Class of 1997: Steve Bartlett

Steve first involvement with athletic training came in his freshman year at Lake Park High School in Medinah, Illinois.  The school had a student training program, and after serving in the fall as a football manager for the freshmen team he was asked to go into athletic training, and replace the older fellow who was doing it.  The following year his family moved to the Cincinnati OH area and Wyoming High School.  The school did not have student athletic trainers so Steve worked as a football manager and help take care of wounds and injuries.  His first education in athletic training came be the way of the Cramer correspondence course.  Steve went to college at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and expected to leave the athletic world behind.  The freshman football coach looked through the applications to see who had played, and he also saw that Steve had been a manager, so he ask him to consider doing it there.  After the football season, Steve was asked to be one of two student athletic trainers, replacing one who was about to graduate. Since it paid half-tuition and his father was unemployed at the time, it sounded like a good idea.  He would work in the Hopkins athletic training room for the rest of the four years he was there.  He worked with Mr. L.R.J. “Brandy” Brandimore, an old Navy corpsman who had not been to college, but had been assigned to the training room at the USNA and had learned some stuff in that way.  Steve’s primary assignments, were soccer, basketball, and track, and everyone pitched in with football and lacrosse, which is Hopkins’ real sport.  Johns Hopkins split the national lacrosse championship in each of his first three years. During his junior year he worked with the basketball coach, the famous Jimmy Valvanio, which was his first head coaching job.

After graduating from John Hopkins Steve planned to go to the University of Cincinnati and get certified to teach.  In the middle of the summer his uncle in Chattanooga, who son was a student at McCallie School, found out that a teacher had passed and he contacted Dr. Spencer McCallie, who invited Steve for an interview.  Steve was hired as a full time teacher, athletic trainer and doing duty in the dormitory.  He would be a teacher and athletic trainer for 17 years and after giving up the athletic training position he still teaches and counsels students for college.  Doug May succeeded Steve at McCallie School.

Steve was TATS’s president 1986-1990.  He has been a speaker at coach’s clinics and various workshops.  He was often interviewed by local TV people and sports writer about sports medicine and athletic training in Chattanooga.  

Class of 1997: Jane Steinberg

Jane received a B.S. degree from Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant Michigan in Physical Education with a  minor in athletic training in 1978, and her Master of Arts degree from Michigan State University in Physical Education with an emphasis in athletic training in 1980.  Jane’s first athletic training position was that of assistant athletic trainer  at  Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH. After two years she when to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. From September 1982 to May 1997 she served as an adjunct faculty/instructor and was head athletic trainer for women’s athletics at UT from August 1982 to May 1989.   From August, 1989 to September, 1991, Jane was a staff athletic trainer for Ft. Sanders Center for Sports Medicine.  Starting in September of 1991 to December of 1997, Jane was a staff athletic trainer and  clinical coordinator of the outreach program which included 22 schools for the Knoxville Orthopedic Clinic.  In December, 1997, Jane became the head athletic trainer of fourteen teams and Assistant Professor at Tusculum College in Greeneville TN.  In August, 2000 she became program director of the Athletic Training Program at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, TN and achieved accreditation in April, 2004   In May, Jane moved to Columbia, SC to become the clinical coordination at the University of South Carolina where she teaches undergraduates courses while directing and supervise students 20 sites.  Recently, Jane left the academic setting to join The Moore Orthopaedic Clinic in Columbia where she is a staff ATC assigned to Ben Lippen School.

Jane has made several present at NATA, SEATA and TATS meetings as well as several universities.  For the NATA she has been a reviewer for the Journal of Athletic Training, a member of the Research and Education Foundation, member of the Honors and Awards Committee, Chair of the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer sub-committee and a member of the Injury and Research Committee. For SEATA she was host for the Student Symposium in Gatlinburg, TN, the Honors and Awards committee, and the Research Committee.

For TATS she was chair of the Ethics and Compliance Committee and chair of the High School ATC committee and a member of the TATS Annual Meeting planning committee.

Jane has served for the U.S. Olympic Committee as a volunteer for Men’s Volleyball, Colorado Springs (1985) and the 1986 Sports Festival, Houston Texas with Field Hockey.  She has been a long-time consultant for the Knoxville Tourism and Sports Corporation as well as working various national sporting events in Tennessee and South Carolina. She has served the Tennessee Secondary Schools Athletic Association for over 15 years as a Sport First Aid instructor.

Awards include: from NATA, Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award, Dedicated Service and Leadership, and Service Award.  From TATS; Hall of Fame, Sports Medicine Person of the Year and the Dedicated Service Award.  She has also received the Governor’s Citation Council on Physical Fitness/ Tennessee Sportsfest.

Class of 1996: Jack Redgren

Jack Redgren was born in the small town of Winnebago, Minnesota in 1942.He Graduated from the University of Montana in 1964 and served in the United States Army from 1965-1967.  After leaving the armed services, Jack graduated from the Mayo Clinic School of Physical Therapy in 1969.  His first job as an athletic trainer was working under fellow  NATA hall of famer Lindsy McLean at the University of Michigan for two years.  From there, Jack moved south to Vanderbilt University where he served for 10 years.  Since 1991, Jack has worked in the private sector treating varsity, professional and recreational athletes.  A pioneer in the field of athletic training education, Jack served the NATA Professional Education Committee for 17 years and enjoyed every minute of it.  Jack received the Joe Worden clinic/Professional Athletic Trainer of Year from the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society in 1990 and was inducted to their Hall of Fame in 1996.  He was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame in 2002, and the SEATA Hall of Fame in 2007.  In March of 2006, he was named co-recipient of The Contribution to Football Award by the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the National and College Football Foundation.  He continues to work part-time with Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance

Class of 1996: Eddie Cantler*

Edwin Douglas “Eddie” Cantler passed away in Feburary of 2014 at the age of 61.  Eddie was the second President of the Tennessee Athletic Trainer’s Society. Serving in this position from 1982 through 1985. 

