Updated with Quotes: Art Howe Has Rounded Third and is Back at Home in Houston

Art Howe, who made the conversion from the gridiron to the diamond during his days at the University of Wyoming and went on to spend nearly four decades in Major League Baseball as a player, coach and manager, was released on Sunday afternoon from a Houston hospital, where he had been admitted after a positive diagnosis with coronavirus.

"I have to get through another week or so, continue to progress, make sure my oxygen stays up, temperature stays were it should be," Howe told Mark Berman of Fox26 in Houston.

Howe, 73, said he had been ailing for several weeks, and last week, after he came down with the chills and felt weak he was taken to the hospital where the diagnosis was made.

"I developed a fever last Tuesday and that's why I had to be taken into the hospital," Howe said. "Before that I was kind of managing my temperature and all of a sudden I couldn't eat, and I'm sure that didn't help any. Once I stopped being able to put any good in my system I wore down quickly."

Howe said he will be isolated at home for another week or two, but "it's a relief, back in my own bedroom. It's just sweet. It was a long five days or so. I'm finally feeling a little bit better. Still not able to eat real good. Taste buds are giving me a hard time. It's just nice to be back home and hopefully continue to progress."

Howe, 73, was quarantining in his Houston home with his wife, Betty, when he first came down with chills, then started to get weak last week. But all the precautions he took weren’t enough to keep him from feeling cold and getting weaker.

Howe's wife, Betty, with whom he celebrated his 50th wedding anniversary a year ago, and two daughters, who live in the Houston area did not test positive for the coronavirus.

“That’s the best thing,” he said.

A native of Pittsburgh, graduated from Wyoming and went back to Pittsburgh to work. At the age of 24, he went to a Pirate's tryout camp. He went on to spend 39 years in the big leagues as a player, coach and manager.

Howe was originally recruited to Wyoming as a quarterback, but the back problems developed, and he wound up playing baseball instead. In his place, then Wyoming coach Bob Devaney moved defensive back Paul Toscano to quarterback.

In recent years, Howe has regularly returned to Wyoming with a group of retired baseball players, active scouts and members of the media for the final home game of the season. Former Wyoming baseball players Dan Adair, a teammate of Howe's in Laramie, and Bill Stearns, who was signed out of Wyoming by the Yankees and was a catcher in the minor leagues, also are part of the Wyomania group.