Kyle Keiderling, Milton Kahn PR Client, Telling the Story of Hank Gathers

One of Milton’s favorite book PR projects centered around his client Kyle Keiderling, a freelance

sports writer who shares Milton’s passion for basketball. Author of numerous biographies,

Keiderling is perhaps most famous for the title Milton helped promote, one that is also regarded

by many as his best work: Heart of a Lion: the Hank Gathers Story.

 

Raised in one of the roughest public housing projects in America, Gathers was known

throughout his community as a straight ahead kid: focused, intense and super talented. He

ignored the temptations of drugs and crime that so many of his neighborhood’s peers fell

into, instead pursuing basketball, the dream he sensed would one day lead him away from

his humble beginnings and towards a larger purpose and meaning. He was right. Beloved by

his teammates, he played originally for University of Southern California, and then for Loyola

Marymount, becoming only the second player ever to lead the country in scoring as well as

rebounding in just one season.

 

Like a Shakespearean tragedy, however, Hank’s life ultimately was touched by sorrow. Felled

by pain at a game against University of California Santa Barbara, he was diagnosed with an

abnormal heartbeat. Unhappy with the side effects of his treatment medication, he reduced his

dosage, and avoided scheduled medical evaluations of the problem. Some on the sidelines who

knew about his problems thought he might not be taking his medicine at all on game days.

 

Speculation turned to fact on Sunday, March 4th, 1990, when Hank collapsed in the first half of

a WCC tournament game against Portland. He struggled as they treated him, shouting, “I don’t

want to lay down!” Fate had other plans, and he was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital

shortly afterwards, a legend at 23. The book was a huge success, while the story was indeed a

sad one. Milton remembers Gather as a true sports hero.