As Dan Issel is thrilled to tell you, reports of his demise were greatly exaggerated

On July 22, Kentucky men’s basketball icon Dan Issel was spending a calm day at his Colorado home when the phone of his wife, Cheri, rang — and the day took a ghoulish turn.

Ever wonder what it would be like to live through your own “death”?

This is Dan Issel’s report on what that experience was like.

That Monday afternoon, Judy Dampier, wife of Dan Issel’s close friend and ex-Kentucky Colonels teammate Louie Dampier, was on the other end of Cheri Issel’s phone.

Judy had been moved to call because of the distressing news about Dan Issel that was spreading through Kentucky like a fire moves through dry brush.

“Have you seen Facebook?” Dampier asked.

“No,” Cheri Issel replied. “Why?”

“Well, there’s a report that Dan passed away,” Judy Dampier replied.

As Issel, 75, listened and watched, Cheri glanced in his direction, then said into the phone. “Well, he’s sitting right here next to me. He looks OK to me.”

In an experience right out of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” Dan Issel was about to see how people would react to his passing.

“It was a strange couple of hours, that’s for sure,” Issel said.

The craziness seems to have begun on Facebook, where a Kentucky Wildcats fan in Louisville posted his condolences on Issel’s “death.”

Issel, of course, is the all-time leading scorer (2,138 career points) and rebounder (1,078) in University of Kentucky men’s basketball history.

The Batavia, Illinois, product is a former star for the Kentucky Colonels of the old American Basketball Association. That included playing a leading role on the Louisville franchise’s 1974-75 ABA championship team, the only “major league” pro sports title won by a team in the commonwealth.

In 1993, Issel was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Given the exalted place Issel holds in our state’s hoops history, the report that he had passed understandably hit people with the impact of a speeding semi-trailer truck.

On Facebook, heartfelt condolences came rushing in.

“So sorry to hear this,” ex-UK radio play-by-play announcer Ralph Hacker wrote. “What a great guy.”

“Very heartbreaking,” wrote longtime Kentucky sportswriter Jamie Vaught. “(Issel) was my all-time favorite Wildcat.”

Other UK fans lamented the loss of “an amazing ambassador for our University of Kentucky” and a “great basketball player, better person.”

In Colorado, the Issels were fielding a constant stream of concerned phone calls.

“Most of those calls went to Cheri,” Dan Issel said. “Most of them were afraid to contact me. We started getting calls from all over.”

Jimmy Dan Conner — the former UK guard who played for the Kentucky Colonels in 1975-76 — called to check on Issel.

So did Jack “Goose” Givens, who, like Issel, is a 2,000-plus career points scorer (2,038) for UK.

In his playing days, the 6-foot-9 Issel was known as “The Horse.”

“When Goose called me, (he said), ‘I’m glad you answered the phone. I wanted to get it straight from The Horse’s mouth,’” Issel said. “I thought that was pretty good.”

By the time a call came from Artis Gilmore, the 7-foot-2 center who was Issel’s college rival during the former’s playing days at Jacksonville University and then his pro teammate with the Colonels, Issel decided he, too, could have some fun with his reported demise.

Seeing Gilmore’s name pop up on his cell phone, Issel answered in his most ghostly sounding voice.

“I said, ‘Artis, it’s Dan talking from the other side,’” Issel said. “Artis said, ‘Don’t do that to me.’ That was the funniest call.”

Before the afternoon of his supposed passing, Issel reports he had been enjoying a low-key, family-oriented summer.

The highlight had been a trip to Cooperstown, New York, to see his 12-year-old grandson, Grayson, play in a youth baseball tournament.

Though Issel is no longer involved with the effort to bring a NBA expansion franchise to Louisville, he has been watching closely as the National Basketball Association inches toward potentially granting new franchises to two cities.

“The more I am hearing about it, it sounds like Seattle and Las Vegas are done deals,” Issel said.

Alas, on July 22, the mistaken word that Issel himself was a done deal was sewing shock and sadness throughout Kentucky.

Taking a proactive step to stop the fake news from spreading further, Cheri Issel took to the comments below the erroneous Facebook post that seemingly got the whole hullabaloo started in the first place.

“This is Dan’s wife, Cheri Issel,” she wrote, “and I wanted to let all concerned know that my husband Dan is alive, in good health, and loving being in Colorado with his children and grandchildren!”

Dan Issel has a sense of humor, and got a kick out of living through his own “death.”

Issel said he was gratified by how many people were saying kind things about him upon news of his passing.

“I am sure there were some people out there who didn’t share those same sentiments,” Issel said. “But it was nice that, hopefully, most of the people did.”

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