Bill Stetson Named NCAA Silver Anniversary Award Winner
November 07, 2006 | Men's Volleyball
Nov. 7, 2006
Former USC men's volleyball All-American Bill Stetson has been selected as one of six former standout student-athletes as 2007 NCAA Silver Anniversary Award winners.
The award recognizes former student-athletes who have successfully finished their collegiate careers in various sports 25 years ago and gone on to excel in their chosen careers.
Winners were chosen by the NCAA Honors Committee, which is composed of athletics administrators and nationally distinguished citizens who also were former student-athletes. Joining Stetson, now an orthopedic surgeon, as 2007 Silver Anniversary Award honorees are: Gail (Koziara) Boudreaux (Dartmouth College, basketball and track and field), Steve Jordan (Brown University, football), Patricia Melton (Yale University, indoor and outdoor track and field), Rowdy Gaines (Auburn University, swimming and diving) and Ann Woods Smith (University of Florida, gymnastics).
This year's honorees will be recognized at the NCAA Honors Celebration on Jan. 7 during the 2007 NCAA Convention in Orlando, Fla. The ceremony is scheduled to air on ESPN2 at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Feb. 2.
A member of the Southern California men's volleyball championship team (1980), Stetson was a four-year (1979-82) letterwinner and was a USA Men's Junior National Volleyball Team member. He earned All-American first team honors in 1982 as USC placed third at the NCAA Championships (the Trojans were runners-up in 1979 and 1981). He made the NCAA All-Tournament team in 1981 and 1982. Named USC's Most Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete and the Pacific-10 Conference Most Outstanding Scholar-Athlete, Stetson later received his medical degree from the USC School of Medicine.
He continued his volleyball career after graduation, playing professionally on the beach and indoors and was a five-time winner of the U.S. Open National Volleyball Championships as a member of Team Nike while still in medical school. He took a one-year leave of absence from his medical studies to play professionally in Europe where his team won the West German Championship. For two years, he served as an assistant coach at USC, when the team finished second at the NCAA championships both years.
Stetson specializes in sports medicine with an expertise in arthroscopic and reconstructive surgery of the shoulder, knee, elbow and ankle. In addition to his medical practice, Stetson has been an associate clinical professor of orthopedic surgery in the USC Keck School of Medicine for more than a decade. He is a member of numerous professional societies, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons.
Serving as team physician for several high school and college teams throughout his career, Stetson is currently a consulting physician for the USA Men's Volleyball Team. Devoted to clinical research and academic development, he has presented research papers worldwide at orthopedic conferences and makes appearances on television and radio talk shows. Additionally, Stetson contributes articles for publications throughout the country.
In conjunction with visits to Cuba and Haiti, Stetson recently started a non-profit organization, Operation Arthroscopy, whose mission is to teach and provide arthroscopic surgical equipment to third world countries.
Stetson becomes USC's 11th Silver Anniversary Award winner, joining John Ferraro (1973), Al Geiberger (1984), Mike Garrett (1991), Stan Smith (1993), Lynn Swann (1999), Pat Haden (2000), John Naber (2002), Debbie Landreth Brown (2003), Bruce Furniss (2004) and Paul McDonald (2005).
