By TONY TAGLAVORE, Journal Sports

For Fred Willis, being a doctor is the gift that keeps on giving.

Some 55 years after building (with his boyhood friend, Dr. Jackie Huckabay) L.S. Huckabay Memorial Hospital in Coushatta, Dr. Willis is still seeing patients. Not at the hospital, but at Louisiana Downs.

Dr. Willis heads up medical services on the track’s backside. Trainers, grooms, hotwalkers — anyone who is associated with the Downs’ horse colony can get medical care.

Think of it as a “Quick Care” facility for horsemen.

“It’s the greatest retirement a man can have,” Dr. Willis said. “I still have my toe in the water as far as practicing medicine, and at the same time, I’m not totally bound by call and other obligations. It’s a very loose relationship, and it’s the best of the best for an 84-year-old man who just kind of meanders around.”

L.S. Huckabay Memorial was sold in 1998. After three years of retirement in Florida, Dr. Willis came back to north Louisiana. In 2003, he began work at Louisiana Downs.

“It’s been a blessing and a delight,” Dr. Willis said.

On behalf of the Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association, Dr. Willis sees patients who have everything from colds to arthritis.

“I told my wife, ‘Well, today was foot and podiatry day.’ I must have had a half-dozen (people) come in with either Plantar fasciitis or calcaneal spurs, or something related to the foot and ankle. We do a lot of treatment for arthritis, inflammatory diseases, aches and aging, stiffness of the joints. Stuff like that.”

Despite years of working in a traditional medical environment, Dr. Willis isn’t a stranger to the horse environment. After serving in the Army, he returned home and became friends with retired major league baseball star Joe Adcock, who was also from Coushatta.

“Joe had a family farm and got interested in Paints and Quarter horses while he was playing with the (Los Angeles) Angels,” Dr. Willis said. “Joe bought a paint horse from (former President) Ronald Reagan. He got me coming to his farm and seeing horses. Then he carried me to Keeneland in 1969, and we bought a mare together. We started breeding thoroughbreds.”

Eventually, Dr. Willis went solo.

“I started my own farm and at one point, had up to 40 broodmares. (Breeding) was a lot of fun, but it was in the real great days of Louisiana Downs. It was a big thing. That was all before the (gambling) boats came. We were doing good. We had a great, great thing going.

One of Dr. Willis’ biggest customers was horse owner John Franks, a five-time Eclipse Award winner and like the great baseball star Adcock, a member of the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame – as a horseman.

“John made some real good racehorses out of some stock that I had.”

Since then, Dr. Willis has downsized. Pine trees — not horses  — grow on his farm. He has just four mares, three of them in Kentucky. But he gets his horse fix two days a week during Louisiana Downs’ thoroughbred and Quarter horse meets.

“It puts me in an atmosphere that I am familiar with, very comfortable with.”

After all this time, seeing patients never gets old for Dr. Willis. Neither does the feeling of satisfaction.

“The other day, a little Hispanic girl that spoke very little English, she really, really needed some help,” Dr. Willis said. “My ability to provide her guidance and help her with her needs, is a 10 on a (scale of) 10. For me to see somebody look me in the eye and smile — from when they came in with pain — that’s the greatest reward anyone can have.”

Louisiana Downs races Saturday through Tuesday. Weekend post time is 1:45pm. Weekday post time is 3:05 pm.

Contact Tony at SBJTonyT@gmail.com

Submitted photo