Detroit Medical Center


Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan’s (RIM) wheelchair basketball team, the Detroit Diehards will compete in the National Wheelchair Basketball Tournament (NWBA) April 7-11 in Denver, CO. The Detroit Diehards are one of 22 Division III teams competing for the national championship title.

RIM’s Diehards are seeded 7th in the tournament after finishing their regular season with 16 wins and 9 loses. RIM’s 14-member team is comprised of athletes with physical disabilities, aged 17 to 50 from throughout southeast Michigan.

Teams qualified for the Nationals via NWBA-sanctioned regional tournaments – the teams playing in this event in Colorado will be the best of the best.

Players to watch on RIM’s Detroit Diehard team include Darryl “Tree” Waller and Mo Philips. Darryl is an amputee who has been competing since 1978. He has been a member of three Paralympic teams, winning gold and bronze medals, and has played on four World Cup teams. In 2002, Waller was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame.

Philips is also an amputee who has been playing and coaching both nationally and internationally for over 25 years. Over his playing career, Philips has won 3 National Championships and was inducted into the National Wheelchair Basketball Association Hall of Fame in 1998. Philips also serves as the coach of the Diehards.

The NWBA is comprised of over 200 wheelchair basketball teams within twenty-two conferences. Founded in 1948, the NWBA today consists of men's, women's, intercollegiate, and youth teams throughout the United States of America and Canada.

RIM has been sponsoring the Detroit Diehards since 2002. The team is supported through grants, donations, and fundraising events such as RIM’s annual “Celebrity Wheelchair Basketball Game,” (www.celebritywheelchairbasketball.org)

DMC’s Rehabilitation Institute of Michigan is one of the nation’s largest hospitals specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation. The Institute is home to many innovative programs, including the Southeastern Michigan Traumatic Brain Injury System (SEMTBIS), one of only 16 federally designated centers of excellence in the U.S. for the treatment of brain injuries, and the Center for Spinal Cord Injury Recovery, a world-class facility designed to implement and study innovative treatments in spinal cord injury recovery. RIM is one of eight hospitals operated by the Detroit Medical Center (DMC). The DMC is proud to be the Official Healthcare Services Provider of the Detroit Tigers, Detroit Red Wings, and Detroit Pistons.

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