LITTLE ROCK — He seems to always be there.
Watching, looking for things only a trained professional would see.
It doesn’t matter if it’s from the sidelines of an Arkansas Razorbacks football game or from the corner of UALR’s Jack Stephens Center where he watches every men’s and women’s basketball game.
Dr. V is there because he cares.
That’s what hundreds of athletes who have turned to him for care for 25 years have learned.
He’s the guy with the reassuring smile and bedside manner that lets you know everything is going to be OK.
At UAMS, he’s Dr. Jack Vander Schilden, professor and orthopedic surgeon, who at any given time might have an athlete flying in from Colorado or driving from Louisiana or Tennessee to have him take a look at an injury.
He’s a quiet, unassuming guy who resists the limelight, although he’s known for his heroic actions.
Now, though, the UALR team doctor is going to be honored whether he likes it or not.
On Thursday, Oct. 14, at the Stephens Center, Dr. V will be the honoree for the second annual SpectacUALR.
Last year’s inaugural event honored Annette Fisher for her support of Trojans athletes, and the event raised more than $180,000 and may be the single largest silent auction event in Arkansas.
Chairing this event - admission is $50, which includes drinks and heavy hors d’oeuvres (more information available at 501-569-3382) - will be Jane Yocum and Andrea Peel. Yocum co-chaired the first event with Cortney Beebe.
Saying it was a success would be like saying the Stephens Center is nice.
And Dr. V is the perfect person to honor. The countless hours he spends in the UALR gym or on the Razorbacks sideline are as a volunteer.
Dr. V actually burst onto the national scene in the summer of 2006 when he received a 5:30 a.m. call from an intern at UAMS who told him about a patient who had just been admitted. The guy had been in a fight and kicked the other guy in the head so hard that his big toe was hanging by a single tendon.
Dr. V ordered antibiotics and told the intern to isolate the patient and prep him for surgery.
Less than an hour later, Dr. V was scrubbed and in the process of saving Darren McFadden’s toe. He also saved his career as a running back for the Razorbacks and the Oakland Raiders.
When asked about it, he simply said: “Just doing my job.”
Maybe others would have known what to do, but at that precise moment it was the good instincts of an intern and the knowing eye and skilled hands of Dr. V that made the difference.
It wasn’t the first time. It won’t be the last.
He once saw a patient from Colorado who was in a walking boot with a diagnosed hairline fracture that wouldn’t heal.
Dr. V took one look, ordered X-rays, and while he waited on them threw the boot away and fitted the college basketball player for orthotics. Six weeks later, he was playing in the Big 12.
A college football player and wrestler at DePauw University and a graduate of Rush Medical College in Chicago, Dr. V was honored in 2007 by the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association with a lifetime honorary membership and one of its scholarships was renamed after him.
So it is only fitting that after a quarter of a century of serving and healing others that Dr. Jack Vander Schilden will be honored at the SpectacUALR, an event that celebrates the spirit of those who give more than they receive.
It’s a party, and the silent and live auctions are truly unbelievable.
Sports, Pages 21 on 09/29/2010