ITHACA, N.Y. -- Alec Macaulay sat waiting in a room for an interview he still wasn't sure he should have taken.

Having just turned down an interview at another hospital he felt would have been a much more likely landing spot, Macaulay accepted the Harvard slot, but now he was second guessing his choice.

The chairman of the four Harvard affiliated hospitals and the leadership at each were waiting. Macaulay wasn't sure what the next 15 minutes would bring.

He walked in the door, sat down, and the first question came in like a blitzing linebacker.

"Auburn's football team has a 16 percent graduation rate. How would you fix that?"

Exhale.

"Everyone in those interviews are qualified. Now they want to find out who they like, who they want to work with over the next five years," Macaulay said. "A lot of it was seeing if you could hold a conversation, have a viewpoint and defend it."

Football was a foot in the door.

"We spent the entire 15 minutes debating paying college athletes vs. amateurism. The only thing we talked about during that interview was college football, and I ended up at Harvard for residency. Playing a sport and earning some honors helped me stand out among the pack."

Once in, Macaulay proved he didn't need any help to earn his spot in the operating room, just like he didn't need any help earning the respect of coaches across the the Collegiate Sprint Football League.

A four-year letter winner on the sprint football team, Macaulay spent three seasons as the team's starting quarterback and played all four seasons under center. He tossed for 2,105 yards and 13 touchdowns in a game that revolves around running the football much more than in the professional game. As a junior, the Big Red posted its first .500 season in league play in 11 years. As a senior captain, his Big Red squad tied for its most wins in 13 seasons en route to second team All-CSFL honors. He was an honorable mention pick each of the previous two campaigns.

After graduating magna cum laude from Cornell in 2006 he attended medical school at Columbia before serving a five-year training in orthopedic surgery at the Harvard Orthopaedic Residency program. He then spent six years in Boston, with a number of opportunities on his plate, Macaulay accepted an opportunity to come back to Ithaca and join the team at Cayuga Medical Center as an orthopedic surgeon specializing on knees, ankles and feet.

Macaulay is back, and he's as close to the Big Red program as any alum could be. You can find him on the sidelines most Friday fall evenings in a new role –providing orthopedic coverage for the Big Red.

"Sprint football was the best thing I did at Cornell by far. By far. I would have still loved my experience without it, but you take it with you when you leave when you represent the school. That connection I take from Cornell, it's why I wanted to come back."