In sports therapy, R Tracy Williams, FAAO OD, has seen it all. From being called into the stands during games to check on player injuries to working with some of the most prolific professional athletes in the country, Williams details his favorite things about being a team optometrist for the Chicago Bulls and Chicago White Sox experience.To learn more about his day-to-day tasks as a team physician, watch another of his interviews Optometry time here.
video transcript
Editor’s Note -This transcript has been edited for clarity.
R Tracy Williams, OD, FAAO:
Well, you know, if you think about it, “Oh my God, he was with the Bulls during the Jordan era, what was that like?” Oh, my God, I guess it was like being with the Beatles or something. Same together. I mean, that’s awesome. They’re both really good players and I do some sports vision training type things and I work with two great guys. One is Dr. David Alter, who is a retina specialist, and the other is David Dashevsky, who is a great administrator of vision practices and more. We do different sports vision tests. Just to share this 1, we’re going to project 7 random numbers on the board. It was about 12 feet away and the man had a quarter of a second to look at it and tell us what those 7 were in order. I think most players can do this after two exposures, or certainly three. But the people who get it the first time, they lock in where they’re looking first, they focus, and then they get it all. Who do you think the Bulls are going to get all of this for the first time?
Jordana Joy:
The first thing I thought of was Jordan.
Williams:
Yes. I think there are dynamic and static skills. Of course, in the field of optometry, we have long understood the different components of vision therapy and vision.
But definitely, I could also write a book about the interesting things that happened. Like a player wearing bright lenses before a game, they come up to you and say, “Hey, do you have a backup pair of contacts?” We usually do it in the trainer’s trunk or something, but usually you Would think the players would actually have it. But when players come in and see you and want you to give them a pair of contact lenses, they’re like a highly myopic person, and then you find out they threw the contact lens in the trash, and you have to get a flashlight, and you have to find (them .)
So crazy things happen. Of course, the umpires, I’ve worked with umpires. At one point, Frank Thomas was a great baseball player for the White Sox who unfortunately had a bad day and was struck out. What happened was he literally walked into the clubhouse. I was actually sitting there and he said, “Hey, Tracy, do you have a pro card?” I said, “Oh, yeah, sure.” I saw that he took the ball away and gave it to the referee. . So you’ll encounter some interesting things when working with players.
At one point, Robin Ventura, he was a great baseball player, a really great player, he won baseball’s equivalent of the Heisman and was my favorite White Sox One of the team players. He had a slump when he first came up and he was a very good player, but then the slump went away. But the second time he hit a slump, he said, “Hey, I might see you because I want to make sure my eye is okay and I don’t want to make a fuss about it,” and I said, “Sure.” I heard at my house, I Had some eye exams (equipment) as I do my family and charity work there sometimes. He said, “Hey, can I meet you there?” I said, “Sure.” Of course my son, who was in fifth grade, heard that and said he was going to be sick the next day, and I said, “No, you just Put a baseball on the bed and I’ll have him come to your bedroom to sign it.” So, of course Robin has a good eye, but I took him back to Robbie’s bedroom and sure enough, he had a Farrah Fawcett poster, somewhat famous. Robin saw it, grabbed the baseball, and said, “I’m sorry, I missed you, Rob. Nice bedroom.”
I would have players come to the house and you just have a personal relationship because I think about patient education and service. You know, you can do things and they know you care about them. So you have to work extra hard, you have to be available, so I get calls when they’re in different stadiums. It’s a blessing, but going back to my job as a low vision specialist, having these types of celebrities come to your aid at galas and golf events and be very charitable. I guess that’s why I became a team doctor, as long as I behave well I hope I can be a good servant to children and adults with vision loss.