Dr. John McDaniel, a faculty member of Palmer College of Chiropractic West (PCCW), served on the sports care team for the annual East-West Shrine Game, a college all-star football game held January 19, 1992 at Stanford Stadium in Palo Alto, California. The game features some of the country's premier college football players in a fund raiser for the Shriner's Children's Hospital in San Francisco.
Cary Lang, the athletic trainer for Foothill Junior College in Los Altos extended the invitation for Dr. McDaniel to join the East football squad's sports care team. While traveling with the men's Olympic bicycling team for a training tour through Europe, Mr. Lang noticed that the team's primary physician (an MD) regularly included spinal manipulation as part of his treatment. Mr. Lang had worked with Dr. McDaniel at several state and national corporate game competitions, and contacted him to work with the Shrine Game competitors.
Dr. McDaniel treated members of both the East and West teams one to two hours nightly during the week preceding the game. He treated players in an auxiliary training room at the Santa Clara Doubletree Hotel, providing specific (for injury treatment) and non-specific (to enhance mobility and flexibility) adjustment procedures.
An interdisciplinary team made up of a medical physician, an orthopedist, a physical therapist, and several assistant trainers treated the East squad in conjunction with Dr. McDaniel. Dr. McDaniel was invited to participate on the sports care team again next year.
Dr. McDaniel, a member of the faculty at Palmer College of Chiropractic-West these past five years said, "Chiropractic has never been available (at the Shriner's Game) before because it had never been brought up; once the players found out (that chiropractic care was available) a lot of the players sought me out." He went on to say, "One player in particular (Klaus Wilmsmeyer, a place-kicker from the University of Louisville) was running through the locker room before the game shouting, 'Where's the chiropractor, where's the chiropractor?' He said he kicks further after he's had an adjustment."
Dr. McDaniel said that although his primary responsibility on the Shrine Game sports care team was the treatment of any spinal or neck-related injuries, due to the fact that he was sometimes the only doctor in the training room, he had to do evaluations and diagnoses. Said Dr. McDaniel of the changing attitude he saw during the game, "The mood with regard to acceptance of chiropractic has changed from one of a derogatory, 'Oh, you're a chiropractor?' to one where the athletes are coming up to me and asking for an adjustment because they can feel the difference and it has measurable impact of their ability to perform at an optimal level."
Barbara Migliaccio,
Second Assistant Editor
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