UAMS’ Vander Schilden Honored for 30 Years as Team Doctor for Trojans
| Feb. 2, 2016 | UAMS orthopaedics professor Jack Vander Schilden, M.D., was recognized Jan. 30 for his 30 years of service with the Trojan athletic teams at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR).
Vander Schilden, who is the head team physician for all Trojan athletic teams, including the basketball team, was honored at UALR’s Jack Stephens Center during halftime of the Trojans’ game against Georgia State.
Joined at midcourt by his long-term assistant Teresa Jones and UAMS orthopaedics faculty and staff, he was presented with a basketball autographed by the men’s and women’s teams by Chasse Conque, athletic director of the Little Rock Department of Athletics at UALR, and UALR Chancellor Joel Anderson. There were several UAMS employees in attendance, as well, as the Trojans’ men’s and women’s games against Georgia State were highlighted as UAMS Night.
Vander Schilden is the chief sports medicine specialist in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Orthopaedics. He became involved with the Little Rock Department of Athletics after coming to UAMS in 1985. The former football player and wrestler was inducted into the UALR Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003 for his outstanding contributions to Trojan athletics.
He was honored in 2007 by the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association with a Lifetime Honorary Membership award and had a scholarship, now the Dr. Jack Vander Schilden Graduate Student Scholarship, renamed in his honor. In 2009, he was the honoree at the athletics fundraising event SpectacUALR, UALR’s largest fundraising event
Vander Schilden, who is also an orthopaedics consultant for the Arkansas Razorbacks football team and the National Football League, graduated from DePauw University in 1973 with a degree in zoology. He graduated from Rush Medical College in 1977 and completed orthopaedic surgery residency training programs at the University of Florida and the University of South Florida before taking a fellowship to study trauma and sports medicine in Munich, Germany, in 1985.
He has served as a team physician for the NCAA wrestling championships, the Arkansas Travelers baseball team, and at the Olympic Training Center in 1991 at Lake Placid, New York.
Vander Schilden’s clinical work at UAMS focuses on sports injuries and trauma. His research activities include studying meniscal repair, biomechanics of ligaments and biomechanics of fixation devices.