Denton Cooley 1960s. He and his colleagues worked on developing new artificial heart valves from 1962 to 1967; during that period, mortality for heart valve transplants fell from 70% to 8%. In 1969, he became the first heart surgeon to implant an artificial heart designed by Domingo Liotta in a man, Haskell Karp, who lived for 65 hours. The next year, in 1970, "he performed the first implantation of an artificial heart in a human when no heart replacement was immediately available." Cooley's interests included basketball, which he played in high school and as a three-year letterman for the UT men's basketball
Nick Liotta player on the Villanova team. Nick Liotta Domenic A. "Nick" Liotta (January 28, 1928 – November 28, 1951) was an American football player. A native of Everett, Massachusetts, he attended Villanova University where he played college football as a guard and linebacker. He developed a reputation as a 60-minute player and served as co-captain of Villanova's 1951 football team. He was selected by the Football Writers Association of America as a first-team guard and by the "Chicago Tribune" (based on votes of fellow players) as a first-team linebacker on their respective 1951 College Football All-America Teams. Prior to the end