BATON ROUGE — Former LSU men’s basketball player, Kenneth “Kenny” Drost passed away Saturday in Plant City, Fla., after a long illness at the age of 61.
The Lake Charles native earned All-SEC and Academic All-SEC honors in 1967 after leading the Tigers in scoring, averaging 16.5 points per game and leading the team in field goals made (168) and free throws made (94). Drost was a three-year letterman, playing with the varsity for the 1965, 1966 and 1967 seasons.
Drost played for three different coaches at LSU: Jay McCreary in his final season as head coach in 1965, Frank Truitt in his only season as coach in 1966 and Press Maravich in his first year at the LSU helm in 1967.
After receiving his Masters degree from LSU, he moved to Jacksonville, Fla., in 1970 where he taught math and coached men’s basketball at Florida Community College in Jacksonville. He later moved to Gainesville to start the men’s basketball program at Santa Fe Community College in 1979. He became AD at the school in 1990, a position he held until he retired in 2000. He was inducted into the FCCAA Hall of Fame in 1997.
He is survived by his wife, Betty Lou, of Lakeland, two sons (Daniel Kenneth and William Davis), his mother (Bertha Drost of Sulphur, La.), a brother (Donald) and four grandchildren.
Graveside services will be held Wednesday at 11 a.m. at Oak Hill Burial Park in Lakeland. A celebration service will be conducted this Saturday at 11 a.m. at Grace United Methodist Church in Gainesville, Fla.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the National Parkinson Foundation at http://www.parkinson.org/.