can happen, but we’d like to see them be in the position to compete.”

Hank Gathers, No. 44, left an indelible impression on the Loyola community. Mal Hall, a baseball player with the Yankees who didn’t know Gathers, has “44” stenciled on his shoes. When UNLV reached the NCAA finals after beating Loyola, several players had “44” written on their wristbands and clothing.

At Loyola’s graduation ceremonies last month, nearly every speaker made a reference to Gathers and many students had taped “44” on their graduation caps. Westhead, the commencement speaker, said: “This is a special class for me. . . . This is Hank’s class. Farewell to No. 44, and the Class of 1990.”

Quinn said: “It never goes away. I’ve been (public) speaking a lot and I’m always asked, ‘Tell us about it.’ It doesn’t go away. I don’t want to forget what happened or what he meant to the university. My daughter still has his picture on her bed stand. I think that’s healthy. I try not to focus on the lawsuit and all the negative stuff. We were very good to him and he was very good to us.”

Quinn said the period following Gathers’ death “was the worst time in my life, the first time ever I really did not like my job.”

The generally upbeat Quinn is already looking toward next season. “We’re gonna have a great year next year,” he said.

This school year belonged to Hank Gathers.

For all the highlights and great moments, it’s hoped there won’t be another one like it.