{"id":11895,"date":"2021-04-30T12:07:15","date_gmt":"2021-04-30T16:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qa.vet.purdue.edu\/news\/?p=11895"},"modified":"2021-04-30T12:07:19","modified_gmt":"2021-04-30T16:07:19","slug":"creatively-serving-indiana-is-a-slam-dunk-for-purdue-dvm-graduate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/creatively-serving-indiana-is-a-slam-dunk-for-purdue-dvm-graduate.php","title":{"rendered":"Creatively Serving Indiana is a \u201cSlam Dunk\u201d for Purdue DVM Graduate"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dr.
Dr. Phil Borst played significant leadership roles in the successful effort by Indiana and the City of Indianapolis to host the Big Ten Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Basketball Tournaments and the NCAA Men\u2019s March Madness Tournament.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Meet Dr. Philip Borst (PU DVM \u201975), a Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumnus and long-time Indianapolis practitioner who also serves as co-chairman of the local organizing committee for the Big Ten Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Basketball Tournaments. His innovative career combination began while he was a student at Purdue where, in addition to his studies, he also served as a student manager of the Men\u2019s Basketball Team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been very blessed in my life to have been able to do a lot of different things,\u201d Dr. Borst said.\u00a0His interest in veterinary medicine began when he was a child and became fascinated with the veterinary practice owned by his father, Dr. Larry Borst, who also was a state senator. With Purdue having the only veterinary school in the state of Indiana, Dr. Borst chose to enroll as a Boilermaker and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture in 1971 and his DVM degree in 1975.\u00a0 He then returned home to Indianapolis to take over his father\u2019s practice. He later purchased the practice from the elder Dr. Borst, and just recently sold it to a fellow Purdue graduate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Indianapolis grew into a major sports city, Dr. Borst served on the City-County Council for 28 years. During that time, he witnessed the construction of many of the capitol city\u2019s most prominent sports and retail venues, from Bankers Life Fieldhouse to the Circle Centre Mall to the RCA Dome, which later was replaced by Lucas Oil Stadium. Being an avid sports fan, Dr. Borst was excited by the opportunity to join the Board of Directors for the Indiana Sports Corporation, the organization which oversees major sporting events in Indianapolis, including championships such as the NCAA Final Four and, in 2012, the Super Bowl. While Dr. Borst said he enjoys all sports, his favorite is basketball. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what he does for a living, Dr. Borst said, \u201cAll sorts of things, from animal studies to sports to economic development.\u201d He described the recent college basketball tournaments held in Indiana as the most unique he has seen in his career.\u00a0 For starters, Indianapolis hosted both the Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Big Ten Basketball Tournaments in the same week \u2013 the second week in March \u2013 with the Men\u2019s Tournament played in Lucas Oil Stadium and the Women\u2019s Tournament in Bankers Life Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was the beginning of March Madness in Indiana,\u201d Dr. Borst said.  A dozen women\u2019s games were played at Bankers Life Fieldhouse and 13 men\u2019s games were played at Lucas Oil Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • \"A
    Credentials and Kenexon tracking device that Dr. Borst received as co-chairman of NCAA Men\u2019s Final Four game management. The tracking device was utilized as part of the tournament\u2019s COVID-19 monitoring.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li>
  • \"A
    This COVID Collection Station in the Indiana Convention Center was part of an extensive COVID testing program. Other challenges included getting 68 teams to practices, weight rooms, and meeting rooms, as well as providing 12 practice courts in the convention center. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/li><\/ul><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    Then, Indiana played host to the entire NCAA Men\u2019s Basketball Championship \u2013 the sports extravaganza known nationally as March Madness.\u00a0The tournament featured a total of 91 games held over the course of 28 days. Dr. Borst was co-chair of game management, and helped oversee the planning for housing and transportation of the teams to practice, as well as arranging for referees and janitorial services. He also helped manage a crew of people tasked with making sure the players received everything they needed, from toothpaste to, in one instance, even a new cell phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The NCAA Tournament games were played at multiple sites in Indianapolis, as well as at Mackey Arena in West Lafayette and Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall in Bloomington.\u00a0 So, for March 18, 19, and 20, Dr. Borst returned to Purdue to help manage the games played at Mackey Arena. He was chosen for that role because of his familiarity with Mackey Arena and Purdue\u2019s West Lafayette campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"Dr.
    Dr. Borst enjoyed posing with the One Shining Moment poster that he said was provided so participants could wash their hands to the words of the famous March Madness song.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    Another challenge that the tournament organizers faced this year was providing for the health and safety of players, coaches, staff, volunteers and fans in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0Precautions included extensive testing of team members and volunteers.\u00a0 \u201cI was in the NCAA \u2018bubble\u2019 for the first ten days of the tournament and had a total of 29 COVID tests during 28 days between all three tournaments,\u201d Dr. Borst recalled. He actually had two in one day on March 9 \u2013 one was his final Big Ten Tournament test before the Men\u2019s Big Ten championship game and the other was his first NCAA March Madness test before going into the NCAA bubble. The players were tested daily as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \u201cOut of nearly 28,000 tests only about 15 came out to be positive, which is truly amazing,\u201d said Dr. Borst.\u00a0 He also said the NCAA was fortunate to be able to allow limited fan attendance for the tournament games and even provide a performance by Miley Cyrus between the Final Four semi-final games Saturday, April 3.\u00a0 \u201cThis whole experience truly helped the economy of Indianapolis. The hotels thrived as did restaurants which provided meals to both the players and all staff involved,\u201d Dr. Borst said. \u201cThis March Madness was as historic as I have seen, as this was my 13th year as Big Ten Co-Chairman and my seventh Final Four and 30th year of NCAA basketball in Indianapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Dr. Borst further explained that being a veterinarian has helped him to keep a positive attitude throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. His education provided him with background knowledge of viruses and vaccines, as well as the habit of washing his hands and taking other preventative measures frequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    While Dr. Borst\u2019s love of sports, and in particular basketball, makes for an interesting blend of interests given his education in veterinary medicine, his commitment to his profession as well as to civic leadership has involved a variety of organizations and responsibilities, including those more directly related to veterinary medicine.\u00a0He is a past president of the Indiana Veterinary Medical Association,\u00a0 alternate delegate from Indiana to the American Veterinary Medical Association House of Delegates, and is currently chairman of the Indiana Horse Racing Commission. And as Dr. Borst would say, it\u2019s all part of a blessed life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Meet Dr. Philip Borst (PU DVM \u201975), a Purdue Veterinary Medicine alumnus and long-time Indianapolis practitioner who also serves as co-chairman of the local organizing committee for the Big Ten Men\u2019s and Women\u2019s Basketball Tournaments. His innovative career combination began while he was a student at Purdue where, in addition to his studies, he also served as a student manager of the Men\u2019s Basketball Team.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11912,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43,29],"tags":[107,1995,1904,26,56,1996,1997,1994],"class_list":["post-11895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-our-people","tag-alumni","tag-basketball","tag-dvm-class-of-1975","tag-featured-story","tag-homepage","tag-march-madness","tag-phil-borst","tag-philip-borst"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11895"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11920,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11895\/revisions\/11920"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vet.purdue.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}