Colgate Alumnus Joins Team USA

When Team USA gathered in Czechia for the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Men’s World Championship in early May, a Colgate graduate was among the contingent. 

Dr. Michael O’Malley, MD ’01, who played four seasons of Colgate Men’s Hockey under former head coach Don Vaughan, was selected as the team physician for a group consisting of the most current elite American born NHL and college players.

O’Malley, a native of New Hartford, N.Y., has served as the physician for three teams from the USA Hockey’s National Team Development Program. But this was his first time with the program’s top unit.

“It’s really a privilege to be able to do this and take part in USA Hockey, and to be able to represent your country in this capacity,” O’Malley said. “It’s something that has always been on my radar, something I’ve been working toward. To have it come to fruition was really nice and it was a phenomenal experience.”

O’Malley is an orthopaedic surgeon at Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, Va. He specializes in sports medicine, and he’s the team physician for Ferrum College and area high schools, as well as the Roanoke Railyard Dawgs of the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL).

His resume includes stints as team physician for the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Minnesota Twins — roles he fulfilled while completing a sports medicine fellowship at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. 

Providing treatment for athletes of all levels is nothing new to O’Malley. But his latest experience with Team USA was a big change from his daily routine. 

“Day to day, I focus on orthopedic surgery and sports medicine. But when you go on these trips, you are truly a doctor who needs to be able to treat all aspects of player and personnel health, which includes anything from viral illnesses, to skin rashes, to mental health aspects of sport, you name it.”

Another highlight was watching professional athletes perform their jobs.

“The way they approach the game is really impressive,” he said. “Hockey players remain the most humble and down to earth athletes I work with, and their approach to their craft, especially at this level, simply put is business-like. This is their profession and is taken very seriously in all aspects of the game, on and off the ice. These are some of the best athletes in the world. The preparation that goes into it is on a mind-blowing level.

“Those players on the team still in college, are some of the most successful players in college hockey this year. They are professionals as well. They are truly dedicated to their game.”

The tournament was played from May 10-26 in the Czechia cities of Prague and Ostrava. Team USA assembled a lineup that included NHLers like Johnny Gaudreau, Trevor Zegras, Cole Caufield, Brady Tkachuk, Zach Werenski, and Brock Nelson.

The Americans played seven matches, finishing with a 5-2 record, before falling in the quarterfinals to Czechia. 

While the outcome fell short of the team’s expectations, the tournament was an eye-opening experience for O’Malley.

“I grossly underestimated how big that tournament is in Europe,” he said. “It is huge. The fans really get involved in it. It’s a lot of fun. It was everything I expected and more.”

LOCAL KID COMES TO COLGATE

When it was time to begin looking for a college, Colgate was high on O’Malley’s list. Growing up about 30 minutes from Hamilton, N.Y., he followed Colgate Hockey as a kid.

“I had a goal of playing division I hockey,” he said. “Fortunately, Colgate was one of the schools that recruited me. I was always more inclined to go to a smaller sized school with smaller classes. Larger sized schools were also in the recruiting mix as well, but Colgate was more appealing to me because of its size, location, and the quality of both the hockey program and its academics.”

O’Malley majored in economics and made a new family with the hockey team.

“It was a wonderful experience,” he said. “Playing hockey at the highest level in college required a tremendous time commitment but it was totally worth it. I was fortunate to play with great teammates, from my freshman all the way through to my senior year. 

“It certainly taught me life skills that you can’t learn in the classroom. Those skills translated to what was needed to get through med school and residency. I had a great experience at Colgate.”

Playing for Vaughan, who coached the Raiders for three decades before retiring last year, was another memorable experience for O’Malley.

“Coach Vaughan was, and still is, one of the most well-known college coaches,” O’Malley said. “He was a coach that was easy to play for. He had nothing but the best intentions for his players. He was hard on us at times, which should be expected at that level, but also very supportive. He had a very reasonable and well balanced approach to the game and to his athletes. I want to thank him for giving me the opportunity to play at such a great institution.”

O’Malley, a center, played alongside Andy McDonald, one of the most accomplished Raiders in Colgate history, and enjoyed a few winning seasons, including the 1999-00 season when the team finished 24-9-2.

He also made an enormous impact on college hockey by being part of a famous goal that resulted in a major rule change.

In the 1999-00 season, Colgate fell to Michigan in overtime in the East Regional. He was on the ice and a contributing player to the potential overtime game-winner, that was subsequently waved off by the referee and chose not to use video replay.

It was a controversial call that prompted the NCAA to enforce an automatic review of all goals in the NCAA Tournament. The rule change became known as “the Colgate rule,” Vaughan said.

Nevertheless, O’Malley graduated from Colgate with a lifetime of memories. He continued to play professional hockey at the minor league level. During the off-seasons, he worked in the financial sector, but he soon realized he wanted to explore other careers.

While playing in Albuquerque, N.M., O’Malley volunteered at the children’s hospital, doing whatever tasks the staff asked him to do.

Medicine was not a career he originally had in mind. As a kid, he watched his father work extremely long hours as a physician, and always told himself he would not pursue a similar career. But his views changed as he continued to volunteer, and gain more exposure to the field.

He decided to pursue medicine, intrigued by the prospect of becoming a pediatrician. 

He completed a post-baccalaureate premedical program and a Master’s degree in healthcare management systems at Duquesne. Then he moved on to Temple, where he earned his Doctorate of Medicine. By that point, his focus shifted to operative medicine, and ultimately orthopaedics, with a focus on sports medicine.

Despite studying economics at Colgate, he came away with lessons that would help him years later at med school. The most important of which he considers was time management.

“The biggest thing that helped me out was time management — learning how to manage multiple things and getting things done,” he said. “When I decided I wanted to go to med school, I brought the discipline with me that I learned at Colgate. I don’t know if I would have been able to manage the course load at med school as well as I did without having that experience. I think it was quite beneficial for me.”