By Jamie H. Vaught Cats Up Close
Monticello — There aren't very many doctors who can practice law, or vice-versa.
How about Dr. Jim Kovach? He is one of the few who can do both.
However, the physician/attorney is probably better known for something
else that he did many years ago.
As you may recall, Dr. Kovach was a football star at UK, earning All-SEC
and Academic All-American honors as a linebacker during the late 1970s. He
later played seven years in the NFL.
In addition to football, he was a standout student in the classroom,
receiving a bachelor's degree in biology (cum laude) with a 3.5 grade-point
average in 1978 before getting his UK medical degree with distinction in
1984.
After his NFL career, Dr. Kovach, who is a recent 2009 finalist for
Academic All-America Hall of Fame, went to Stanford University in California
and got his law degree.
That unusual combination of medical and law degrees has led the Parma
Heights, Ohio, native to a fascinating but challenging career. Since 2005,
Dr. Kovach, 53, has been president and chief operating officer at the Buck
Institute for Age Research, which is located in the San Francisco area. The
Institute is actually the first independent research facility in the nation
focused solely on aging and age-related disease.
In 1973, when a young Kovach visited UK on an official recruiting trip
during his senior year of high school, he attended the Kentucky-Tennessee
game. Unfortunately, the Wildcats, guided by first-year mentor Fran Curci,
lost 16-14 in a season-ending heartbreaker, finishing with a 5-6 mark.
But the setback didn't discourage Kovach, who was also impressed with
the new Commonwealth Stadium (which just opened earlier that season), UK's
coaching staff and the SEC football competition, among others.
And it helped that the recruit got to witness a surgery at the medical
center just hours before the UK-UT battle.
"I had expressed an interest in medical school because I was interested
in biology and my mom was a nurse," recalled Dr. Kovach in an e-mail
interview with this columnist. "Out of nowhere upon my arrival for the game,
(highly-regarded professor and physician) Dr. Nick Pisacano introduced
himself and he began touring me around the medical school.
"Dr. Pisacano (who became one of Kovach's mentors) was walking me around
and we went to the second floor of the Albert B. Chandler Hospital and he
said, ŒHey would you like to see a surgery?' What kid wouldn't want to see a
surgery?! So I said, ŒSure' and we scrubbed up and there was Dr. Ward
Griffin, the head of Blue Surgery (who would be another Kovach mentor),
said, ŒHey, kid, you ever seen a gall bladder before?' And 30 minutes later,
I had."
By the way, when Dr. Kovach recruits the faculty at the Buck Institute,
he uses his 1973 trip to UK as an example.
Said Dr. Kovach, "(You need to) make someone you want to come your
institution feel special. Show them things of interest. Show them you love
what you do. They'll come to you!"
Looking back, Dr. Kovach was asked how he managed the time between
classes and football, and still made good grades.
"I was the living example of Œyou want something done‹give it to someone
a busy person,'" said the former Wildcat who was a fourth-round draft pick
by the New Orleans Saints in 1979. "Luckily for me, the practice field was
close to the medical school. It only really got hard for me in 1978 when I
was in my first year of medical school during my last football season at UK
(as a senior). I gave up sleep, but it was worth it‹I really enjoyed my 20s
and all of the wonderful people I met while combining medical school with an
NFL career."
At the time, he became the first player in modern NCAA history to attend
medical school while playing football.
Later, while in the NFL, he managed to finish his medical school studies
by taking the spring and summer classes.
His teammates even asked him to diagnose their medical problems.
Obviously, it was a pretty good practice for the 6-2, 230-pound future
doctor.
"At UK it wasn't too bad because I had just gotten into medical school,
and college athletes are in good health and bounce back from the trauma of
games," said Dr. Kovach, who was on the cover of The Cats' Pause magazine's
first-ever issue in 1976. "In the pros, the problems begin. Most guys wanted
prescriptions for pain killers‹which obviously went on deaf ears. I always
offered my opinions in the training room about the orthopedic nature of
player injuries. I was very unpopular with some of our trainers, for I
required them to pay homage to me as a physician in training, which led to
periodic conflict."
His most memorable game as a Wildcat player?
Said Dr. Kovach, a three-time All-SEC honoree, "Beating Tennessee in
Knoxville to go to the Peach Bowl in 1976. Tennessee had beaten us my first
two years and we went down to Knoxville and shut them out 7-0. (UT offensive
lineman) Mickey Marvin cut blocked me the first play of the game on a screen
pass and I sprained both wrists. Man, they hurt on the bus ride back home
but during the game it was all adrenaline.
"Three of our last four games that year were shutouts (against
Vanderbilt, UT and North Carolina) and we held Florida to nine points in the
other game of that stretch in beating them. That was the best stretch of
defensive domination in my career, and has to be the pinnacle of team play
in my experience."
Dr. Kovach, whose Wildcat jersey has been retired, is still the school's
all-time leading tackler in history with 521 total stops.
He also excelled in pro football, earning first-team All-National
Football Conference honors in 1983. In addition, he was named the team's MVP
for the New Orleans Saints that season.
Why two distinguished degrees in medicine and law?
"I have always been interested in the interface between law and
medicine, which is one of the things that intrigued me about Kentucky, which
had the law school and the medical school on campus," said Dr. Kovach. "I
had the opportunity to go to Stanford after retiring from the NFL, and who
could turn that down?
"I guess in retrospect, if (Wildcat assistant coach) Dan Coughlin had
known a law professor instead of Dr. Nick Pisacano, I might have seen Moot
Court instead of surgery and gone to law school first. Who knows? I find
it's better to keep moving forward towards an ever-changing destiny‹life is
a one way street‹keep going forward, have fun, make a difference in
someone's life."
As for his family, he said he is very blessed. "My wife Nora and I will
be celebrating our Silver Anniversary this June," said Dr. Kovach, "and to
think it all began on a Ferris wheel at the 1984 World's Fair in New
Orleans. I have four great kids‹Jim Jr., Ross, Mandy and Joe."
While Dr. Kovach hasn't seen a Kentucky Wildcat football game in person
since the late 1990s, he fondly remembers his UK days.
"Those were some good times," he said.
Jamie H. Vaught, whose syndicated sports column currently appears in
Kentucky newspapers, is the author of four books about UK basketball. He is
currently a professor at Southeast Kentucky Community and Technical College
in Middlesboro and can be reached by e-mail at CatsUpClose2008@yahoo.com.