Okay, we're going to get going in just a minute. Let me just explain how this tribute is going to work as you know Both Freddy Fu and Pete Fowler were past presidents of both AOSSM and ISACAS And it provides a tremendous opportunity for us to honor them both Because they were they were such integral members and contributed to both societies So it's it's truly an honor to initiate this The way that we're going to proceed is we have some prepared remarks by two individuals for each past president we'll have two individuals speak for about Freddy and then we'll have two individuals speak about Pete and After that, we're gonna open the mics this mic right here to my right will be for people to line up and give a tribute or a funny funny comment or a thought about Freddy Fu and And this microphone over here will be for those same thing for Pete Fowler and We will alternate Ned and I will monitor the the the the mics and we'll alternate Freddy Pete Freddy Pete until we run out of time. So that's our plan So the first remarks will be for Freddy in this order Robin West William Vandermeer and then we'll have two remarks for Pete Which will be Al Getgood and Ned and after immediately after Ned's comments We will then open the mics again Freddy Pete Okay, so without further ado Robin, please give your tribute for Freddy Fu I Thanks mark, so Freddy was a great mentor to me I did my fellowship with him and then I spent 11 years as his partner in Pittsburgh So it's really with a great honor and a heavy heart that I give this tribute to the dynamic godfather. Dr. Freddy Fu He passed away on September 24th 2021 with his family by his side after a brave and hard-fought battle with melanoma He's a claim for his innovative advancements in sports medicine is unstoppable energy Joie de vivre impeccable memory and his magnetic personality. Dr Fu spent his entire life setting the highest bar for his colleagues his apprentices and his patients He prided himself in his on his efficiency and always sought to challenge and advance the current research and the clinical treatments With his larger-than-life aura and his powerful impact on so many people It's really difficult to summarize his accomplishments and his contributions He emanated vehemence for everything that he did. He loved his family first and foremost His desk for life was infectious. You cannot help but feel his commitment and love of his family life science Photography people his patients the arts good food great wine Fast cars and flashy clothes. I've never met somebody with a heart so big that he could love so much He's born in Hong Kong in 1950 Dr. Fu played lead guitar in a rock band and was also an all-star point guard on his high school championship basketball team He received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth and then went on to receive his medical degree and complete his orthopedic residency at the University of Pittsburgh He joined the university and his faculty in 1982 became chairman of the orthopedic department in 1998 he served as a beloved head team position for the University of Pittsburgh for 32 years and was routinely seen on the Sidelines even up until a month prior to his death cheering louder than anyone else Dr. Fu was instrumental in bringing sports medicine to Western, Pennsylvania in 1984 he established a first-ever athletic training program and pushed for emergency medical support at all regional high school football Games the athletic training program has subsequently grown into being one of the largest in the country and the NETA Gave him the presidential challenge award for his significant contributions in athletic training Dr. Fu continued to cultivate sports medicine in the region helping to design and develop one of the first and the largest comprehensive sports medicine complexes That this facility houses indoor and outdoor football training facilities for both the University of Pittsburgh Panthers and the Pittsburgh Steelers It also helped to economically socially Revitalize the surrounding area as part of the complex he helped to launch The internationally recognized UPMC concussion program which at the time was a first of its of its kind Dr. Fu also fostered a partnership with the Pittsburgh Penguins to build another similar comprehensive facility that was dedicated to hockey related training injury prevention and treatment Because of his vision UPMC sports medicine has become a premier international program with thousands of top elite professional Olympic and amateur athletes traveling near and far to seek care Dr. Fu was instrumental in aligning community leaders and resources to host the first-ever City of Pittsburgh marathon and was key in bringing the an annual thrift drug classic professional cycling race to Pittsburgh Which featured cyclist Lance Armstrong and Greg Lamont? Dr. Fu adored the arts and he was a company physician for the Pittsburgh Ballet for 37 years Where he launched the first dance medicine focus sports medicine program in