Ex-Penn basketball great Phil Hankinson dies in apparent suicide

Hankinson was found shot in his car. His father daid that he suffered from depression after his basketball career ended. All-time Penn basketball great Phil Hankinson apparently committed suicide last week. The 45-year-old Hankinson was found shot to death in his car last Tuesday in Kentucky, Shelby County (Ky.) coroner Tommy Sampson told The Associated Press. A 1973 graduate, Hankinson ranks as Penn's 15th all-time leading scorer. Playing from 1970 to 1973 for the Quakers, he was an integral part of three Ivy League championship teams that qualified for the NCAAs. In addition, he was the co-captain and MVP of the 1972-1973 team. In that year, the 6-foot-8 Hankinson led the team in scoring with 18.3 points per game. Perhaps his greatest highlight at Penn was scoring 22 points against Villanova in leading the Quakers to a 78-67 win over the Wildcats in the NCAA East Regional semifinal. For his efforts, Hankinson was inducted into the Big 5 Hall of Fame in 1980. After his stay at Penn, he was the Boston Celtics' No. 2 draft pick and received limited playing time before a knee injury effectively ended his basketball career early in his second pro season. "From the time he was in high school, he dreamed of being in the NBA," his father, Rube Hankinson told The State Journal of Frankfort, Ky. "He was an excellent player. When he hurt that knee, it never did pan out. By the time he recovered, the ABA and the NBA had merged. There was no place for him." According to his father, Hankinson suffered through depression after his injury and worked as an assistant coach in New York and a security guard in Las Vegas. Teammates at Penn remember Hankinson as a great player with a warm personality. "[He left] a wonderful legacy," said Bob Bigelow, a teammate of Hankinson during the 1972-73 season. "He is one of the great players in that era of the golden age of Penn basketball. It's very tough to see old teammates passing away. It was quite hard to hear about it." Current Penn athletic director Steve Bilsky, who graduated from Penn in 1971, was a teammate of Hankinson for one year. He remembers the former Penn standout as a "sweet guy." "People are going to think of Phil with a smile on his face," Bilsky added. "It's a tragic situation." Sampson said that investigators discovered a semi-automatic handgun in the car with Hankinson -- found in the emergency lane of Interstate 64 -- but no alcohol or drugs were found. Sampson added that an early autopsy shows that a single shot to the right temple killed Hankinson.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.