Jackson, Robert W., 1932-2010 : Born in Toronto, Ontario in 1932, Dr. Robert Wilson Jackson (O.C., F.R.C.S., M.D., M.S.(Tor), F.R.C.S.(Ed), F.R.C.S.C) was an internationally renowned orthopaedic surgeon and educator, a forerunner in the realm of arthroscopic surgery, and a leader in the development of parasports and the Paralympic movement. Having graduated from the University of Toronto Medical School in 1956, Dr. Jackson pursued a career in academic orthopaedic surgery and conducted clinical and research training in Canada, the United States, and England. His post-graduate academic qualifications consisted of a Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (1963) and a Master of Surgery degree from the University of Toronto (1970). He was granted ad hominem Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh (1994) as well as an Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Surgeons of England (1997).
In 1964, while accompanying the Canadian Olympic team in Tokyo, Japan he met Dr. Masaki Watanabe, Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at Tokyo Teishin Hospital, who was responsible for developing the first applied arthroscopic tool for surgery. Dr. Jackson spent time learning from Dr. Watanabe and, upon his return home, introduced arthroscopic surgery into mainstream North American surgical methodology. As a result of the success of arthroscopic, or minimally invasive surgery, he is credited as being the source of one of the most significant advances in orthopaedic surgery of the 20th century, a feat that not only served as the catalyst for advances in all other branches of surgery, but revolutionized sport medicine as well.
In 1965, Dr. Jackson held a position at the major teaching hospital of the University of Toronto (the Toronto General Hospital) and became Director of Orthopaedic Research at the Banting Institute, a position that he held for ten years. In 1969, he was chosen by the Canadian Orthopaedic Association as an ABC Travelling Fellow and spent six weeks visiting academic centers throughout the United Kingdom. Dr. Jackson was appointed Chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Toronto Western Hospital in 1976 and was soon promoted to full professor in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He served as Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff at the Orthopaedic & Arthritic Hospital in Toronto (1985-1992), the largest orthopaedic unit in Canada, before later becoming Chief of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, where he was responsible for the administration of one of the largest orthopaedic units in North America. Following his retirement as Chief in 2004, he returned to the Laboratory as the Medical Director of Orthopaedic Research.
Although Dr. Jackson was internationally distinguished for his teaching and surgical abilities, his connection to sport, more specifically in how he radically changed the rehabilitation process and treatment of athletic injuries through arthroscopy, was equally as impressive and noteworthy. From 1976-1991, he was the team physician for the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League (CFL), followed by his work with the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1992-1995. Despite his involvement in professional sports, Dr. Jackson's dedication, commitment and support for disabled athletes, including his vast contributions to the development of the para-sport movement, both in Canada and abroad, were immense. He was the founder and first President of the Wheelchair Sports Association of Canada in 1967 and took the first Canadian wheelchair team to the International Paraplegic Games the following year. In 1976, he organized the First Olympiad for the Physically Disabled held in North America (Toronto, Canada), an event that combined paraplegic, amputee, and blind athletes from around the world. His association to the International Stoke Mandeville Games (ISMG), the international governing body for wheelchair sport (and precursor to the Paralympics), saw him become its President in 1980. Dr. Jackson was also responsible for the inclusion of wheelchair racing (1500m for men, 800m for women) in the Los Angeles Olympics, and the inclusion of blind and amputee skiers in the Winter Olympics, both of which materialized through direct negotiations with Juan Antonio Samaranch who was then President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), in which these events became a regular feature of both the Summer and Winter Olympic games. As a true testament to his impact on para-sport athletes and the Paralympic movement, the annual award presented to the Canadian disabled athlete of the year was named after him in his honour (Dr. Robert Jackson Award).
Dr. Jackson's publications include an estimated 200 papers and abstracts, including over 50 chapters or textbooks to the scientific literature. His numerous accolades and honours are not only exemplified through his contributions in the realm of surgery and sport medicine, but also in relation to his involvement and influence in developing the Paralympic movement. Dr. Jackson was selected by Sports Illustrated as part of the magazine's 50th anniversary "40 for the Ages" issue, comprised of a list of the top 40 individuals who most significantly altered or elevated the world of sports since its inception in 1944, which included the likes of Muhammad Ali, Michael Jordan, Billie Jean King, and Wayne Gretzky, among others. He was not only inducted into the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine Hall of Fame (2005) for his role as a pioneer of arthroscopic surgery, but he was also posthumously inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame (2017) for his lifelong dedication to advancing the Paralympic movement. In 1997, Dr. Jackson was presented with the Olympic Order (1997), the highest recognition given by the IOC, for radically altering the treatment of athletic injuries worldwide and for the promotion and development of sport for the physically disabled at the international level, which preceded his awarding of the Paralympic Order in 2007. Lastly, he was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1997.
Dr. Robert W. Jackson passed away on January 6, 2010.
