Theotis Brown Improving After Having Heart Attack

Theotis Brown, Kansas City Chiefs and former UCLA running back, suffered a heart attack Tuesday and was in serious but stable condition at a hospital here Wednesday.

Brown, 27, was listed in critical but stable condition Wednesday morning when the Chiefs made the announcement that he had a heart attack. But Mary Baskett, director of marketing and planning for St. Joseph Hospital, said Wednesday afternoon that Brown’s condition had been upgraded.

Baskett said she had no indication from physicians as to how long Brown would remain in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Chiefs public relations director Bob Sprenger said that Brown began feeling ill at his home about 2 p.m. Tuesday after a workout at Arrowhead Stadium. Brown complained of shortness of breath and nausea and was admitted to St. Joseph Hospital about 7:30 p.m.

Brown, 6-2 and 225 pounds, was a second-round draft choice of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1979. He was traded to the Seattle Seahawks during the 1981 season and signed with the Chiefs as a free agent five games into the 1983 season after being released by Seattle.

Brown was hampered much of last season by a sprained ankle and toe injury suffered in the seventh game, against San Diego.

He finished as the team’s second-leading rusher with 337 yards.

Brown’s heart attack was the latest in a series of misfortunes involving Kansas City running backs. Mack Lee Hill, the American Football League Rookie of the Year in 1964, died the next season of complications after knee surgery. He had suffered a knee injury against Buffalo in the next-to-last game of the season.

Joe Delaney, who was the American Football Conference rookie of the year in 1981, drowned near his home in Louisiana before the 1983 season while attempting to save three children.