As James “Jim” Andrews was walking out of LSU’s track stadium the night before the Louisiana high school state track and field meet in 1960, he spotted a person sitting on the track taking off his cleats. “Let me go see who it is,” Andrews said to himself. The face became more recognizable as Andrews got closer. From LSU’s bench in Tiger Stadium as a high school football invitee just a few month before, Andrews had seen this person make a Halloween night run in the rain that has gone down as one of the best plays in LSU football history. “It was Billy Cannon,” Andrews said. Cannon is far from the most notable name Dr. Andrews has met. Jack Nicklaus, Drew Brees, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal and Roger Clemens are just a few of the thousands of professional athletes Andrews has called patients. They are also just a few of the more than 35,000 athletes Andrews has operated on. Andrews is now nationally regarded as one of the best sports medicine doctors and one of the finest orthopedic surgeons in the country. He is one of the founding members of the Andrews Sports Medicine and Orthpaedic Center in Birmingham, Ala., and he is a founder of the American Sports Medicine Institute, a non-profit institute dedicated to injury prevention and education and research in orthopedics and sports medicine. But before getting to where he is today, Andrews had his own athletic beginning. POLE VAULTERAndrews was born at Touro Hospital in uptown New Orleans in 1942. He was raised in a small town in north Louisiana called Homer. As a kid, Andrews enjoyed playing in his backyard.”I was about 10 years old, and I was playing Tarzan in the backyard out in the woods with a bamboo pole,” Andrews said. “I loved it. I kept jumping in the backyard and swinging on vines.”Soon enough, Andrews grew too big for just one bamboo pole.”I kept running out of bamboo poles that were big enough to vault with,” he said. “In eighth and ninth grade, I had to put two bamboo poles taped together to be strong enough. Finally I got to high school, and as a freshman I became the pole vaulter.”He pole vaulted for four years at Homer High School before moving to LSU.”A number of my family members went to LSU,” he said. “My mother, a bunch of my uncles and my cousins all went to LSU. My sister was two years ahead of me, and she was a Golden Girl.”Andrews’ father, who played football at Northwestern State, was also a “big LSU nut” who drove to Baton Rouge just to watch the football team practice.Once he got to LSU in 1960, Andrews went on to become SEC indoor and outdoor champion in 1963, his junior year.He forewent his senior season of pole vaulting to attend medical school, a decision that still lives with him.”I have always sort of half way regretted not having stayed and seeing what I could do my senior year,” Andrews said. “But I had the opportunity to go to LSU medical school, which is pretty hard to get into. I felt like I should go on and get after my real career.”Andrews believes he made the right decision.”Back in those days, being an LSU athlete helped you a lot getting into graduate and medical school. I had an opportunity to go, and I took it,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I wanted to stay involved in sports medicine throughout the years – I really love athletics.”LOUISIANA SATURDAY NIGHTAndrews will be in Tiger Stadium on Saturday when the Tigers take on No. 1 Alabama. But Andrews won’t be donning his alma mater’s purple and gold.Andrews serves as the senior orthopedic consultant for the Crimson Tide, and he said coming out of the tunnel at the south end of the stadium is tough.”The first time I went to Tiger Stadium after having gone to school there, I was with Auburn,” he said. “It was probably back in the ‘70s. I came out of the tunnel with Auburn on the other end, looked up at the stadium, and it was like, ‘What in the world am I doing here?'”But Tiger Stadium always brings back good memories for the former LSU pole vaulter.”I look up at the steps in the north end zone where we used to have to run stadium steps to stay in shape,” he said. “It reminds me of the good ol’ days and some tough days too.UNIQUE UNDERSTANDINGAndrews never loses touch with his days as a pole vaulter. He calls his surgical suite his new playing field and said he is the head coach of his surgical team.He said he is able to keep an athlete’s mentality, letting his patients know he feels their pain as he too misses competing.”Being an athlete helps you understand the psychology of all different types of athletes,” Andrews said. “It helps you talk their language.”Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, a close friend of Andrews, said one of the traits that makes Andrews such a good doctor is his understanding of what the athletes are going through.”He is very innovative and understands athletes and the wear and tear they go through,” Tubberville said. “Dr. Andrews is not only an outstanding surgeon, but he knows everything that embodies the process, the training, surgery and rehab.”A CLOSE FRIENDAndrews’ connections to LSU are still strong, as he works as a second opinion surgeon for the Tigers.He is also good friends with former long-time LSU basketball coach Dale Brown.”Jim is beyond unique,” Brown said. “He reminds me of [former UCLA coach] John Wooden. Neither one of them display any vanity. They are very humble, and they never forget where they came from. Both are able to be who they really are. Yet they are the best in their businesses.”The frosting on the cake is that he follows through with his patients. He stays in touch with them for years after the surgery.”One of those patients he has stayed in close contact with is former LSU basketball standout Randy Livingston.When Livingston tore his right ACL in 1993 and a year and a half later fractured his patella in the same knee, Brown recommended his close friend.”He’s been sort of like a dad in Alabama for me,” Livingston said. “He took me in as a family member after my surgeries. Both he and his family were very welcoming to me. I’m still good friends with him to this day.”A CLOSE CALLAndrews suffered a heart attack in early January of 2006. Since then, he has made a full recovery has begun to spend more time with his wife, Jenelle, and their six children – Andy, Amy, Archie, Ashley, Amber and Abby – and three grandchildren.But even two years removed from the heart attack, Andrews continues to work hard and loves his job.”Every time you do a case, it is something different,” he said. “Every case has a little different twist to it, so you have to be on your toes. You have to be alert, and you have to carry your ‘A’ game every day.”—-Contact Andy Schwehm at [email protected]