In Danny Rumph’s honor, family and foundation work to prevent sudden cardiac arrest in young athletes

Viola Owens remembers that she braced herself as she stepped for the first time inside the Mallery Recreation Center, the same court where her 21-year-old son, Danny Rumph, had collapsed and died a year earlier after suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.

The Mallery Center, now named the Rumph Center, in Germantown was a stomping ground for Rumph and his friends to play pickup games. Owens, also known as “Ms. Candy,” returned there in 2006 for the first iteration of the Rumph Classic, a five-day basketball tournament held in her son’s honor.

“I cried a lot — I didn’t let people see it,” Owens recalled Thursday. “It got easier to deal with as years went on, but the first year, I cried a lot. I cried in sadness of him not being there and I cried in happiness for all the people that showed up.”

This year marks the 18th Danny Rumph Classic, where stars and local legends align at the Philly pro-am tournament, now played at the Community College of Philadelphia. Eight teams play for a chance to compete in the championship game Monday.

It’s a place for the community to gather, celebrating the game Rumph loved, but also, it’s a reminder about the importance of making families aware of checking on their heart health, Owens said, to “save the next bright star.”

Before Owens and her brother, Marcus Owens, set out to honor Rumph’s legacy, though, they wanted answers about how this could happen to him.

He was healthy, strong, and considered one of the best basketball players from the Philly area. They soon learned that he suffered from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, the leading cause of sudden cardiac arrest among young athletes. The condition is passed down through genetics 80% of the time, according to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia cardiologist Victoria Vetter.

“I feel like people really don’t have a sense of how often it happens just because it hasn’t personally touched you. When it personally touches you, you see it more, you hear about it more.”

The condition has taken the lives of other basketball standouts, including Philly native Hank Gathers and former NBA All-Star Reggie Lewis in the early 1990s. Buffalo Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest last season and survived. Last week, LeBron James’ son, Bronny, suffered cardiac arrest at a USC practice and is recovering.

“I feel like people really don’t have a sense of how often it happens,” Marcus Owens said. “Just because it hasn’t personally touched you. When it personally touches you, you see it more, you hear about it more.”

» READ MORE: The Danny Rumph Classic: Hoops memories for a cause

Vetter, who has studied the subject for more than 40 years, believes it’s not as rare as it seems. One in 300 children have an undetected heart condition that might put them at risk for sudden cardiac arrest, she said, and one in 12,500 people are likely to have sudden cardiac arrest.

“This is bigger than we thought and happening more frequently,” Marcus Owens said. “We found out in our community that it is more prevalent, and it happens more often in our African American community, so that’s where our mission came from.”

Marcus and Viola Owens started the Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation in July 2005, hoping to spread awareness about ways to take precautions. They wanted to provide lifesaving resources like automated external defibrillators (AEDs), a device used to restore a normal heartbeat, in every recreation center and Boys & Girls Club across the Philly community.

It’s a device that could have “saved my son’s life,” Viola Owens said.

“I always tell people, I always tell my friends and family, if your child plays a sport, I don’t care what kind of sport it is, make sure they get a thorough heart check,” she added. “It’s important because people don’t take it seriously until something happens.”

Rumph was a giver; he liked to mentor the younger people around him, especially when he went off to play at Western Kentucky.

On the court, though, it was complete seriousness.

He would meet regularly at the Mallery Center with his friends, including Mike Morak (the Danny Rumph Classic tournament director), Sharif Hanford, Sharif Bray, and many others. By the time Rumph was a freshman at Parkway Center City High School, his game had vastly improved. His friends knew Danny’s talent was special.

“We got a chance to spend a lot of time just playing basketball, and a bunch of us just became brothers and family by working out every day,” Morak said. “I think Danny is one of the best players in the city. I never thought he got as much credit as he deserved in terms of how good of a basketball player he was.

“I really looked forward to watching him become a pro basketball player.”

It was Mother’s Day when Danny died in 2005. Viola Owens recalled their spending the whole day together. He left later that evening for the rec center and said, “Mom, I’m going to be back.”

A few hours went by and then she received a phone call from one of Danny’s friends, saying her son had collapsed on the indoor court. Viola rushed over and broke down in tears to find him unconscious.

“For a couple months, I shut myself away from everybody,” she said. “It was the worst moment in my life, but after it happened, I guess it was just a shock that I had to get over. The depression stage, I went through all the stages of it.”

» READ MORE: The Danny Rumph Classic shows Philadelphia basketball’s true flavor

Danny always used to give his mother a wet willy, because he knew she couldn’t stand it. One day, Viola Owens had that feeling — the feeling of wetness in her ear as if somebody just did it to her. She knew at that moment it was time to cherish the great memories of Danny and try to avoid this from happening to others.

“Eventually, we picked up a basketball and got back on the court,” said Hanford, one of Rumph’s longtime friends. “I pretty much immersed myself in the foundation when it was built and pushing the cause. That’s my fight: raising awareness to do heart screenings, and coaching kids.”

Viola Owens’ impact started with writing symptoms of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy on index cards and leaving them around the neighborhood parks or on the stoops of homes.

Over the years, the foundation achieved a goal it sought from the start, donating defibrillators to every recreational center in Philadelphia. And as of last month, it had gifted defibrillators to each Boys & Girls Club.

The foundation also has provided CPR and AED training along with heart screenings with the help of Vetter, who is also the medical director of Youth Heart Watch, a program that aims to prevent sudden cardiac death among children and adolescents. They have worked to provide each public school in the city with AEDs.

» READ MORE: This teenager’s heart stopped, and a teacher grabbed the one thing that might save him: an AED

The foundation’s next heart screening event is scheduled for February, with the location and time to be determined.

Studies show that nationwide there is a lack of cardiovascular screening for high school and college athletes during physical examinations. Many daycare centers and nurseries do not require defibrillators.

So aside from options such as having an AED on site, how can people take precautions ahead of time?

“Pay attention to your family history; only about 30 to 40% of people will have a cardiac arrest warning signs and symptoms,” Vetter said. “The warning signs and symptoms are fainting with exercise, chest pain with exercise — and if they have recurrent fainting without cause of heat or being dehydrated.

“Talk with your pediatrician, talk with your family doctor. If you really feel strongly, call and get an appointment to see a pediatric cardiologist.”

Viola and Marcus Owens noted that they constantly remind others about the importance of heart screenings and having facilities equipped with AED devices.

In the near future, they are hoping to offer AED and CPR training to youth organization coaches. As for Vetter, she has been working with colleagues on a state bill that would require all schools and playing fields to have cardiac emergency response plans.

“When this happens, it’s devastating to people; families fall apart from it,” Marcus Owens said. “We’re trying to do our best from having this happen to someone else.”