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BIOGRAPHY OF THE MEDICAL CAREER OF
DR. RANDY WATSON
Dr. Watson had not planned on going into medicine until he was already a nineteen-year-old college
student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He had previously enrolled as
a pre-law student with an eye on accounting and tax law, as advised by the successful father of his
best friend from high school. Then, in the summer between his freshman and sophomore years in
college his grandmother died. Dr. Watson was very close to his grandmother, as she had been the
one who essentially raised him from birth while his mother worked to support this single parent
home. He felt helpless during the course of her fatal illness and vowed to try to become a
doctor.
He entered pre-med. at the beginning of his sophomore year and was accepted to medical school after
his junior year. The following year he enrolled in the LSU Medical School in New Orleans, forgoing
his senior year in college and thusly never receiving his undergraduate degree. He studied hard
in medical school and was rewarded for his work by being voted in as President of the Aesculapian
Honor Society and elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha and Omicron Delta Kappa Honor Societies. He
also was picked as the recipient of the Urban Maes, M.D. award in surgery as the student, felt
by the faculty, most likely to excel in clinical surgery as a profession. He was also rewarded
by being ranked third in his medical school graduation class of 125 students.
At the time of his graduation from medical school in 1967, the Vietnam War was in full swing and
an extremely high percentage of doctors were being drafted and sent to Vietnam. In an effort to
avoid that fate, he volunteered for service in the US Army and was sent for his internship to
Letterman Army Hospital, in San Francisco. As it turned out, he felt that his time at Letterman
was one of the most educational years of his entire medical career. He worked hard and was rewarded
by being voted as the outstanding intern in the class of 1967-1968. It didn't, however, keep him
from going to Vietnam, as after one year of duty as an orthopedic OJT, at Fort Knox, Kentucky,
he was assigned to active duty in Vietnam. His time in Vietnam wasn't as bad emotionally as one
might think; and he was rewarded for his time there by receiving one years credit in his orthopedic
residency training at Charity Hospital in New Orleans. He started his residency right out of
Vietnam in 1970. During his residency he was given the privilege of spending six months with the
team physicians for the Denver Broncos and the Colorado Buffalos football teams for the season of
1972.
He completed his residency in June of 1973, and since that time has been in private practice on the
south shore of beautiful Lake Tahoe. First, on the California side of the border at the Tahoe
Fracture Clinic, a prestigious sports medicine clinic, started in 1966 by Dr. Paul Fry, who was
later joined by Dr. Richard Steadman. Dr. Watson was the third partner in this clinic. In June
of 1998, he and two colleagues, Dr. Keith Swanson and Dr. Steven Abelow, established the Lake
Tahoe Orthopaedic Institute eight miles down the road along the south shore, but across the state
line at Zephyr Cove, Nevada.
In 1987, at the request of Dr. Scott Southard, the first fellow, he established the Lake Tahoe
Sports Medicine Fellowship. Over the last eighteen years, Dr. Watson, along with the other
attending physician mentors, have given orthopedic surgeons, mostly just out of their residency,
additional training in the subspeciality of orthopedic sports medicine and orthopedic sports related
traumatology. The selection process for this fellowship training program is highly competitive.
This has given Dr. Watson the privilege of rubbing elbows, so to speak, with some of the most
outstanding young orthopedic Sports Medicine physicians in the country. The fellowship has been
very rewarding for Dr. Watson. To further feed his interest in academics and teaching, through
the help of many others, he established a didactic annual instructional course in sports medicine which came to be
called the Lake Tahoe Knee and Shoulder Update. Periodically over the years, he and his partners at
Lake Tahoe Orthopaedic Institute, initially Dr. Swanson and Dr. Abelow, and more recently Dr's Robert Rupp and Daniel Robertson,
have put on the course comprised of an international faculty and drawing attendees from far and
wide.
From 1973 to 1979, Dr. Watson traveled with the mens and womens US Alpine ski team. While really
enjoying being with the young men and women on the team, there were certain other things about the
experience that he was not particularly fond of including traveling to different countries in
Europe (not being able to speak the different languages; traveling alone and trying to meet up
with a team that was somewhere in the Alps). This culminated with the infamous trip that he
has termed, "the last train to Oberau" trip. He vowed never to travel abroad under these
circumstances again; however, since that time has enjoyed traveling to other countries in an
exchange of ideas with his orthopedic sports medicine colleagues; notably for speaking engagements in
Italy, Greece, Turkey and more recently Bejiing, China.
Dr. Watson has been selected as the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Board of the
prestigious U.S. Basketball Academy. The academy's advisors include former NBA players: Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar, Rick Barry, Clyde Drexler, Arvydas Sabonis and Bill Walton. Present players are
Shaquille O'Neal and Yoa Ming. Former NBA coaches: George Karl, Isiah Thomas, and collegiate
coach legends-John Wooden of UCLA and Dale Brown of LSU, as well as present collegiate coach
Ernie Kent of Oregon University. It's with great pleasure and enthusiasm that Dr. Watson has
accepted this appointment. In January 2005, he traveled to Bejiing with a contingency of coaches and a trainer
for a course for 50 head collegiate basketball coaches from all over China. He and Dean Adams, the trainer, instructed
the coaches on athletic injuries, their treatment and potential prevention. The coaching contingent included Bruce O'Neil;
former head coach for the University of Hawaii, Jim Harrick; former head coach at UCLA and the University of Georgia, Dick Kuchen;
former head coach at Cal Berkeley and Yale University and Bob Hill; former head coach of the San Antonio
Spurs and the Indiana Pacers. He is looking forward to further fellowship and education with his colleagues in China.
Dr. Watson limits his practice primarily to problems of the athlete's, aging and otherwise, shoulders and knees.
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PH: 1-888-383-LTOI or 775-588-3636 FAX :775-588-1299
Zephyr Cove Office
212 Elks Point Rd., Suite 200 | Zephyr Cove, NV 89448
Phone: 775-588-3636 | MAP
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