It's my pleasure to be given this year's Kennedy Memorial Lecture Series. I knew Dr. Kennedy when I was a young resident and then a fellow at the Houston Clinic and later as a young partner. My recollection, Dr. Kennedy gave an excellent talk, an excellent presentation. He trained obviously numerous, very skilled and notable surgeons in Canada. I cannot say any more than that. Amidola said last year in his address as he knew Dr. Kennedy intimately. We're in perilous times. We're all in the boat together and we're very pleased, unpleased, that Jim Bradley is in charge and Jim Bradley's driving this boat. We'll talk today about Roy G. Bibb and common knowledge. Several years ago, children were home and we saw a rainbow in the sky and a kid just said, oh Roy G. Bibb. My wife said, Roy G. Bibb, what is that? And he laughed and said, mom, colors of the rainbow, common knowledge. So what we have today are common knowledge or Baker's Dozen. Number one, be nice. All I really want to know I learned in kindergarten, share everything, play fair, don't hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up your own mess, don't take things that aren't yours, say you're sorry when you hurt somebody, wash your hands before you eat, flush, live a balanced life, learn, think, draw, paint, sing, dance, and play every day some. Take a nap every afternoon. You're out in the world, look out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together. Remember what Dick and Jane said, the first word you learn, the biggest word of all is look. I trained with Dr. Jack Houston and from him I learned how to be a physician. That was Dr. Houston's greatest attribute, I think taking care of patients in the clinic. I always do introduce myself as Dr. Champbaker, not Dr. Baker. I always sit, I always touch, examine every patient, I always listen. If you listen long enough or loud or quiet enough, the patient will tell you what is wrong with them, and I always ask if they have any more questions so they have an opportunity to tell you or express their feelings about their illness or injury. From that I learned my do's and don'ts. I try to be respectful of my patients, humble, I listen to the patients, I do a thorough and complete examination, and I document my findings. Rehabilitate your patients before and after surgery. Remember that anatomy is the key to orthopedics. Beggar's Dozen number two, Cal Ripken. Cal Ripken was an American shortstop and third baseman of the Baltimore Orioles. He holds a record for consecutive games played, 2,632. Cal Ripken says, I didn't just show up for work, I always showed up to work. Carmen Cavez is a lieutenant general here at Columbus from Fort Benning. When people ask me, how do you get to be a three-star general? I answer, just keep re-enlisting. I volunteered the Education Committee with Dr. Bob Leach at the Sports Medicine meeting in Williamsburg in 1982. I just started practice. I'm 73 years old. I've been in the work in North Peak Saudi Sports Medicine for 38 years. There's no small sports medicine meeting. I was looking through my CV several years ago and came across this meeting that was down in Decatur at Vidalia at the Veterans Administration, and it was a small meeting, and we started the meeting, we're getting ready to start, and there really were three or four people only in the audience. And George McCluskey, physical therapist who worked with us, George says, champ, as long as you've got a mother and a child, you've got sports medicine. And that leads us to the trilogy of sports medicine. A parent and a child, and you the physician. You and the coach and the young athlete. In some aspects, you and an agent with the athlete, because there's always a third person involved, and you see more and more now, you're treating senior athletes with their personal trainers. You must communicate both to the patient and to his other person so that everyone understands the problem and your suggestions for treatment. Number four, boomerang. What goes around comes around. How to get and lose a team physician job, because you need to remember the sports team you want already has a physician. As you come out of your training, you move to town, you want to take care of a team, they already have a doc. 1985, University of Alabama was looking for a new team physician. I had seen a few of their patients referred to by the trainer, and they asked me to take care of the team. It was Ray Perkins's lear. We had a great season. At the end of the season, flying back from the Sunbow, the word got out that Ray Perkins had accepted the job with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was leaving. He left and the trainer left. They said, don't worry, you'll be fine. Several months later, I was waiting to get on a plane, and I got a message from Frank Bassett. I remember Frank was at Duke, and he said, champ, I don't know what's going on, but our athletic trainer is leaving to go to Alabama to take over, and one of the gentlemen who works with him was overheard saying, I don't know anything's going on, but I'm going down to Alabama to fire the team doctor, so he wanted me to know. I end up talking my next visit to the new trainer, who suggested he didn't know anything, suggested I talk to the old trainer, who essentially said I'd done a good job, but they were changing because they wanted somebody from Alabama, not from Georgia, and somebody without Auburn connections. Who got the job? My fellow, who was working with me at the time, but I didn't know it. What goes around, comes around. I thought I told you to be careful, now. Nobody till somebody shoots you. You're nobody till you've been