Ex-Rebel Augmon leads Southern Nevada Sports Hall’s 2012 class
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Heart for the Game Available May 10, 2012
Heart for the Game, the incredible saga of simon keith will be available May 10, 2012. Available on Amazon in Hardcover, paperback and electronic forms.
Written by Simon Keith with Jason Cole and Don Yaeger, this incredible tale of Simon’s improbable comeback from heart transplant recipient to number draft pick into professional soccer will inspire.
For more info on the books availability sign up to our mailing list!.
Simon throws out Ceremonial Pitch in Las Vegas
As part of Organ Donor Awareness Month, Simon was invited and threw out the first pitch at the Los Angeles Dodgers Triple A Franchise, the Las Vegas 51’s. (Yes it was a strike!)
Donate Life
The Simon Keith Foundation supports the Mission of DONATE Life, and their drive for 20 million donors in 2012!! For more information on Donate Life click on Link.
Simon in Las Vegas Review Journal
Nobody had ever questioned the heart of former UNLV standout Simon Keith on the soccer pitch until July 7, 1989, in Wichita, Kan. Al Miller, then general manager of the Cleveland Crunch of the Major Indoor Soccer League, approached Keith at the Budweiser All-Star Senior Bowl for top American college soccer players and cut to the chase.
“Word is you have some kind of heart problem?”
Keith responded by fist-bumping his own chest.
“One in,” he said, “one out.”
Keith then scored a goal and assisted on two others.
One in. Two more in.
http://lvrj.com/sports/not-an-organ-donor-consider-a-change-of-heart-120343899.html
Simon in the Las Vegas Sun
Over a plate of lettuce wraps, former UNLV soccer player Simon Keith realized, come November, he will have lived with his second heart longer than his first.
When he received a heart transplant at Papworth Hospital in England in 1986, he thought, “If I get 20 years out of this, I’m good.”
“Well guess what? I’m not good,” he says. “I want more than 20 years. I know my 10-year-old son wants me to have more than 20 years, ’cause I’m at year 21.
Simon in the LA Times
Soccer Player With Transplanted Heart Upsets Thinking About Rehabilitation
From the American Health and Psychology Today Service-Washington Post Writers Group
This was one scouting report the general manager had to check out himself. He walked up to Simon Keith, who was about to become his team’s top draft pick of the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL), and asked for clarification.
“I understand you’ve got some sort of heart problem, some sort of valve job or something,” said the GM. Keith knew it was time to give yet another skeptic an education. He pointed to his chest, looked the GM square in the eyes and left no doubt about his medical status.
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-11-23/news/vw-5335_1_heart-transplant
Simon in the New York Times
SPORTS PEOPLE; A Soccer Tale
The Cleveland Crunch of the Major Indoor Soccer League has signed its No. 1 draft choice, Simon Keith of the University of Las Vegas, but that’s only half the story. Keith has been living the last three years with a transplanted heart.
Keith received the heart from an English soccer player who had died of a blood clot on his brain while playing. Keith’s own heart was damaged by viral myocarditis, a weakening of the heart muscle.
”He is a unique individual and I’m happy to have us be a part of his story,” said Al Miller, the Crunch president and general manager. ”Simon is the rare combination, outstanding soccer player and outstanding human being.”(AP)
http://www.nytimes.com/1989/09/24/sports/sports-people-a-soccer-tale.html
Simon in Sports Illustrated
The Cleveland Crunch wanted to draft Simon Keith, but first there were a couple of questions the newest team in the Major Indoor Soccer League (MISL) wanted to ask him. So at a luncheon the day before the college soccer all-star game, in Wichita, Kans., last July 7, Al Miller, the Crunch’s general manager, introduced himself to Keith, a 24-year-old forward from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Then Miller backed into the questions: “The word is that you had some kind of heart problem.”
“Yeah,” Keith said.
“What was it?” asked Miller.
“A transplant.”
“Uh, now what exactly does that mean, Simon?”
Keith pointed to his chest and said…
Simon in Soccer America
Simon Keith dominates Bud Showcase