Editor’s Note: This essay was written by Susan Lewis, MD about her treasured mentor and colleague. It is a heartwarming tribute to a wonderful man who unselfishly enhanced her life and career while enriching the practice of sports medicine with his innovations.
The Sports Medicine community has lost a true leader, visionary, and pioneer: James Garner Garrick, a father of Sports Medicine, who passed away on July 23, 2022.
James entered the world on May 30, 1936, to Dorothy and Carlyle Garrick in Webster, South Dakota. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of South Dakota and his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Michigan Medical School, graduating magna cum laude. While at Michigan, Jim was unsure of which field of medicine to pursue, almost missing the residency application deadline by one day due to his indecision. This provided an unexpected opportunity as only one residency position remained. As luck would have it, that position was in orthopedics. The field became one of the great loves of his life.
While in residency at Mayo Clinic, Jim directed a US Public Health Service funded research project on the epidemiology of ski injuries at eleven ski areas across the US. Soon after he finished training, Jim and his family moved to Vail, Colorado. While at the newly opened ski resort, he served as the resort’s and town’s only physician. He delivered babies, cared for the town’s residents and injured skiers. He extended an open invitation to the ski patrol for rum and coke at his office accompanied by lively conversation.
From 1967-1968, Jim volunteered to serve in the US Navy as an orthopedic surgeon. He was sent to Danang, Vietnam. He repeatedly stated that it was one of the most meaningful parts of his life because he treated both injured military personnel stationed there as well as many civilians. While there and later at the Naval Medical Research Institute, he co-directed the Naval Battle Casualty Study, the largest study of the management of battle casualties in the history of warfare. Those results still dictate wartime wound management today.
In 1970, before anything similar existed, Jim moved to Seattle and started and directed a Division of Sports Medicine at the University of Washington. He authored the first epidemiological studies on the safety of synthetic turf, leading many football stadiums around the country to change their playing fields. He also served as lead physician for the football Pro-Bowl for many years.
In 1980, Jim and his family moved to San Francisco where he convinced Saint Francis Memorial Hospital to open a Center for Sports Medicine, the first multi-disciplinary hospital-based sports medicine facility in the western US. This is when I met Dr. Garrick.
I was a 14-year-old competitive tennis player who had dislocated my shoulder. All the other orthopedic surgeons I saw recommended surgery. My pediatrician had heard of this new doctor who was “different” in his approach to injury. I journeyed to San Francisco to see this doc who had his own ideas. While his sports clinic was in the basement of the hospital, it felt like neither a basement nor a hospital. It was colorful, energetic, and exciting. The clinic had on-site physical therapy, dance therapy, and a waiting room full of professional athletes, dancers, and movie stars. This was in 1980!
When he came in to see me though, I was made to feel that I was the most important person he’d seen that day. He examined me, look at my x-ray images, and took a deep breath.
“We can always do surgery, but maybe we can get you better with physical therapy. If it doesn’t work, we can always talk about an operation.”
The other doctors I saw thought he was crazy, but I liked the idea and I could tell he was different. I went the Garrick path and even trekked over to his clinic for PT because I was such a believer. And it was always a thrill to see who was in his waiting room! I was a clinical success and to this day my shoulder has had no recurrent issues with instability or pain. Because I was so intrigued with this unusual, forward thinking orthopedic surgeon, I kept in touch with him.
Dr. Garrick later did an arthroscopy on my knee after a collegiate injury. Even then in the 1980’s, his aggressive post-op protocol was different than that of many other surgeons.
In medical school I did an elective rotation with him. While he taught me tons about orthopedics, he taught me more about life. He treated everyone the same whether you were the hospital janitor, a professional athlete, a movie star or an injured little girl. He was also insanely creative and mercurial in his thought not just about orthopedics but also about business and management.
He was never quick to suggest surgery unless there was really no other option despite being an extremely gifted and dexterous surgeon. He worked closely with the physical therapists. He introduced Dance Medicine into his practice and had Pilates on sight before it was popular.
Because of him, I knew I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. His was the first call I made when I matched into an orthopedic surgery residency. We stayed in touch all through my training years.
While a resident, I joked with him that I went into orthopedics because I thought every orthopedic surgeon would be like him. I quickly realized that was not the case.
Jim became a second father to me, and when he asked me to join his practice, I felt like I had won the lottery! It was a true gift to practice alongside him for decades. He was a true mentor in the sense that he saw in others what they did not see in themselves. Not just in me, but in so many other doctors, physical therapists, Pilates instructors, nutritionists, patients, office staff, and almost anyone. People who were lucky enough to enter his orbit inevitably were sprinkled with some Garrick magic dust.
That said, he was like a fairy godmother with a wonderfully sarcastic, dry wit. His eyebrow often arched, he had great love for a good story, and his South Dakota roots remained deep in his gut.
At the Center for Sports Medicine, we cared for the San Francisco Ballet, the US Olympic Figure Skating Team, the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours players, Cirque du Soliel, many other professional athletes, and weekend warriors.
One of Jim’s greatest and unique gifts as an orthopedic surgeon was his profound understanding of the psyche of the athletes he cared for; the nervous and scared ballet dancer, the professional football player, the 14-year-old tennis player. His atypical approach to avoid surgery until all possible nonoperative measures had been explored, was not embraced by the orthopedic community for many years. Yet he persisted on behalf of his patients and remained their champion. Indeed, he held a faculty position at a local academic institution, but not in orthopedic surgery. Instead, in pediatrics as the orthopedic community was not comfortable adopting or identifying with his conservative approach to patient care.
One of his greatest gifts was to come to me as a patient seeking my care. He was already my colleague and friend. The specialty of Sports Medicine is lucky to have the Garrick magic dust sprinkled all over it. He has molded and changed the field forever. Thank you, Jim, from the Sports Medicine community and beyond!
