While I was looking for some obscure baseball trivia, I just happened upon this reference to a major league baseball player from Athens who pitched for the Cleveland Naps in the 1910-14 period.  I wonder if any of you baseball nerds ever heard of him before.  His first two years seemed to have been his best, and then he went downhill from there.  He died fairly young.  

OK, I knew that I had heard this name before, but not in an athletic context. Turns out after his baseball career he went to the American School of Osteopathy in Kirksville, and practiced as a D.O. for the rest of his life. I now remember seeing his hame in an old osteopathic college yearbook from Kirksville. I once had access to a slew of these kine of resources.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Kahler

Then there's this:

https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-kahler /


I'm going to suggest that OU-HCOM name some kind of student award after him.

Great find and great story. Oh man, the dudes he played with and/or against ... Nap Lajoie, Ty Cobb, Tris Speaker, Eddie Collins... Epic .... Bummer of an end to his life story though...

Yes, he really suffered with what appears to have been what today is called Type 1 diabetes. It used to be called juvenile diabetes, because it occurs most often in children and young adults, but now is called Type 1 because, like in Dr. Kahler's case, it sometimes presents first in adulthood.

Ken Johnson, D.O., the OU-HCOM dean, did reply to my message to him about Kahler, and said he was very excited to learn about him. He copied several subordinates, one of whom was supposed to follow up. So far I've heard nothing more.