the country Because of his commitment and his enormous impact to the city Pittsburgh magazine named him one of the 100 most influential Pittsburghers of the 20th century and the Pittsburgh City Council declared September 13th As dr. Freddy food a Dr. Fu led the revolution in ACL reconstruction and was identified as a most cited ACL author in 2019 by the Orthopedic Journal of Sports Medicine His academic accolades and contributions to sports medicine are immense Dr. Fu served at the highest levels of leadership for the most prestigious national and international orthopedic and sports medicine societies throughout his career including a OSSM Issacoss and the president of the Pennsylvania Orthopedic Society He also held board positions at our AF a OSSM Anna AOA and the International Cartilage Repair Society to name a few During his career. He was recognized with more than 260 professional awards and honors including induction into a OSM's Hall of Fame for building one of the most diverse orthopedic programs in the country. Dr. Fu also received the 2011 AOS diversity award more than 1,500 residents and fellows from 62 countries have trained with dr Fu and they followed his mantra respect the past and embrace the future Even with his distinguished accolades. He cherished his family first and foremost. He rarely missed his children's sporting events his daughter described his unstoppable energy and playful nature and Recollects when he when he took her to the Pittsburgh legendary amusement park Kennywood ten times in two weeks He loved the thrill of the roller coasters His son remembers when his dad was working long hours But still did his best to tuck him into bed every night and to share stories and to comfort him Dr. Fu told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2002. I practice medicine with unconditional love the way you are with your children You don't expect anything back, but it comes back to you I reached out to several of his colleagues his former residents and fellows asking them to share dr Fu memories with me. Everyone had such heartwarming stories about Freddie. His aphorisms are famous and unforgettable Don't embarrass me in front of my foreign fellows. We fix it. If you want a second opinion ask dr Fu twice if you go fast, you cannot make a mistake and Each person shared the same thoughts. Dr. Fu had such a special gift to make everyone better He was able to uplift anyone and made each person feel special The sadness that we feel today is a price that we're paying that we pay for getting to know such an incredible man During one of his last days of life that I spent with him. He told me not to be sad He told me that he had taken advantage of every opportunity and that he had lived life to the fullest He told me that he had lived the American dream He taught us how to live each and every day and also how to die with incredible dignity Thank you All right, let's see if we can get this It's working. So It's probably a great honor for me the greatest in my life to To pay a tribute to Freddie Fu So I'm gonna be a little bit more a little bit more personal and I think at the end of it You'll see why hopefully All right. So thank you for asking me to do this and I'm gonna do it more from a so cost perspective There we go, so we all gonna miss him we miss Freddie we miss these pictures that he sent us about Pittsburgh that he really loved about his fun in the theater and doing the double bundle dance and And just having fun with friends But I'm sure his family is gonna probably miss him much longer and it must be tough for them But we miss him But as he said Freddie and he told Falka he had a good life So I think we should carry on from here and really Live our lives that Freddie would be proud of us and that was me and Freddie with a couple of bottles of Dom Perignon He loved his life and we now have a Isacos Freddie Fu wine club that's going to be launched in Boston. So we'll we'll carry on with it So, I think what I want to do is You know what he meant to us what can we learn going forward and when I make this Prepare this talk. I really figured some stuff out that I that that's hopefully gonna help me going forward So I think one thing is he treated people like they belong And I played a bit of sport and I can tell you now as a sportsman The biggest thing in sport is to feel that you belong you play against Tiger Woods in your tea off and you know You don't belong there and you're never gonna beat him So to belong somewhere is really important and I think sometimes we do the same to you know To come and talk to these big guys and and and the first time you come and you don't feel like you belong But somehow Freddie from the first day. I met him. He made me feel like I belong he In Osaka with a meeting. He put me on the executive committee who the hell knows why this kid from Africa and And So I always thought you know, why me? Why would he why would he why would he do this? And So I was on there, but I didn't believe I