Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli: The World Lost One of the Great Ones

It is part of our humanity that our lives intersect with other people’s lives. It's unavoidable. And then there are those who move across life’s sky to become like a sun shining on the lives of so many others.

On Monday, Penn State, State College, Northeast PA, the medical community here and across the country, friends and most importantly a family lost a man whose life made him one of the rarest of people.

Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli left this world far too soon. He was a doctor, a teacher, in some ways a coach, and a community leader. He reached so many people in his life; it will be impossible to count the people who will feel the impact of his loss.

Tim Curley, Wayne Sebastianelli, Jay Paterno & Tom Bradley

Wayne and I worked together for 17 years on the Penn State football staff. On every road trip, we sat next to each other in the third row on bus one. On the way to the airport, from the airport to the team hotel and from the team hotel to the stadium. The conversations were about anything and everything, except on the way to the stadium.

The game day bus to the stadium was always quiet. And just as coaches had to think about what might happen, so too did Wayne.

Never was that more apparent than on September 23, 2000, at Ohio State. Late in the game freshmen Adam Taliaferro lowered his head to make a tackle and did not get up. He was paralyzed with a traumatic neck injury. Within seconds Wayne assessed what had happened and administered a steroid that would be the most important decision in a process that yielded the miracle of Adam walking again.

As Adam’s long road progressed, every Thursday the university plane would take Athletic Director Tim Curley, Wayne and others to visit Adam at the rehab hospital in Philly. Sometimes Joe would go, sometimes other coaches would go. It was a moving experience to see Adam, but also to see how much of Wayne’s heart and soul were invested in every small step forward.

And as Adam’s miracle became a reality, we came to understand the magnitude of Wayne’s incredible immediate decisions under a pressure far greater than any coach ever faced. And yet, Wayne humbly attributed it to others, to the things he’d learned in med school and his residency.

The man was always prepared, humble, honest and above all, lived a professional integrity that exceeded even his Hippocratic Oath. His interactions with our coaching staff were always upfront and always based on what was best for each student- athlete.

Make no mistake. He was an intense competitor, and no one wanted to win the games more than he did. But there was never a moment where that superseded what was right for one of our student-athletes.

In a tough 2004 season, Michael Robinson took a vicious hit to the head against Wisconsin. Penn State was far ahead of the curve with a concussion protocol involving cognitive and reaction time tests. A lot of it was developed here with Wayne having a big hand in it.

Michael passed all the protocols in time to play against Minnesota. Although Michael was cleared Wayne’s opinion was that he should not play. Ever the competitor, Michael, did not share that sentiment and was fairly vocal about it.

Wayne was thinking long-term in a sport that operates mostly in the near-term. Another concussion in rapid succession would have much larger consequences for Michael. All of us wanted to win, and Michael could’ve helped. But ultimately, the respect we all had for Wayne won out and Michael went on to a long NFL career.

A decade or so earlier a young running back named Ki-Jana Carter came to Penn State with some nagging knee issues. Wayne advised Joe to sit Ki-Jana out as a freshman to allow Ki-Jana time to be right for the 1993 season. It was best for Ki-Jana and it paid off in 1993 and 1994. That trust helped in 1994 when Ki-Jana broke his thumb, and Wayne got him ready to play in a soft cast against Michigan.

Football players, by their very nature, are risk-takers and wired to excel in a game of repeated high-speed collisions. And in the immediacy of a game on a sideline, medical decisions must be made at a speed that is breathtakingly fast considering potential outcomes. Through it all, every Penn State player in every sport never had a greater advocate for their safety, and concussion safety than Wayne.

In football, there are times when that advocacy for safety over everything else is not always what a player or a coach wants to hear. There is also an inclination in some players to suspect that a doctor may be pressured to get a player back before they are ready.

It can be challenging for football players and their families to have complete trust in a doctor they may see as part of the machinery of major college football. Wayne quickly earned the trust of players and their families.

In the last few weeks, the current coaching staff under Matt Campbell has made a tremendous effort to bring back former players. Some of them hadn’t seen Wayne in a while. What I witnessed in those interactions was respect, trust and appreciation for what he’d done for so many of them. And as the hours unfolded on Monday and Tuesday as word spread the text messages and phone calls from former players recounted over and over what Wayne meant to all of us.

His reach extended to student-athletes across all sports at Penn State. No doubt, coaches and players across every sport are sharing the same texts and messages with each other these past two days. His opinions on a range of medical issues were respected and sought out by professionals across the Big Ten and across the country. Colleagues across the medical community here also shared tremendous respect for him.

And it goes further than that. There are so many people in this community who never donned Blue and White, who relied on him as their doctor. The surgeries, and care in his practice erased pain and problems to change the quality of life for countless others.

