But underneath his white coat, you would probably find the letter D on his chest. He routinely talks about Duke’s players with patients and colleagues, in the exam room, in the hallway or by the coffee machine, and at home, with his wife Barbara and two grandchildren, 9-year-old Cole and 7-year-old Brooke.
“It’s always good to talk about something with patients other than what’s wrong with them,” Dr. St.Clair says.
Dr. St.Clair is also creating Duke’s next generation of fans. He explains that Cole has been a Duke fan since he was 18 months old, has attended team practices and taken pictures with many of the team’s players and the head coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Both of his grandchildren also compete in ESPN’s NCAA Tournament Challenge Bracket, in which contestants predict which basketball teams advance and ultimately win the NCAA’s annual end-of-season tournament. He says Cole is in the contest’s 93rd percentile, and Brooke is in the 96th percentile. Translation: Only 7% and 4%, respectively, of contestants across the country are better at predicting winners.
At home, Dr. St.Clair created a Duke shrine of sorts in his office. Posters of Duke basketball players adorn his walls, along with framed newspaper articles about the team winning the NCAA championships. Even autographed basketballs by Duke players over the years are proudly displayed, adding to the overall ambience of the room.
“Being a Duke basketball fan is a pretty big part of our family and culture,” says Dr. St.Clair. “The current program has been excellent for so many years and really just adds to the excitement and quality of the game. It gives us an opportunity to see some of the best college basketball players, some of whom go on to the NBA (National Basketball Association) and have careers in professional basketball.”
‘It’s always good to talk about something with patients other than what’s wrong with them,’ Dr. St.Clair says.
Fandom Lifestyle
Dr. St.Clair and his wife attended Duke’s NCAA championship games in Indianapolis in 1991, 2010 and 2015. They are also, for the first time, considering traveling to Maui for the 2018 Maui Invitational, an early-season event that will feature Duke and seven other Division I NCAA teams.
The couple practices diversity when it comes to sports. They attend home games for Duke’s women’s basketball team, and Dr. St.Clair’s wife—a retired physical therapist who’s also good friends with the team’s coach, Joanne P. McCallie, or Coach P—sometimes travels to the team’s out-of-state games.
