LSU lost an all-time great Saturday when former men’s basketball player Kenneth “Kenny” Drost passed away in Plant City, Fla., at the age of 61. Drost passed away after a 10-year battle with an unsolved neurological disorder. “He’d been sick for a long time,” said Bill Drost, one of Kenny’s two sons. “He had a neurological disorder – some sort of Parkinson’s – but it was never completely diagnosed.” The Lake Charles native was a three-year letterman while playing under at LSU from 1965-1967. He earned All-Southeastern Conference and Academic All-SEC honors in 1967 after leading the Tigers in scoring, averaging 16.5 points per game, in field goals made (168) and free throws (94). Kenny Drost’s other son Daniel Drost said his father loved LSU and said basketball shaped his life from an early age. “It was his dream to go there,” Daniel Drost said. “He was great at everything as a kid, and he gave it all up in the 10th grade so he could concentrate on basketball because he wanted to play for LSU so bad.” He said although his dad went through tough times in college, his love for the game shaped him into the player he became. “I think his senior year they had one of the worst team’s they ever had there,” Daniel Drost said. “It was a tough time for him because they won six games [when he was] a junior, they won three games as a senior and they lost a lot of close games. Dad said sometimes people would come to the freshman game just to see Pete [Maravich] play and leave for their game. So it was a really tough season for him.” Daniel Drost his dad would stay after practice with Maravich and work on his free throws. “I think he led the SEC one year and came close another year,” Daniel Drost said. “He said one time he was shooting after practice and would shoot 100 [free throws] every day, and he said he made 89 in a row one time, missed the next one, hit the final ten and hit 99 out of 100 [free throws].” Kenny Drost’s wife Betty Drost said her husband was a true fighter and had been battling the serious illness as it worsened over the past few years. “I always used to call him the comeback kid,” Betty Drost said. “He would be down and out, and he would comeback and just continue fighting.” Betty Drost said Kenny was never someone to complain and often found it difficult to talk about his condition. “At one point he always worried about his health, and it was always difficult for him to talk about his illnesses,” Betty Drost said. “It frustrated him, especially in the past year or so. He would come in and talk and say things like, ‘What’s wrong with me? What’s happening to me?’ and he really wasn’t mentally able to talk to you. He got to where he lost the right words to say.” Services will be held today at 11 a.m. at Oak Hill Burial Park in Lakeland, Fla. A celebration service for Kenny and his remaining family will be conducted Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Grace United Methodist Church in Gainesville, Fla. Daniel Drost said his father left a lasting impression on almost everyone he came in contact with. “It’s kind of sad that somebody like this only gets 61 years,” Daniel Drost. “He was the type of person you want to see around forever.”
—–Contact Jay St. Pierre at [email protected]