DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — Once Sam Lickliter's heart suddenly went so bad — when he all but died in the backyard of his Kettering home on New Year's Eve — Bob Knight showed his heart is pretty darn good.

"I got a note yesterday from Knight. How he knew about this is beyond me," Lickliter said as he sat alongside his longtime pal and fellow officiating supervisor, Randy Drury, on Thursday night while they watched Kent State brush aside Miami, 74-62.

"Knight goes, 'Heard about your illness. Take care of yourself and do what they tell you,' ... and he adds, 'I always admired you as a referee ... not like those guys today!' "

Lickliter was laughing now and so was Drury. Before retiring recently, both were longtime officials — Lickliter 29 years in the Mid-American Conference, 22 in the Big Ten, Drury 32 in the MAC and 25 in the Big Ten — and both love to tell the "other" Knight-Lickliter story.

Knight's Indiana team was visiting Michigan State and when Lickliter tossed the ball skyward for the opening tip, one jumper swatted him in the face and broke his nose.

Lickliter stuffed gauze in his nose and continued working. Indiana blew an 18-point lead and lost. Near the end of the game, as Drury tells it, Knight waits until he's next to Lickliter, then says:

"Sam, that guy should have killed you, not just broke your nose."

Lickliter's demise was a joke then, but 10 days ago it was not.

"It was about 2 in the afternoon," Lickliter said. "I'd just taken the Christmas lights down. All of a sudden it felt like someone was trying to tear my left arm off. My chest caved in and I couldn't breathe.

"I finally was able to get inside and I told my wife, Regina, I thought I had indigestion. I mean I'd never had any trouble before. But she looked at me and knew. She called the rescue squad and got some aspirin into me. She saved me."

He was rushed to Kettering Hospital and taken straight to the operating room. "The main artery in the front of my heart was 100 percent blocked," the 61-year-old Lickliter said. "The bottom two-thirds of my heart wasn't getting anything. The doctors told me something like 5 percent of guys with this make it, but they got it open and now I've got some stints in. Now I'm just waiting to see how much damage was done."

Thursday night was Lickliter's first game back. For the past three years, he's been the supervisor of men's basketball officials in the MAC and this year he's added the far-flung Summit League, too. Last season he saw 70 games.

Before Thursday night's game he visited with Miami coach Charlie Coles, another friend and himself a survivor of a heart attack that felled him several years ago during a game at Western Michigan. "He takes all the same medicine I do," Lickliter said. "He told me if I had any questions, I should call."

And then there's the call that came from fellow Belmont High grad Bill Hosket Jr.

"The day all this happened, Bill called my house to say that he'd just lost two of his closest friends," Lickliter said. "He left a message: 'I wanted to talk to an old friend, but I can just tell by your voice (on the message machine) everything's fine.'

"Little did he know at that very time I was in the hospital.

"So I call Bill later and I said, 'My mom always said things happen in threes. Since I was nine-tenths gone, we'll count that as No. 3. Tell the rest of your friends they're OK.' "