In Memorium: Profiles in Pediatric Sports Medicine – Dr. Stephen Rice

I wanted to take a moment to express my condolences to the Rice family as I found out just a little bit earlier today that doctor Stephen Rice, who we had on the podcast back in April of 2023, so a little over a year ago, had passed away this past Saturday on September 14th. We have definitely lost a leader in the world of pediatric sports medicine and someone who really was able to help put sports medicine on the map. I’m trying to remember and go back and thinking when I first met Steve.

I think it was at our research fellowship meeting that we had during our fellowship year and he was one of the leaders and educators for that and I met Steve I think at that point. May have been earlier at an AAP meeting when I was a resident but I’m pretty sure that was my first interaction with him. If you knew Steve, Steve was someone. If you got near him and he had something on his mind, you would definitely be stuck there for a little bit. He would be someone who would definitely talk with you and certainly express his opinion about things. And love it or not like it, that’s that’s entirely up to you. I always enjoyed having conversations with Steve. I certainly like to push him a little bit on certain things as well and I think he liked the challenge and pushback as well.

I really, really appreciated having the time and opportunity to feature him on the podcast last year. He had had an interesting story. I knew a lot about Steve as a sports medicine physician, but I definitely did not know much about Steve as far as his life before that and really learned a lot about him and his passion for broadcasting and being able to broadcast baseball games And just certainly all the stuff that he had done and people he had an influence on that are are certainly now considered also very pivotal and important people in the world of sports medicine. So I just wanted to put the episode back out there again just so it’s fresh in people’s minds. In certainly a way, I attribute to him. I’m really just, again, I’m honored and touched that I had the opportunity to speak with him last year before he passed and just to give him an opportunity to to tell a story. I think those stories are important and I was privileged to know him and to consider him a friend and a good colleague and someone who is ever passionate about the world of sports medicine and supporting kids and kids’ sports and the health of kids. So we lost a giant in the world of pediatric sports.

I don’t know any other way to express that, but we will miss you, Steve. And I hope you get to broadcast a Brooklyn Dodgers game up in the sky there. And, I hope you enjoy the episode and enjoy listening to Steve.