Word: irion
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Irion has not played a minute this season and right now he is hobbling around on crutches following a second operation performed in December by Harvard's chief surgeon, Dr. Arthur Boland. "I knew in pre-season that my knee wasn't as good as it should be, but I was hoping to play at about 80 per cent and I intended to play," said Irion. "Just the idea of playing for the new coach and the new program was enough motivation for me to go out there...
...Irion participated in three pre-season scrimmages but his knee quickly puffed up. Boland administered a dye test on the knee and decided it was necessary for Steve to undergo an operation known as a "lateral mackintosh." Irion had severed the cruciate ligament which holds the knee cap in place and it had literally dissolved. In a delicate three-hour operation, Boland drilled a pair of small holes in Irion's knee which he threaded with a tendon from a leg muscle so as to reconstruct the missing ligament...
Having dedicated much of his life to perfecting his basketball skills, learning that he would not be able to play again this year came as a monumental jolt for Irion. He was hoping to play basketball in Europe during the summer and had hoped to be drafted by an NBA team...
...Irion worked on a railroad crew in Billings for three summers. Wielding a sledge hammer from dusk to dawn, he packed on extra muscle for battling under the boards for rebounds. Irion's father, who got him the job, worked for the Milwaukee Railroad Company before becoming a government railway inspector. Most of Irion's co-workers were illegal aliens from Mexico known as "wetbacks" because they "swim" the Rio Grande to get to Montana...
...Irion also spent part of his summer vacations providing instruction at basketball camps. "I tell the kids that you have to be serious if you want to play and just love the game," he says...