Sports
Standard of Care

Wayne Sebastianelli was a world-class researcher and orthopedic surgeon, and also a steadying presence for student-athletes and other patients. 

head shot Sebastianelli by Penn State Athletics
By Jeff Rice '03 Com

 

In his first two years with the Penn State football team, Devon Still tore the ACL in his left knee and broke his left ankle. He knew the stories of players never making it back from those kinds of injuries.

Wayne Sebastianelli saw it differently.

The Nittany Lions’ longtime director of athletic medicine, who performed both of Still’s surgeries, told the defensive lineman to trust him that he would come back better than ever. After Still was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, he was at practice one day when Sebastianelli wrapped him in a hug. “He was more excited than I was,” said Still ’11 Lib, who says Sebastianelli was the first person he asked for financial advice before he went on to play for four seasons in the NFL.

Sebastianelli ’23h, who died in May at age 68, repaired thousands of injuries for numerous Nittany Lion athletes and took time, says Still, to check on them and boost their spirits. He was also a key national figure in concussion research, teaming with kinesiology professor Semyon Slobounov on nearly 100 articles and multiple textbooks on sport-related head injuries.

Katie Pryor ’08 H&HD was the research and services coordinator for the Center for Sport Concussion and remembers being in awe of Sebastianelli’s schedule and responsibilities, which also included roles as associate chief medical officer for Penn State Health in Centre County, associate dean for clinical affairs at the University Park Regional Campus of the Penn State College of Medicine, and president of the American Orthopaedic Association. “He’d walk into the room looking like a GQ magazine with a smile, and care,” says Pryor, who had two knee surgeries performed by Sebastianelli. “And you felt like you were the most important person in the room in that moment.”

Sebastianelli, who lettered in football at the University of Rochester, received the Penn State Honorary Alumni Award in 2023. He was an active philanthropist who made donations to university athletics and the College of Medicine, among others. He is survived by his wife, Michele, and children Geoffrey ’12, ’12 MAcc Bus and Alyssa ’14, ‘16 MS, ‘24 PhD Nur. “He changed Penn State, and he changed the community, for the better,” Pryor says.