SPORTS 'N SPOKES

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Beyond the Competition

Adaptive sports such as those at the National Veterans Wheelchair Games provide not only physical benefits but psychological advantages as well.

The Steel City knows sports. Home to numerous professional teams, such as the Steelers and the Pirates, it's now twice hosted the National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG). The city is the third to host the Games multiple times in its 31-year history.

On August 1–6, Pittsburgh had 567 adaptive athletes from across the United States and Great Britain demonstrating their drive and proving their mettle in 19 events. That was 28 more athletes than attended NVWG's first time in Pittsburgh in 1998.  

"I think (the Games) went extremely well," says Jerry "Bull" Baylor, sports director of the Keystone Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA).  

Annually PVA and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) present NVWG.

Baylor, 64, lives in Leechburg, Penn., about 30 miles from Pittsburgh. He took home the coveted Spirit of the Games Award this year, presented by Invacare.

"I thought I was going to explode when I got to bring in the torch (at the Opening Ceremonies)," he told the audience at the Closing Ceremonies. "This tops it all off."

The U.S. Marine Corps veteran is a lifelong athlete who hit the first NVWG in Richmond, Va., in 1981.

"I got hurt in August of '80, went into rehab in November, and participated in my first (wheelchair sports) event in April," he remarks. "They got me into it right away."

Most sports historians say America's adaptive sports started at VA hospitals in the 1940s. Returning spinal-cord-
injured World War II servicemembers started meeting for wheelchair basketball games. Casual games became competitive, teams formed, and adaptive sports naturally grew. By 1948, six wheelchair teams were in the U.S., according to the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. All were based in Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) chapters. Today, the NWBA has five divisions, ranging from juniors to championship, with dozens of teams.

Over the years, adaptive athletes developed new sports to add to their repertoire. Seeing the benefits of adaptive sports for physical and psychological rehabilitation and health maintenance, VA started its Recreation Therapy Service in 1980. The service saw 1981, the International Year of Disabled Persons, as an outstanding opportunity to start NVWG. Baylor was one of 74 veterans from 14 states who headed to the budding Games.   

"I met people at Richmond in '81 I'm still friends with today," he says. "There are four or five of us left who were at the first Richmond (Va.) Games."

Back to the Roots

NVWG is returning to Richmond next year, and Baylor plans to attend. So does Leo Kelly, 41, of Ohio. The U.S. Army veteran sustained an SCI in 2004 but refused to go to NVWG until 2010, when they were in Denver. He says going to the Games and participating in adaptive sports was admitting to himself that he was a permanent wheelchair user—something he didn't want to do.

"(The Games) opened up a lot of doors," he says.

After going to Denver, Kelly got the NVWG logo tattooed on his leg.  

"I was just wanting to get something that meant a lot to me," he says. "Nothing meant more than the National Veterans Wheelchair Games."

Kelly figures Richmond will see more athletes tattooed with NVWG logos. It was a hit with his fellow veteran athletes this year.

"A lot of them liked it," he says. "A lot of them were really inspired by it."

Like Kelly, Jim Riemer took a while to head to NVWG. The Keystone PVA vice president was the chapter's 2011 Games coordinator. The 59-year-old U.S. Navy veteran was injured in 1985. His first taste of the Wheelchair Games was in '98, during its first visit to Pittsburgh.  

"I drove down each day and competed in three events," he says. "That's what got me started."

The event not only got him started in adaptive sports but also got him doing more with his life.

"I wasn't doing hardly anything until I went to the Games," says Riemer. "It's the best thing that ever happened. It gets you out and meeting people, and they shape you."

This year's NVWG events included air-guns, archery, basketball, bowling, ramp bowling, field events, handcycling, motorized rally, motorized slalom, 9-ball, power soccer, quad rugby, softball, slalom, swimming, table tennis, track events, trapshooting, and weightlifting.

Pink Is Hot

Among the competitors at Pittsburgh were some Paralympians, such as Patrick McDonald. The 44-year-old U.S. Army veteran hails from California. He made his Paralympics debut in Vancouver, in 2010. He showed up at the 2011 NVWG sporting his new battle color: a pink wheelchair.      

"The main reason is I have known a handful of people who fought breast cancer and survived it," he says. "Real men shouldn't be afraid of the pink."  

McDonald, who played soccer and football in high school, also raced enduro motorcycles before being injured in the early '90s. He got into adaptive sports shortly after that.

