Many, many years ago (too many to admit or report here), my mentor and predecessor Bud Nangle brought me into the sports information profession with seven words.
“Welcome to the toy department of life,” the Hall of Fame Northern Illinois University PR guru said with a chuckle that day.
“The toy department of life.”
That phrase will stick in my memory banks for life. Media types, by nature, are cynical. Sarcasm is second nature to all of us. It comes with the territory. At times, we all take these “games” too seriously. This stuff is not life and death. Or is it?
Hopefully, my best Homecoming wish comes true this afternoon. That would be to see Rick Armstrong of the Aurora Beacon-News back in Huskie Stadium. Then I can personally hand him his “Joe Cool” sunglasses that he left on the press table in the University of Akron press box.
September 24, 2005. I can still hear Bobby Narang of the DeKalb Daily Chronicle rushing over to me in the Akron press box. “Mike,” Narang said with urgency, “I think Rick Armstrong is having a heart attack.”
Our media contingent has made worse jokes or comments. But I could tell Bobby was serious this time.
Scant seconds later, I stood five feet away from Rick who was prone on the pressbox floor. A minute earlier, Narang and Sean Ostruszka, a student reporter for The Northern Star thought Rick was choking or experiencing some type of difficulty and got him on the floor.
Sean was already straddling Rick’s legs and had started the CPR chest compressions. This really can’t be happening. Not to Rick.
The only coherent thing I could think of saying was to Sean: “Do you know CPR?”
“Yes,” he said, still pumping away on the chest of a friend that I’ve known since the mid-1970s,” my mom is a nurse. It’s been drilled into me since I was a little kid.”
Talk about being in the right place at the right time. Be sure of one thing here, folks. Sean Ostruszka is the hero of this story.
T
en minutes after the paramedics evacuated Rick to the Akron City Hospital, I told Sean one thing. “You probably saved Rick’s life.”
Later, when we found out the good news that Rick had regained consciousness at the hospital during what now seemed a meaningless football game, the emergency room doctors said the quick CPR did keep Rick with us. Those compressions kept Rick’s blood flowing so that much-needed oxygen got to his vital organs.
With the help of Akron SID Shawn Nestor, the paramedics arrived in the press box and took over for Sean. The medics ripped off Rick’s golf shirt and opened the portable defibrillator. This was no Red Cross CPR training session. This was real.
From my first hours in sports information decades ago, you learn not to cheer in the press box. The notion is that the press box is a working area. People are keeping stats, reporting on the game, or doing various games management functions. It’s almost a quasi-sacred ritual. No cheering in the press box.
While the medics continued the CPR and looked for a pulse, Bobby, Sean, Matt Trowbridge of the Rockford Register Star, Jim Phillips, and I were all cheering loudly for Rick. Yes, in the press box.
“C’mon Rick, stay with us. C’mon Rick.”
It was surreal. Rick flatlined twice and got zapped by the medic three times in attempt to restart his heart. Finally, a pulse. Rick had a chance. As the professionals did their job, those of us who know Rick as a media type and friend were in shock. I cannot imaagine what Jim Phillips was thinking. It was Jim who valiantly tried to save Dr. George Wilkins with CPR at the Northwestern game only two weeks before.
So many people helped. Our head trainer Phil Voorhis, Kammy Powell, Glen Krupica, Jim and Laura Phillips, Akron AD Mike Thomas and his wife Jenifer, Doug and Lynn Roberts who flew Rick’s wife Debbie to Akron by 8 p.m. the night of the attack. It was the best of times in the worst of times.
The good news is that Rick successfully underwent a triple bypass operation the next week and several related procedures in the interim. Rick watched the Northern Illinois-Miami (OH) game a week and a half ago on ESPN2.
Debbie called that afternoon with a “thank you” statement to read to all of Rick’s friends in the local media. In typical Armstrong fashion, he finished by thanking Sean, saying “...we’ll always have Akron.” Good line, Rick. All the guys in the press box laughed. We all needed it.
It must be said that Rick is a Northern Illinois grad and an alum of The Northern Star. Who could imagine what happened to Rick that afternoon—only to be saved by Sean, a next generation Star sportswriter. What were the odds?
There is no more loyal Huskie on the planet. As I told his boss, Dave Parro, no matter what it said on his diploma, Rick was always objective in his reporting duties that involved NIU. He covered us home and on the road the last several years. For both of us, seeing our alma mater in the nation’s Top 40 and a bowl game was a dream come true. Rick was so gung ho that he got up at 5 a.m. that Saturday to catch a flight to Akron.
Once Debbie got to Rick’s side at the Akron City Hospital, she squeezed his hand and he eventually squeezed back. The part of this story is also true. At some point upon regaining consciousness, Rick did ask what the score of the Northern Illinois-Akron game was. Yes, the Huskeis did lose, 48-42, in overtime. In both instances—NIU’s and Rick’s—it was the comeback that would be remembered.
Rick and Debbie have gone beyond the norm as Huskie fans. Both traveled to San Jose for the Silicon Valley Football Classic last December. We all savored the moment over some drinks at the team hotel. At a fundraiser this summer, Debbie bid on a P.J. Fleck-autographed San Francisco 49ers’ jersey and won it. She was ecstatic, wearning her new No. 10 souvenir. Rick just smiled, rolled his eyes, and took another sip of his beer.
You wonder sometimes why such things happen to good people like Rick Armstrong. It is not inaccurate to write Rick is well-liked and respected by his Northern Illinois media brethren. “Rick is such a great guy,” said Trowbridge, reflecting all our opinons.
Maybe this incident was a timely personal two-minute warning to adjust the lifestyle, do something different, or maybe to take the time and sign up for a CPR course.
Hopefully, Rick will be at Homecoming today. Barring any unforseen developments, that was the plan. It is a miracle, believe me. After witnessing Sean and the Akron paramedics work on him, well, you know.
“The toy department of life.”
Once the paramedics took him to the hospital, the press box returned to “normal.” The game was now a useful distraction from the trauma of seeing a long-time friend suffering a heart attack.
I looked over to where Rick had been sitting. Untouched, right on the press table were his “Joe Cool” sunglasses. Be glad to return them personally, my friend.
Anyone interested in CPR classes can contact the local chapter of the American Red Cross at (815) 756-7339. In addition, the Kishwaukee Community Hospital EMS Office (815-756-1521, Ext. 3626) also offers CPR classes for the community.