SALT LAKE CITY — He was a teammate of a teenaged Moses Malone. He’s proud to say he once got posterized by Dr. J, Julius Erving. He played professional basketball for several years in France, where he played on two championship teams and was named league MVP. In college, he was a three-time all-conference player for the University of Utah and still ranks as the fifth-leading rebounder in Ute history despite being a self-described “6-foot-5, slow, non-jumping white kid from Clearfield.”
Now 70 years old, Kenny Gardner spends his days trying to stay healthy as possible, while raising money for his favorite cause, organ donor transplants, which is very near and dear to his heart, literally, you could say.
After living for several years with heart disease and surviving quintuple-bypass surgery, Gardner was the recipient of a heart transplant in November 2013. The fact that it came from a former BYU football player and given to an ex-Utah basketball player made for an intriguing story, which was documented in a 2,500-word Deseret News article in 2014 as well as stories on KSL and BYUtv.
Gardner received his heart from Nick Longshore, who was tragically killed in an ATV accident in Idaho. His wife, Caroline, was pregnant at the time and gave birth to Hannah in the spring of 2014, a month before meeting the man who received her husband’s heart. Caroline and her relatives met up with Gardner on Mother’s Day and spent the next three hours laughing and crying together. Ever since, Gardner and Caroline Longshore have kept in close contact.
Caroline is remarried to Peter Clark and moved from northern Utah to Sandy. Besides Hannah, who just turned 6, they have two more children, Millie, 3, and 4-month-old Lucy. She laughs when talking about Gardner, calling him a “character” and says, “every now and then I think back, ‘that was the craziest thing,’” how the former Ute athlete received her husband’s heart and how they made the connection through mutual friends.
Back in 2014, Gardner started a 501(c)(3) organization called Hearts 4 Hearts Scholarship Foundation to give back to organ donors. By raising funds, Gardner plans to raise college scholarships for families of organ donors beginning with Hannah Longshore Clark.
Last December, the Hearts 4 Hearts Foundation held a fundraising dinner at the Salt Lake Country Club with several former athletes and local businessmen in attendance with Caroline Longshore Clark and Reno Mahe, whose daughter, Elsie, was an organ donor, among the speakers. Gardner is planning to have more events around the country and even hopes to do one or two in France, where he played basketball.
“In France it’s a law that the donor family cannot meet the recipient family,” he said. “So when they read these articles and see these videos (from Utah), they say, ‘Wait, you met the widow of your donor?’ So they’re very intrigued and we’re doing what we can to raise organ donor awareness and raise money for scholarship funds.”
Unfortunately, the fundraising has slowed to a crawl because of the coronavirus crisis and Gardner is hoping it picks up later this year.
Distinguished playing career
After leading Clearfield High to a state high school championship, Gardner played at the University of Utah for three seasons (1968-71) under coach Jack Gardner. He was overshadowed by Mike Newlin, who went on to an 11-year NBA career, but still earned first-team all-conference honors twice and second team once. His 11.3 rebounding average still ranks fifth all-time at Utah and among players who played more than two seasons, he ranks second, behind only Billy McGill at 12.9.
Among his highlights was beating a ranked USC team led by Mack Calvin in Los Angeles his sophomore season. As a junior the Utes spent a week in New York at the National Invitation Tournament, where Pete Maravich (LSU) and Julius Erving (UMass) were both playing. The Utes defeated Duke in the opening round before losing to eventual champion Marquette in the second round.
Gardner also has some bitter memories, recalling how in all three of his seasons, the Utes went into the final weekend of the season with a chance to win the WAC title, only to lose and finish second each time. The most galling was a 98-87 home loss to BYU in 1971 that kept the Utes out of the NCAA Tournament. “The height of humility was the loss at home to BYU,” he laments.
Gardner went to Europe to play basketball in France, where his AS Berck team in northern France won the country’s championship two years in a row and he earned MVP honors both years (the team was honored in 2015 in a ceremony in Paris). He returned to the states in 1975 to play for the Utah Stars in the old American Basketball Association. While he enjoyed the experience of being a teammate of 19-year-old Moses Malone, a future Hall of Famer, and trying to guard Dr. J for nine minutes in a game against the New Jersey Nets, the timing of his return was not great. On Dec. 1, 1975, just over a month into the season, Stars owner Bill Daniels came into the locker room to tell the players, “I can’t pay you” and soon after, the ABA folded (four franchises were merged into the NBA the following year).
So Gardner headed back to France, where he played for two more years in Nice on the South coast.
After briefly working for coach Jerry Pimm at the U., Gardner went back to coach in France for a couple of years before going to work at Delta Airlines for a couple of decades.
Life during a pandemic
As a heart transplant recipient, it’s a challenging time during the COVID-19 crisis for Gardner, who calls himself “a main target” for the virus because of his age and having “zero immune system” due to his health issues.
“Every cell in my body throws up a red flag for the rest of my life saying, ‘Whoa, that doesn’t belong here.’” — Kenny Gardner
“Every cell in my body throws up a red flag for the rest of my life saying, ‘Whoa, that doesn’t belong here,’” Gardner says. Although he gets out of his apartment, Gardner says he’s diligent about keeping safe and having regular checkups.
“I’m doing all the things I should, wearing a mask, washing hands,” he says. “The heart is strong, there’s no rejection, I’ve lost weight, my color’s back, my thought process is clear ... I feel real good.”
Then he adds with a laugh, “Everything else is 70.”
It’s been a struggle financially for Gardner, with his medical bills topping $2.5 million. “Thank goodness for Medicare,” he says, “but I’ve got doctors’ bills all over the place.”
But even though he’ll never be rich thanks to his pile of medical bills, Gardner isn’t complaining. He’s got some terrific memories on the basketball court and is just thankful to be alive.
“You know what, I don’t care, he says. “No miracle’s going to come down and pay my mortgage. I had a miracle happen to me with my heart transplant.”