 So about 40 years ago, I went out to Barton Memorial Hospital in South Lake Tahoe To meet a surgeon who said he could fix my knee when no other surgeon said he could fix my knee and Lo and behold he did and then he proceeded to fix knees from the greatest athletes from around the world for 40 more years Richard Stebman is a pleasure to be here with you. Thanks very glad to be here This is a day honoring you and everything you've accomplished what like 37,000 knee surgeries over your career Well, it's in that ballpark So some of the great athletes that you treated that you repaired are here to honor you today Tell me what your thoughts are when when this came about and you were told that this Recognition was going to happen. Well, I think it's a great thrill to have the people that That that I took care of and then it was successful and they came back and made great careers So I just feel great about that This I'm going to mention a couple of names We just saw Mark Giardelli Yes, right who had one of the worst injuries you ever saw and you put him back together and then he went on and won multiple World Cup titles and Was it just you or was it also the athletes that made this happen? No, I think it was the athlete first and then me You're very modest. No, I think Mark Mark had a will to come back that This can couldn't be stopped Did you think of your patients just as patients or in a way? Your friends or even your your children? I'd say friends and I think that That I've always had a great relationship with the ski racers and and I think I just have kind of a same mentality Although I wasn't one but I think I've got their mentality and and it's just great to To be involved with them and I think they always have the right the right idea about things If I'm in a conversation with them, we always talk about the same things Well, this is pretty good for a Texas A&M football player played for Bear Bryant and that came to the world of skiing So let's think back when you started this career Could you have ever imagined the success and how it's developed and the Stevin clinics developed and all of this? Well, I didn't exactly plan it that way, but I'd say that that my my goal always has been to do the best we could do and I always wanted to give the patients the best care they could have and I surrounded myself with people who were equal or better than me and tried to have a Clinic that could provide the care that that kept them that got them back You did more than get them back You gave them their lives back not just their athletic careers back Richard Steadman one of the greatest of all time in the world of orthopedic surgery and there isn't an athlete Anywhere who's ever met him who wouldn't agree