SYLACAUGA, Ala. (WIAT) -- Lew Murphy, a high school football referee who performed CPR on a fellow referee who collapsed on the field during the second quarter of Sylacauga’s home football game against Coosa Central, is being hailed as a hero.

Joey Shelnutt, is now awaiting bypass surgery after his long time friend and colleague along with others jumped into action to save his life.

“Absolutely he’s a hero,” said head football coach Chris Smelley.” “Just the awareness that he had that we were in an emergency situation is not normal, I definitely didn’t realize it that fast.”

Smelley added that Murphy immediately knew what to do, as he was trained in CPR. He said it quickly became a team effort in a critical moment:

“Lew started on the compressions right away,” he recalled, “and then we

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