John Albright, MD
We are pleased to dedicate the 2020 Iowa Orthopaedic Journal to Professor John P Albright. Affectionately known as JPA to generations of residents, he has served as a dedicated faculty member and as an enthusiastic supporter of the University of Iowa medical students, Orthopedic residents, athletic training students, sports medicine fellows, athletes and athletic programs for nearly 50 years.
John Albright was born in Aurora Illinois and attended East Aurora High School. His parents, Aaron and Francis, were both teachers and his father, Aaron, was also school administrator. In addition to teaching and serving as Dean of Students, Aaron Albright coached football, and basketball. Given his father’s interest in sports it is not surprising that John was an enthusiastic athlete and lettered all four years in football, basketball and track and played American Legion Baseball. John’s high school record earned him acceptance to Yale. Fortunately for him he chose to attend the University of Illinois where he met Marcy, his wife to be, in 1961 when he was a junior and she was a sophomore.
John left Champaign-Urbana in 1963 for Chicago where he entered medical school at Loyola. Marcy graduated from the University of Illinois in 1964 and she and John married on June 14, 1964, in Chicago. In 1967 John and Marcy moved to New Haven Connecticut where John completed a General Surgery Internship followed by a research fellowship at the Mayo Clinic with the renowned bone biologist Jennifer Jowsey. He started his Orthopedic Residency in 1969 at Yale. The Yale Orthopedic Department had an outstanding faculty including John’s brother, Jim Albright, and enjoyed a reputation as one of the premier academic programs. John served as the Chief Resident in Orthopedic Surgery in 1970 and 1971, and then worked as an NIH Research Fellow in the Yale-New Haven Hospital investigating Osteogenesis Imperfecta, Osteoporosis and the skeletal effects of fluoride from 1971 until 1972.
Wayne Southwick, an iconic innovative American Orthopedic Surgeon, chaired the Yale Orthopedic Department from 1958 until 1979. Southwick played a critical role in the development of cervical spine surgery: among other contributions he advocated the anterior cervical spine approach, although a posterior cervical spine fixation technique is also named for him. In addition, Southwick is recognized for the Southwick osteotomy for the treatment of slipped capital femoral epiphysis. John Albright’s time with Wayne Southwick powerfully influenced his career and in particular his commitment to academic medicine.
In 1972 John and Marcy moved to Iowa City where John joined the University of Iowa Orthopedic faculty. The Yale Orthopedics Department had a tradition of expecting residents to conduct a substantive research project during their residency and present their work as a senior resident. After the resident presented his or her work a visiting professor critiqued the project and the presentation and questioned the resident. The presentations and critiques extended over several days named the “Days of Disputation.” Along with other Iowa faculty, Dr. Albright established the first Days of Disputation at Iowa. Over the years this program has evolved into the current Senior Residents’ Days which continues to have some characteristics of the original program. In addition to Days of Disputation, Dr. Albright brought with him Southwick’s approach to the treatment of cervical spine disorders and devoted part of his initial clinical practice to cervical spine surgery. For a number of years he continued to study bone metabolism and in particular the effects of life long exercise and load bearing on bone. This work was extended to the study of articular cartilage resulting in a paper entitled, “The Effects of Lifelong exercise on Canine Articular Cartilage.” This paper received the 1996 Cabaud Research Award from the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM).
Within a few years of his joining the University of Iowa Orthopedics Department John found a passion for the then emerging and increasingly sophisticated field of sports medicine. In 1975 he accepted a six year appointment to the University of Iowa Board in Control of Athletics; his years on the Board in Control of Athletics gave him valuable insight into the operations of the University of Iowa Athletic Department including health care services for athletes. Shortly after starting his service on the Board in Control of Atheletics, he started clinics for people with sports injuries, but soon saw a need for a comprehensive service for these patients. This led him to establish the University of Iowa Sports Medicine Services within the Department of Orthopedics in 1980. Traditionally, Student Health physicians had provided at least the initial care for University athletes and in some instances traveled with the athletic teams. Under Dr. Albright’s leadership, the Orthopedic Department assumed overall responsibility for the care of injured University Athletes and for designating team physicians; practices that continue today. The Sports Medicine Service also identified specialists in other departments within the University’s College of Medicine who would be available to provide care for athletes. Over the years the department’s Sports Medicine service grew to become the current UI Sports Medicine Center: a comprehensive multidisciplinary academic sports medicine center providing primary care sports medicine, orthopedic sports medicine, physical therapy, athletic training and radiology and musculoskeletal ultrasound services.
John Albright with University of Iowa Athletic Director Chalmers William "Bump" Elliott and Student Health Physician Dave Johnson in the early 1980s. In 1947, Bump played for an undefeated and untied Michigan football team known as the "Mad Magicians", and earned first team All-American honors. During Bump’s tenure as University of Iowa Athletic Director from 1970 to 1991, he hired coaches Dan Gable, Hayden Fry, Lute Olson, C. Vivian Stringer, and Dr. Tom Davis, and the Hawkeyes won 41 Big Ten Conference championships and 11 NCAA titles. Despite his impressive record of athletic accomplishments and eagerness to build winning programs, Bump was always open and eager to make sure the University put the health of athletes before other considerations and consistently supported the University of Iowa Orthopedics Department development of sports medicine services for the Athletic Department.
