A local pastor and mentor remembers Manual High School basketball star player Howard Nathan.
Bishop Leroy Smith, with Church of the Living God, tells WMBD’s Greg and Dan that Nathan’s influence was felt long after he left the basketball court.
“He didn’t have no quit, he had grit. Grit in a game is passion and perseverance for long-term goals,” Smith said.
47-year-old Howard Nathan led Peoria Manual’s Rams basketball team to the Championship game in 1991, and he was named Illinois’ Mr. Basketball that year.
Nathan went on to play at DePaul, Northwest Arkansas Community College and Northeast Louisiana, now Louisiana-Monroe. He also played five games with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks in the 1995-96 season.
Smith says after being paralyzed in a car accident in Peoria in 2006, Nathan never complained, and continued to inspire others.
“He called me dad. And, I always told him that he was my hero. He would tell me that I was his hero. A hero is a person who’s known for courage, passion, ability and character.”
Howard Nathan died Sunday, July 28, at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center after collapsing at his Peoria home on July 9. He was not breathing and had no pulse. Nathan was resuscitated but remained in the hospital over the past three weeks in guarded condition before his death.