One patient probably tested Wayne more than others.

Joe Paterno and Wayne Sebastianelli

Joe Paterno could be a difficult patient. Wayne understood that stubbornness, because he was the son of another stubborn Italian. Over time, Joe began to think of Wayne like family and the feeling was mutual.

In 2005, coming off two tough seasons, there were a lot of people calling for Joe to be fired. Wayne would tell people that Joe had done one of his best coaching jobs holding the 2004 team together to set up the 2005 season.

Early in that 2005 season at Northwestern, Joe was sick to the point he shouldn’t be coaching. Wayne and Dr. Doug Aukerman knew he was too stubborn to stay off the sidelines. They even asked me to talk some sense into him. But we knew better.

They got him fluids and some medicine, yet he was still wobbly and nauseous. He stood tall on the sideline with Wayne lurking, keeping an eye on him. And in the second half of that game, Joe’s input led us to a comeback win that launched a Big Ten title season. Without Wayne, that season never happens.

The next year before the home game against Northwestern, Joe was moving something on his den bookshelf. A heavy trophy fell off. hit him and caused a large cut on his head.

Wayne came to the house, cut some hair back and stitched up the sizeable gash. He advised Joe that he should wear a hat and have big bandage on his head. Predictably the stubborn coach didn’t want anyone to know anything was wrong. Neither the coaches nor the players had any idea what had happened.

Five games later, Joe suffered a major injury on the sideline during the Wisconsin game. It involved ligament damage, a broken bone and major surgery. There was only one doctor he allowed to operate on him. On a trip to Spain, my mother broke her hip. There was one doctor’s advice he wanted above all: Wayne.

And after Joe’s hip replacement following the 2008 season, he looked as good as new. I joked with Wayne that he should move to Florida and become THE hip replacement expert. After all, every septuagenarian and octogenarian football fan in Florida would see Joe running out of the tunnel because of Wayne’s surgery.

The relationship with Wayne and the staff was so far beyond work. On bowl trips, each year, the whole staff would go out to dinner. Invariably, Wayne, Bill Kenney, Guido D'elia, I and others would end up at Joe’s table, engaged in a long conversation about life, politics and family. Those remain some of the best bowl trip memories we have.

There were even jokes about all the Italians. Tom Venturino, Guido D'elia, Wayne Sebastianelli, Joe Sarra, and George Salvaterra formed an important core of the program for many years. Wayne was variously called “Doc” and “Sea-Bass”, in fact “Sea-Bass” was the way most players referred to him.

St Ubaldo Day in Jessup, PA

Wayne’s loyalty was perhaps his greatest quality. It was loyalty he learned growing up in a tightknit Italian-American community of Jessup, Pennsylvania. Each year that town comes together to celebrate a day for St Ubaldo with the running of the saints. (Spoiler for those wagering on Kalshi: St Ubaldo always wins). It is an 8,000+ calorie day.

A few years ago, Wayne brought a bunch of us there to see it. At every house people were eating and catching up and visiting. It was family, friends and community. It gave us a real sense of where Wayne was from. It became pretty apparent to Eddie Lauth, Tim Curley and I that walking around in Jessup with Wayne was like traveling with the Pope.

When that community gathers for Saint Ubaldo Day on May 23^rd, there will be a huge void.

It all comes back to loyalty. Loyalty in this world is not easy. Even when the tempest wins of unjust condemnation blew through our valley, Wayne Sebastianelli never wavered. Those who stood accused never had to worry about where he stood.

And on a Sunday morning in January 2012, Wayne was there with our family, helping us understand Joe’s last hours and last moments here. He was there when we pulled out a bottle of Old Granddad and all shared a last toast with my father before he passed.

All these hours of commitment to players, coaches, patients and the community aren’t easy. His family Michele, Alyssa and Geoff shared Wayne with so many of us. For that we will be forever grateful to them. The long hours of his profession for Wayne had to be tough, because it was apparent how much he loved Michele and how proud he was of Alyssa and Geoff,

In moments like these, we are reminded of the finite and precious nature of time. And when the sand in our hourglass runs through, what have we left behind?

For Wayne his time as the center of so many intersecting roles left indelible memories and an enduring impact on the lives of so many people across so many communities.

A great life has passed from us. Our faith tells us that he will see loved ones who’ve passed before him. That same faith tells us that someday we too will see all who’ve passed before us.

Until that day, those that remain are left with the shared laughter, the moments of strength in adversity, the lessons learned from the people who’ve shared some part of their lives with us. We got all of that, and more, from Wayne Sebastianelli.

And we’re sure that he heard a familiar voice that says “What’re you doing here kid? You should’ve had more time. But you sure made the most of it, and you sure made an impact.”