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Bruce Thomas sports a few accessories you don’t usually see in a doctor’s office — a World Series Championship ring for one thing.
Just imagine being an injured Little Leaguer and seeing that on your doctor’s hand!
Thomas received the ring as a physician with the Florida Marlins in 1997, the year they won the World Series.

Baseball has always been an important part of his life — he played on the varsity team as an undergraduate at Tulane University while majoring in biology and Russian, graduating cum laude.

After his Tulane undergraduate years, he stayed in New Orleans to earn his medical degree at Tulane, where he was received the Kendall-Rodd Award for “outstanding citizenship while maintaining a high academic standard” and served as master of ceremonies at commencement exercises for his class. He also was recognized with the Hospital Affiliates International award for “the graduating medical student who demonstrated character, scholarship and leadership qualities, and made outstanding contributions to the school of medicine.”

Thomas hasn’t been back to The Big Easy since Katrina. He is a little hesitant to return to see firsthand how the city he loved has changed, after so many devastating losses, especially after the closing of Charity Hospital, an institution where for years he and other Tulane medical students received their clinical training.

To fulfill his service commitment after medical school, Thomas interned and did his residency in family practice at Eglin Air Force Base in the USAF Regional Hospital, and then served as a family practice physician at USAF Hospital Patrick at Patrick Air Force Base, where he and his family fell in love with the Space Coast area.

As the physician responsible for all personnel associated with launches at Cape Canaveral, he had a chance to observe and admire the highly motivated and dedicated group of people who work within the space program. He was on duty the day of the Challenger disaster and was able to help with efforts to support the families of the astronauts involved in that tragedy.

After he left the service, he “hung out his shingle” in Melbourne, an area that has doubled and tripled in population since he has been there. In 1994, his practice, Family Practice of Brevard, merged with MIMA and now includes highly qualified physicians in all specialties, with offices in several locations. In addition to his board certification in family practice, he has certificates of added qualifications in sports medicine and geriatrics.

But baseball remains a passion and he has had an opportunity to stay connected to America’s pastime as head team physician of the Montreal Expos, as well as serving as spring training physician with the Marlins and head team physician for the Australian Olympic baseball team and ongoing responsibilities for the baseball team at Melbourne High School. He served as a team physician for Florida Tech for a decade, and is a consultant for Florida Citrus Bowl medical coverage.

One of Thomas’ most exciting new challenges is serving as team physician for the People’s Republic of China Olympic baseball team and, in that capacity, will be headed to the Beijing Olympics next summer. The team is coached by two Americans, both former major league players, Jim Lefbvre and Bruce Hurst, who connected Thomas with the team. There isn’t a lot of depth on the team and they need every player; fortunately, Thomas was able to coordinate some necessary surgeries to repair some knees and elbows through the Cincinnati Reds physicians. He has been working with these players to coordinate their successful rehab back to the game.

Baseball was very popular in China during the first part of the 20th century, when Babe Ruth and other American major league stars barnstormed the country, but it fell out of favor during the Mao years. The game is starting to come back, even though Thomas thinks it will take a generation to field teams that are really successful, especially since there are only nine baseball fields in all of China!

Thomas has worked with the team at their training facility in Wuxi and toured the construction of Olympic venues in Beijing. The Chinese people are natural athletes and warm hosts, he noted, extending their friendship and helping him learn to speak Mandarin -- to the point that he can now do basic physical exams using the language. He is looking forward to the time with “his” team at “the big show” in Beijing for the 2008 Games.

Thomas spent more than two weeks this summer in Colorado Springs at the U.S. Olympic Training Center (OTC), where he serves as team physician as a member of the U.S. Olympic Medical Team.

“It was an incredible experience,” he emphasized. “The facility is amazing and the dedication of the athletes is inspiring.”

Looking ahead in sports medicine, he believes the next big frontier will be an interest in “engineering” to produce athletes with the ideal genes for specific sports. When he was in Colorado Springs, he could tell the relationship between body build and ability for world class performance in specific sports is already pre-selecting athletes to pursue those sports that match their body build.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree -- both of his sons have decided on careers that are involved with sports. One works in player development for the Washington Nationals and hopes to be a general manager for a team in the future and the other, in his third year of law school, is planning to specialize in sports law. He identifies his wife, Susan, as a “naturally good sport,” adding that she could have been a football coach but has cheerfully supported baseball teams since their children fell in love with it. They all enjoy basketball, table tennis, boating and fishing.

No doubt Bruce Thomas loves what he does.

“I’m the luckiest guy on earth,” he said, passionately.



October 2007

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