Sports Physician - Athlete 1878-1879
1878
Dutch rower Geert Lotsij (1878-1959) won the silver medal in the coxed fours final at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. He graduated from the University of Amsterdam, but settled as general practitioner in the Egyptian capital Cairo.
1878
Dutch rower Johannes Terwogt (1878-1977) won the silver medal in the coxed fours final at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. He graduated from the University of Amsterdam and specialized in paediatrics.
1878
Geoffrey Plumpton Wilson (1878-1934) was an English footballer who played at inside left for the Corinthian amateur club, for which he played 32 games and scored nine times, and for Southampton. He made two appearances for England in 1900, scoring once after three minutes in the game against Wales. He also played Minor Counties cricket for Lincolnshire including playing against India in 1911. He qualified as a physician and surgeon in 1902, and worked for several Hospitals in London.
1879
Wladimir Aïtoff (1879-1953), the son of a Russian emigrant, was a rugby union player at Racing Club de France. With Union des Sociétés Françaises de Sports Athlétiques he won the 1900 Olympics final in Paris with 27-8 against the British Moseley Wanderers. He graduated from the Université de Paris and specialized in neurology with the famous Professor Joseph Babinski (1857-1932) of the Paris Hospital de la Pitié. In 1905 he returned to Russia, where he settled in the Hôpital Français of St Petersburg. At the outbreak of World War I he returned to France where he became a renowned hepato-gastroenterologist in various Parisian hospitals. He specialized in Alcolism and together with Germaine Campion (1906-1998) and André-Marie Talvas (1907-1992), he founded the 'Mouvement Vie Libre', the predecessor of the AA-association. He also fought prostitution vigorously. In 1944 the Germans locked him up in Buchenwald, but he survived the POW camp.
1879
Archibald Wright 'Moonlight' Graham (1879-1965) was an American professional baseball player who appeared as a right fielder in a single major league game for the New York Giants on June 29, 1905. His story was popularized in Shoeless Joe, a novel by William Patrick Kinsella (1935-2016), and the subsequent 1989 film Field of Dreams, starring Kevin Costner (1955-) , and featuring Burt Lancaster (1913-1994) and Frank Whaley (1963-), respectively, as older and younger incarnations of Graham. Graham went to play for seven seasons in the American Minor Leagues with the Charlotte Hornets, Nashua, Manchester, Binghamton Bingoes, Scranton Miners and Memphis Egyptians. Graham completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1905. While there, he had also played on the school's 1904 and 1905 baseball teams. Graham had also added some weight to his 5’ 10" frame and resumed his collegiate football career. He played halfback for Maryland's football team in 1904 and 1905. He obtained his license the following year and began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minnesota. "Doc" Graham, as he became known after his career as a ballplayer, served the people of Chisholm for fifty years. From 1919 to 1959, Graham was the doctor for the Chisholm schools. For many years, "Doc" Graham made arrangements to have used eyeglasses sent to his Chisholm office. On Saturdays, he would have the children of the Iron Range (Minnesota) miners, from Grand Rapids to Virginia, come to his office, have their eyes checked and then fit them with the proper set of glasses, all free of charge.
1879
Dutch rower Coenraad Hiebendaal (1879-1921) won the silver medal in the coxed fours final at the 1900 Olympics in Paris. He graduated from the University of Amsterdam and established as a general practitioner in the Dutch capital.
