The basketball team at Regis High School had a 1-16 record as the players entered a rival’s gym
in the winter of 1958 fully expecting to leave with yet another loss. The other team’s star was a
future NBA coach who would one day run the New York Knicks. Regis was led by a diminutive
future doctor who would one day run the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
“Nobody gave us a chance,” said John Zeman, a Regis alumnus. “Everyone figured it was going
to be a blowout.”
But there was one teenager who looked at this demoralizing collection of data and came to a
wildly optimistic conclusion.
“Tony said no,” he said. “We’re going to win this game. And we did.”
Tony, the team captain better known as Fauch, a short kid with a thick Brooklyn accent who led
his overmatched team to a highly improbable victory in the biggest game of his life, now
answers to a name that most Americans have come to recognize: Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The infectious disease specialist who has long been regarded as a national treasure has become
a source of trust for hundreds of millions of people over the last month. He is the raspy voice of
reason. Fauci’s deep expertise, avuncular demeanor and direct style of communication have
turned a distinguished 79-year-old immunologist into the world’s unlikeliest celebrity.
As the point guard of the U.S. response to public health scares, Fauci understands that crisis
reveals character. But so does high-school basketball. The way that a bunch of teenagers come
SPORTS
Dr. Fauci Was a Basketball Captain. Now He’s America’s
Point Guard.
His teammates in high school looked to Dr. Anthony Fauci for leadership. They’re still doing it more
than 60 years later.
March 29, 2020 700 am ET
By Ben Cohen
3/30/2020 Dr. Fauci Was a Basketball Captain. Now He’s America’s Point Guard. - WSJ
www.wsj.com/articles/dr-fauci-was-a-basketball-captain-now-hes-americas-point-guard-11585479601?mod=hp_major_pos2#comments_sector 2/7
together as a team at such a formative time can be a powerful force that shapes the rest of their
lives. And one win can stick with you forever.
“I don’t know how he could forget it,” said Bob Bastek, his Regis classmate.
Fauci, who keeps a miniature basketball hoop in his office, has been called “my hero” by Bob
Cousy and “the GOAT” by Stephen Curry for his role in this pandemic, which would have
delighted a child who grew up playing sports and worshiping Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle and
Duke Snider. When he earned a scholarship to Regis, an elite Jesuit school in New York for boys
with academic and leadership potential, the free tuition was worth the fantastic schlep: a bus in
Brooklyn to a local train to the express train to the IRT to the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He
learned to finish his Latin and Greek homework on the commute to get a few hours of sleep at
night. “Basketball was important,” said Jim Higney, the team manager. “Homework was more
important.”
Fauci always knew he wanted to be a doctor. “My interest in medicine stems from my keen
interest in people, in asking questions and solving problems,” he said in 1989 for a National
Institutes of Health oral history. But there was another way for him to scratch that itch before
medical school: basketball.
When he learned that Fauci was the captain of his basketball team, his former colleague Mike
Goldrich once replied: “Tony, how could you possibly be the captain of a basketball team?” But
he also knows that some people are smaller than their heights. Fauci was always bigger.
Here’s the scouting report on Fauci: classic point guard, excellent ballhandler, pesky defender.
Six of his classmates and teammates described him as a tenacious competitor in short shorts
and striped socks whose feistiness on the court defied some parts of his personality and
reflected others.
“He was ready to drive through whoever was in his way,” said Bob Burns.
“He was just a ball of fire,” Zeman said. “He would literally dribble through a brick wall.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci in a 1958 yearbook photo
PHOTO: REGIS HIGH SCHOOL
