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Friday, December 10, 1999
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal
Medical team keeps cowboys riding
By Jeff Wolf
Review-Journal
Professional basketball and hockey players don't know anything about playing with real pain, and Dr. Tandy Freeman should know.
Torn ligaments, broken bones and cracked ribs don't keep cowboys on the sideline.
Not only is the 42-year-old orthopedic surgeon part of the Justin Sportsmedicine Team that cares for professional cowboys, he's also a medical specialist for the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA and formerly held a similar position with a minor-league hockey team.
"Rodeo people have a higher pain tolerance than any other athlete," he said.
"They all want to rush back," he said of competitors in the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association and Professional Bull Riders circuits, which the Justin program services.
Freeman is one of four orthopedic and trauma specialists working at the finals. They are complemented by a team of athletic trainers, and licensed massage therapists.
"The longer the rodeo goes on the busier everyone gets," Freeman said.
The program, which is funded entirely by Justin Boots, was started in 1981 by Dr. J. Pat Evans and Don Andrews, an athletic trainer.
-- INJURIES -- Royd Doyal, one of the bull riders injured in the sixth go-round, underwent surgery Thursday morning to stabilize his lower cervical spine.
Doyal, 27, of Pittsburg, Texas, was sitting up in bed after surgery and there is no sign of paralysis, according to Dr. Evans.
Eric Swenson, 25, of Bonham, Texas, has withdrawn from the bareback competition after he aggravated a previous injury to his pelvis in the first go-round.
-- BODACIOUS CUBS -- Rick Sutcliffe, the former major-league pitcher for the Chicago Cubs, was at the finals Thursday with fellow baseball players Mark Grace and Wally Joyner. Five years ago that trio joined with movie star Mark Harmon and NASCAR's Dale Earnhardt Jr. to form a syndicate to breed bulls.
Nearly 20 offspring of the legendary bull Bodacious will be put on the rodeo trail next year after maturing on Earnhardt's ranch in North Carolina.
"We've got enough Bodacious sperm to start our own rodeo company," said Sutcliffe, who was a guest of Coors which also sponsors the retired Bodacious.
Sutcliffe also said he was offered the manager's job with the Cubs after last season, but turned it down for the second time because of family commitments and his radio broadcasting duties that included this year's World Series.
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Athletic trainer Rich Blyn works on bareback rider Chad Klein prior to the sixth go-round at the Thomas & Mack Center on Wednesday.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.
National Finals Rodeo
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