Wes Leonard Tragedy Brings Back Horrific Memories Of Hank Gathers
In a sad and tragic turn of events, Wes Leonard, a high school basketball player from Michigan, hit a game-winning shot for his Fennville team, which allowed them to finish the season with a perfect 20-0 record, but as fans and teammates were rushing the court to celebrate Leonard collapsed to the floor and died.
Leonard had no history of illness or anything that would lead you to believe such an awful thing would happen to someone who was just entering the prime of his life.
This situation is similar to the Hank Gathers tragedy at Loyola Marymount in 1989-90. Gathers was one of the leaders, along with Bo Kimble, on that exciting team. They scored a ton of points every game, and they made you tune in because you knew you would see something that you had never seen in a college game before.
Gathers collapsed in a game against UCSB in December, 1989. He was diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat and prescribed medication for the condition.
On March 4, 1990, Loyola Marymount was playing against Portland in the West Coast Conference tournament. Gathers scored on an alley-oop, but collapsed to the floor again. He tried to get up, but as soon as he did he stopped breathing. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Now, 21 years to the day that Gathers died, the family of Wes Leonard is left with millions of questions and no answers. Surely they will find something in the autopsy that will tell them what happened, but there's nothing that anyone can say to the parents of a 16-year old who was here one minute and then gone in the blink of an eye.
Life is like that, unfortunately. We are left with far too many questions and no answers.
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