One of Dr. Dave Garland’s philanthropic sports ventures was being the team doctor of the Denver Stars, a professional rodeo team that was part of the local athletic scene in the late 1970s.
The Stars didn’t last long, although they won a league championship. The home venue was the Denver Coliseum, and they came along at a time when Denver had a glut of what might be considered offbeat pro teams. The Denver Rackets, a professional tennis team that featured Francois Durr as a marquee player, also was part of the sports schedule at the old Auditorium Arena and McNichols Sports Arena. Garland was the team doctor for the Rackets too.
“I always wanted to be everything to everybody,” Garland said from his home in Lakewood last week. “I just enjoyed the camaraderie I had with everybody. I’ve remained fairly close with a lot of the people I worked with.
“I really enjoyed those rodeo performers because they were such great competitors. Those cowboys seemed as if they always were ready to go.”
Garland took many of Denver’s sports teams and individuals under his wing. He was the team doctor for the Denver Chicago Truckers in the old National Industrial Basketball League. The Phillips 66 Oilers called on Garland’s services when they played in the AAU tournament in Denver, and Garland struck up a lasting friendship with Bud Browning, who directed Phillips’ basketball operations. Garland was there for the Denver Rockets of the ABA in the days of Byron Beck and the Nuggets of the NBA in the days of David Thompson and Calvin Natt.
Garland once toured Russia with a U.S. national basketball team featuring Jerry Lucas. And Garland provided medical counsel to a number of professional golfers who sought his services when in town.
He wasn’t involved only from the medical side. He was one of Dick Eicher’s original committee members who met with prospective owner Bill Ringsby in putting together the plan that led to the Rockets and their entry into the ABA.
Garland really didn’t have a choice but to follow an insatiable desire to be involved. The trait was embedded in his genes. Garland’s father, Dave Garland, was a longtime mover and shaker on the Denver sports scene in the 1940s, when the city of around 300,000 had a reputation as a cow town.
Jack Carberry, the sports editor and columnist at The Denver Post back then, held court over just about everything in sports. The elder Garland was part of Carberry’s inner circle, a group that included Mickey O’Donahue, a prominent figure in Denver’s Little League program. One of Garland’s main duties during Carberry’s time was filling the president’s chair of the Victory League, a baseball circuit that played games at old Merchants Park on South Broadway and featured some big-league players who were serving in the military during World War II.
Garland was a prominent high school pitcher at Denver South before graduating in 1939, and pitched a game in his dad’s Victory League. His opponent on the mound was Vic Raschi, who would go back to the New York Yankees after his commitment to military service. Garland remembers losing a close decision to Raschi. He also faced the likes of Enos Slaughter of St. Louis Cardinals fame in Victory League competition.
Garland and his brother, Ed Garland, were pitching mainstays for South, and both continued playing in various leagues that have been part of Denver’s baseball history. Dave Garland remembered that his brother pitched a game in the Felix and Daley Sunday baseball series when he was 68 years old.
Garland’s baseball career reached a point where he probably could have signed a contract with the St. Louis Browns, but he decided to continue his studies that led to him becoming an osteopath.
When the war ended, Carberry and the elder Garland were fixtures in joining efforts by Colorado Sen. Edwin C. Johnson and his son-in- law, Bob Howsam, in forming the Single-A Western League and bringing professional baseball back to Denver in the form of the Denver Bears. The Bears led to the Denver Zephyrs and in 1993 to the Rockies of the National League.
Garland remains active in his practice a couple of days a week. He laments the decline of his golf game, which has gone south in the aftermath of suffering a broken hip. He stays in touch with his main hobby by touring the course in a golf cart. Sean, a 90-pound briard, usually accompanies him on his golf tours.
“Sean’s a good Irish name,” Garland said.
Garland bio
Born: Aug. 5, 1921, in Denver
High school: Denver South
Colleges: DU, Michigan State
Family: Wife Wanna; sons Dave, Jim, John, Dan; daughter Mary
Hobby: Golf
Goal: Regaining his golf swing
