Beuerlein Puts Shoulder Into It : Irish Passer Set for Opener After a Stir Over His Surgery

If Notre Dame had moved its midseason game against Army to Aug. 31, as planned at one point to accommodate television, Irish quarterback Steve Beuerlein would have been forced to watch from the sideline while recovering from a controversial shoulder operation.

But the Notre Dame-Army game remained in October.

The Irish open today as originally scheduled, in a nationally televised game against Michigan (Channel 2, 10:30 a.m. PDT).

And Beuerlein has recovered, from both the operation and the controversy.

“I’m ready to go,” the junior from Anaheim said this week. “I’m sick of being asked about my shoulder. I’ve even heard some wild rumors that I wasn’t playing this year. I just want to get out there and show people I can still play.”

Beuerlein never doubted that, even when he was in a Los Angeles hospital last April for surgery that doctors in South Bend didn’t believe was necessary.

After Beuerlein was injured during last season’s fifth game, a loss to Miami, team doctors told him that he had a torn muscle in his shoulder. They gave him a cortisone shot to relieve the pain and told him he would do no further damage to the shoulder by continuing to play.

At season’s end, Beuerlein had completed 60.3% of his passes, a Notre Dame record. With 15 more completions, he would have had another Notre Dame single-season record. That would have made three, because his 18 interceptions were also a team record.

“I played pain-free because of the cortisone,” Beuerlein said. “But as each day went by, I was losing strength. I lost more range of motion. It got to the point where I couldn’t raise my arm above my shoulder. I could hear it grinding and clicking.”

Dr. David Bankoff of South Bend, Ind., said that Beuerlein didn’t complain until after the Aloha Bowl in December. Following a re-examination, the doctor said he again diagnosed the injury as a muscle tear but advised the player to seek a second opinion.

“It was a desperation move on both parts,” Beuerlein said. “Everyone was frustrated because the injury they diagnosed should have been healed long before then. When they said I should get a second opinion, I said, ‘Why not go to the best?’ ”

He went to Dr. Frank Jobe, a Los Angeles orthopedic specialist.

“Dr. Jobe told me I had a chipped collarbone,” Beuerlein said. “The grinding and clicking I heard was the jagged edge eating away at the shoulder socket. By the time I saw Dr. Jobe, there was no joint left.”

Four days later, Beuerlein had surgery.

The controversy began three months later, when the Chicago Tribune reported that Beuerlein was rehabilitating in Orange County during the summer instead of South Bend because he had bad feelings toward the doctors who he felt had mis-diagnosed his injury.

“I’m not mad at anybody,” Beuerlein told the Chicago paper. “But when I found out how wrong they’d been, it was kind of hard to accept.”

Bankoff told the paper that he stood behind his original diagnosis.

“We are a little hard-put to believe Dr. Jobe’s diagnosis,” he said.

Beuerlein said this week that he never intended to give anyone the impression that he had bad feelings toward the South Bend doctors, but he repeated his faith in Jobe’s diagnosis.

“It was a very frustrating experience for the doctors as well as for me,” he said. “Also, they were getting pressure from the coaches because they wanted me on the field. The doctors worked with me every day. They just made an innocent mistake. I have nothing against the doctors here. I’m sorry that some people interpreted it that I did.”

Beuerlein said that Jobe assured him that playing the last seven games of the 1984 season with the injury would have no lasting effect.

So far, his shoulder feels as strong as ever.

“Everyone said I wouldn’t be throwing at full strength until last Saturday, but I think I got there a couple of days ahead of schedule,” he said. “My arm is stronger than it was all of last season. I’ve just lost the timing aspect with my receivers because I didn’t work with them this summer. That’s still coming.”

The sooner the better for the Irish. They have been a disappointment in four years under Coach Gerry Faust, whose record is 25-20-1. Faust is in the final season of his contract, which has led to speculation that he won’t be asked to return next season unless the Irish are among the nation’s top teams.

“We know people are talking about us,” Beuerlein said. “We’ve been a disappointment as far as what people expected of us. We’re fed up with the mediocrity of the last couple of years, and we’re fed up with the questions. The only way to eliminate the questions is to win.”

Beuerlein said he believes that the Irish hit bottom after losing four of their first seven games last season. But they won the next four, including victories over LSU, Penn State and USC, before losing to SMU in the Aloha Bowl to finish 7-5.

“After we lost three in a row at home, that was the turning point,” he said. “We just decided we were sick of all the crap. Everybody made a commitment. We had nothing to lose. People had already given up on us.”