Good morning. It's wonderful to be here at the AOSSM annual meeting, and even more wonderful to have the honor of introducing this year's Hall of Fame inductees. My name is Brian Busconi. Thank you, Robin, for everything. And I have the privilege of chairing the committee charged with selecting candidates for induction into this prestigious group of sports medicine icons. First I would like to express my gratitude to the entire Hall of Fame committee, an incredible group of accomplished AOSSM members in their own right, for their thorough and thoughtful review of each of the candidates. Thank you for your outstanding work. We were fortunate to receive many outstanding nominations this year, and are thrilled to welcome these four sports medicine giants into the AOSSM Hall of Fame. I will ask each inductee to come up individually to receive your plaque and share a few brief remarks. First, J.W. Thomas Byrd. Tom Byrd has been described as a true southern gentleman and a person of the highest ethical standard. He has truly pioneered the field of hip arthroscopy and is considered one of the premier surgeons performing this procedure. Tom attended medical school at Vanderbilt University, then did an internship and residency at the University of Louisville. He went on to do a fellowship in sports medicine at the American Sports Medicine Institute, and a fellowship in total joint and reconstructive surgery at the New England Baptist Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. Among his many honors, Tom received the Joseph C. McCarthy Award for Achievement in Advancing Knowledge and Scholarship in Hip Joint Preservation from the International Society of Hip Arthroscopy. The AAOS Achievement Award, the Jack Houston Sports Medicine Person of the Year Award, and the Sports Medicine Person of the Year from the Tennessee Athletic Training Society. These are to name but a few of the professional recognitions awarded to Dr. Byrd. Thomas has published more than 200 papers and has made countless presentations around the world. One of his first papers describing supine hip arthroscopy was in 1995. In addition to volunteering on the AOSSM Education and Industry Relations Committee for five years, he served as the president of both the International Society of Hip Arthroscopy and the Arthroscopy Association of North America. He has been the team physician for the Tennessee Titans over the past 10 years. He is a teacher at heart, presenting at meetings and courses, writing chapters and even entire books in the field of hip arthroscopy. He takes time to speak to anybody who is willing to ask him questions. His friends and colleagues describe Tom as a gentle, kind, and humble person. Most of all, they agree that he is generous with his time and eager to share knowledge he has acquired during his illustrious career. Please welcome to the 2023 Hall of Fame, Dr. Thomas Byrd. Thank you. I've got two minutes. That's how long it took Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address, so I think I can pull it off. Of course, God directs all things, and that's relevant here because our preacher back home who works for him says that any sermon should give three points. Well, this morning I'm going to try to one-up our preacher and give you four points. First to Brian and the Hall of Fame committee, I'm honored to be included alongside another native Nashvillian, the late Alan Anderson. Our mothers used to play tennis together, and I suspect they're knocking it around up in heaven as we speak. Second, Dr. Andrews may not have taught me how to do hip arthroscopy, but he did instill in me the fundamentals that allowed me to figure it out. Third, I'm a creature of habit. I like to do everything the exact same way forever and never change anything. So if there's anything I've done that seemed innovative, it's only because the course we selected seemed better than the conventional alternatives available to us. Lastly, I have taken a few hits through the years for things I've started to do, and I'm reminded of John Huston's line from the movie Chinatown, politicians, ugly buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough. So I guess I've fulfilled that criteria. With that, I'd like to thank, and you might want to blame, Winston Gwathmey, but also Guillaume Dumont for pushing this along, and also thank Dr. Andrews and Mark Safran, but especially thank my supportive and lovely wife, Donna, who's been a fabulous mother to our tolerant and lovely daughters, Allison and Ellen. Included on that tolerant and supportive list is our son-in-law, Scott Freeman. Thank you very much. Next I'd like to introduce John Fulkerson. John Fulkerson attended medical school at Yale University, where he graduated cum laude. He remained at Yale during his residency. He was a Bergslo traveling fellow under John Marshall, and completed his sports medicine fellowship at the hospital for special surgery. John's volunteerism is impressive. With AOSSM, he has served on the Council of Delegates and the Publications and Education Committees, among others. He served as the president of the Herodicus Society. He is the founder and president of the Patella Femoral Foundation, and is founder and member of the International Patella Femoral Study Group. He was the head team physician for seven years to one of