Wheeling Native Receives Ellis Island Honor

Every professional sports program has a concussion protocol that dictates when a player can return to the roster. One of the two doctors who developed the program is from the Wheeling area. And that is just one of his many accomplishments. 

This weekend, UPMC Presbyterian Hospital neurosurgeon Dr. Joe Maroon is receiving an Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The ceremony will be held in the same great hall that both sets of his grandparents walked through when they came to America from Poland and Lebanon. 

Maroon is a pioneering neurosurgeon, educator, and advocate whose career has left an indelible mark on medicine, sports safety, and holistic wellness. He has advanced minimally invasive neurosurgical techniques and mentored generations of medical professionals. 

His groundbreaking work in concussion research, including co-developing the ImPACT test, has transformed how brain injuries are managed, particularly in professional sports. 

News Director Eric Douglas spoke with him earlier this week to learn more. 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Douglas: Let’s start with who you are. You’re from the Wheeling area. 

Maroon: I was actually born in Wheeling, raised in Bridgeport, Ohio, just across the river — 3000 people, five bars, 20 dogs. And you know, I grew up there and ended up going on an athletic scholarship to Indiana University in Bloomington. I went there because I played American Legion baseball Post 227 with John Havlicek and Phil Niekro. All three of us were on the same team and won the state championship in baseball as a kid, not having any idea where that would take us.

Douglas: That’s pretty amazing. Just from that story, which I hadn’t seen in your bio, to your career, it sounds like you’ve had a pretty exciting and impressive life. 

Maroon: I’ve been extremely fortunate, Eric. I grew up in Wheeling, went to Indiana University, Georgetown, University of Vermont, Oxford University, and then came to the University of Pittsburgh. Seems like 100 years ago, 1972, and the first five years I was on call in the hospital I’m sitting in right now, Presbyterian Hospital, each year, a quadriplegic high school football player was brought to the ER that I had to care for, one of the most frustrating things in my life. So I started putting on clinics for parents, coaches, trainers, on head and neck protection in football.

Douglas: Were you a neurosurgeon?

Maroon: I was a neurosurgeon at that time, finished my residency and was recruited to the University of Pittsburgh and started putting on these clinics. Chuck Noll, the coach at the time, and Dan Rooney, the owner of the Steelers, asked me to see a few players and then asked me to join the Steelers as the first neurosurgeon in the NFL. I actually used the Steelers kind of as a lab in terms of studying brain and spinal cord injuries in football. 

And in 1990 I told Coach Noll that his starting quarterback at the time, Bubby Brister, couldn’t play against the Dallas Cowboys the next week. And he said, “Why not?” I said, “Because he had a concussion, and the guidelines say he has to stay out a minimum of two to three weeks.” And Noll said, “Well, why not one week? Why not four weeks?” I said the guidelines said that. He said, “Well, I don’t want specious guidelines. If you want me to keep somebody out of football, I want objective data.” That’s when I went to a neuropsychologist Mark Lovell, I was working with at the time, and I said, “Mark, we need to come up with something objective for concussion management.”

Douglas: When we all hear about the concussion protocol on the sidelines in a football game these days, this is something that you developed right there in Pittsburgh.

Maroon: In 1998, we came up with new concussion guidelines that included a neurocognitive test called the ImPACT Test, which had not been introduced before. And so I went back to Coach Noll and Mr. Rooney, and I said, “We have to baseline the entire team. If you want objective data, we have to know beforehand what they are.” And there was some resistance from agents at the time that “You want to do neuropsychological testing on my athlete?” But we overcame that, and fast forward, the NHL adopted it in 1997 for all teams in the NHL. And finally, in 2007 the NFL adopted it, and we subsequently have done 25 million tests now with this test, and has become the standard of care for concussion management in all sports and NASCAR, Formula One, basketball, etc. 

If you have a concussion and you still have symptoms and you go back too early, less force can create more brain damage. Hippocrates said, “The first responsibility of a physician is to prevent disease. That being impossible, to cure it. That being impossible, to relieve pain.” So this was really the first preventive measure in terms of concussion management, and I think that’s what led to this Ellis Island Award.

Douglas: You said 25 million neurological exams. I assume that’s all in a massive research database.

Maroon: Yes, it is. In fact, in 2003, I started the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Concussion Clinic and with Freddie Fu, the head of orthopedics at that time, we initiated this clinic, which now tests 7,000 patients a year with concussions with seven neuropsychologists who do nothing but evaluate concussed athletes. We’ve published over 250 papers from that clinic since its inception. So you’re right. It’s a huge database, and it’s been invaluable at looking at concussive injuries and the downstream effects.

Douglas: You mentioned the award that you’re receiving, the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. What’s your background?

Maroon: Both of my grandparents, one set from Poland and one set from Lebanon, arrived at Ellis Island in the Great Hall, where this festive event is going to be held. So it’s kind of an incredible complete circle-type thing a couple, two generations later. It’s honoring those individuals who’ve made contributions, who have a foreign ancestry. So it includes almost everybody in the country.

It’s six presidents, several Nobel laureates, and the presidents and CEOs of many companies. So I think I’m the first neurosurgeon to be inducted into this. Dr. Oz was a couple of years ago, Mehmet Oz. So it’s quite a nice thing, and I’m honored to be there.

Douglas: Did you know your grandparents? 

Maroon: Yes, yes. I was very young, obviously. But I knew, I knew my grandmother on one side, her husband died too early, and then both parents on my mother’s side. 

Douglas: How do you think that influenced you? Do you think that led to your drive to do things?

Maroon: My grandfather from Poland worked in the salt mines in Poland and came over here, worked in the coal mines. It was really that “16 tons, what do I get, another day older and deeper in debt.” He owed his soul to the company store. Literally had 11 kids and made moonshine in his basement.

Douglas: That’s the American story right there.

Maroon: On my father’s side, he ran a bar in Bridgeport, Ohio, right on a coal train track depot. But really, I was just blessed with my father and mother, who were immigrants, first generation, but good values and my father did not spare the rod. He kept me in bounds in terms of values and then athletics. 

Sports really dominated my life. I mentioned baseball and what I learned. Douglas MacArthur had a plaque, when he was commandant at West Point, facing the playing fields, football, baseball. “On the fields of friendly strife are sown the seeds that on other days, and on other fields, will lead to victory.” The lessons I learned playing youth football, youth baseball, “Get up when you’re hurt, you don’t quit, persevere.” All the same qualities I needed in neurosurgery and medicine that I learned back there growing up, kind of the school of hard knocks. I think kids have a little too much these days. It’s having to work, earn and all that stuff. So I grew up in a socioeconomic, low middle class area. And I think, you know, the drive that I got was due to sports and parental management.

Douglas: What are your thoughts on the Medal of Honor? 
Maroon: When you look at West Virginia in particular, and eastern Ohio, the coal mines, the steel mills, Pittsburgh in particular. [Andrew ] Carnegie [Henry Clary] Frick. They brought boatloads of people over from western Europe, Eastern Europe, Mediterranean, to do the dirty work here, in a sense. But they all came in legally. They went through Ellis Island, they registered, they didn’t cross the southern border by the millions. And so, you know, it kind of gives you my impression of politics as well. You know, I think immigration is the best thing for this country, done in a legalized, appropriate manner, according to the rules.

To see the full list of 2025 recipients, please visit:  https://www.eihonors.org/eimoh2025

The medal ceremony will take place on Saturday, May 10th during a black-tie gala held in Ellis Island’s Great Hall, which served as the gateway for 12 million immigrants to the U.S.