Princeton University Athletics
Smooth Operator
May 02, 2005 | Men's Lacrosse
May. 2, 2005
His days are spent in a small room, knife in hand, lives literally hanging in the balance. Do it right, and you can look at the family later and tell them their loved one is fine. Do it wrong, and you have to explain how they'll never walk again - or worse.
Justin Tortolani's lacrosse career at Princeton ended in sudden death, what, can it be 13 years already? He's Dr. Justin Tortolani these days, a spinal surgeon, and sudden death has a much different connotation in his world these days.
"It's very stressful sometimes," Dr. Tortolani says.
And then, after just the briefest hesitation, Dr. Tortolani adds:
"T prepared me well."
"T" is, of course, Princeton men's lacrosse coach Bill Tierney, he of the six NCAA championships, 12 Ivy League championships, 23 first-team All-Americas and 65 first-team All-Ivy selections, not to mention a spot in the lacrosse Hall of Fame.
Tierney has done so much at Princeton, put up such big numbers, it's easy to forget that when he took over the Tigers, they were one of the worst teams in Division I lacrosse, that they had nowhere to go but up, that he needed a foundation to build it all on. That foundation, back in 1988, was a 6' 3" quarterback/point guard/attackman from Manhasset, N.Y., named Justin Tortolani.
The lacrosse dynasty that Tierney has built at Princeton clearly began in no uncertain terms with Tortolani. Tierney owes Tortolani, and he's never forgotten.
"When we talk about Princeton lacrosse, in the most simplistic way of describing it, Justin's face comes into view," says Tierney. "He was my first real recruit, my first home visit, my first junior captain. I saw a guy who was a quarterback and a point guard. I loved his leadership ability. In short, we needed someone, and he was the one."
Tortolani was 5' 9" as a high school sophomore and 6'3" a year later, when he blossomed into a big-time scorer in lacrosse. When it came time to pick a college, he received conflicting information from his coaches. "I had one coach who told me that if I wanted to win a national championship in the Ivy League, I had to go to Cornell," he says. "My head coach, Alan Lowe, told me he had a lot of faith in Coach Tierney. I figured if I went to Princeton, I knew I'd be able to play."
Tortolani did more than just play at Princeton. He was a two-time first-team All-Ivy selection and third-team All-America, as well as an Academic All-America. His impact at Princeton goes way beyond that. "He's not the greatest player ever," Tierney says. "But he came up big when we most needed him. And because we had him, we were able to get other guys who wanted to play with him."
Among those players were the members of Princeton's Class of 1994, which included Kevin Lowe (the son of Tortolani's high school coach), Scott Reinhardt, Taylor Simmers and Scott Bacigalupo. Tortolani's class included All-America defenseman Mike Mariano and midfielder Andy Moe, and the class behind him featured defenseman David Morrow, who would be the national Player of the Year in 1993.
Princeton made the NCAA tournament for the first time ever and defeated Johns Hopkins in the opening round in Tortolani's sophomore year, and they lost a dramatic 14-13 triple-overtime game the following year in the quarterfinals to Towson State.
"In 1992, we were coming off the triple overtime loss," Tortolani says. "We were struggling a little with our own identity. We lost our three scrimmages, and then we lost to Hopkins and Carolina early in the year. Then we ran the table. I remember thinking the whole year that I thought we had a chance to win it. We had more talent than people gave us credit for."
Princeton hosted Maryland in the quarterfinals at Palmer Stadium, and Tortolani scored four goals, including the final two, in an 11-10 win that lifted the Tigers into their first-ever Final Four. The game-winner in that game was the 115th of his career, which made him at the time the all-time leader in goals scored at Princeton.
Tortolani added three goals and two assists and again scored the game-winner in a 16-14 win over North Carolina on a near-100 degree day at Penn's Franklin Field.
"That semifinal game was brutal," Tortolani says. "It was so hot, guys were having trouble even walking off the field. It was different in the final."
The temperature dropped about 50 degrees from Saturday to Monday, when Princeton would take on Syracuse for the national title. Tortolani had a goal and assist as Princeton built a big early lead, but the Orange came back to eventually tie the score at 9-9. Princeton almost won it at the end of regulation, but Tortolani hit the post in the final 10 seconds .
"I was sure it was in when I shot it, that that was it," he says. "I thought I had let the team down, but we had new life when we went to overtime."
After a scoreless first OT, Princeton's Greg Waller won the face-off for the second overtime. Moe picked the ball up, raced right down the middle, and drilled the game-winner into the back of the net.
"It was just total elation," Tortolani says. "I saw Taylor Simmers cut through, and that gave Andy a wide open lane. No one was better than that than Andy. He looked low and shot high, just like he always did it in practice. The goalie dropped his stick, and it went right over him. It seems like yesterday."
It's been 13 years, of course. Tortolani went from Princeton - he wrote his senior thesis on fibronectin, a protein - to Cornell Medical School in New York City. He played club lacrosse in New York and Baltimore as he did his residency. He also married Kim Simons, an All-America in women's lacrosse at Princeton who became the head lacrosse coach at Georgetown and now is an Associate AD for the Hoyas, and they had two children, boys Jack (almost 4) and Cal (almost 2).
Today he works at his own practice and at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Baltimore, where he arrives at 6:30 every morning.
"I see patients all day three days a week," he says. "I operate two days a week. I'm on call for the ER two days a week. We have a lot of patients with spinal deformities, patients with neurological problems, cancer, tumors on their spine. For me, the operating room is like game time. There's a lot of preparation and practice, and a lot of mental preparation to get ready. It's a team in the OR, not that much different than lacrosse."
At the time Tortolani graduated, Tierney often said that his record of 120 career goals would stand for a long time. Instead, it's already been beaten three times, by Jesse Hubbard (163), Chris Massey (146) and Sean Hartofilis (126).
"I think everyone should have a chance to beat a record," Tortolani says. "It's such a good feeling, such a sense of accomplishment. When we first won the championship, we thought it'd be 50 years until we won another one. Now we've won five more. What T has been able to accomplish is amazing. I look back and can't believe how many classes have come and gone since I've been there. I can't believe T is that old. I've heard him say things about how he thought a lot of the success started with me, and it's a tremendous honor to hear him say that, but lacrosse is a team game and we won as a team. I know how hard it is to win. I saw my wife go through it. You can't take anything for granted. The ball bounced our way when we were there."
Yes, there were some good bounces. No, it was not luck or a fluke or anything like that. Princeton lacrosse is a program that started at the bottom and made it the top.
All of it, all of the team championships and individual success, it all began with a single player, Justin Tortolani, Dr. Justin Tortolani, the spinal surgeon who long ago became the backbone of a dynasty.
- by Jerry Price