TOZER'S HEART STORY

Keith Tozer doesn't remember what transpired on Tuesday, Nov. 12.

He doesn't remember that he was at Boston Logan International Airport, that morning.

He doesn't remember going through cardiac arrest, or anything else.

"The first thing I do remember is waking up a day later in a hospital room with the priest giving me basically my last rites, and my family crying as I am about to be wheeled out to go to the surgery," the Major Arena Soccer League commissioner said.

That was a day after SUNY Upstate Medical student AnnMarie Marquis saved his life, performing CPR.

"Unexpected, emotional, terrifying, and then blessed and lucky," Tozer said.

Blessed to be alive and to help others.

Tozer was returning home to Milwaukee after holding a level three state certification course for coaches for futsal. His Monday flight home was cancelled, so he was to take a 5:30 a.m. plane on Tuesday. He collapsed at the top of an escalator at 4:45 a.m.

“I ran over, dropped my bag, tried to assess what was going on,” Marquis said. “I didn’t have a pulse, so I ripped your shirt off, asked someone to go get an AED, and then I started doing compressions. I’m just glad I could help, you know… everyone is somebody’s dad, somebody’s brother, friend.”

Tozer was forever grateful, repeating what Marquis told him.

"Anne Marie did a fantastic job," he said. "She was an angel. She had told me through a text message, as well as when I first met her in person, she said, 'Keith, all I could think about was: You're someone's father, you're someone's husband, you're someone's friend, and I can't let you go.' That was powerful, and really for a young woman who did eight minutes of CPR, which is really difficult.

"She said to me, 'I was not going to let you go.' I said: 'You broke eight of my ribs.' "

But Marquis gave Tozer a lifeline, until he was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital for further treatment.

"I did not know what the story was," he said. "A woman whose name was Anne Marie, who also works for Delta, was the first person to reach out and say, 'Keith, by the way, I saw you. I took a picture of your driver's license. You were purple. You were not breathing. You reminded me of my father who passed away in a cardiac arrest. I know the woman who saved you."

Tozer's grandmother on his mother's side is named Anne, and the grandmother on his father's side is named Marie.

Guardian angels?

Perhaps.

"I'm so glad she was there and my flight was canceled Monday night," he said. "If I had gotten home, I could have been by myself, and I would have been dead if I got on the flight 20 minutes later. I was a mile and a half from Boston General Mass, which is considered one of the top heart hospitals in the country, and I got the Tom Brady of doctors specializing in This specific surgery."

Tozer said that he was going to keep what he had gone through private.

"I did not go to social media, only my family knew and close friends, but the American Heart Association and my family said, 'Hey, you have a story to tell. You can save other people,' " he said.

Two days after the operation, Tozer spoke with his doctor.

Tozer related his discussion.

Doctor: "Coach, how are you feeling?"

Tozer "I'm depressed."

Doctor "Why are you depressed? You just cheated death, dude. You should go buy a lottery ticket."

Tozer: "But I work out every day."

Doctor: "Keith, it has nothing to do with smoking or non-smoking, eating right or not eating right, exercising, not exercising, drinking or not drinking. You had hereditary issue. Your heart actually is like a 30-year-old."

One thing that Tozer made clear was that cardiac arrest has nothing to do with how fit anyone is. A former indoor soccer player, he works out daily.

"I had a hereditary issue called mitral valve prolapse," he said. "My mom had it. Both my parents had passed away. I wish my father would have told me and my three brothers about it, because we would have been tested, or at least I would have known more about it. My children have been tested since this event.

"So, one of the one of the things that preaching is that everybody must know the health history of their family, because a big part of heart disease is hereditary."

The MASL commissioner explained the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest.

"A heart attack is a pump issue, which means parting of the arteries, lack of blood flow," he said. "A cardiac arrest is an electrical issue. I have no pump issue, or I have no blockage, I have no scar tissue. I had no damage to my heart. It was this electrical issue that put me into that prolapse."

Doctors told Tozer that his fitness helped him survive.

"CPR is putting oxygen to the brain," he said. "You're trying to save the brain. For every minute that there's not CPR or not done correctly, 10 to 15 percent of your brain fries. So, when you're not fit and someone does CPR, that oxygen is going to your muscles and the other parts of your body, as well as your brain. When you're fit, your muscles don't need that oxygen. It goes to your brain. My fitness helped me through the initial CPR. The fitness has helped me post recovery because I'm traveling. It's only been 3 1/2 months. I'm working, doing everything I normally done. I'm on the treadmill six days a week, and I'm lifting six days a week."

Since he has gone public, Tozer said that he has received many messages from former players who have suffered heart attacks or cardiac arrest. That includes Kansas City Comets goalkeeper coach and former indoor standout Alan Mayer and ex-Comets star Gino Schiraldi.

"I’ve received so many messages from people that have had an aunt and an uncle, a nephew, dad, a mom," Tozer said. "It's the number one killer of men and women in the world. ... 2500 people a day in the United States, die from cardiac or heart attack. Three percent of people who have a heart attack or outside the hospital survive, and that's because many people do not know CPR or there's not a defibrillator around. I became part of three percent."

Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin in 2023, and Angel City FC defender Savy King, in May 2025, suffered similar cardiac arrest incidents during games.

"These things, you never know when they're going to come," Tozer said.

Most of the soccer universe knows Tozer as an advocate for futsal and indoor soccer.

Now, he has a new calling - to help save lives.

Tozer was ready to tell his story and approached MASL chairman Shep Messing, president of communication JP Dellacamera and director of communications/team services Lindsay Mogle.

"I said, 'I guess I'm here for a reason, and maybe it's to spread the word,' " he said.

Mogle reached out to the American Heart Association and "we tapped this thing called Play With Heart,” Tozer said.

"Every team is bought into it. It's only been two months, but we are going to save people's lives through this.:

Prior to Utica City FC's game at the Adirondack Bank Center, Marquis and Tozer were honored. Marquis received the Heartsaver Hero Award, which is the official recognition from the American Heart Association acknowledging the act of performing CPR. SUNY Upstate Medical is located in Syracuse, 55 miles west of Utica.

In a statement, the American Heart Association said: “Thanks to AnnMarie’s quick action, she has made every future moment possible for Keith. Heroism is not limited to uniforms; it is everyday people stepping up for others.”

"To meet someone and hug someone who gave you the ability to spend another day with your children, your family and your friends and work, what a gift," Tozer said. "It was a very emotional moment for me, and felt extremely thankful and blessed."

In today's game against the St. Louis Ambush, the Milwaukee Wave will hold CPR classes and blood pressure checks. That's because Tozer is doing cardiac rehab at Ascension Columbia St. Mary's Hospital on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

"So, these wonderful nurses and doctors and people that I work with three days a week will be helping out," he said.

Tozer and the league have reached out to Hamlin and King and are discussing future alignments.

"I'm hoping that Damar and Savy and us can partner together to just keep spreading the word," he said.

His goal in Milwaukee is to get CPR classes at all high schools. The classes last 30- or 45 minutes.

"If you got high school kids who know how to save a loved one, a neighbor, someone at the shopping mall, maybe that three percent grows to six, 12 or 24 percent," he said. "This journey has just begun.

"I kept quiet for a month and a half, but with the microphone that I have, I'm going to use it and try to help people."

Michael Lewis, the sixth recipient of the Clay Berling Media Career of Excellence Award in 2025, can be followed on X (formerly Twitter) and Bluesky at @Soccerwriter. His 10th soccer book, Around the World Cup in 40 Years: An American sportswriter's perspective, will be published this spring.