Skip to content
Rally High School Sports
Link copied to clipboard

Mik Kilgore, former Temple standout and new Girard College coach, is hospitalized after heart attack

The first-year high school coach at Girard College was conducting workouts Wednesday when he suffered the attack.

Mik Kilgore had a great basketball career at Temple scoring more than 1,400 points and playing on three NCAA Tournament teams. Thursday May 11, he will earn his diploma at Temple. ( DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer )
Mik Kilgore had a great basketball career at Temple scoring more than 1,400 points and playing on three NCAA Tournament teams. Thursday May 11, he will earn his diploma at Temple. ( DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer )Read moreDavid Swanson

Mik Kilgore, a former star basketball player at West Philadelphia High School and Temple University, was hospitalized Wednesday after suffering a heart attack and was in serious condition Thursday morning.

According to a spokesperson for Girard College, an independent college prep school where Kilgore recently was named head boys' basketball coach, Kilgore was conducting workouts at the school when he was stricken.

Kilgore, who scored 1,471 points and played on three NCAA Tournament teams for the Owls, returned to Temple last year at 46 to complete his criminal justice degree. It was 25 years after his Owls basketball career ended in 1992.

"Mr. Kilgore has quickly become a part of the Girard family, and our hearts are with him as well as his friends and family, at this time," read an email from a Girard College spokesperson. "His team, his fans, and his friends from Girard College are thinking of Mr. Kilgore warmly and hopefully as we await updates."

The 6-foot-9 forward scored 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Speedboys in a four-overtime high school thriller against eventual champion Frankford in the 1988 Public League championship game at McGonigle Hall, according to TedSilary.com.

In a recent interview, Kilgore said he played professionally in Italy, France, Taiwan, and Venezuela before returning to Philadelphia.

As Kilgore's 2017 graduation approached, current Temple associate head coach Aaron McKie, a former teammate and good friend of Kilgore's, said, "Once removed from college, it is kind of hard to go back in that environment, return to school and finish. There are a lot of guys who played college basketball and didn't finish school. So this is a testament to Mik as a person."