shot, I would say, or fired. Here's the rest of the story. I was a team physician at Columbus State University for 29 years. I was past president of the Board of Trustees for the school, elected to the Columbus State Hall of Fame. I was a Georgia Athletic Training Association Physician of the Year in 2014. Our training staff was voted the best training staff in the Peach Bell Conference three of the last four years. All in all, we felt we were doing a good job. We got a phone call from the university president the day before spring physicals. It would be inappropriate to show up for preseason physicals. When I asked about rumors, another hospital was taking over our team, and indeed they were. We went to a general hospital in town. The team was then covered by fellows from a staff from that hospital. Part two, three years later, new president, new AD, phone call. I was in May the team physician emeritus, later received Sonny Clements an award. Of course, when you're emeritus, it means you're retired, and my son has been the team physician for the last eight years. Part three, you're nobody till you've been fired. I've been the team physician for the Auburn Women's Sports, University of Alabama. I started the Valdosta State program, and at Columbus State University, and I left, of course, each of those programs for different reasons. My wife said, Baker, you're either really good or really bad. Believe only what you have seen, quote from Dr. Houston. It's a game, keep score. John Grebe was a fellow in 1985, and at that time, we're just starting to scope shoulders, and he said, I wonder what happens when a shoulder first dislocates, because at that time, we did not know much. John did most of the work at it, and Hawaii was there. Together, we published our article on evaluation of acute initial shoulder dislocations. From that came a lot of the work done at West Point by Jim Wheeler, and Bob Arciero, and Dean Taylor, and others. Fred Flannery asked me in 1988, he said, I have a patient with tennis elbow I want you to scope. We did, the patient did quite well, and I asked Fred a couple months later, how'd that lady do? He said, gosh, she did great. How many of those have you done? I said, one. I'll do anything on one of your patients, but we do keep score. We subsequently published our initial classification and treatment of lateral conylitis, a two-year clinical result, and then followed it up in the American Journal with a 10-year follow-up orthoscopic treatment of lateral conylitis. Keep score. Carl Savey, joint surgeon at the Houston Clinic, said he just hated to see patients after total joint who occasionally develop bursitis laterally. I said, well, I could scope that. Of course, I had not done one until that time. We started scoping treatment for bursitis, which now was gluteal tendinitis of the hip, and subsequently published one in the Journal of Arthroscopy on our general patients and another related specifically to hip arthroscopy. It is a game. Keep score. Know your results so you better can treat your patients. Jim Andrews also talked about not being the one to make the first big decision. Don't be the first or the last. Well, Jimmy Bradley started out in the field, maybe not with the group on this golf outing, although usually I was in the woods and Jim was in the fairway. Jim, you've done, you've had an interesting year. We're very pleased so that, and that your white coat is on order and you can pick it up after the meeting. Elizabeth Mankin trained with us part-time when she was out at Fort Benning and did a rotation, and we put, we presented a talk on arthroscopic rotator cuff repair using the bi, the headed biosorbic corkscrew, which was popular at the time. Sometimes you shouldn't be among the first. It did not work well. Sometimes it's okay to be the last. We did do several patients with a new, brand-new treatment for capsulography that did not stand the test of time. Sometime it's better. Perhaps you should be last. Gore-Tex fiber many, many years ago. Some bad ideas are best left as dreams. Dr. Houston's publication using the meniscus as a postercruciate substitution. Many are called, few are chosen, Matthew 22, 14. Make opportunities in your practice and take advantage of the opportunities. I believe Dave Sisk gave a talk to the Board of Trustees of the Publishing Committee prior to his death, and Dave talked about opportunities he had had in his life, and I'd like to share those. He was an excellent football player in Tennessee, was planning on going to university to play football when he hurt his knee. He was distraught, could not play football, and therefore he went into medicine, became a renowned orthopedic surgeon. He was married and had a divorce, and he said, I thought my world was over, and then he met Alice, who he's married to for over 30 years, and we all know and love Alice Sisk. And then Dave retired and moved to Franklin, Tennessee, and went for a physical because he was a new Medicare patient in the community, and from that led to other tests, led to his diagnosis of his colon cancer. And he said it gave him the opportunity, as he was sick, to visit friends, to tell people how much he loved them, and to tell people goodbye. Opportunities, you take advantage when you can. Don't forget the team concept, opportunities I had at the Houston Clinic with my fellow partners to form a great sports medicine team through the years. There is no I in team, there is a me, the orthopedist is one of several people really taking care of our athletes. Many are called, few are chosen. There's a concept of the post turtle. Post turtle is when you see a turtle up on top of a post