Gift to Buy Equipment for Research to Prevent Injuries, Aid in Rehabilitation

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Bob Carver (B.S.E., 1960) has grown very close to the Razorback athletic programs since his years as a student at the University of Arkansas. Recently, his close proximity proved a catalyst for a gift of $59,600 to the graduate athletic training education program in the College of Education and Health Professions.

The money will be used to purchase the MotionMonitor, a real-time 3-D motion capture system that will be used in the graduate athletic training education program as well as in the university’s Human Performance Laboratory. Information from the motion capture system is used to prevent injury and to enhance athletes’ performance. It can also be used in rehabilitation and injury prevention for people who are not athletes.

Carver jokes that the gift came about because he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. He has traveled with the Razorback football team, helping to do radio broadcasts for 37 years, and he has formed relationships with the players, the coaches and the athletic trainers. His relationship with the trainers led to the desire to help with this new equipment.

“I was meeting with some of my friends in the athletic training program,” he said, “and they said they really needed this equipment in order to do their jobs better. I was fortunate enough to have the means to help, and so I did.”

Gretchen Oliver, the clinical coordinator of the graduate athletic training education program, was involved in motion analysis research while working on her doctoral degree in biomechanics at Texas Woman’s University.

“The TWU biomechanics program had its own motion analysis system and I got so spoiled,” Oliver said. “I wanted a similar system here; but, because of the limited space available, I became more interested in a real-time acquisition system. The electromagnetic tracking system will allow for a more user-friendly system that will yield results much quicker.”

Oliver studies the mechanics of the body’s movements, and with the new equipment she will be able to analyze movements such as throwing, kicking and running by placing electrodes on the body.

“There are certain ways of moving that make the person more prone to injury during that movement,” she said. “My research focuses on noncontact anterior cruciate ligament injuries, and this equipment will allow us to analyze certain movements that may be predictors of injury.”

The college’s athletic training education program works closely with athletic trainers in the Razorback athletic program.

“We’ll be able to give coaches and athletes information that will be beneficial to them and their performance, while at the same time having elite athletes as subjects is beneficial to my research,” Oliver said. She explained how the equipment can be used with different groups of people.

“We can also look at movement ranging from development patterns in children to gait patterns in the elderly,” she said. “In addition to using the information for injury prevention, it will be helpful in evaluating rehabilitation programs.”

Carver was pleased his gift will help people of all ages as well as his beloved Razorbacks. His involvement with the Razorbacks started in 1970. He went to every game and would even come early to watch the players practice. A friend joked with Coach Frank Broyles that, if Carver was going to be at every game, they should put him to work. And, that is how the radio broadcasting work came to be.

“I have maybe missed one or two games since I graduated,” he said. “I love it.”

Carver taught and coached sports for three years after graduating in his hometown of Mena, where he still lives today. He spent the next three years working in his father’s propane company and finally settled on a career as a car dealership owner. He also joined the U.S. National Guard in 1953 and remained active for 23 years before retiring with the rank of major.

Aside from his day-to-day career, Carver invests in property in the Fayetteville area. He also has become very involved with thoroughbred racing horses. His most recent investment is a horse he has named D-Mac after Arkansas’ own Darren McFadden.

“I told McFadden I named a horse after him,” Carver said. “He looked at me a little funny until I told him it was a thoroughbred. Then, he smiled. You’d better believe he’s the only D-Mac on the racetrack.”