could do it I'm sure most people around didn't believe I could do it, but Freddie believed I could do it So that was good enough for me And then we had an executive meeting and I was there an hour before I wasn't gonna I wasn't gonna miss it and we walked in and I saw them sitting in a room and I walked in and said hello to Freddie and everybody and our CEO at the time reminded me that this was a finance committee meeting And please could I leave I don't belong there and as I walked out Freddie said, please come back You're part of us now. You can hear everything And that just made me think he he really that made me feel that I belong and from that point onwards Nothing could stop me So I think it's really important that all of us are leaders and we when you meet somebody Really make them feel that they belong And then the next thing so when I became further on I became president I always phone Freddie when there's any any problem and people gave me trouble I always wanted Freddie to help me and he always said to me don't stress the small stuff and I thought yes Well, how is this possible? Why doesn't he get angry? This guy said something against us and he said to me don't stress the small stuff And I think I understand it and I'll talk a little bit about that and then lastly education is all important to him and And education is education, but it's always trying to help people to fulfill who they are We educate surgeons, but we have to help them to fulfill who they are in life So I'm gonna just a little bit about all of those things. So Freddie really Really felt to me that I belong and I always thought why what you know, what what did Freddie see me? Sorry But as it turned out and It actually the ACL study group people were giving talks about Freddie and everybody wanted to have it Everybody wants something to say and I realized that Freddie didn't really think I was great. He felt that about everybody Everybody always gave him a chance that all of us thought, you know, Freddie had a special thing for me Freddie had this special. He really liked me and I realized I wasn't special Freddie Just treated everybody like that and what a great character What a great character to have and I think we should all I'm certainly not like that, but I'll try and be better in future And this is my good friends and he always said to me don't stress the small stuff and this happened at ACL study group, too There was a big talk by a famous London surgeon on how how the MCL gets injured during During the injury and when he talked like that, they did the test in external rotation And I said to my friend next to me I think the ACL is injured with the tibia going into internal rotation and he said no No, it's actually you know, who are you this is done in London. Don't worry about it. This is not And then Alan Gatgood came around and he said to them listen I think they I think this injury happens in internal rotation and they said, you know Alan That's a really good point. We want to do that and I said what? But I realized these are my friends they don't want to make me feel bad I've never done any research on this I didn't really know and I've probably done it to them all three of us come from playing from rugby playing nations And when you talk about rugby I played at a much higher level than them and I don't really anything they say I don't really take for so my point is, you know When people when people say something that you don't really that sort of hurts you a bit and you think they don't mean anything About it. It's not some deep dark thing that they want to get at you. And that's what Freddie told me. He said Don't don't stress the small stuff And then lastly education and I think this is how we were so in the meeting in Cape Town This was Freddie prepared this meeting and then he passed away. So we had this meeting live I think he's lost the talk that he actually prepared and it was it was a lifetime of achievement and I have a new partner and I said to him listen, you got to come now. You can come to Issa cos We're gonna do some research. You're gonna listen to these guys and he said to me now He doesn't really want to come And I thought why why would you do that? He says listen these days when he goes to meetings all he is people selling product They selling some company's product and if they're not selling a company's product They're selling themselves and I thought wow That's a that's a serious thing to say and it made me think about it And I think we should all think about that Freddie and Peter Fowler and these guys you remember their talks It was never about product. They were not selling anything They were really trying to educate you and they're really wanting to to Fulfill your potential and then my son said to me listen if I really want to Get to my potential should I leave South Africa? Should I get should I go to USA or England or and the and the bad answer was yes I had to say to him yes And then I thought if Freddie never left Hong Kong