PUEBLO, Colo. – 2018 Jim Shoulders Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Dr. J Pat Evans – a legendary contributor to the Western Sports community – passed away on July 22 at 88 years old. He is survived by his sons Kirk and Mike.

Below is a look back at Evans' legacy from when he was recognized for his contributions to the rodeo community last year during the PBR’s Heroes & Legends celebration.

Dr. J Pat Evans was unable to be in attendance for the 2018 Heroes & Legends celebration, but he had one message to everyone in attendance and watching on RideTV and RidePass.

“The cowboys are the toughest guys on the planet,” Evans said through Dee Chambliss, a family friend accepting the award on Evans’ behalf at South Point Hotel Casino & Spa.

No matter how tough a cowboy or an athlete is, though, there comes a time when toughness is simply not enough.

Even the strongest of cowboys need top-notch medical care, and that is where Evans became revolutionary for Western sports.

RELATED: Evans dedicated his life to bringing sports med to Western sports

In the 1970s, Evans, who is known as the grandfather of Western sports medicine, began covering rodeos for a friend, NFL star and proud cowboy Walt Garrison, who he had met while working for 19 years as a team physician for the Dallas Cowboys.

At one of these events, he envisioned sports medicine for the professional rodeo athlete which became a reality in 1980 with the founding of the Justin Sportsmedicine Team

Dr. Evans is one of the first physicians in the country to dedicate his medical practice to sports medicine, treating rodeo cowboys as any other professional athlete. He dedicated the later years of his career to creating a formal sports medicine program for the Western sports world.

When the 20 PBR co-founders began the process of launching the PBR, they were certain that they wanted the Justin Sportsmedicine Team and Evans.

“I grew up a real Dallas Cowboys fan, and I had seen J Pat on television even before I even knew he worked on any rodeo cowboys,” PBR co-founder Cody Lambert told RideTV last year. “I get to rodeoing and J Pat shows up. For me to even be in the same room with somebody that knew all of those guys that were all heroes to me was really special.”

The problem was Evans was closing in on retirement.

He therefore recruited and trained Dr. Tandy Freeman, who has been the PBR’s on-site doctor since 1995.

Freeman spoke highly of Evans during the Heroes & Legends induction ceremony.

“I am here because of Dr. Evans,” Freeman said. “Not only to introduce him for this award, but back in the early 1990s he took me under his wing and mentored me, brought me into the Justin Sportsmedicine program. At the time, that was a unique organization providing professional athletes in the rodeo industry with medical and athletic training that compared to what they could get in the NFL and the NBA.

“Dr. Evans was able to do that because he was an NFL and NBA doctor. He was the team physician for the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Mavericks.”

Freeman has been long associated as the PBR doctor, and he was the 2016 recipient of the Jim Shoulders Lifetime Achievement Award.

However, if not for Evans, PBR athletes today would not be receiving such great care from himself and the PBR sports medicine team.

“Most of the athletes don’t know who Dr. Evans is, and a lot of the fans here probably don’t know who Dr. Evans is. This is an introduction to a guy who is responsible for athletes in this sport having longer careers, better careers and coming out on the other end a little bit better than their predecessors did because Dr. Evans put this program together.”

Freeman said it his goal to live up to the standard that Evans set in the 1980s and 1990s.

Every day the PBR sports medicine team tries to improve and get better.

“We have tried over the years to improve it and to live up to the standards that he set,” Freeman said. “We do as good, or as better a job then you would find in an NBA locker room, NFL locker room, NHL or any of those big sports.”

By the end of his speech, Freeman choked up.

Evans had a tremendous impact on Western sports, but he also has left a lasting impression on Freeman.

“Dr. Evans is my friend. He is my mentor.

“And he is a hero.”