Jeff Fosnes (born January 16, 1954) is an American former basketball player and physician. He played college basketball for the Vanderbilt Commodores from 1972 to 1976 and was later drafted by the Golden State Warriors of the NBA, but chose to pursue a medical career instead.
Early Life and High School
Fosnes was raised in Lakewood, Colorado, the son of Carl and Jay Fosnes. He attended Wheat Ridge High School from 1969 to 1972, where he was regarded as one of the best basketball players in Colorado state history. He earned all-state honors for three years, led the Farmers to two second-place finishes and a third-place finish in the state tournament, and averaged over twenty points per game for his prep career. In 1972, he was named a Sunkist High School All-American alongside Robert Parish and Quinn Buckner.
College Career
Fosnes joined the Vanderbilt Commodores in 1972 as part of a historic freshman class known as "F-Troop," a nickname coined by Nashville Banner sports editor Dudley "Waxo" Green. In 1974, Vanderbilt won the SEC Championship, and Fosnes was selected to the NCAA All-Tournament Team. That same year, he became Vanderbilt's first Academic All-American, an accolade he received again the following year. No other Vanderbilt basketball player would earn that honor until Bruce Elder in 1993.
Fosnes was named First Team All-SEC by the coaches in 1975 and 1976. He was also named MVP of the 1975 Trojan Classic at USC. He finished his college career with 1,579 points (second all-time at Vanderbilt at the time, currently ninth) and a 15.5 points-per-game average with a .521 field goal percentage. His 1974–75 scoring average of 22.1 PPG ranks tied for fourth-highest single-season average in Vanderbilt history. He scored 39 points in a game against Jacksonville University, which ties for the sixth-highest single-game total in program history. He ranks third in career made field goals at Vanderbilt with 651.
In 1976, Fosnes played in the East/West All-Star Game in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he was coached by Dean Smith and played alongside Quinn Buckner, Scott May, Mitch Kupchak, and Leon Douglas.
Professional and Medical Career
Fosnes was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the fourth round of the 1976 NBA Draft but chose to forgo professional basketball in favor of medical school. He earned his medical degree at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, where he was one of eighty-three students selected from 6,100 applicants. After completing his residency at Bayfront Medical Center with the University of South Florida in 1983, he moved to Springfield, Tennessee.
Fosnes practiced family medicine in Centerville, Tennessee, and later in Springfield, from 1983 until retiring from office practice in 2013. He subsequently became the medical director at a nursing home in Springfield and, as of May 2020, served as medical director and primary physician for two Middle Tennessee nursing homes. He also regularly serves as a medical missionary to Haiti.