my favorite NHL hockey team, the Hartford Wailers. He has been described as a tremendous clinician thinker, and is larger than life. Those in the field recognize John as a pivotal inventor, who has directly and indirectly helped countless patients suffering from patella femoral pain and patella femoral instability. His research is driven by the desire to develop better patient care, and to understand what has previously been unknowable. It is because of John that patella femoral surgery topics have become one of the highlights of any professional conference. John has trained scores of surgeons, and already has a tremendous legacy as a team physician, researcher, educator, mentor, surgeon, and clinician. Please welcome to the 2023 Hall of Fame, Dr. John Fulkerson. Well, thank you, thank you, thank you to AOSSM, my family, mentors, colleagues, fellows, residents, students, Brian Busconi, the Hall of Fame committee, my sponsors, Mark Tompkins, Miho Tanaka, Peter Jokl, Beth Schubenstein, Jason Coe, and Latul Farrow. I particularly thank my beautiful, loyal, and caring wife, Lynn, of 55 years, and children, Phoebe and Brad, for their loyalty, great energy, endless positivity and support, and my loyal and wonderful mentor since residency, Peter Jokl. No one gets this award without the love and support of many. Thank you, my loyal friends, the ones who call and want to have dinner, including all the Patella Femoral Foundation board members, many, my very long-term, most loyal friends and fishing buddies, more than two decades, Bill Post, Eric Dollinger, Jason Coe, Eric Jania, Andy Kazgaria, travel buddy Jack Farr, and loyal corporate friends, Michael McBrayer, Leva Vandenberg of Inovis, and Vineet Sharan of KineMed, who helped us start the Patella Femoral Foundation. Thank you. I wouldn't be here without all of you. Christy Allen and my wonderful sports medicine partners, Elizabeth Gardner, Mike Medvecky, Jim Su, and Andy Jimenez, as well as past and current chairs of our department of Yale, Gary Friedlander and Lisa LaTanza. Also, guiding lights of my career, all mentors and friends, Jay Cox, Royer Collins, Bob Johnson, Per Renstrom, John Bergfeld, Dan Cooperman, those who brought me to their families and homes, Bert Mandelbaum, Bob Arciaro, Nick Scaglione, Gary Paling, Walter Shelton, Marco Yarvinan. I want to emphasize the importance of kindness, integrity, sense of humor, and service to others, particularly those who serve us. Loyalty to family, friends, mentors, students, and staff, honesty, collaboration with good people, and perseverance are pivotal to success. We are all surrounded by good, caring people. Embrace them. Choose friends carefully, prioritizing honesty, kindness, and benevolence, and then pay attention to them. Take care of them and those you love. Let us be ever mindful of treating every single patient as we want our families to be treated, with skill and compassion. Let's innovate and move our field ahead. And please remember that the patellofemoral joint is no longer a black box. It's really interesting. Embrace it. Thank you. Next, I'd like to introduce Richard Hawkins. Richard Hawkins graduated with a medical degree from the University of Western Ontario, where he later become a professor of orthopedics and director of the residency program. He is fellowship trained not only in the knee and shoulder, but also the spine. In 1990, Richard and his late wife, Susan, relocated from Canada to Vail, where he teamed with Dr. Stedman to form the Stedman-Hawkins Clinic. In 2004, he opened and expanded the Stedman-Hawkins Clinic in South Carolina, which has grown to now five locations. Richard is the founding member and past president of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, past president of the Orthopedic Learning Centre of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, past president of the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine, and has held numerous other notable positions, including the team physician for the 1998 and 1999 Super Bowl champion Denver Broncos. Richard has published over 200 articles and served as a visiting professor and guest speaker at many programs. He has published over nine books, has trained over 200 fellows worldwide in shoulder and sports medicine. Former fellows have accounted on, after a long day in clinic, Richard taking the time and his personal touch to discuss journal articles and cases for hours on end. His touch is unparalleled in the fact that if you actually ask him, he remembers the spouses of each one of his fellows. Among the many, many awards that Richard has received are the 2013 George D. Rovere Award for Education and the 2015 Robert E. Leach Award for Sports Medicine Leadership. He has also won the Order of the Palmetto in South Carolina, given by Governor Nikki Haley in 2016, which is the highest civilian honor awarded by the governor of that state. Most recently, the University of Colorado established the Hawkins Endowed Chair in Sports Medicine and Research and Education, occupied by one of his former fellows, Dr. Ted Schlegel. Please welcome Dr. Hawkins and congratulate him. However, Hawk, being Hawk, had some difficulties getting here and unfortunately will not be here. So accepting in his honor will be Bill Mallon, Bob Burks, and Ned Amendola. Thank you. Well, thank