Ogden, Whelan Joined At Hip As Club Faces Eligibility Riddle
Surgeons at Norwalk Hospital unite former Hamilton midfielders in a 14-hour reversal, the first joining of its kind.
Pair bids for bromance honours as one organism, trailing Dunphy and Robbin.
Board to rule on eligibility of the joint candidacy.
By Merrill Hough·Staff Correspondent
John Ogden and Chris Whelan walk the discharge corridor at Norwalk Hospital Saturday in matching gowns, joined at the hip and still holding the same clipboard.
“I have spent thirty-one years pulling people apart. This was the first morning anyone asked me to do it the other way.”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Sept. 1 —John Ogden and Chris Whelan, members of Rowayton Paddle Club B and C, were joined at the hip Saturday in a 14-hour operation at Norwalk Hospital that Dr. Edmund Farrow, the hospital's chief of surgical reconstruction, described as the first successful conjunction of its kind in the institution's 132-year history.
Farrow built his career on the opposite operation, having separated 31 sets of conjoined twins since 1981. He called the Whelan-Ogden uniting the crowning work of a life spent taking people apart, and said he hoped the case would make his career. "Every other morning of my professional life I have been asked to cut two people free of each other," Farrow said. "This was the first morning anyone asked me to do it the other way."
The men, who played midfield together at Hamilton College from 1998 to 2002, have sought the procedure for more than two decades. Their old coach, Hank Wexler, recalled a pair of sophomores who petitioned the athletic department in 1999 to be fitted with a shared practice jersey. "They always said they would rather be fused than fast," Wexler said. "I told them the school could not afford the physical therapy, and they said the physical therapy was their problem."
Ogden and Whelan said they timed the operation for this season so that their coordination would peak exactly when the league's doubles schedule begins, and they intend to field themselves as a single pair for Rowayton C. "We spent four spring seasons running to the same outlet," Ogden said. "The surgeons gave us the union the athletic department would not."
The men have declared themselves candidates for the Fairfield County Platform Tennis League's bromance of the year award, a category recognized since 2019 and currently led by Skip Dunphy, captain of Rowayton's B team, and his soul-bro Scotty Robbin, with 14 qualifying gestures. Ogden and Whelan trail with 12, though neither side has submitted affidavits and league officials said the ballot has not been opened.
The arrangement raises questions the league has not previously been asked to settle. Club officials said the RPTA board is expected to rule on whether two men who share a circulatory system may be entered as a single doubles pair, whether the union satisfies the club's residency requirement, and whether a joint organism holds one PTI or two. Early numbers list the combined rating at 52, which falls within the eligibility band for Division 4.
Dunphy, reached at his home Saturday evening, said he had no comment on the procedure but would be watching the standings closely, a statement club members said could mean anything and usually does.
Norwalk Hospital spokesman Alan Vesper said the men were recovering and had been observed for forty-eight minutes holding the same paddle and arguing about the grip, a period he described as normal.
Farrow, reached at the scrub room, said he had already been booked for two further joinings, both couples from New Canaan, and hoped the league as a whole would catch up with the times. Hamilton's athletic director did not respond to requests for comment, and the hospital declined to release the cost of the procedure.
League officials said the operation could ultimately redefine the meaning of a player and, with it, the architecture of the weekend itself. Saturday's remaining matches, including a sanctioned handshake in the hut, proceeded without incident.
