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NEWS
| October 15, 2004
Die-Hard
Dentist
He’s got his hands in mouths
all throughout athletics, and Dan Bida will be honored for it
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| The Shorthorn: Andrew Campbell |
| Distinguished Alumni Award recipient
Dan Bida maintains a collection of UTA sports memorabilia
in his dentistry office in Arlington. |
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By Nicole
Audet
Contributor to The Shorthorn
Dan Bida’s dental office may appear to be a typical dentist
office, but in a room above all the teeth cleaning and root canals
is his own little shrine to UTA sports.
Rather than posters showing examples of gingivitis and tooth decay,
Bida uses more than a thousand Polaroids, posters, program covers
and team photos to cover the upstairs walls of his dental office
— his own sports museum.
“I guess I really am a UTA nut,” he laughed.
Bida will be honored along with 13 other alumni at the Distinguished
Alumni Gala at 7 p.m. Saturday in the University Center Rosebud
Theatre. The event begins at 6 p.m. with a champagne reception in
the Palo Duro Lounge.
The university and Alumni Association picked a handful of outstanding
alumni for their achievements, contributions and services to UTA.
Bida is a recipient who has proven his continuous dedication as
the team dentist and sports enthusiast.
Among the people pictured on the walls and even the ceiling are
all the UTA athletes he has treated, as well as Super Bowl winners,
basketball stars and Olympians. Bida has a connection with nearly
all of them, as he provided them with his services and his custom-designed
mouth guards.
Born and raised in Arlington, Bida’s passion for UTA athletics
was ignited when he attended his first football game around the
age of 6, and the flame has only grown stronger.
More than 30 years ago, while attending UTA, this dentist tried
his hand in athletics. Although he never earned a letter for any
of the sports he dabbled in, the Athletics Department named him
an honorary letterman.
Bida graduated in 1972 with a bachelor’s in biology. He then
graduated from Baylor College of Dentistry in Dallas in 1975 at
the age of 25. Fresh out of dental school, he came back to UTA and
began his professional association with the university as team dentist
and has been here ever since.
Over the years he’s attended all the events and even flew
in a vintage 1948 Navion airplane to the away football games.
1975 was not only his first year as the team dentist, but it was
also the year he began designing custom-fitted mouth guards for
the players.
In 1980, the Olympic Committee adopted Bida’s mouth guard
design for use by boxers, and he became a member of the Olympic
Dental Team.
He has maintained a dental practice in Arlington for nearly 30 years.
When the football program was dropped in 1985, a very disappointed
Bida continued making mouth guards for athletes at the schools that
the coaches moved to.
His strong dedication to the Athletics Department is evident in
his willingness to attend to emergencies any hour of the day or
night, Athletics Director Pete Carlon said.
His dedication was apparent in 1990 as he preformed three emergency
root canals on a volleyball star who was hit in the mouth in a pre-game
warm-up. After Bida’s speedy work, the player was back at
Texas Hall ready for the match.
“The value of what he has provided to our student athletes
is immeasurable,” Carlon said.
Bida is not the only die-hard UTA fan in his family. His wife, Jan,
who he met when she was a student trainer, continues to be very
involved with the campus. In the late ’70s, she was UTA’s
“everything you could want” girl. They continue to attend
sporting events together and their names as well as their two daughters
are engraved in seats at Maverick Stadium.
Bida’s family, including his two college-aged daughters, will
come to support him at the gala.
He said he is thankful to UTA for providing him with a good foundation
that has helped him throughout his life.
“As long as I’m healthy, I’ll still be out there,”
he said.
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