would he have been the same person that he that he turned out to? And I do not But it's not the countries that he's going to that's the problem. They are creating the circumstances for us to be ourselves. It's the countries where you come from. But if you come across these people and you see that they haven't got 50 or 80 or 100 publications, just keep it in mind. It's not so easy in some other places. And then finally, there was Freddie saying thank you to me. There's no brandy in this, it's pure coke, I can promise you that. But I just want to say from my point of view, and this speech could have been given by 1,000 people around the world, 1,000 surgeons. They all felt like Freddie really felt them feel possible. So on behalf of all the surgeons, thank you, Freddie, for making us feel that we belong. Thank you. Okay, always a hard act to follow after Robin and Willem. So I'm Al Getgood, an orthopaedic surgeon at London, Ontario, and extremely honoured Mark for the invitation to say a few words about our friend and mentor Pete Fowler. Now Pete sadly passed away 16th of November 2022, and what I thought really from my perspective today was just to really inform some of you in the audience who maybe didn't know Pete very well and maybe don't understand his contribution to our society and to our lives, and I'm looking forward to hearing a number of other people share their experiences of really knowing the man, because unfortunately I really only knew him over the last 10 years. So Pete was brought up in southern Ontario, so Woodstock, Ontario, and he did his undergraduate studies at the University of Western Ontario, and we've already heard from Darren's wonderful talk honouring Jack Kennedy, and really Jack Kennedy had the foresight to see the potential that Pete had, and he brought Pete back as the very first resident in orthopaedics at the University of Western Ontario. He was actually at the University of Michigan at the time doing an internship, and he was told he had to come back to London, Ontario and be his first resident in orthopaedics. And really that partnership really expanded going forward, which developed the Fowler County Sport Medicine Clinic as we know it today. Pete was an athlete himself, he was a swimmer. He represented Canada in the Pan Am Games in 1956, he brought home a silver medal, and there's a lot of, you know, that athletic performance and there was an interest in the athlete's shoulder really brought him forward and getting into sport medicine. And so in 1995, after taking forward what Kennedy had set up as being essentially a small varsity clinic, Pete developed the Fowler Kennedy Clinic as it is now, and this was a vision where he brought together primary care physicians, sport medicine physicians, physiotherapists, orthopaedic surgeons, all under the same roof, which in the 90s, certainly in Canada, that was a big move forward, and really set up what we have today. He was a huge proponent of sport medicine, obviously, he loved looking after the Western Mustangs football team, and you can see here the picture in the bottom of the awesome foursome of Sandy Kirkley, Ned, Pete, my current partner, Bob Litchfield. But you know, he did a lot of research, he really mentored a lot of people through research, but also probably his passion for teaching was his big piece, and in 1982 he developed the orthopaedic sport medicine fellowship program. We now have a fellowship society, upwards of 150 members, and we meet every couple of years to have a fellowship society meeting, and we're incredibly grateful for the legacy that he has provided. This is a recent picture, when Ned came up as our visiting professor at our residence day, and that's my current partners, Bob Litchfield, Kevin Willits, Bob Giffen, and Ryan Deegan, and certainly over the last 10 years, the support that he has given me has been incredible. But he has been honoured in many, many ways, and I think it's important that people understand that it's great that we have the opportunity to celebrate both him and Freddie today, with this combined meeting of ISACOS and AOSSM. ISACOS was formed in 1995, it was the time of the International Arthroscopy Association and the International Knee Society, they joined forces and formed ISACOS, and Pete was tasked as being the very first president, and really set up the building blocks of this society, and has essentially helped make it to what it is today. He's also one of only two people, Pete and Freddie, as we've already heard, that have been the president of both ISACOS and AOSSM, so in AOSSM he was president in 2002, and then was awarded Mr. Sports Medicine, so the Robert E. Leach Award now, in 2007, simultaneously inducted into the Hall of Fame at AOSSM, and then very proud here in 2018, he was made the Order of Canada, and this is really just one of the highest awards that you can really be bestowed upon you as a Canadian citizen, and he was very, very proud of that, you can see a cheeky smile on his face. After