Heritage Snapshot Part: 143

In 1944, upon recommendation by the Loma Linda Reference Committee, the Board voted to build two new tennis courts for a total cost of $2,500. They were situated just east of the new swimming pool on Stewart Street, in what is now the front yard of the Centennial Complex. By September 1965, the University’s recreation facilities had broadened measurably, including a baseball diamond and basketball courts west of the swimming pool, two new volleyball courts on Stewart Street, and a shuffleboard facility at Kate Lindsay Hall. For many universities in the United States, most garnered name recognition results from publicity relating to their sports teams. For example, college football dominates New Year’s Day television coverage in America. The College of Medical Evangelists and Loma Linda University have never had an officially approved sports team. The CME Class of 1955, however, on their own and without administrative approval, started a championship volleyball team. They competed against similar teams from UCLA, Saint Mary’s University, the University of San Francisco, Florida State University, Santa Clara University, and Occidental University—and won every time. All practice and playing was done during the students’ spare time. Ken Clover, Times Sports Writer, provided additional background: “The [College of Medical Evangelists] has no athletic program of any kind. Students go there strictly for an education, and volleyball is played only for exercise.” Formed just three years earlier, the team played “just for the fun of it. The [eight] seniors never had much luck until this year. Recently they won the far-western tourney, knocking off highly rated UCLA in the process.” Clover continued: “The trip [to Florida] was financed by some alumni of the religious medical school. The players flew in Tuesday and were winging their way back Friday to attend church services Saturday. CME was in no way backing or sponsoring the athletes—except morally…. All [eight] will graduate in three weeks with MD degrees and then serve a year as interns. After that, they enter practice as they please.” The public learned still more about CME: “The small school has only seventy-six students in each of its four classes…. As Florida State and College of Medical Evangelists dominated the college division of the national tourney, despite the differences in their athletic programs, both also captured every collegiate All-American spot released Thursday.” On Thursday, May 12, 1955, in a story headlined the senior students on CME’s Los Angeles campus: “Los Angeles Advances to Semi-Finals In First Day of Volleyball Tournament,” the Oklahoma Daily gave still more media coverage to CME: “Second-seeded College of Medical Evangelists, Los Angeles, advanced to the semi-finals of the collegiate division of the United States national volleyball championship Wednesday with a victory over Florida State University and George Williams College of Chicago…. The CME crew were in the favorites role as defending champions. UCLA didn’t arrive for the two-day event. The Uclans have been defeated [four] times by the Evangelists in play on the West Coast.” One of the volleyball players was Stanley G. Sturges. He was not only an All-American athlete, but also a mechanic, musician, and builder. He became “Mister America” and the only physician available to half a million Nepalese, one of the most isolated cultures in the world. He built his own hospital along the border between Nepal and the People’s Republic of China, just a few miles from the trailhead to Mount Everest, the tallest mountain in the world. His experience as a missionary physician in Nepal, tapped all of his physical abilities and reserves, his scientific knowledge, manual skills, and sensitivities. His athletic vitality sustained exhausting treks into distant Himalayan villages. His linguistic skills broke down social and cultural barriers. His knowledge of construction provided a hospital in which to practice his profession. In 1961, The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce recognized Stanley G. Sturges, MD, as one of America’s Ten Outstanding Young Men on January 20, 1961 in the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, with national press, radio, and television coverage. Sturges and his wife Raylene Duncan Sturges, RN (CME class of 1953) went to Nepal in 1957, just two years after his graduation from medical school. The six-feet-four-inch physician often bruised his forehead while entering low doorways during house calls for his short patients. First, Sturges had to build his own hospital. Without the use of modern tools, not even a wheelbarrow, Sturges built the 22-bed Sheer Memorial Hospital in Banepa, Nepal. He even made its bricks. His first Nepalese patient presented a challenge. Local customs prevented the examination of a woman by a male doctor. When Sturges arrived at the woman’s home at the request of her anxious husband, he was blocked by a band of midwives who denied him access to the woman. Sturges left. But the woman’s husband pled for the tall American to return. Sturges refused to go until he was assured that the midwives would be removed from the house and that he would be allowed to administer whatever treatment he deemed essential. The woman’s speedy recovery so impressed the local population that an immediate and heavy demand for his services never diminished. When Dr. Sturges visited remote villages, the entire population would turn out to welcome him, sometimes forming a procession to escort him. On other occasions, he was bombarded with Nepalese “ticker tape,” puffed rice and leis thrown from balconies and upper-story windows. The village would consider it to be a special day. At the time Dr. Sturges accepted the award on national television from the United States Junior Chamber of Commerce, more than 700 Loma Linda University graduates had served in countries around the world. In recognition of this fact, Sturges, the son of missionaries to the Congo, stated with characteristic candor and simplicity that he was accepting the award not for himself alone, but also for “all the others who serve without recognition.”