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Professional athletes seem big, powerful, and almost indestructible on the playing field. Yet they can be just as vulnerable to stroke as the armchair fans who cheer for them, especially when they move into less physically active roles as their playing years pass.

The problems for athletes are many, says Michael Franklin, M.D., a neurologist with the St. Petersburg, Florida, Neuro-logy Clinic. “A lot of athletes don’t take care of themselves when they’re younger and it carries over. Some live a lifestyle that isn’t always healthy—partying on the road, drinking, smoking, sometimes substance abuse. Some try to make their bodies bigger (with anabolic steroids) and they don’t realize the danger physically.”

On the field and in the ice arena, players are battered by body blows, and that can lead to hemorrhagic strokes (strokes that occur when blood vessels burst in the brain). African American athletes are predisposed to higher rates of high blood pressure, a risk factor for stroke. In addition, many athletes are obese, weighing 350 to 400 pounds, which alone can predispose them to stroke. But a lot of trainers and coaches are pressured to keep players big and get them back in play, says Franklin.

His advice to athletes: Stay on top of your health with frequent cholesterol and blood pressure checks, with healthy eating, and keeping your weight under control.

Haven Moses
At the end of December, 2002, former football great Haven Moses and his wife, Joyce, were wrapping up a three-week vacation in California, dining and making merry with scads of relatives. Haven, who had a respected NFL career with the Buffalo Bills and the Denver Broncos, called the visit “overly festive.” Upon his return, the Denver resident went back to work at the Archdiocese of Denver, though he felt as if he was coming down with something. That “something” turned out to be a stroke.

The morning of January 9, 2003, Haven struggled with his concentration, but stayed through the entire workday before returning home and going to bed. About 11 p.m., he got up to use the restroom and his left side “just collapsed.” At Denver Health Medical Center, he was diagnosed with stroke. While rehabilitating his weakened arm and leg, he focused on the positive. “I wanted to avoid frustration, anger, and withdrawal for my family’s sake because I knew they’d love and support me when I needed them most. I wanted to appreciate life. I knew I had a lot more to live for.”

The love and strength of his wife and children (Chris, then 30, and Brian, then 27) greatly helped in Haven’s recovery.  “Our relationship is stronger than ever and my faith has been secured as well. My limitations—a slight limp and some weakness in my left hand—pale in comparison to that of other [survivors].”

Today, at age 59, Haven’s most important goal is to inspire others not to give up. He’s always motivating and inspiring kids to maximize their potential “because they’re the future leaders and stewards of our country. If there’s a message for everyone it’s that life is so precious, so special, that you have to keep moving forward.”

Lou Hudson
“Sweet Lou” Hudson, 60, was not on the basketball court but on a ski slope in his hometown of Park City, Utah, on February 12 last year when he felt light-headed. The former Atlanta Hawks basketball star skied down and headed for the gym to work out. A therapist recognized his deteriorating condition and had him flown to a Salt Lake City hospital.

Hudson, a six-time all-star with a 13-year NBA career, had suffered a severe stroke affecting his memory, speech, and his ability to walk. He spent several months in the hospital and at a stroke center in Atlanta participating in speech and physical therapies, and programs to improve his thinking and memory.

Hudson pushed himself hard in the therapies, just as he did on the basketball court because “it was important to get my life back,” he says. His next goal is to drive again, because he misses the freedom of going out on his own. And he’s anxious to get back full-time to the work he loved before his stroke—running the Louis C. Hudson Jr. Memorial Basketball Camp and an after-school program, the Lou Hudson Growth League, says his wife and actress A. Madeline Hudson, aka Mardi Hudson.

“I deal with white kids, black kids, Hispanic kids,” he says. “They all have to learn to get the barriers out of the way and get along in the world together so that everyone can function.”

Brian Mullen
A stroke at age 30 turned Brian Mullen’s life upside down. “I was healthy and a professional athlete at the top of my game and the next day I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to play with my kids, skate again, or do any of the things I did on a day-to-day basis.”

Mullen was a hockey star with the New York Islanders at the time of his stroke in 1993. On his way to work out one morning, he kept dropping his keys and slurred his words. At the ER, he learned he had experienced a stroke. Doctors linked it to a blood clot that occurred the previous season after being hit in the leg by a stick or puck. The clot moved to his brain through a small hole in his heart.

A few weeks later, Mullen had surgery to close the hole. Though he fully recovered from the stroke and the surgery, he had a seizure shortly after returning to play. “The doctors said it was okay to play after that, but the owners were skeptical and said I should retire,” he recalls.

Mullen moved on to assist with a children’s development program through the NHL and to work as a radio color commentator for the New York Rangers. Today, at age 43, the resident of Basking Ridge, New Jersey, helps his older brother as a stagehand at CBS studios. On the side, he coaches kids’ hockey, as well as his two boys, Bryce, 11, and Chris, 15.

Mullen credits his family with assisting him to a complete recovery. “They helped me get through the ‘Why me?’ stuff. My family, by far, was the most important reason to heal.”

Kevin Shaw
Being there for his 5-month-old daughter Lindsay was a critical reason Kevin Shaw worked to exhaustion to recuperate from his stroke. It happened on July 28, 2002, while Shaw, then 43, was running a golf tournament for members of the Whitford Country Club in Exton, Pennsylvania. “The right side of my face dropped. My right arm had no strength. I was more scared than anything else,” he says.

At the hospital, he was told he could have no visitors. But as Shaw sat up and started ripping the tubes and wires from his body so he could leave, the staff relented and let his wife Julie bring Lindsay in. “It was lovely having her sit on my chest, play with my hair and hug me. I realized then I had to get better.”

After a lot of therapy and a battle with depression, Shaw has returned as head golf pro for Penn Oaks Golf Club in West Chester, Pennsylvania. He has some issues with balance and his right arm still isn’t 100 percent, but he has a new outlook on life as he works to promote junior golf and golf for the disabled.

“Now I realize that quality of life rather than quantity is important,” says the Newark, Delaware, resident. “It’s the little things that mean so damn much. And I have a new philosophy, too. If I can touch one life, inspire or change or open a door for somebody, that’s what’s important.”

Reprinted with permission from the National Stroke Association.