Eastern Kentucky head coach Walt Wells hospitalized after "cardiac episode"

Eastern Kentucky head coach Walt Wells is recovering Sunday evening after a medical scare earlier in the day left Wells hospitalized.

A former EKU assistant coach under legendary Colonels’ former skipper Roy Kidd, Wells constructed one of college football’s biggest turnarounds in 2021 – at the Football Bowls or Football Championship Subdivision levels – when he led EKU to a 7-4 campaign.

The Colonels are poised to enter the 2022 season Friday at Eastern Michigan, but Wells had what school officials termed a “cardiac episode” Sunday morning that required emergency medical attention.

Though as the day progressed Wells was considered in “stable” condition per EKU, school officials earlier Sunday issued a vague statement on Wells’s health and many members of the Colonels’ program reached out to ask for prayers for the third-year head coach.

Later Sunday evening, EKU athletics director Matt Roan issued a statement on Wells’s condition after Roan said he visited with Wells’s wife, Jennifer, and other members of the Colonels’ program.

Wells was transported from EKU, in Richmond, Kentucky, to the nearby University of Kentucky Hospital 30 miles from campus in Lexington.

“President (David) McFaddin and I had the opportunity to spend the afternoon and evening with Jennifer and several of Coach Wells’ close friends and family members,” Roan said via the statement. “Coach Wells suffered a cardiac episode this morning and is in stable condition within the intensive care unit at UK Hospital.

“On behalf of the Wells family, we are very thankful for the amazing medical professionals who have been involved.”