4 May 29 - June 4, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents No Adjustment Needed E ven though great strides have been made to increase female representa- tion in the world of men’s profes- sional sports, there’s little arguing that all too often, it’s still one big boys’ club. But for many years, one local chiro- practor hasn’t worried herself over the glass ceiling. Dr. Mary Collings broke it. As the official chiropractor of the Dallas Mavericks and Stars for thirty years, Collings is both an industry pioneer and a trusted contemporary. She is, in fact, the only woman in America to serve as the offi- cial chiropractor for two professional sports teams. “When I started in the early ’90s, there were very few women in my profession,” Collings said recently over a dinner of cock- tails and crabcakes in Addison. “So, abso- lutely, I’m flattered to be called a trailblazer. I didn’t inherit my business or marry into it. … I made it myself.” For 32 years, Collings, now 58, has oper- ated a thriving chiropractic business, mov- ing from Irving to Las Colinas to her current Highland Park Spine & Sports Medicine of- fice in Snider Plaza. From a wide-eyed grad- uate from Parker College with few local friends and zero advertising dollars, she grew and groomed her enterprise in a tricky profession long dominated by men. Now, Collings is the chiropractor of choice when sports owners in the Dallas area need hands-on treatment for their multi-million-dollar investments. “She is good at her job. She is easy to talk to,” said Mavs’ former long-time owner Mark Cuban. “And she loves the Mavs. The trifecta!” Not bad for someone sold at birth for $10,000. “Poor Little Thing” W hile Collings’ personal and profes- sional network reads like a “Who’s Who” of Dallas, her family roots are as modest as they are messy. She was born in 1966 in Wichita, Kansas. From there, it quickly gets murky. “My official birth certificate is a joke,” she said. “There’s Wite Out all over it … try- ing to hide the truth.” After years piecing together her history through records research, family conversa- tions and an assist from the DNA company 23andMe, Collings believes she was born to a college-student mother and a professor fa- ther. He was married with two children but also an Emporia State University teacher. They had a sexual fling and … Hello, Mary. “There’s no official record of their names anywhere,” Collings says. “But I know I changed hands to my new family right there in the hospital.” Collings’ adoptive family took her to grow up 120 miles southwest of Wichita, across the border in the Oklahoma panhan- dle town of Alva. She found out at age 10 that she was adopted. It was her adoptive grand- mother who broke the news of her price of $10,000. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a life-altering ex- perience. “I knew it all along,” she said. “I always felt like I was hanging out with someone else’s family.” When Collings was 12, her adoptive mother died of an aneurysm. Her adoptive father followed soon thereafter, going into a fatal coma caused by what she calls a “bro- ken heart.” In the wake of the two deaths, Collings was temporarily staying at a friend’s house when she overheard the parents talking about her. “Poor little thing,” she recalled the wife saying to the husband. “Adopted. Now an or- phan. I wonder if she’ll ever amount to any- thing?” Said Collings, “I’ve thought about that a lot through the years.” Her grandmother ultimately raised her in Alva until she left for college. During COVID, Collings received a DNA alert that she likely had a living blood rela- tive. Seems her birth parents had more than a one-night stand. She had an older biological sister, | UNFAIR PARK | Nathan Hunsinger Dr. Mary Collings shatters glass ceilings in pro sports as she strengthens new family bonds. BY RICHIE WHITT >> p6
