How does a farm boy from Wausa, Nebraska end up with 20 years as an AT in the NBA and take care of the greatest basketball player of all time(at the time of this writing in 2023.)? Right place, Right time. Mark Pfeil, after graduating at the University of Nebraska, headed off to the big city of Evanston, IL to attend PT school at Northwestern University. There he met Dick Hoover, who at the time was the head athletic trainer at NU. Dick, Ron O'Neil, Ron Sendre, and Jim Dickerson quickly taught Mark the skills he would use as a PT/Athletic Trainer. After PT school Mark returned to Nebraska to provide physical therapy services to several hospitals. After a couple of years, Dick asked Mark to come work for him in his new independent PT clinic in downtown Chicago. This clinic was one of the first out-patient PT clinics in the country and was doing rehab for most of the major professional sports in Chicago. This is where Mark met Jerry Sloan and Jerry hired Mark in 1980 to become the athletic trainer/traveling secretary for the Chicago Bulls. Mark took care of the Bulls for 10 years including 6 years with Michael Jordan. Then in summer of 1990 Mark received an offer to become the athletic trainer for the Milwaukee Bucks. Mark was the athletic trainer for the Bucks for another 10 years. He was the Joe O'Toole NBA Athletic Trainer of The Year in 1999-2000 season. Mark then moved to South Carolina and work as a PT in an out-patient clinic. Mark is currently retired and lives with his wife, Beth, in Columbia, North Carolina. He and Beth have received the Bud and Shirley Miller award for outstanding contributions to the Ball State University Athletic Training Program. Note: we have a special co-host, Neal Hazen, on this episode.
