JUNE 29, 2015
Dan Doornink, whose football career took him from the state of Washington to New York and then back again, is the exception to the NFL rule.
The son of a medical doctor, Dan KNEW what he wanted to do when his NFL career ended... as all athletic careers do.
“I grew up in a household where it was not unusual for my dad to go out at 2 A.M. to deliver a baby,” the younger Dr. Doornink recalls. “He was an old fashioned, family practitioner, who in those days handled all kinds of illnesses. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to follow in his footsteps.”
Young Dan was drafted in 1978 by the Giants out of Washington State and returned to the Northwest the following year when the Seahawks traded for him.
He was a fullback... turned halfback... turned pass-catcher out of the backfield who rushed for more than 100 yards on more than one occasion for the Seahawks.
He started his studies while still an active player and graduated from the University of Washington Medical School in 1986, just months after his football career ended.
“I’m not complaining but, when we played, guys were not making big money so when their careers ended they knew they had to get jobs,” he says. “It wasn’t easy, some of my teammates struggled for a while but eventually they became involved in second careers where many still are today. It’s hard to replace the camaraderie of the locker room but it’s great when we all get together years later as we did a couple of weeks ago at a Hawks game.”
Dan started his practice of internal medicine in his hometown of Yakima in 1990. He and his wife, Sharon, have raised four children there, including a med school student who plans to follow in his father and grandfather’s footsteps.