As the Sports Medicine service grew, John recognized that this service could provide high quality specialized education: and, in 1982, he established the University of Iowa Sports Medicine Fellowship. In the years that followed, multiple fellows received their fellowship education from John Albright; without exception they remember him fondly and feel that he made critical contributions to their careers. In 1984 John organized the first multidisciplinary University of Iowa Sports Medicine Symposium, an event that has been held annually through 2019. The symposium attendees and participants include physical therapists, athletic trainers, primary care physicians, orthopedic surgeons and fellowship trained primary care and orthopedic sports medicine specialists.
John Albright with his junior Sports Medicine partner on the side lines of an Iowa football game in the 1980s. During this era, after 18 losing seasons, Iowa football teams coached by Hayden Fry gained national prominence and along with Michigan and Ohio State dominated the Big Ten. Between 1981 and 1988 Iowa won three Big Ten titles, compiled a 68 and 25 record and was ranked first in the country for five weeks in 1985.
Perhaps more than any of his other professional activities, John enjoyed working directly with athletes. He spent endless hours in training rooms, attending athletic events and traveling with the University athletic teams.
Among his important accomplishments, Dr. Albright was instrumental in the creation of the University of Iowa athletic training student education program. He joined with athletic trainers to recruit outstanding students into the athletic trainer education program and gave them the opportunity to work with experienced athletic trainers and the Sports Medicine Service Orthopedic surgeons. The students participated in the evaluation and rehabilitation of injured athletes; inspired by these experiences many of them went on to distinguished careers in athletic training and some became head trainers for athletic departments and schools. Others pursued careers in physical therapy or medicine. Today the Masters in Athletic Training educational program and the athletic trainers that serve the university athletic teams are housed in the Orthopaedic department.
No one invested more of themselves in the care of University of Iowa athletes than John. Every hour of every day he was available to see injured athletes and work with the athletic trainers to promote the rehabilitation of those that had suffered injuries. Additionally, John and Marcy generously served as Town Hawks. They welcomed athletes into their home for holiday dinners; or breakfasts, lunches and dinners and at any other time. It was not unusual for them to have athletes or an athlete’s family members stay in their home. Michael Payne, David Browne, Greg Boyle, Franthea Price, BJ Armstrong, Roy Marble and many others enjoyed and benefited from John and Marcy’s kind hospitality and friendship. Not surprisingly many of the athletes consider John and Marcy to be their surrogate parents.
John’s influence on the field of sports medicine extended beyond the University of Iowa. He is one of the longest serving editorial board members of the American Journal of Sports Medicine and the Journal of Techniques in Knee Surgery. In addition to the 1996 Caboud Award, Dr. Albright’s research contributions have received multiple honors including the 1988 Excellence in Research award from the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) for his development of techniques and instruments for arthroscopic meniscal repair. In 1998, the AOSSM selected him as one of the first Sports Medicine Traveling Fellowship Godfathers; and, in 1999 he was elected to the Magellan Society an International Society that brings together the Traveling Fellows and the guiding Godparents who are selected by their parent Sports Medicine Societies of North America (AOSSM), Europe (ESSKA), the Pacific Region (APOA), and South America (SLARD). In 2001, he received the AOSSM George Revere Education award recognizing his contributions to education in the field of sports medicine, and in 2008 he was elected to the AOSSM Hall of Fame.
John Albright with Mike Henry, Steve Waite, Vince Brookins and Kenny Arnold, members of the 1980 Iowa Men’s Final Four Basketball team.
During their long tenure in Iowa City, John and Marcy Albright raised three accomplished sons. All three graduated from Iowa City West High School where they played Football and Basketball. Mark majored in Economics and Japanese at Northwestern University and spent his junior year in Japan. He is an attorney and Founding Partner of Perlman, Bajandas, Yevoli and Albright, P.L, a mid-sized law firm in South Florida. Mark and his wife Eve have three children Ryan, Jacob and Mia. Jeffrey majored in Finance and Asian Studies at Michigan State University and, like his older brother, spent his junior year in Japan. After graduating from Michigan State, he moved to Tokyo to work for an American company for three years during which time he did color commentary in Japanese for Big Ten Football games. He is President of YANMAR America a Japanese diesel engine and equipment manufacturer. Jeffery and his wife Angie have three children: Zachary, Paige and Chloe. Jay majored in Biology at the University of Michigan and is a graduate of the Iowa Orthopedic residency. He is now Assistant Professor of Orthopedics at the University of Colorado and Surgical Director of the Sports Medicine Center of the Colorado Children’s Hospital. Jay and his wife Stacy have two children: Jackson and Reese.
The list of experiences and professional contributions doesn’t capture Dr. Albright’s personality. He is affable, warm, caring and outgoing. He is a loyal steadfast friend. His patients quickly appreciate his concern for their welfare and willingness to spend time with them. It is hard to imagine how different the University of Iowa Department of Orthopedics would be, and in particular in University of Iowa Sports Medicine Services, the sports medicine fellowship and the athletic training education programs, without the sustained thoughtful and visionary contributions of John Albright.