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GREENSBORO — In college basketball, the best comebacks typically occur on the court, not in the broadcast booth. But don’t tell that to Mike Hogewood.

The Greensboro broadcaster, who called Sunday’s ACC women’s championship game between Duke and N.C. State, feels he’s recovered from a stroke last summer that threatened his career.

“God gave me a miracle,” said Hogewood, 55, the former WFMY sports director. “God gave me a second chance.”

Now, Hogewood says, he wants to be a cheerleader for others who might need a miracle of their own.

“If my story can inspire somebody else, then going through this was worth it,” he said Sunday as the Duke players cut down the nets after beating State 70-60 at the Greensboro Coliseum.

Hogewood called five games on TV during the tournament and served as host on two others, something he feared seven months ago that he’d never get to do again.

On July 28, while playing tennis at a club in North Myrtle Beach, Hogewood suffered a severe bout of what he thought was vertigo.

“I got dizzy and had to stop,” he recalled, adding that doctors had been treating him for the problem for several months. “This last one was really serious and the dizziness wouldn’t go away. I couldn’t stand up.”

But emergency room doctors at a Myrtle Beach hospital also thought it was vertigo and discharged him.

So Hogewood’s wife, Nancy, loaded him in the back seat of the family car and drove him to Greensboro, where he saw three more doctors. The third, a neurologist, told him he had suffered a rare — and sometimes deadly — stroke called a Wallenberg syndrome.

Caused by a reduced blood flow in an artery in his cerebellum, the attack affected his balance — he couldn’t stand without using a walker — and his voice. He also suffered some numbness in his face, but no paralysis.

In Hogewood’s case, the doctor said, the stroke was not life threatening.

“(But) I thought it was career threatening,” Hogewood said. “I wasn’t telling any of my clients. I was afraid of losing my career. I was afraid of losing my dream.”

Hogewood had left Channel 2 in 2001 so he could broadcast live sports as an independent contractor. He now does play-by-play on nearly 100 events a year, including ACC men’s and women’s basketball, NASCAR races, ACC baseball and professional wrestling on HDNet.

“He has thrived at it,” said Debbie Antonelli, Hogewood’s color analyst on ACC women’s games. “He’s made himself into a very good play-by-play announcer.”

Hogewood’s workload makes him one of the best-known broadcasters in the region. He’s also famous for his Carolina Kia commercials.

His call of Sunday’s tournament game was broadcast nationally on FOX Sports Net. He’ll also work for Raycom Sports as host for the ACC men’s basketball tournament, which begins Thursday at the coliseum.

“His backyard is the ACC, not just Greensboro,” said Rob Reichley, a coordinating producer for Raycom. “Mike is one of those guys who has been around a long time. He has always brought a lot of enthusiasm to the broadcast.”

Hogewood brought that same enthusiasm to his recovery effort.

The stroke put him in the Moses H. Cone Memorial Hospital for 10 days. That was followed by eight weeks of outpatient rehabilitation.

“I was basically trying to get my balance back,” Hogewood said. “I worked really hard. I listened to everything those therapists said.”

Hogewood says a turning point came in early September. He had graduated from a walker to a cane. He remembers standing at the top of his driveway.

“I felt a different kind of power come into my body,” he recalled. “I put the cane down and walked down the driveway and turned around and walked back. I knew then I was coming back and that God had given me a miracle.”

On Sept. 12, Hogewood showed up for work as Raycom’s pregame and halftime host and sideline reporter for ACC football. And he did it without a cane. And his voice had come back as strong as ever.

Doctors had told him it might take him six months to get to that point. But he did it in less than two.

“Nobody that I worked with could believe that I had had a stroke,” he said. “With God’s help, I got my life back.”

After full seasons of ACC football and basketball, Hogewood calls his comeback complete.

“I still have a career. I can still do this,” Hogewood said. “I didn’t want to be seen as an invalid. I wanted to be the same Mike Hogewood that was passionate and enthusiastic for what he does.”

And, he says, the experience has strengthened his faith.

“I’m telling you man, I believe in miracles. I believe God is a healing God.”

Contact Donald W. Patterson at 373-7027 or don.patterson@news-record.com