you. Hawk could not make it because his flight got canceled out of Florida yesterday and he couldn't get here this morning early enough. I'm one of his former fellows. He asked me to thank the AOSSM for this honor and his sponsors, Ned Amendola, Neil Eilatrash, and Misty Surry for it. He also asked me to thank his former residents and fellows. I was one of his last fellows in Canada with Buddy Savoie and Peter McDonald, and I can tell you that we all have much more to thank Richard Hawkins for than he does for us. And finally, he asked that this award be given in memory of his late wife, Susan, that he lost in December after 54 years of marriage. And specifically, he just wanted to thank AOSSM for the honor and thank you very much. Thanks. Okay, our final inductee, I'm very pleased to introduce Mary Lloyd Ireland. Dr. Mary Lloyd Ireland is a world-class athlete, a talented and caring surgeon, an important researcher, educator, and mentor, a selfless volunteer, a caring philanthropist, and a person admired by everyone who knows her. She has spent a lifetime dedicated to the betterment of athletes and the world around her, and to promoting women in sports and in the medical profession. Mary achieved her medical degree at the University of Tennessee, then did a fellowship in pediatric orthopedic surgery and sports medicine at Boston's Children's Hospital, and a second fellowship in orthopedic surgery and sports medicine at the Houston Clinic. She served as a team physician in the Olympics, the National Team Trials, the World University Pan Am Games, and for the Women's United Soccer Association, to name just a few. She has been known throughout her career to break barriers, as exemplified as being the first woman to be named a head team physician in NCAA Division I football. But before that, she was a globally ranked swimmer, participating in the university student games in Moscow, and she swam in the Olympic trials not once, but twice. Mary truly walks the walk of a Hall of Famer. In addition to being an accomplished athlete and admired surgeon, she is a tireless volunteer. She has served on AOSSM committees for 25 years. She has chaired the Public Relations Committee and the Hall of Fame Committee. She has lectured extensively, having made well over 500 presentations, both nationally and abroad. It is impossible to predict which of Mary's hundreds of personal and professional accomplishments will have the biggest impact, but the foundation she's created, and again, plural, foundations, including James E. Ireland Foundation in memory of her father and the Active Women's Health Initiative, have all contributed to the improvement of women's health through sports participation. Throughout her lifetime of accomplishment, Mary embodies the attributes of a Hall of Famer. Please welcome to the 2023 Hall of Fame, Dr. Mary Lloyd Ireland. My mother used to keep things up her sleeve, so my speech is up my sleeve, so here we go. Two minutes, huh? Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you humbled and deeply honored by the induction into the prestigious Hall of Fame for the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. What a group I'm joining. I'm truly honored. I thank those who nominated me, led by Joe Hannafin, the Hall of Fame Committee, and you, members of this society. I am so honored to join these giants who lifted me on their shoulders to see possibilities. Andrews, Houston, McKaylee, Garrett, McMaster, McDivitt, Bergfeld, Fagan, and Fu. I personally knew 80 of the 90 Hall of Fame members. This speaks to the beauty of our society, congeniality, and friendship. So for those younger members, get to know us. Please get to know us. We want to give back. I thank my family, husband Woody, who is here today, friends, forum family. Go forum. Coaches like Kathy DeBoer, visionaries like the Lepharts, who have led me into the Active Girls, Healthy Women initiative realm, good friends like Mary Noyes, who have lifted me up over the 30 years as industry champion. I also just thank everyone for the chance and opportunity to thrive as a sports medicine physician and excel. My home is the state of Kentucky, known for the Kentucky Derby, also known, some may disagree, as the greatest two minutes in sports. There are three fillies, female thoroughbreds, who have won the Kentucky Derby. I'm the fourth female inductee into our Hall of Fame, so I'm looking forward to the fourth filly to win the Derby, and I feel like I won the Derby today. I will use the winning filly's name in a sentence that depicts my career. I have no regret. Most bet I was not a genuine risk, and now I stand before you feeling like a Kentucky Derby winner, draped in winning colors. Finally, words to live by, which echo my fellow inductees. Do the right thing always for your patients, always, no exception. Be hungry, humble, and forever thirsty to learn. Remember, words teach, actions speak. In a world where words often fade, we must take action and create an impact. Practice kindness. Let us push the boundaries of sports medicine to better serve our patients. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Again, congratulations to the 2023 AOSSM Hall of Fame inductees. Thank you.

Brian Busconi

Hall of Fame inductees

J.W. Thomas Byrd

John Fulkerson

Richard Hawkins

Mary Lloyd Ireland