PULLMAN, Wash. - Mayor Glenn Johnson was in a Pullman hospital Monday after his blood pressure spiked.

Johnson, who is better known as the public address announcer for Washington State University football and basketball games, was taken to Pullman Regional Hospital Sunday evening.

He was found to have suffered a blood pressure increase and also some short-term memory loss, said Michol Ann Jensen, an executive assistant for the city.

He was to be transferred to a Spokane hospital later Monday.

"He's so significantly improved this morning, we're hoping it's not terribly long," Jensen said.

Sometime Sunday night, Johnson's blood pressure spiked, although the timeline is a little unclear as the episode caused a lapse in the mayor's short term memory, KXLY-TV in Spokane reported.

However, Johnson's short term memory is said to have almost completely returned and he has shown dramatic improvements in health since the incident, the station said.

Johnson, who also is a broadcast professor at WSU's Edward R. Murrow School of Communication, was making jokes in his room this morning and his full memory is expected to return, Erica Austin, the Murrow School's interim director, wrote in an e-mail to department staff.

Ann Heath, Pullman's mayor pro tempore, will take over Johnson's responsibilities while he is hospitalized, including leading Tuesday evening's City Council meeting.