LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Here is a short list of University of Louisville athletic records unlikely to be topped:
Wes Unseld’s career rebounding average of 18.9 per game, Lamar Jackson’s 50 career touchdowns and the thousands of U of L athletes who were seen, treated, healed and befriended by Dr. Rudy J. Ellis.
I mention Ellis today because it has been 25 years since he passed away on June 2, 1997, while attending a high school reunion in Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was 78 years old.
The dazzling legacy of U of L athletics was crafted by players like Unseld, Darrell Griffith, Butch Beard, Lenny Lyles, Johnny Unitas, Jackson, Angel McCoughtry, Brendan McKay and others. But it was also crafted on the dedication of people like Ellis, whose love for U of L was boundless.
Before there were kickoff luncheons and public scrimmages, the official start to the U of L athletic season was always the party Ellis and his wife, Ruth Anne, hosted at their house for coaches of every U of L team.
A former three-sport athlete at Mississippi State, Ellis graduated from the U of L medical school in 1943. He remained in town to establish his practice in orthopedic surgery. Athletic specialists were rare. Serious leg injuries ended careers.
Ellis was recruited to work with the U of L basketball program by coach Peck Hickman in 1961. It wasn’t long before Ellis and his associates also treated U of L athletes in football, baseball, track, swimming and other sports.
Rudy Ellis, the U of L athletics team doctor for 35 years, examined a player in his downtown office. Louisville athletics picture.
From Milt Wagner to Rodney McCray, DeJuan Wheat and Ernest Givins, Ellis treated them all — usually with a quip and always with a gentle hand. Because they both grew up in Mississippi, Ellis had a special bond with U of L basketball coach Kenny Payne when he played for the Cards.
Eventually, he also worked at Bellarmine, Spalding, St. Catharine and Hanover. Don’t forget the Kentucky Colonels or Louisville Bats, where you still can see Ellis’s partner, Dr. Walter Badenhausen, now 92 years old.
No wonder Ellis was inducted into the Kentucky Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994. No wonder U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky ranked Ellis as one of the five "truly great" Kentuckians when he entered a tribute into the Congressional record.
Wrote McConnell, "Dr. Rudy Ellis has done more good for more people through the university than virtually anybody else."
With his partner, Badenhausen, and trainer Jerry May, Ellis brought modern training and therapy techniques to Louisville.
Griffith once told me the story about the day he met Ellis. He was a high school sophomore at Male High School who took a hard shoulder to his chest at practice. Griffith’s high school coach, Wade Houston, took Griffith to Ellis' downtown office near the old Methodist Hospital, blocks from Male High.
"You look a little worried, son." Ellis said. "Well, you’re going to live. In fact, you’ll be fine."
Ellis didn’t stop there.
In 1985, he recognized a pressing need for improved training and injury protection for local high school football players. He recruited Tom Steltenkamp, a former U of L student trainer, to join the practice and develop an outreach program.
On four afternoons a week, Steltenkamp drove to high schools across the area to treat players. They developed a program that ensured a trainer would be on site at every game in Jefferson County — at no charge. Other medical practices and physical therapy facilities later joined and enhanced the commitment.
U of L team doctor Rudy Ellis was 78 when he passed away on June 2, 1997. Louisville athletics photo.
Ellis also opened his practice so injured athletes could be seen on Saturday mornings. Players who were still hurting could return early Monday morning.
"Dr. Ellis truly believed it was his job to serve and to give back," Steltenkamp said. "That was just who he was.
"I remember when we were establishing the program, insurance companies were not going to pay some of the costs. You’d have a kid come in with an injured knee or ankle who would need a brace but could not afford one.
"They always got a brace. Dr. Ellis would tell me to take one off the shelf."
So Steltenkamp took one off the shelf. They later established Super Saturdays, where athletes of every sport were provided preseason physicals. Former Jefferson County Athletic Director Jim Watkins said the doctors typically examined more than 1,500 students at every session.
At no charge.
That was the Rudy Ellis way. He believed in more than the doctor-patient relationship. He believed in the friend-friend relationship.
As I once wrote, he was an orthopedic surgeon whose real specialty was his warm, passionate and giving personality. Even 25 years after his passing, his influence endures.
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