• Class of 2006 earns 100% pass rate
• Goljan on arm wrestling: It’s a "Y" thing
• New members of Staff Advisory Council
• Round of Applause
• Faculty Development Series
• Dr. Pete says “Howdy” to new team members

Class of 2006 earns 100% pass rate

Congratulations to the Class of 2006 (new 3rd year students) for achieving a 100% pass rate on the recent Part I COMLEX Boards. Larry D. Cherry, D.O., senior associate dean for academic affairs, said, “This is a very prestigious ranking that few medical schools achieve. Congratulations to all of the students who worked hard to accomplish their goals and "hats off" to the faculty who contributed to their success!”

Goljan on arm wrestling: It’s a "Y" thing

There’s a lot of talk these days about how to deal with schoolyard bullies, but Ed Goljan, M.D., found his own way when he was only eight years old.

Goljan, professor and chairman of pathology, says that as the smallest kid in his class “I got picked on and so I started exercising.” It worked. By age 11, he was able to pin his dad in arm wrestling. Now 61, he’s still a contender.

Goljan likes to say that his arm wrestling is “just a ‘Y’ chromosome thing.” It’s a sport where size doesn’t mean much, he says. “When I weighed 175 pounds, I defeated a 275-pound super heavy weight.” In high school, college and medical school he arm wrestled (with either arm, it didn’t matter) and won.

As a general medical officer in the Navy in Naples, he visited the USO club and entered a tournament, competing against other Marines from the sixth fleet. A weeklong competition with no weight classes produced daily winners who came back for a final match, which Goljan won handily. Back home, he entered the ABC Wide World of Sports World Wrist Wrestling Championship in Petaluma, Calif., finally losing in the semifinals after eight matches in one day.

After his Navy hitch, he moved to a pathology practice in Arizona and attended tournaments there and in southern California. He was Arizona champion in his weight class for three years, a title he plans to try to recapture when he and his wife, Joyce, retire to Scottsdale.

Training is important but Goljan says mental attitude is “110 percent of winning.” He says when he envisions himself as being unbeatable “it has never failed me.” Goljan works out nearly every day using special exercises he created to duplicate arm wrestling movement. In a sitting position, he can curl 100 pounds with his right arm, and works with cables to strengthen his flexor ulnaris, the major forearm muscle of arm wrestling. And he continuously improves. “I can pin 250 pounds now, which I couldn’t do six months ago,” he says.

Today, the challenges come not from bullies but from friendly contests with second-year medical students, who run up against his 53 years of training. “We have fun with it,” Goljan says. Even so, his competitive spirit shines as he recalls losing a match with a student, but winning the rematch. Last year, students presented him with a T-shirt emblazoned with “Dr. Testosterone” on the back, and the letter “Y” on the front, a tribute to his “Y thing” philosophy.

Today there are no schoolyard bullies in sight but Goljan continues to train, and arm wrestles informally with students and colleagues like Bruce Benjamin, Ph.D. “I keep in shape with him,” Goljan says. “He is an excellent arm wrestler and a worthy opponent.”