Gurneymen

From The Great Outdoor Fight

Introduced in the 1881 fight and so named because they would run onto the field with gurneys to collect downed fighters, the Gurneymen today operate the Crane and process and triage eliminated Fighters as they're removed from the field. Also known as "the Medics," since they operate in that capacity, the Gurneymen are not only responsible for clearing away injured, incapacitated, unconscious and dead fighters and getting them appropriate medical attention, but they in fact are responsible for the official standings of the downed fighters.

While the Gurneymen receive their instructions from the officiants on Tower One, they collect those men in the order that works most efficiently for them. However, a Fighter's elimination only becomes official when the Crane collects him, so if they collect downed fighters in a different order than they were knocked out, they change the standings.

While every effort is made to be accurate, the Gurneymen have to be more concerned with the prompt removal of fighters. Further, in some cases a fighter who isn't seriously hurt needs to wait until a fighter with severe injuries is cleared, in order to more quickly get the injured fighter to medical attention. By the same token, a living fighter generally takes precedence over a dead one, even if that means the dead fighter gets "promoted" in the standings, posthumously.

Between the gurneys that give the Gurneymen their name and the Crane that is their most prominent symbol, the Gurneymen operated special motorbikes with sidecars and specialized racks on the other side. This allowed Gurneymen to get onto the field quickly in teams of two and collect up to three fallen Fighters before having to return. This worked fine until 1927, when Bigger Bill Kayser knocked Dylan Berkheimer into the path of a motorbike, eliminating him.