Marshal Yanda was an all-pro guard for the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League, a massive 300-plus pound kid from Marion, Iowa, who was about as big and strong as human beings get. But when one giant powerful athlete collides with another giant powerful athlete, something’s gotta give. In 2008, what gave was Yanda’s knee, an ACL tear that 30 years ago would have been a career ender.
Thanks to orthopedic surgeon Leigh Ann Curl ’85 (CLAS), a former Husky basketball power forward and UConn University Scholar, Yanda went on to win a Super Bowl and play in eight Pro Bowls before retiring in 2019.
Curl, chief of orthopedics at MedStar Harbor Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, has been the head orthopedic surgeon for the Ravens since 1998. She also is assistant team physician for the Baltimore Orioles and has worked with the University of Maryland Terrapins, the New York Mets, USA Women’s Basketball, and St. John’s University in New York, among others. And she recently finished a term as president of the NFL Physicians Society.
