Oct. 17, 2004
NEW YORK, N.Y. - Dr. Charles F. Schetlin, a pioneer in the field of sports medicine, and the head team physician at Columbia University for nearly 50 years, died Thursday, October 14, in Stamford, Conn. He was 89 years old.
The cause of death was heart failure.
Schetlin had been associated with Columbia as an athletics enthusiast since entering Columbia College in 1932. He vividly recalled listening to the 1934 Rose Bowl, in which Columbia upset Stanford, as a sophomore.
Schetlin starred in water polo at Columbia, leading the Lions to three championships and twice serving as team captain. The sport was very physical, and attracted a large following. One of its fans was Lou Little, Columbia's famed head football coach, who was a close friend of the swim coach, Ed Kennedy, and attended most of the matches.
Schetlin, who grew up on Blackwell's Island, now Roosevelt Island, in New York's East River, graduated from Columbia in 1936, and attended its medical school, the College of Physicians and Surgeons. By the early 1950's, he had a thriving surgical practice, was an attending physician at St. Luke's Hospital, and served his alma mater as the on-call doctor for the University Gymnasium. Then Ralph Furey called.
"The football team doctor was at Presbyterian Hospital," Schetlin recalled in a 1996 interview, "and Lou Little didn't like his players having to go all the way up to Presbyterian for treatment. He remembered me from water polo -- he thought water polo was a tougher sport than football -- and he told Ralph about me."
Furey, Columbia's athletic director, hired Schetlin in 1953 to work with the football team, though he eventually became head team physician for all of Columbia's teams. That began a 51-year relationship with the Columbia athletic program. Schetlin served as head team physician until his retirement in 1998, but remained with the athletic department until the Spring of 2004, as a special consultant for student medical services.
"Charles Schetlin was a part of the evolution of sports medicine," said Jim Gossett, Columbia's head athletic trainer, "from its very beginning. In fact, he treated Russell F. Warren, a star football player at Columbia in the early 1960's who became one of the nation's leading orthopedists and a renowned figure in sports medicine both nationally and internationally."
"Dr. Schetlin was a mentor, leader and friend to collegiate athletic trainers for decades," Gossett noted. "He worked with the Ivy League Physicians Group, which he helped found, until his retirement. He worked with thousands of Columbia athletes, as both a healer and a fan, following them long after they had graduated and gone on to successful careers -- in many cases medical careers, like Dr. Warren."
Schetlin was profiled in a 1996 article in the Columbia football program titled, "Dr. Charles Schetlin, Columbia's Healer for the Ages."
Schetlin, who actually lived across the street from Columbia's Morningside Heights campus, was an attending surgeon at St. Luke's Hospital, specializing in cancer surgery, head and neck surgery, and traumatic surgery. He was a Life Fellow of both the American College of Surgeons and the New York Academy of Medicine, and a senior member of the New York Surgical Society and the Society of Head and Neck Surgeons.
He served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a volunteer first lieutenant and later captain in the St. Luke's Unit, the Second Evacuation Hospital of the Army Medical Corps. His wife, Mary Nelson, a St. Luke's nurse and also a volunteer, served beside him. They each earned five battle stars.
In addition to his wife, Schetlin is survived by his son, Charles, Jr., a granddaughter, Amelia, two sisters, Eleanor M. Schetlin of East Hampton, N.Y. and Isabel McNeil of Longmeadow, Mass., his daughter-in-law, Elizabeth Bailey Schetlin, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Viewing will be held Monday, October 18, from 9:30 to 10:30 A.M. at the Leo P. Gallagher Funeral Home in Stamford, Conn., with the funeral at 11:00 A.M. at St. John's Episcopal Church on Main Street in Stamford. Burial will be in Westport, Conn.
In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to the Columbia Athletic Department in the name of Dr. Charles Schetlin; checks should be made payable to Columbia University, and sent to the Athletic Department, Columbia University, 3030 Broadway, Mail Code 1928, New York, N.Y. 10027.