retirement, he needed something different, and he, you know, it really speaks to his ability as a builder, and he moved to Qatar, in Doha, and he helped set up Aspartar Sport Medicine Clinic, and of course, as we know, Aspartar is one of the premier sport medicine clinics internationally, and for me, it's been interesting going there and working there, because I still see, particularly in the OR, many things that have been established in London, Ontario, and I can put my finger on it, that is very much a Pete Fowler-ism, even the number of years later. But he, you know, friendship, Darren talked a lot about friendship, and the friends that you will meet during your career, and through these societies, and Pete, and a number of past presidents here, that would get together on a regular basis, post-retirement, and share their experiences, and talk about, well, they're always, Pete was always trying to avoid getting a fake joint, and I think he managed it with an osteotomy, he's very pro-osteotomy, but he never had a fake joint, but certainly that was something that they would often discuss. But most important for him was his family, and so Libby, and then his children, Tim, and Darren, and Megan, and Peter Junior, and then the many grandchildren that he leaves behind, so absolutely stunning family, and we're just incredibly grateful for what he has been able to achieve, and what he has set up for us going forward, and we just hope that we can do him proud. Thank you very much for your attention. Well, my name's Ned Amendola, and I'm currently at Duke, and I think this is great. These are two great people that have a lot of characteristics in common, and you know, everybody's kind of gone through it already, you know, that both widely respected in the field of sports medicine, both great people. And I just wanted to say a few comments about Pete Fowler. I knew Pete since 1978 when I started my undergraduate training at Western. You know, so I did my undergraduate, medical school, residency, fellowship, and then I was Pete's partner for 10 years, and made the decision to leave London, Ontario, and go to the United States. And anyways, all the words that have been said, the words that Darren Johnson said, you know, to have somebody that believes in you is really important, and I think Pete was one of those people. He believed in all the people that worked with him, all his trainees, and he certainly believed in me, you know. The message I wanted to get across is that Pete Fowler, despite all his accomplishments and all his accolades, he was a very low-key, very humble man, and he remained that way all the way to the end. You know, he loved sports medicine. He loved taking care of his patients. He loved his practice. He loved the Sports Medicine Society. He loved Issacoss. He just enjoyed life because he was really, you know, keen and looking forward to every day working with the people around him and working with his patients. You know, he would always tell me, he says, Ned, you know, your patients will tell you what's wrong with them if you spend enough time with them. You know, he was a great doctor, and I must say that he's had the greatest influence on me as a person, as a physician, as an orthopedic surgeon, and really my whole career because he believed that I could do that and really portrayed that. So from the moment I set foot in London, Ontario, as a faculty member, he would always say, this is the guy that you should go see, despite the fact that he was the icon of sports medicine in London, Ontario. So anyways, I think Pete Fowler, Freddie Fu, both great people, and I think we can learn a lot from them, and I think it's great that we're, you know, doing this tribute to both of them. So thank you. So now it's your turn. Freddie Fu microphone, Pete Fowler microphone. Please come up, share an anecdote, share a story, and we'll start on this microphone. So go ahead, Walker. I just want to say, you know, to Robin, and to Rylan, and to Alan, to Ned, this was beautiful. So thanks for sharing this, and for me, it's been a lot of healing. It's been a year and a half, or more, I don't even remember. I will tell you a funny story, because enough of this. Right next to you, when he said it. And that's what it's about. It's how you celebrate life, you know. So, you know all the photos that he always sends, right? Every day. And oh my God, I miss those photos. And then I read those emails when they came. I really, really miss them. Before, and Mark's over there, so I'm going to be over here. Before, before he knew that there was the ECC, so you know, everyone that's in the company, he sent it to everyone. And all of you in the room, and for $1,500. There was always somebody who responded and said, oh thank you for sending this picture, that's great. And it goes to $1,500. The only, the only CC to everyone, in this whole time, that was really, really good, was Mark's CC. So Freddie flew home from China, back to Fisker, and he must have flown