Veteran official collapses

Veteran Lawrence football and basketball official Frank Smysor was listed in satisfactory condition on Tuesday at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka after collapsing while working a high school game on Monday night.

Smysor’s wife Laura said doctors performed an angioplasty on Tuesday to clear a blocked heart artery. Mrs. Smysor said her husband was scheduled to be moved out of intensive care on Tuesday night, and would probably spend two or three more days in the hospital.

Smysor, Ken Winkley and Mike Hayes were officiating a girls basketball game at Topeka Hayden when Smysor complained of dizziness early in the third quarter, then fell to the floor. The game was stopped for about 20 minutes while officials awaited an ambulance.

Smysor, 54, never lost consciousness, but was taken out of the gym on a stretcher and then to Stormont-Vail.

Smysor is a Lawrence insurance agent who also officiates high school football and basketball in addition to serving as commissioner of the Kaw Valley League, a high school league that includes J-W area schools Tonganoxie, Santa Fe Trail and Perry-Lecompton.

In addition, Smysor works for the Big 12 Conference as an evaluator of women’s basketball officials.

He has been officiating since 1975.