out of the middle of nowhere. You wonder, how did he get there? Well, you know, several things. He didn't get there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, and he doesn't know what to do. That's the true concept of a post turtle. We often think today, however, that it's hard to get where you are without help of others. In that regard, remember who helps you. You don't pull up, you get there not by yourself. My training staff in residency, fellowship, and in partners, three of which, Drs. Houston, Andrews, and Fagan, have been Kennedy Lecture Series. In your practice and in your life, don't put someone in a situation where they become a post turtle. Help those who have helped you, and put them on top of the post. You must be yourself. Piloni's advice to Laertes, this above all, to thine own self be true, and must follow as the night, the day, thou canst not then be false to any man. Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3. Which one is the real you? You must practice your first day as you would the rest of your career. When I first started practice, I did a fellowship with Dr. Houston. I left, completed my Army requirement, 10 years active duty, Army Medical Corps, and I returned to practice Houston Clinic in March 1982. Dr. Houston would make rounds at Doctors Hospital at 630 in the morning with all the residents, the fellows, and the PT staff. He had a habit of going into a room early and waking the patient up and just touching their knee, rolling the knee around. Everyone had a cast at that time. I'd been there maybe several weeks. I'd operated on somebody, and they were in the hospital overnight, and Dr. Houston, I said, Dr. Houston, this is patient so-and-so. We did this on him yesterday. He said, okay, went in, and, hey boy, and touched his leg and rubbed his knee, and he did not have a cast on. He had a brace on. Dr. Houston turned around and walked out of the room. We no longer made rounds on my patients. I did not switch to a cast. I stayed in a brace. You have to practice as you practice. Don't compromise your thoughts and your beliefs. I became an arthrospist. I eventually left Doctors Hospital and went to St. Francis Hospital where I worked with Jim Andrews because we were doing arthroscopy, but at that time we thought it was the best way to treat some patients. Also, act like you've been there before. WWJD. In my instance, what would Jack do? What would Jimmy do? You'll be in a situation in your career, either with a parent or a patient or in surgery, where you may not be sure exactly what to do. Reflect back on your training. Reflect back on your experience and think, what would your mentor do? Because they have trained you, and you have a basic of knowledge, and you will decide what best to do for that patient. Similar to that, my advice is live life like you drive. Look forward with only occasional look back in the rear mirror. In 1951, the Giants were 13 and a half games behind the Dodgers in August. They won their last seven games. The Dodgers lost six. The last ten, they end up tied. It was a three-game playoff. The Giants won the first. The Dodgers won the second. The third game, it was one to one in the eighth. The Dodgers scored three runs, they're leading four to one in the ninth. The Giants score one run, it's four to two. One out, Bobby Thompson comes to play, and they take Newsom out, and Ralph Branca comes in. He throws a fastball, strike one. He throws another fastball, and Thompson hits it to the left field stands. The Giants win the pennant. They go on to lose the World Series to Yankees four games to two. A few weeks later at a banquet, someone asked Ralph Branca what pitch he threw and why. He said, I knew I could get Thompson out with the curveball, so I threw the fastball to set him up. It got a little outside, and he hit it for a home run. Sal Magli, who was a pitcher, came up behind him, tapped him on the shoulder late, and said, Ralphie, when you want the freaking curveball to get him out, throw the freaking curveball. When you want to treat a patient with your best, treat him with your best. Don't do second best. Admiral McRaven gave a commencement address to the University of Texas and published that talk. It was so well received. Little things that change your life and maybe the world. There were things he learned as a United States SEAL. One of them was start your day with a task completed, and I like that. Make your bed each day. Each time you see a patient, each time you do a procedure, each time you do a follow-up, you have an opportunity to learn something, the opportunity to complete that treatment, and that small event every day leads up to an experience that lets you treat other people. Remember, you were in a profession. Marcus Aurelius, one of his quotes, and I saw this over a door at a craft shop, but I liked it. Love the little trade which thou hast learned and be content therewith. Orthopedic surgery and orthopedics and sports medicine is a profession, and you need to treat it as such. It is your trade. Number 12, leave a legacy. This was Dr. Euston's final advice. The Lord didn't put us here to stay forever, so take your turn. Just be thankful when you were here, thankful for being healthy when you're here, and thankful you were able to contribute to mankind. 13, a bonus. Life can be a drag, so have fun. More importantly, life can be short. Family should come first. It's been my pleasure to be this year's Kennedy Memorial Lecture Series. I'm debted to Jim Bradley and the AOSSM. Thank you.

career in medicine

advice for young physicians

teamwork in sports medicine

challenges and valuable lessons

leaving a legacy