over Russia, and he took a picture right out of the airplane, down to Earth, and you could see the Siberian village in the middle of just ice. You could see two boats crossing, a little village, and he titled it the Siberian Frozen Tongva Village. And Mark sent an email to the whole group and said, hey Freddie, thanks for that picture. Is that the town you always let me send you? What town? So those stories, you know, I miss them. So please, please keep sending stories our way. It means so much to just look at them, and this is a lot of you, and the healing is important. So thank you. Applause All right, Bob, I'm sure you can speak on both of these great people. Yeah, I'm old enough that I can look back on both of them, and like I say, I'm a little disappointed that we could get this far into Pete Fowler and not have an F-bomb up their shoulder. That's anybody who knew Pete. But to me, you know, we can talk accolades, we can talk about everything they taught us, but they were individuals. They had opinions, and they stood out, and they were different. And I think, you know, nowadays sometimes when you do that, you're criticized, and you want to get canceled, and we don't agree with that, or they're too harsh. And I think they really teach us that having that, that's what we really remember about them. I could stand here for an hour and give Freddie stories, and everybody could. And so I think I remember them as people that were really unique, gifted individuals that said, hey, it's okay to be different. That's great. Applause Again, we're going to have Freddie Fu microphone, Pete Fowler microphone. You want to speak about Freddie? Please go ahead. I had the good fortune of having Freddie as my godfather on the Traveling Fellowship, and we were in Sydney, and he assisted on working out at 5.30 in the morning, and really just kind of survived the Traveling Fellowship. And he came back at 7, and how did the workout go, Freddie? Oh, great. I was working the whole day. Oh, really? What'd you do? What'd you say? I was Jackie Chan. Laughter Applause And then we went out for shot fish soup. I remember shot fish soup. We had shot fish soup in Sydney. And so I ordered a cab, and waiting and waiting, and the cab's like, what'd you tell them? I said, I said, meet a cab for Freddie Fu. He says, they're not coming. Laughter That's my story. Applause David Parker. My name's David Parker from Sydney, Australia. I did a fellowship with Pete. I think I was probably one of his first Australian fellows back in 2000, 2001. I've got a good friend, Laurie, and she's survived the experience working with me. And I came to Pete through a sort of unusual connection, through mutual friends, and I was there. I had a big truck with a big team called the New Orleans Horses. I met Sandy and Bob and Pete. It was just an amazing time in my life. I think we heard Darren's absolutely beautiful talk that I told about mentorship. I think if you think back, you know, you've got a lot of mentors. You've got a lot of people you can sort of analyse how much they impacted you, and who's the person that did this, who's the person that did this. But usually there's just one who just automatically comes to the front of mind and has a profound impact and actually changed everything. So that's sort of sliding door turning point in my life. And for me, that was really the case. And I could go on forever about all the things that Pete did. But it was just the main thing he taught me was how to just manage the patient, from top to bottom, how to think, how to analyse things, and really, not so much how to do moderation, but well, it's part of it, but how to actually come to the right decision for each person, and to manage them perfectly. Well, of course, I think I can probably agree with that. Because I was going to say, another thing about Pete is his humility, and he's just the most down-to-earth person. And you see so many people up on podiums just wanting to celebrate how good they are, but he'd be there on a panel and someone would ask the panel, what are you going to do about this? And he would just look and go, I don't fucking know. But the funny thing is, the irony is, he knew more than anyone else on the panel about how to do it, but he didn't have an exact perfect answer. He didn't feel the need to make one up. He was very much comfortable in saying what he knew, but also what he didn't know. So he'll always be remembered as a wonderful friend, and I think his impact continues on my life every day. Thanks very much. and tell a quick, pretty story. He was just kind of testing me out. What about training room, the locker room? How is that going to work with a woman? And giving me a little grief about being a woman. And just for fun, I smacked him on the shoulder and said, come on, Dr. Booth, give me a break. And he glanced, almost passed out, turned white, and his current fellow said, Freddie just broke his clavicle three days ago. So I shook his other hand. He said, it was nice to