UPDATED: Leonard Drake, former CMU men's basketball player, coach, dies at 56


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Updated: 11:15 p.m. Thursday

A member of the Central Michigan University Athletics Hall of Fame passed away Wednesday evening.

Leonard Drake, an integral part of the CMU men’s basketball team as both a player and coach, died in a hospital in Evansville, Ind. Cause of death was not disclosed.

Drake, 56, played on the CMU men’s basketball team from 1975-78. He currently ranks eighth all-time in scoring with 1,338 points and was inducted into the CMU Hall of Fame in 2007.

A career .878 free throw shooter, Drake is well known for hitting two free throws with no time remaining on the clock to give CMU a 77-75 NCAA tournament win against Georgetown in 1975.

“We truly mourn the loss of Leonard Drake,” CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke said in a statement Thursday. “He was a true Chippewa. His jersey hangs in our arena among the greats in CMU history and he earned his place in the CMU Athletics Hall of Fame.”

After graduating from CMU with a bachelor’s degree in 1978, he was named the team’s assistant coach for the 1978-79 season.

After stints with the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Lamar University, Drake returned to CMU in 1993, where he served as head coach for four seasons, amassing a 21-83 record.

“I was surprised to hear that he passed away. He was far too young to leave us,” said legendary CMU head coach Herb Deromedi, who served as Athletics Director while Drake was head coach. “Leonard was an outstanding athlete and certainly a person who was committed as a coach.”

Drake was in his first year as athletics director at Evansville Central High School. He also was apart of the Ball State men’s basketball coach as an associate head coach from 1985-1993 and the Eastern Michigan women’s basketball team as an assistant coach from 2007-10.

He is survived by his wife, Rhonda, son Jared and daughter, Enjoli.

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