UNT's McCarney happy to be back after stroke

Harry · April 2, 2012

DENTON — No coach in the country was looking forward to the start of spring practice last week than North Texas' Dan McCarney.

It was McCarney's first time on a practice field since suffering a stroke last February.

"I've never enjoyed being at a practice more than I did yesterday," McCarney said. "I mean that. I honestly didn't stop smiling the whole time I was out there."

McCarney, 58, can smile now thanks to the quick action of paramedics and doctors. Other than a little numbness and tingling in his left hand and foot, he said he has no other lingering effects of the stroke.

McCarney's father had suffered a heart attack in his 50s and two strokes, but that still didn't prepare him for the moment his own life came to a screeching halt.

He had just finished a workout at his home with his wife, Margy, when the symptoms struck without warning.

"We were just sitting here watching TV, I had a sandwich and was texting Rick [Villareall, the UNT athletic director], and there was just this loud ringing in my ears," McCarney recalled. "I said, ‘Margy is that the TV?' And she said, ‘What are you talking about?'

Margy McCarney remembers the moment vividly.

"The look in his eye, I knew it was something serious," she said.

An instant later, McCarney felt the left side of his body go numb.

"Not like a little tingling, like major numbness," McCarney said. "I thought 911, something's up."