– Horses and Horsepower – 
Sports Medicine Comes to Rodeo and Motorsports

In 1980, J. Pat Evans, MD (Team Physician, Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Mavericks) and Don Andrews (Executive Director, Mobile Sports Medicine Systems) decided they would be the first to provide traveling medical support services to professional rodeo athletes. This innovative new sports medicine system linked a network of selected orthopedists, trauma specialists, athletic trainers, massage therapists, as well as hospitals and clinics around the nation to provide comprehensive medical coverage to the professional rodeo contestant. 

From the back of a pickup truck at 10 Professional Rodeo Cowboy Association (PRCA) sanctioned rodeos, approximately 775 contestants were treated that first year. Last year Mobile Sports Medicine Systems provided service at over 150 PRCA, PBR, CBR and Toughest Cowboy events, while treating some 6,000 rodeo and bull riding related injuries and illnesses. 

The Rodeo Sportsmedicine Team brings everything they need to provide the best possible medical care with them to the event. At indoor events, sports medicine centers are set up in the buildings close to the arena floor. At outdoor rodeos, one of the uniquely designed mobile sports medicine centers are driven in and parked close to the arena. 

In 1985 Mobile Sports Medicine Systems, working with 3-time Indianapolis 500 Winner and bareback bronc rider Johnny Rutherford, brought mobile sports medicine to the high horsepower world of motor racing. Over the next 25 years, Motor Sports Medicine Group provided specialized medical services to the elite sanctioning organizations in motor racing including CART, NASCAR, Champ Car World Series, Formula One and the American Le Mans Series.

The rodeo mobile sports medicine center consists of a 40-foot trailer pulled by a Dodge Dually pickup truck and the motor sports medicine center is housed in a single unit Ford tractor and van body combination. Both units carry all the equipment and supplies common to medical facilities at the other major sporting events in North America. This includes specialized moveable treatment tables, medical modalities (electric stimulation units, compression systems, hot and cold therapeutic packs, etc.), communications, and educational devices such as computers and television monitors and DVD/CD players. 

Everything needed to provide the utmost in sports medicine services to these dedicated and unique professional athletes comes with the sports medicine program to the event. The athletes know the value of the program and utilize the facilities and services of the experienced sports medicine staff when they are injured and in need of specialized medical treatment. Both rodeo and motor sports participants feel that mobile sports medicine is one of the most important programs for their continued success as they compete in these extreme sports. 

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