Connecticut, 1985
• 1984 First Team Academic All-America®
• 1985 First Team Academic All-America®
Leigh Curl was inducted into the CoSIDA Academic All-America® Hall of Fame in 1998.
Never faltering to the obstacles in front of her, Leigh Curl has shown just how much drive and intellect can accomplish when following your passion. Her mother, who was a former basketball player and all-around athlete, would sometimes take her out of school to see Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games as a surprise.
At age 14 when she was only a freshman in high school, Curl’s mother tragically died of a cerebral aneurysm. However her love of sports and relationships with her family, friends, coaches, and teammates helped her through the difficult time. She was able to succeed both academically and athletically, earning a basketball scholarship to the University of Connecticut.
As a student at UConn, Curl gravitated to the sciences and studied chemistry, biology, and physiology. She graduated as the valedictorian and summa cum laude in 1985, but not before making her athletic mark. Curl was a four-year starter with the Huskies, serving two years as team captain, and she finished her career with the team among the all-time leaders in points and rebounds. She was twice named Academic All-American and was also a two-time Big East Conference Scholar of the Year.
Though medicine was not part of her plan, her professors encouraged her to apply for medical school due to her interest in the sciences and outstanding academic record. Curl applied and was accepted to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where she decided to go into orthopedics.
She graduated with a medical degree in 1989 and stayed at Johns Hopkins for her residency. Orthopedics appealed to her with its manual and technical nature, however it was not a conventional “woman’s field” of medicine. In her residency class of 120, Curl was the only female and overcame questions to her abilities by consistently achieving excellence, leaving no room for doubts.
Following her residency, Curl did a fellowship in sports medicine and surgery from 1994-1995 at the Hospital for Special Surgery at Cornell University in New York City. It was then when Curl connected with sports medicine as her field of orthopedics, because it was inclusive to her athletic background.
During her fellowship she worked as a team doctor for St. John’s University, the New York Mets, and the New York City Public Schools recreation program. Following this, Curl worked as a faculty member at the University of Maryland Medical System and then at her alma mater, the Johns Hopkins University Medical Center.
It was during her time at Maryland that she became affiliated with the Baltimore Ravens and began helping the team’s physician, a colleague during her fellowship in New York City. Later in 2001, when her colleague left the Ravens, Curl filled the position and became the first and only woman to be a team orthopedic surgeon in the NFL where she serves today.