"I saw some posters for the (National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic) and (National Veterans Summer Sports Clinic) and said, 'That looks like fun,'" he says.   

McDonald has attended NVWG on and off since 1992. He plans on going to several more.

"I've got a couple left in me," he says.

Another Paralympian at NVWG was James "Jim" Milliken, from South Bend, Ind. The U.S. Army veteran is 64. He was active in high-school sports.

"I was like most of us; I was in the middle of the pack," he says. "I lettered but was not the star athlete on the team. I was about the middle of the pack, just one of the guys."

Just one of the guys who went on to compete in one of the most celebrated international athletic events—the Paralympics. That was in Seoul, Korea, 1988. Even that's not enough to give the Purple Heart recipient a big head.  

"I didn't win any medals in the Paralympics," he says. "But, it was a wonderful experience."

Maybe no medals in 1988, but he took top spot in his class in the 100-yard breaststroke, 50-yard butterfly, 100-yard freestyle, and 200-yard individual medley at this year's NVWG. That's on top of the more than 500 gold medals he's won over the years in various adaptive sports competitions.

Scot Severn made it to the Paralympics in 2008. He made his Paralympic Games debut competing in the discus F53/54 and shot put F53/54.

"I chose (quad) rugby, but field chose me," he says. "I'm more fit for being a field thrower."

After years of staying in shape by bowling on local leagues, he first attended NVWG in 2004. Severn was instantly hooked on adaptive sports.  

"I've got three kids at home, and they're the reason I wanted to advance in wheelchair sports," he says. "At the time they were growing up, I was an at-home dad. This gave me something I could do to make them proud of me."

Nicole (12), Kyle (10), and Colton (9) must be proud, indeed. In 2005, their father was inducted into the Michigan Athletes with Disabilities Hall of Fame as the Athlete of the Year. That year, he was also voted most valuable player at the Michigan Wheelchair Games and the Ohio Wheelchair Games.

Tough Stuff

Baylor started his athletic career as a defensive lineman on his junior high football team. That's where he got the nickname "Bull." He had a habit of digging his feet into the turf and pulling out grass with his hands. He headed straight to the Marine Corps after high school.

"I played football in high school, and when I was in the Marine Corps, I did all kinds of interservice sports. I wrestled for the Marine Corps. I swam."

And he went to Vietnam. When he got back stateside, he took up powerlifting for exercise, along with carrying a big chip on his shoulder.  

"I was a pretty hard-core dude," he says. "I was afraid of hitting people, because I could lift the back of a pickup truck back in those days. I had a short fuse, and I couldn't stand hippies. I didn't care for anybody who wasn't in the military."

But, Baylor was increasingly concerned about where his life was heading.

"Back in those days, when I got injured," he says, "I didn't care for a lot of the people I was running around. I could be violent. If I'd continued on that path, I might be dead."

A motorcycle accident left him with a C6-7 spinal-cord injury. Baylor is, in many ways, glad it happened.  

"The path I was on, I'd probably been killed in an accident, or someone would have shot me, or I would have been locked up forever," he says.

However, he says that being introduced to adaptive sports and NVWG early on is likely what helped him turn a catastrophic injury into a better life.  

"It's definitely made me a better person," he says. "I help tons of people. There's not a day that goes by that I'm not helping someone."

Baylor, who's earned more than 90 medals at 20 NVWGs, plays quad rugby for the Pittsburgh Steel Wheelers. He's the oldest player—by 18 years. Baylor also volunteers at VA hospitals, teaching and coaching adaptive sports.

"I think the sports gave me a good positive attitude and things to do," he says. "Definitely it's kept me in shape."

He adds, "There are a few I rehabbed with who didn't get into sports. They got into business or something. They're not as healthy as I am, and they look older. I know they don't have the quality of life of a wheelchair athlete. I know paraplegics who can't do what I do, and I'm a quad."

With evangelistic zeal, Baylor says he spreads the message of the physical and psychological benefits of adaptive sports and the National Veterans Wheelchair Games.  

"I've run into so many people who started in sports by talking to me, or being around me," he says. "That's the most rewarding thing to me, to help others get involved in wheelchair sports. There's no medal in the world that can compare to that."

Next year's NVWG takes place June 25–30 in Richmond. Contact: wheelchair games.va.gov.

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