The answering service calls at 3:17 a.m. each day to awaken 73-year-old Dr. Bob Rivet in his Lafayette home.
It’s a precise time for an even more precise man.
Rather than gain an extra three minutes by rising at 3:20, Rivet specifically requested 3:17.
“Sleeping is a waste of time,” he said. “I’m 73, and I feel like I’m 20.”
Rivet has wasted little time as Lafayette’s first neurosurgeon, LSU’s Doctor Emeritus and current Senior Olympics runner who takes to the track this week in Louisville, Ky.
Rivet became accustomed to sleepless nights in 1968 at the beginning of his neurosurgery career.
“I wouldn’t go home at night,” he said of nights spent on his own Lafayette General Medical Center hospital cot. “I would just stay with my patients.”
Rivet gained immense popularity that soon spread to Baton Rouge when he accepted a head doctor position at LSU. The 2007 football season will be his 27th season working with the team, although he no longer performs physical examinations.
“I stand on the 25-yard line to the right of the bench,” he said. “It’s always the same spot. The trainer used to look for me at that spot if he needed me.”
In August, LSU Athletic Director Skip Bertman named Rivet “Doctor Emeritus.” Most schools have orthopedics doctors, but Rivet mainly worked with concussions and back and neck injuries. Rivet retired from neurosurgery in 1998 after experiencing four strokes as a result of open-heart surgery and now classifies his team participation as mainly psychological.
“It’s just about being friends with the players,” Rivet said.
He’s made plenty of friends during 27 seasons and missed only one LSU football game – the 2006 game against the University of Florida. Rivet skipped the game to run in a Baton Rouge Senior Olympics qualifying race.
But Rivet remembers more than just practice and games. He once owned his own private jet and was often asked to bring players who missed the team flight.
Before a game against the University of Notre Dame in the mid-1980s, coach Bill Arnsparger asked Rivet if he would take a player who overslept and missed the team flight.
“He was scared as hell all the way there and wondering what Arnsparger was going to do to him,” Rivet laughingly said. “I nicknamed him ‘Rip Van Winkle’ since he slept in.”
Rivet said it’s difficult to name only one favorite player, but narrowed his list to four: safety Jamie Bice, center Joe “Nacho” Albergamo, quarterback Matt Mauck and No. 1 NFL draft-pick quarterback JaMarcus Russell.
Mauck described Rivet as a mentor who taught him the history of LSU.
“Winning the [BCS] National Championship was great, but what made LSU special for me was people like Dr. Rivet,” Mauck said. “I don’t know if it gets better than having those people around.”
Rivet remembers the 2003 BCS National Championship season as one of immense joy and sorrow.
LSU equipment manager Jeff Boss died midseason from brain cancer. Rivet frequently visited his close friend and reported back to then-coach Nick Saban about Boss’ condition.
“It felt like I lost a brother when Jeff died,” Rivet said. “I do not like cold weather. Jeff would always make certain I had extra clothes to wear on the sideline.”
The team wore “J.B.” patches and renamed the locker room in Boss’ memory. The bold black words “Jeff Boss Locker Room” are displayed above the purple door the team enters before every home game.
“I make it a point when I walk in the equipment room to reach over and touch it,” Rivet said.
After his wake-up call at 3:17 a.m., Rivet washes his face and brushes his teeth. Then he changes into running shorts, eats a protein bar and drinks Coca-Cola Zero.
“I don’t wake up in the morning and have to drink coffee,” he said. “That’s bull. I wake up in the morning anxious to do what I love.”
Next, it’s onto his “Cyclone” elliptical machine for 10 minutes of running before showering and shaving his whole head.
Bice, who is Rivet’s primary coach, first suggested that Rivet begin running after he recovered from his four strokes. Rivet was paralyzed on his right side and many doubted whether he would ever function normally again.
“I can remember a priest came up to me, and he asked if I was scared of dying,” Rivet recalled. “I said, ‘Nope doctor, I’m scared of living if I live like this.'”
By 7 a.m., Rivet has arrived at St. Mary Church to serve communion as a Eucharistic minister. He said his faith has played the biggest role in his life.
“The reason I know I’m going to win?” Rivet pondered. “With all those people praying for me, I can’t lose, sugar.”
After mass is over, Rivet goes to the Hospice of Acadiana where he serves as the volunteer medical director. He signs death certificates and Medicaid prescriptions.
“I’m working for the good Lord,” he said. “I find it very easy seeing somebody die that is not in pain and at peace with God. It’s as good a feeling as you can get … like kicking a winning field goal in the football game.”
Rivet leaves the hospice at 11:30 a.m. to take a lengthy lunch break. No matter where or what he’s eating, Rivet never dines alone. He can normally be found with younger women but scoffs at the “ladies’ man” label.
“I just like to have a good time and like to go out with pretty women,” Rivet said.
His three marriages all ended in divorce, but Rivet remains friends with all his former spouses. He has two children from his first marriage and still calls his former wives on Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and other major holidays.
His longest and most recent marriage was to Marianna Broussard. The couple married in 1977 and divorced in 1993.
“To tell you why we divorced … I don’t even know,” Broussard said.
She has no regrets about their 17-year union but said Rivet’s greatest talent became a burden.
“He’s got all these other commitments that come before family,” she said. “He would do things to a fault. Loyalty to medicine and the community became his worst flaw because he couldn’t do it partially.”
Broussard said despite their separation, Rivet paid for her law school tuition and housing expenses. She now practices civil litigation for a Lafayette law firm and classifies Rivet as one of her closest friends.
“We used to joke that she lasted longer than the other two put together,” Rivet said.
Rivet surrounds himself with good friends – many met through his LSU involvement. He’s taken a fairly-recent interest in the cheerleading squad after befriending LSU spirit director Pauline Zernott.
Rivet’s favorite cheerleader is sophomore captain Jamie Mascari. Mascari met Rivet when he gave her a Snickers bar before the 2006 Auburn University game.
“He always calls me ‘Sugar,'” Mascari said. “He’s such a cute little man … always sweet … always comes up to you. He will walk through anybody just to tell you ‘hi.'”
Rivet knows he will win this week. Second place is not an option, although his friends praise him for even attempting such a feat. “When, not if” he wins, Rivet said he will write an autobiography titled “Running with God.”
But close friend Bice said no matter what the outcome, there will be no loss for Rivet.
“He’s had a life that most people only dream of,” he said.
Rivet said he doesn’t have time to dream since he only sleeps three hours, but he takes each day as a gift from God.
And 3:17 a.m. can’t come soon enough.
—Contact Amy Brittain at [email protected]