meet you. Anyways, he did give me a chance. Pulls out his 1960s. Is that the old Rod? They treated us like we were family. I think he's the only one who called me Lori. Everyone else always just called me Eta. But he always called me Lori, and he treated me like a daughter. And I'll miss him forever. Craig, go ahead. There's so many Freddie stories, and there's so many funny people here that, you know, it's hard to know which ones to go through, but I want to just tell a little bit that gives you a little taste of the heart of Freddie. So, Pittsburgh basketball started to get pretty good in the early 2000s, and Freddie signed me on a task to take care of the men's basketball team. So we're at the Vinnies Tournament in New York, and I'm supposed to sit on the bench, and so I asked for my decal, and Freddie was like, well, you know, there's no decal for you because I'm the doctor, but I'm going to assign you to the game. And so Freddie gave me his decal, and so I'm at the tournament, and one of our players gets hurt. Brandon Knight, the biggest player of the year, and so I go into the locker room to go get x-rays on him, and the security guard sees Freddie Food, the name on the decal, and he looks at me, and he says, I'm not Freddie Food. You're not Freddie Food. So he grabs me, and he escorts me out of the building. So it's in March, New York City. I'm outside in the freezing cold, and the brand new cell phone that Freddie got me is blown off the chain. He's like, where are you? You embarrassed me. Where are you? I'm like, I'm outside. He goes, where are you? I said, I'm outside. He goes, what'd you do? And I said, they threw me out. And I said, I've got to get back in, because Brandon Knight's hurt. Did he tear his ACL? Did he tear his ACL? I said, no, it's not his ACL. I've got to get an x-ray. So I'm outside, and I ask the security guard, and he says, wait, why'd they throw you out? I said, well, you didn't give me a decal. And the security guard saw my decal. He says, does he know me? I said, well, yeah. He said, I'm famous. I'm famous in New York. I'm famous in New York. So that's the humor of Freddie. But here's the other piece. Darren mentioned the confidence piece, and the other things that have been said. So Brandon, it did turn out that he did tear his lateral meniscus in a convolution. You know, Freddie's, you know, this is Freddie. And this is the Biggie's Player of the Year. And so on the flight back, he said, you were right. No ACL tear. And I know you were embarrassed, but, you know, we take care of Brandon. And so Biggie's Player of the Year, his birth is finally good. And Freddie had the confidence in me to let me do that surgery. And so for years, he wouldn't let me talk about it. He would tell me that. But, I mean, that's the kind of man he is. I think about him every day. And when you talk about changing your career path and changing your life, and thinking about the real things in life. Thank you. I don't know, I don't know, I was a lot of He was John said, hey, if you know what, you should go talk to him. You know, I think it's a good spot for you to do your fellowship. And I remember going up there the very first day. I'll be going to his office. And Pete and I sit across from each other. And he says, just ask me a couple rudimentary questions. And then he says, you know what? And I said, what about this guy? And the next thing you know, he starts taking out film. So we start watching film. And Pete is sitting in the back, and he's just not saying anything. So finally Pete decides, he's going to leave. So he leaves. And so I'm sitting there with the coach for like, literally, like three hours. And so the coach looks at me and says, he says, you know, we need a running backs coach this year. And he said, how would you like to be our running backs coach? Now, I was supposed to be Pete's first year fellow. He only had six-month fellows. So he didn't know what to do with me for the first six months, because he had another fellow already. So I said, well, I'm supposed to be doing a fellowship with Pete. He knows a little bit about Pete. I'll take care of him. So as it turns out, I ended up coaching football. For the first six months. And over the whole question, you know, I pictured it with Sean earlier. He didn't love anything more than Western football. with Birdfell that had been playing in my head, just grinding me in, he was taking it all out. He was just putting it in with different stuff. So, VTBs versus hamstrings, osteotomies, you know, versus partials, and all kinds of things. And so, he really did open up. So I don't see anybody at the food microphone and therefore I'll take advantage of this and give you an anecdote myself. So when I was applying for fellowships I was in the military and in fact I had a sponsored slot which means the military was going to pay for it. And this was during the very first desert storm and so I had a very limited window to interview. So I happened to be in D.C. visiting my parents