Taken from the Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune, Nov. 8, 1994.
 
MERRIMACK HOCKEY PLAYER SAVES HOOP PLAYER FROM CHOKING TO DEATH
by Bill Burt
 
Merrimack College senior Mike Nugent didn't have time to enjoy lunch.
It was only 11:15 a.m.  He was sitting alone.  And class started in
about 15 minutes.
 
Nugent, a 6-foot-10 center on the basketball team, remembered his
mouth being very dry.
 
"It was early.  There was hardly anybody in the cafeteria," recalled
Nugent, of Plaistow, N.H.  "I only got a sandwich because I was in a
hurry.  I took just one bite.  That's all.  It wouldn't go all the way
down."
 
Within a few seconds he started to pound his chest.  When nothing
happened, panic set in.  Nugent bolted from his seat and sprinted
toward the kitchen.
 
"I couldn't breathe.  And I couldn't talk either," explained Nugent.
"I figured the lunch ladies would know what to do."
 
Of course they did.  They called for help.
 
"I was in line, waiting for my lunch," remembered Steve McKenna, a
sophomore defenseman on the Merrimack hockey team, one of only a
handful of students in the cafeteria.
 
"I saw Mike, who I know pretty well, run into the kitchen," McKenna
said.  "I knew something was wrong, and I heard them calling for help.
So I ran back there."
 
McKenna did what his mother, Registered Nurse Shirley McKenna, showed
all her children to do under the same circumstance.
 
He calmly grabbed Nugent from behind, as if he were a wrestler.  Then
he made a fist with one hand, and put his free hand over the fist.
And he tugged twice under Nugent's rib cage.
 
The gob of bread spewed out like a gun shot.
 
A life was saved.
 
"It may not have seemed like I was scared, but I was," said McKenna.
"I was scared when I saw him run by.  I was scared while I was giving
him the Heimlich (maneuver).  And I was scared afterward, too."
 
Like a true hero, McKenna didn't hang around to be patted on the back.
In fact, after making sure Nugent was OK, he went back to the
cafeteria and then ate his lunch.
 
It has been two weeks since, and a few of McKenna's friends found out
about it yesterday.  He did call his mother the next day, though.
"She was happy," said McKenna.
 
Nugent feels lucky.  Not only was McKenna trained by a nurse who
happens to be his mom, but he was one of only a handful of people on
the Merrimack campus big enough, at 6-foot-8 (Yes, he's a hockey
player), to handle him physically.
 
"If he wasn't there, I'd probably be dead," said Nugent.  "Steve saved
my life."
 
Nugent caught up with McKenna several hours after the incident and
told him the same thing.
 
"He came up to me in the locker room later that day and thanked me for
saving his life," said McKenna.  "It kind of throws you when somebody
says that to you.  It still does when I think about it."
 
Nugent says eating since the incident has been a bit of a chore.  He
chews his food incessantly.  And he eats with a friend.
 
Nugent and McKenna ran into each other again last night at the Volpe
Complex.  Besides exchanging high fives, they didn't say too much.
 
They didn't have to.
 
"It's sort of weird," said McKenna.  "I see him now and I think, 'Wow!
It's great to see him...Alive.'"
 
(end)
 
Now, you UNH fans can't cheer against the guy this weekend after
reading that, can you? :-)
 
McKenna, the biggest defenseman in Hockey East, is one half of the
Warriors' "Twin Towers" on D with 6-5 John Jakopin and picked up his
first point of the season Saturday with an assist in Merrimack's 4-3
win at Providence.
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Mike Machnik                                            [log in to unmask]
Cabletron Systems, Inc.                                    *HMM* 11/13/93