Baylor Proud

While the tragic shootings at nearby Fort Hood have dropped from the national headlines, the victims and those around them have not been forgotten in Central Texas. Baylor honored Fort Hood soldiers and their families by providing 1,000 tickets for last Saturday’s Baylor-Texas football game; a Fort Hood representative also ran onto the field with the Bears and participated in the pregame coin toss. Additionally, the Baylor football team will wear a helmet decal (pictured) in honor of Fort Hood for the rest of the season.

We wrote last week about First Baptist Killeen pastor Dr. Randall Wallace, a Baylor grad ministering to a congregation with strong ties to Fort Hood. Since then, we’ve heard of many other Bears serving in the area. One name you probably read during the first couple of days following the incident was Dr. Roy Smythe, BS ‘84, chairman of surgery at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in Temple, where many of the injured were taken. Smythe lettered in football for head coach Grant Teaff’s 1980 Southwest Conference championship squad and today serves on the Board of Directors for the Baylor “B” Association.

Seven other Baylor graduates (and four interns) from the Army-Baylor Physical Therapy program have been helping with the wounded at Carl R. Darnall Army Medical Center at Fort Hood, providing direct patient care to those wounded on Nov. 5.

Last but not least, Lt. Col. Les Maloney, “a proud Baylor alumnus,” wrote in to let us know that after earning his doctorate in philosophy in 2005, he now works at Fort Hood as an Army chaplain. He specifically asks the Baylor family to “keep us in all your prayers.”

Sic ’em, Bears in service!

Baylor football fans know Keith Bishop, BS ‘90, as an offensive lineman for the Bears in the late 1970s who played in two Pro Bowls and three Super Bowls during a nine-year NFL career with the Denver Broncos. But like fellow Bear Mark Adickes, Bishop wasn’t content to retire permanently in his early 30s; instead, he returned to finish his degree at Baylor, then enrolled in the Drug Enforcement Administration’s training program in Quantico, Virginia.

Today, he works for the DEA in Kabul, Afghanistan, and was recently highlighted in Parade Magazine as one of America’s top police officers for his part last year in busting an international drug cartel that seized $11 million in cash, 14,000 kilos of cocaine, 30 tons of marijuana and 200 pounds of meth. (Watch video from the award presentation here, then check out this 2000 article from the Dallas Observer that goes into great depth looking at Bishop’s career — a very good read.)

Sic ’em, Special Agent Bishop!

Lady Bear fans from a decade ago will remember Michelle Neely, who transferred to Baylor from Grayson County College and played in 46 games from 1999-2001 during head coach Sonja Hogg’s final season and head coach Kim Mulkey’s first year at Baylor. Neely graduated from Baylor with a degree in social work in 2002, and three years later, she and her husband were blessed with a child, Ashlyn.

At the age of 13 months, however, an unknown virus caused significant damage to Ashlyn’s brain, leaving her unable to move the right side of her body and with sensory and feeding issues. Months of therapy helped her regain some mobility, but she continued to suffer from increasingly violent epileptic seizures. Seizure medications caused even more problems, so in July, Ashlyn underwent two surgeries to stop the seizures; recovery will take months.

Medical expenses from the surgeries and rehab have totaled over a million dollars. In October, a benefit concert will be held in Plano for Ashlyn to raise funds to help offset those costs to Michelle and her husband, with the $15 door charge going directly to the medical bills. Those who wish to donate separately to help out a fellow Baylor Bear can do so online, as well.

Sic ’em, Ashlyn and Michelle, for your fighting spirit!