One more important media perspective on the life and death of Hank Gathers
Try as he might, Kyle Keiderling wasn't able to get all information he sought in compiling his new book, "Heart of a Lion: The Life, Death and Legacy of Hank Gathers," which we featured in last week's media column (linked here).
Nor was Keiderling able to track down everyone who was actually a part of the media for that game 20 years ago, on March 4, 1990 at LMU's Gersten Pavilion as LMU was playing the University of Portland in the West Coast Conference post-season tournament semifinals.
Henry Glenn, a producer for ESPN, was there. And he remembers it painfully well as he and cameraman Carter Trigg were there to document it.
In a series of recent emails since Friday's column, Glenn (linked here), a Long Beach State grad who lived in the Belmont Heights area for about 25 years before moving to Huntington Beach 15 years ago, described his role in covering the story:
"ESPN sent me out to cover and preview the Loyola Marymount men's basketball team for the NCAA tournament to follow, and it was left up to me how to do it and shoot it. Paul (Westhead), Bo (Kimble) and Hank were to be the tent poles for the evening. Everyone had to have "B" video coverage.....
"I covered Paul, and some of Bo. Then, just felt it was time to cover Hank, in a little more depth. I directed my cameraman (it was not Carter's idea) to follow Hank Gathers from court to court and back... It was just a feeling to observe his great athletic ability. He did not disappoint.
"Hank came toward us at our location under the basket and threw down a vicious dunk and started toward the far court.......He never made it.
"Carter worked for me as my main cameraman for most of my time with the network out of LA. Often, on out of town assignments, where I couldn't use him because of budgets, I had to use other local city crew. We worked together very well. He is, and was, a great shooter. We knew each other's concerns. We are still friends today.
"I broke the story to ESPN in Bristol before anyone -- including Joe Resnick at AP -- that this was going to be important enough to find the ESPN West Coast reporter Chris Myers and get him here for the 11 p.m. "SportsCenter". Most of his "on air" report was comprised of my firsthand account of what I saw. ESPN had the only footage of the full tragedy and every station and network that covered the story gave ESPN air credit. Chris Berman, as anchor in Bristol, and "SportsCenter" won an Emmy for that night's coverage.
Carter's last name is TRIGG, not tripp......I brought Carter to ESPN under me....Carter worked for me as my main cameraman for most of my time with the network out of LA...Often, on out of town assignments, where I couldn't use him because of budgets, I had to use other local city crews......We worked together very well...He is, and was ,a great shooter(my point on "it was my idea for the Hank "B" video" was....for some reason, I chose to get that coverage then and not later....very weird timing, wasn't it?)...I was comfortable with him as he was with me...we knew each other's concerns. We are still friends today.......He received all your glory in the paper and at Kelly's...LOL....I'm still wondering how you even got his name for the story....
"I ended up working as a a reporter and producer for ESPN from 1983 to 2003 -- on camera in the '80's but I found more control and better opportunity for the future as a producer in the '90's behind the camera. I was always considered an "off camera" reporter because of my comprehensive background in radio and TV. Remember ESPN had a policy of 'no credits' on the end of shows, so many people like me were ghosts behind the on-air faces. In fact during that event, I was instructed by ESPN lawyers not to talk with anyone because of possible future litigation by the parties involved. Chris Myers and Shelly Smith went on to be on-air faces during the following weeks while I remained the ghost behind the scenes....
"It is hard to believe it was 20 years ago."
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