and Freddy calls me up on December 23rd and he says I want you to come out for an interview tomorrow morning. And it was like 8 p.m. there's no planes, there's no trains and so my dad who was the Surgeon General of the Air Force at that point gets with me in the car at 2 a.m. and we drive to Pittsburgh. Get there at 6 a.m., interview with Freddy, he walks me all around, he shows me all the facilities and he goes I want you to come to my fellowship. And I go well Freddy I mean I have to apply for the match like everybody else and of course he knew I was a free asset for him and he was trying to expand his fellowship anyway. So he goes listen I want you to mark me number one and don't list anybody else in that match. And so I cheated a little bit but it worked out for us and we matched so it's been a tremendous run ever since then and I love Freddy, I love Darren's comments about Freddy and I love everybody else's comments about Freddy so may he rest in peace. Third or fourth year of practice, early 90s, 1992. In those days, I had no license, no permission, no letter from the university. Pete dragged me down to the basement, the O.R.'s were in the basement, immediately scrubbing in. But I also remember how he treated the fellow. It was October, and the fellow had started in June. And the fellow made an ACL incision halfway down the state. And Pete goes, fuck, that's a July mistake. What the hell are you doing in October? It really gave me insight into bare bones honesty. He just was always in your face. What he said is what he meant. And that was classic. And I don't have many mentors in my work. Like Don Johnson in Ottawa is a huge one for me. But I have to meet Pete, who had a huge influence on me. And I was only there for two weeks. So I just want to express the actual power of what he's done. in Toronto. And the love of Pete Fowler, who's a great guy, and the love of Pete Fowler, who's a great guy, and the love of Pete Fowler, who's a great guy, and the love of Pete Fowler, who's a I'm a foot and ankle specialist, and I'm in the wrong room, but I trained in London, Ontario, and there's my fellow, actually, in foot and ankle. And I trained in London, and obviously, I spent a lot of time with Pete, because I was Jack Kennedy's last research resident, so he had a research resident right here. And then he would go to Florida in the winter, and then Pete would run the clinics. But I'll first tell a story, because this is a Freddy Food Mike, I'll tell a story about Freddy Food, because I was at the Cleveland Clinic doing foot and ankle. This was the very early days of foot and ankle. There were no foot and ankle specialists in Pittsburgh at all. And I can remember that Freddy Food was the only one that seemed to be able to call directly into my operating room at the Cleveland Clinic. And the nurse would answer the phone, and the nurse would say, I don't understand a word this guy's saying, but he seems to want to talk to you. And I knew right away that that was Freddy Food. And then, and Freddy, it was just like the expectations, I was just about to go in there, and Freddy, my parents lived in Pittsburgh. And Freddy would say, well, I've got this patient coming, go on and on with this patient. I said, okay, Freddy, I'll come down. So I drive down on the weekend and see this athlete who had a foot problem in Pittsburgh, and he just sort of expects me to show up there. And Freddy, I can remember later on, Freddy said, I moved from the Cleveland Clinic to OSU. And Freddy was a visiting professor, and he comes up to me and says, I trained a recruit for so many years. He says, why don't you come to Pittsburgh? And I didn't really have a good answer. But then, Freddy remembered that my daughter was in medical school and knew where you come from. And how the hell do you remember that? He just knew, you know, he understood you. So Pete thought, it's a very brief story. Pete cared, like everybody said, he just cared about everybody. He cared about his family, he cared about us as residents, he cared about our families. But Freddy, I mean, Pete, in the very early days of arthroscopy, Freddy, he was doing a scope, a needle scope. And I think this was sort of a new thing on a knee. This was back in the early, early 80s. And he was doing a knee scope. And I guess the patient was a little bit light. And so he had the scope in the knee. And this was back in the days before, you know, the articulated arms of the camera never worked. The patient straightened out his knee and he bent the scope. And, well, I'm sure Pete let out a neck bomb. And he goes, God damn it, that was nuts. It would have cost $1,500. And the patient sat up, bolted up, right took off the mask and said, I can't afford that. All right. So this is a great tribute for both of them. What wonderful past presidents of AOSSM and ISSACOS. And now we're going to roll right into the ACL session. Thank you.

Freddy Fu

Pete Fowler

AOSSM

ISACOS

tribute

past presidents

sports medicine

contributions