Mike Blanchard was a four-year football letterman at LSU from 1991-94, playing center and guard during one of the toughest stretches in the program’s history. But the effort was never lacking, and he says the past struggles and the current team’s down-to-the-wire efforts show that there’s a fine line between winning and losing in the Southeastern Conference.
Blanchard was named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll all four years, was named the conference’s scholar-athlete of the year for 1994-95 and graduated with a 4.0 cumulative grade-point average before entering LSU’s School of Medicine in New Orleans.
While his medical training took him to New Orleans, Nashville, Tenn., and Iowa City, Iowa, the Catholic High School graduate says he always intended to return home. He’s been with Baton Rouge Orthopaedic Clinic since 2005, specializing in foot and ankle surgery and sports medicine.
“The most rewarding part is seeing the improvement in a patient’s functional level,” Blanchard says. “For some that may mean simply walking without pain and deformity and for others it can be returning to high-level athletic competition.”
Blanchard works as the team physician for Redemptorist High School and also helps out occasionally with the LSU training staff. He serves as a volunteer instructor for orthopaedic residents at Earl K. Long Medical Center, and says he enjoys teaching and finds it rewarding to help the development of young doctors.
“Others taught me, and I feel a responsibility to pass on some of that knowledge,” he says.
Who do you most admire in the business community and why?
“The senior partners of our clinic. Through years of hard work and service, they have put together an outstanding group of orthopaedic surgeons that serves as a tremendous asset to the Baton Rouge community.
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