Press Release Contact: Marcus Owens

August 23,2006 215-651-5010

Cheyney steps up fight against heart disease
All athletes are being tested - even the bowlers.
Mike Jensen INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Robert Simpson, a junior basketball player at Cheyney University, lay on his side yesterday morning on a training table. Right next to it was the image of the left ventricle of his beating heart on a laptop screen.

As Cheyney's athletes went through various orientations, this station was new. As far as the school knows, Cheyney is the first college in the country to perform echocardiogram testing for all its athletes - even the bowlers.

A number of Division I schools screen their football and basketball players, and a couple screen incoming freshmen, but Cheyney, which isn't exactly swimming in funds, decided to invest roughly $17,000 in the effort.

"It's very difficult to tell a volleyball parent that you just tested football players," athletic director Patric Simon said.

A powerful spokesman made the initial pitch.

Marcus Owens called schools on behalf of the Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation. His nephew, Danny Rumph, a Western Kentucky basketball player, died May 8, 2005, at Philadelphia's Mallery Recreation Center, from cardiomyopathy, an enlarged heart.

"I think about him every day," said Owens, who was at Cheyney yesterday. "It doesn't bring him back. It does build his legacy. He was the kind of kid - he was a loving kid, interested in his community. He would want us to try to do what we could to prevent this from happening to someone else."

The foundation, run by Owens and his sister, Candy, Rumph's mother, is working to get defibrillators in Philadelphia recreation centers, since they believe one could have saved Danny Rumph's life.

But this was another proactive step. Ultrasound Services Inc. had approached the Rumph Foundation about teaming up for echocardiogram testing.

Bill Mlkvy, the former Temple basketball great - the famous Owl Without a Vowel - runs Ultrasound Services. Mlkvy said it was the anguish he saw on the faces of teammates of a Boston College rower who died last year at the Dad Vail Regatta that spurred him to figure out a way to offer widespread on-site preseason testing.

The company follows a protocol set by a Temple University Hospital cardiologist, who reads the results.

Owens had checked with the NCAA and a number of Division I conferences, but was told that it was up to individual schools whether they wanted to conduct the tests. Cheyney was the first taker, and Mlkvy negotiated a price with Simon.

"He was very excited about it," Mlkvy said. "You could tell he didn't want to open the door without a deal being done."

Coaches agreed to make do without some new sneakers and T-shirts this year, Simon said.

"We're paying for this," the athletic director said. "This isn't just a gift. We're sacrificing a lot of things we need. On the flip side, how do you tell a parent you didn't do everything you could to make sure you had a quality and successful life here?"

"It costs the same as a pair of sneakers - you can save a life," said Greg Mackrides, director of business and research for the Play Safe Division of Ultrasound Services, which just completed a pilot study with the NFL and has a future testing program with the Central Bucks School District.

For Simpson, the Cheyney basketball player, taking 10 minutes to be tested wasn't an inconvenience. He remembered when Rumph died. He didn't understand, he said, how Rumph could have had a physical and been declared healthy to play, only to die on the court.

"It didn't make sense," Simpson said

The Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation was founded in 2005 to raise awareness and provide screening for Hypertrophy Cardiomyopathy in order to prevent sudden cardiac arrest among young people. To provide automated defibrillators to our community recreational facilities. DER II foundation “Save A Life don’t Take A Life” Program is for teenagers (16 to 19) to receive free CPR/AED training at any local recreation center.

SERVICE, EDUCATE, COMMUNITY

_____________________________________________________________________________________

SERVICE, EDUCATE, COMMUNITY

SERVICE, EDUCATE, COMMUNITY

SERVICE, EDUCATE, COMMUNITY