Former RB back again as an MD: Catching up with Ed Tingstad

Ed Tingstad used to make sharp cuts as a Washington State running back. These days, he does his cutting with a scalpel.

Tingstad, a three-year letterman from 1986-88 who played in the Aloha Bowl win over Houston, is in his fourth year as orthopedic surgeon for the Cougars.

It's an arrangement similar to that at Washington, where ex-running back Steve Bramwell was a team doctor for 20 years until Rick Neuheisel was named UW coach.

Tingstad underwent three operations in four years as a Cougar and said being a patient increased his interest in medicine.

"It's something where you can use both your hands and your head," he said.

His recruiting visit to WSU included a trip to an anatomy lab, where students studied cadavers.

"Jim Michalczik (a Cougars teammate who now coaches at California) was with me, and he still says it was horrifying," Tingstad said.

Tingstad said part of his job is counseling athletes as well as healing them. He said he has to remind impatient athletes "that they are going to be 40-year-olds" some day and returning from an injury too early could cause problems later in life.

He said he has been fortunate that coaches Mike Price and now Bill Doba have been supportive and told players, "If doc says you aren't playing, you aren't playing."

Tingstad, 38, is the oldest of three brothers who played college football. Mark, now an accountant, played at Arizona State and lives in Kent. David, who played at Boise State, is a lawyer in Edmonds.

The boys' father, Ed, is the former athletic director at Bethel High near Spanaway, where his sons starred under Friday night lights. He is going on the road trip to Notre Dame this weekend with his doctor son.

Mark suffered a career-ending neck injury in Husky Stadium in 1989 while tackling UW quarterback Cary Conklin. He was motionless on the field for about seven minutes and left in an ambulance. He was hospitalized for three days but recovered.

Mark had been playing with a congenital neck condition, and Sports Illustrated did a story on him after his final injury.

The senior linebacker was ASU's career leader in solo tackles at the time he made his final tackle, and one of those stops brought down Ed in a Sun Devils-Cougars game. Ed was studying for a medical school test when Mark was injured.

"My dad called and said, 'He's OK, he's moving his legs now,' " Ed recalled. "I didn't even know he was paralyzed."

Ed got his medical degree from Washington. He and his wife, Laura, a WSU pharmacy graduate, started dating when he was doing a residency in Spokane. They have three children, Joey (5), Abby (4) and Sam (2).

As a Cougar in the UW med school, Tingstad was outnumbered by Huskies, who jammed his mailbox during Apple Cup week with messages taking potshots at the Cougars. He took them good-naturedly.

"The rivalry is a good thing for the state," he said.