The Pinehurst NC kid who chose biomedical engineering over basketball - played one semester of Duke basketball under Coach K in the fall of 1980 (Coach K's first Duke season as head coach) before focusing on his Pratt School BSE in Biomedical Engineering, which he earned Magna Cum Laude in 1985. Then UNC Medical School (MD 1989), Yale orthopaedic surgery residency (1990-94), and a Hospital for Special Surgery shoulder fellowship (1994-95) where he worked with the New York Mets. Has been at Tidewater Orthopaedic Associates in Hampton, Virginia since 1995 - 30+ years as the elbow/knee/shoulder specialist of the Hampton Roads region. 2016 Coastal Virginia Magazine Top Orthopaedic Surgeon. The Brotherhood orthopedic surgeon who came back to HSS in 2022 for his own hip replacement and was back operating on his patients two weeks later.
Forward6'5"1979–83
Born and raised in PINEHURST, NORTH CAROLINA (Moore County, Sandhills region; the famed Donald Ross-designed golf-resort town that has hosted multiple U.S. Open Championships including 1999, 2005, 2014, and 2024) • 6'5" Forward, listed at jersey #34 (player profile) and jersey #42 (1981-82 roster), 200 lbs • Entered Duke fall 1979 as a freshman under Bill Foster's coaching staff, the year the Duke program reached the Elite Eight under Foster • Coach K hired in March 1980 to replace Bill Foster • Played ONE SEMESTER of Duke basketball under Mike Krzyzewski in the fall of 1980 - Coach K's first Duke season - as a sophomore • Coach K's first Duke season (1980-81) finished 17-13 • Sports-Reference shows no per-game statistical line for Loel Payne (he never appeared in a game box score during the period his career was being statistically tracked) • Remained on the 1981-82 Duke roster as a junior (jersey #42, 6'5”, 200 lbs, Pinehurst NC) but had transitioned his energy to biomedical engineering • Bachelor of Science in Engineering, BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING, from Duke's Pratt School of Engineering, MAGNA CUM LAUDE, Class of 1985 • Doctor of Medicine (MD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, 1989 • Internship in General Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine / Yale-New Haven Hospital, 1989-1990 • Orthopaedic Surgery Residency, Yale University School of Medicine / Yale-New Haven Hospital, 1990-1994 • Met his wife Christine at Yale University during his residency years • Fellowship in SHOULDER SURGERY and SPORTS MEDICINE at the HOSPITAL FOR SPECIAL SURGERY (HSS) in New York City, 1994-1995 • During his HSS fellowship, WORKED WITH THE NEW YORK METS baseball organization • HSS fellowship-era mentors and co-authors: Dr. Russell Warren, Dr. Edward Craig, Dr. David Altchek • Joined TIDEWATER ORTHOPAEDIC ASSOCIATES in HAMPTON, VIRGINIA in 1995; has been with the practice for over 30 years • Specializes in the elbow, knee, and shoulder; known at Tidewater Orthopaedics as "the shoulder guy" • Surgical affiliations: Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center; Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital • Sees patients in Hampton VA and Williamsburg VA, plus additional satellite offices including Middlebury CT • 2016: VOTED TOP ORTHOPAEDIC SURGEON by Coastal Virginia Magazine • Author of multiple peer-reviewed papers in the American Journal of Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy, and Journal of Pediatrics on shoulder surgery technique, rotator cuff repair, subacromial impingement biomechanics, arthroscopic acromioplasty, and the effects of NSAIDs on ligament healing • 2022: Returned to HSS as a patient for his own hip replacement under Dr. Alexander McLawhorn; featured on the HSS Back in the Game patient stories site as an orthopedic-surgeon-insider testimonial • Three children currently in college • Lives in Williamsburg, Virginia
Now: Dr. Loel Zachary Payne, M.D., orthopedic surgeon at Tidewater Orthopaedic Associates in Hampton, Virginia since 1995 (30+ years with the practice). Specializes in elbow, knee, and shoulder - known at Tidewater as 'the shoulder guy.' Surgical affiliations: Sentara Williamsburg Regional Medical Center, Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital. 2016 Coastal Virginia Magazine Top Orthopaedic Surgeon. Duke Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Biomedical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude, Class of 1985 (with one semester of Duke basketball under Mike Krzyzewski in the fall of 1980, Coach K's first season at Duke). University of North Carolina School of Medicine MD 1989. Yale University School of Medicine general surgery internship 1989-90 and orthopaedic surgery residency 1990-94. Hospital for Special Surgery shoulder surgery and sports medicine fellowship 1994-95, during which he worked with the New York Mets. Wife Christine (met at Yale) and three children currently in college. Lives in Williamsburg, Virginia. Author of multiple peer-reviewed papers in the American Journal of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy on rotator cuff repair, subacromial impingement, and arthroscopic acromioplasty.
Loel Zachary Payne came up out of Pinehurst, North Carolina, the small Moore County town in the Sandhills of central North Carolina that has been one of the world's great golf-resort destinations since Donald Ross designed the No. 2 course in 1907. Pinehurst is the town that hosted the 2014 U.S. Open Championship and the 1999 U.S. Open and the 2005 U.S. Open and the 2024 U.S. Open. It is also the town that, by the late 1970s, had developed a youth basketball culture that produced the kind of 6'5" forward who could play at the Division I level. Loel Payne grew up in Pinehurst playing basketball. He attended high school in Pinehurst. He was, by the time he was a senior, a Division I college basketball prospect.
What set him apart from the other Division I basketball prospects was that he had also been, in the way of so many basketball players raised in Pinehurst, an injury kid - he had spent time watching local orthopedic surgeons treat sports injuries and return players to their games. The fascination with the orthopedic surgeon as a healer had taken root. He was, by the time he chose his college, looking for a school that could give him both - a basketball roster spot and a top-tier biomedical engineering program. Duke University offered both. In the fall of 1979, Loel Payne entered Duke as a Pratt School of Engineering biomedical engineering major and a member of the Duke Blue Devils men's basketball roster under head coach Bill Foster.
Foster, the head coach who had taken Duke to the 1978 NCAA Championship Game (where the Blue Devils lost to Kentucky), was in his fifth year as the Duke head coach when Loel Payne arrived. The 1979-80 Duke team that Payne joined as a freshman would go 24-9 and reach the Elite Eight of the 1980 NCAA Tournament before falling to Purdue. It was Foster's final Duke season. In March of 1980, Mike Krzyzewski - the thirty-three-year-old former West Point head coach - was hired to replace Foster. The Coach K era began that fall, with Loel Payne entering his sophomore year as a Bill Foster recruit on the new head coach's first roster.
Dr. Loel Z. Payne has a uniquely deep relationship with the Hospital for Special Surgery, the elite orthopedic specialty hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He completed his one-year fellowship in shoulder surgery and sports medicine at HSS in 1994-95, training alongside the legendary HSS faculty (Russell Warren, Edward Craig, David Altchek) and working with the New York Mets baseball organization during his fellowship year. Twenty-seven years later, in 2022, he returned to HSS as a patient for his own hip replacement with Dr. Alexander McLawhorn. He has published as a co-author on multiple papers in the American Journal of Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy that originated from his HSS years. For a Brotherhood member whose entire orthopedic surgical career rests on the methodology he learned at HSS during his 1994-95 fellowship year, the natural Brotherhood charity is the institution that trained him and that, three decades later, fixed him in turn.