Did Reggie Lewis Fail College Drug Test?

The president of Northeastern University says he is investigating conflicting reports that Reggie Lewis tested positive for cocaine while on the school’s basketball team.

University president John A. Curry told The Boston Globe that former athletic director Irwin Cohen informed him earlier this week that Lewis tested positive for cocaine several days before the Huskies played in the 1987 NCAA tourney.

Cohen said when Lewis was retested four days later, the results were negative, Curry said.

“I can no longer say with certainty that Reggie Lewis was free from drugs while he played for Northeastern,” Curry said in today’s editions of the Globe.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that several of Lewis’ doctors suspected cocaine was the cause of a heart condition that led to the Celtics captain’s death from heart failure on July 27, 1993.

Two of the doctors who consulted on the autopsy have said Lewis’ scarred heart was consistent with cocaine use, among other possible causes.

Lewis’ wife, his teammates and close friends have denied that he ever used illegal drugs.