Eddie was a native of Bowling Green KY and came to the University of Memphis (Memphis State) in the fall of 1970.  He was a student athletic trainer during his undergraduate years and was hired as a full time assistant athletic trainer in May of 1975.  He worked under Gene Smith.

In the 1970’s the NATA was encouraging state to pass legislation to control athletic training at the state level. On Feburary 6, 1977 a group of athletic trainer meet at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and wrote a bill and found sponsors.  Gene Smith was one of the main advocate of this project. In committee the athletic trainers were told that a separate board would have to be self-sustaining which was estimated to be about $15,000 a year.  A little high for 30 athletic trainers

When Gene Smith died in 1980. Eddie picked up his torch.

A state senator from Memphis, Curtis Person, who was a Memphis State fan, while at a basketball was talking to Eddie about the athletic training bill.  Senator Person said “give me your bill and I will sponcer it.”  The problem was we did not have a bill,  the old one did not fit anymore.  This was January 5, 1983 and bill had to be submitted by mid-February.  Eddie and I met a couple of times and fax a lot, this was before email.  We borrow from GA, KY and OK bills, and came up with a bill.  The bill was sponsored in the House Elbert Gill also from Memphis.  Mr. Gill was a chiropractor.  Eddie was mainly responsible for the first athletic training act in Tennessee.

In 2004 Eddie became Assistant Athletic Director/Support Services.  In this position he was in charge of managers, athletic trainers  and strength training at the Murphy Athletic Complex,  In addition Eddie worked as tournament manager for numerous events hosted by the department.

He was inducted into the TATS Hall of Fame in 1996, was the Eugene Smith/O’Brien College Athletic Trainer of the Year in 1992, received the NATA Service Award in1998, and was inducted into the All-American Football Foundation Hall of Fame in 2001.

In addition to his work at the University,  Eddie was in his 12th year as the Director of Music Ministries at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Memphis.

Eddie is survived by his wife, Jenina and two sons, Andy and Michael

Class of 1996: David Adams

In 1960 David Adams came from southern Indiana to attend David Lipscomb College.  He was the student athletic trainer for five years. One year when he wasn’t in school, he worked as a volunteer student athletic trainer.  There was no athletic trainer, so David learned his trade from the basketball coach and the Cramer materials.  After graduating with B.S. in Health and Physical Education he went to Abilene Christian College for one semester where he was the athletic trainer as a graduate student.  In January of 1967 he when to Indiana University and after three semester received a M.S. degree in Health and Safety with an emphasis in athletic training.  At IU he worked with three NATA Hall of Fame athletic trainers, Spike Dixion, Warren Ariail, and Tom Healin. He worked with Warren Ariail and the1967 Indiana University football Rose Bowl team as a graduate assistant. David returned to Lipscomb in 1968 where he remained until retiring in 2006.

 After returning to Lipscomb in 1968 there were student who were fellow students when David was a student.  The Athletic Director didn’t want student  athletes calling David by his first name and Mr. Adams was a little formal, so the AD started calling David “Doc” Adams and the name stuck.   In 1975 the title became correct when David received his HSD (doctor of Health and Safety) degree from IU.  At a small school people ware many “hats.”  David was athletic trainer, taught courses in the department of Health and Physical, was in charge of the laundry room, for 8 years was in charge of the tackle football intramural program, and for five years was the ground keeper for the baseball field. 

In 1977, David left the athletic training room to become a full time college teacher.  He was still active in the athletic  profession, serving as vice president of the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society (TATS) from 1978 to 1983, and chair of legislative committee 1978-2001.  While Chair of Legislative Committee David was involved with the passing of legislation to certified athletic trainer in Tennessee , 1983, and three sequent state bill for athletic training.

As a full time teacher in Health and Physical Education David was involved with the Tennessee Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (TAHPERD) serving as president 1990, Vice-president for Health 1986, Health Education section chair 1980, Safety section chair 1983, and editor for the Journal of TAHPERD 1985-1993.

In 2000 David became the active Director for the undergraduate Athletic Training Educational Program at Lipscomb University. A position he held for five and one half years.  From 1997 to 2001 and 2005, 2007, David worked as a volunteer athletic trainer for the Nashville Kats, Arena football team. David was the host athletic trainer for the state meeting of TATS for seven  years, and was the host athletic trainer for the NATABOC exam for five years.

Awards include, from TAHPERD; Honor Award (1989) President’s Award (1989, 1990, & 2003). Health Professional of the Year, College/University 1998.  From TATS; Sports Medicine Person of the Year (1990), Hall of Fame (1996) and President’s Award of Merit 2003. From NATA, the Service Award 1997.  For work in developing a physical fitness program for the fire department of Nashville, Mayor Richard Fulton declared June 27, 1983 as “Dr. David Adams Day in Nashville.”

Class of 1995: Eugene Smith

Eugene “Doc” Smith served as head athletic trainer at Memphis State University for 19 years before his death.  A native of Kingman, Kansas, he attended Sterling College where he received his B.S. degree in 1949.  While an undergraduate at Sterling College he lettered in Football, basketball and track.  From there he obtained his Master’s degree in athletic training from  Indiana University in 1954.  However,  following graduation from Sterling, Smith taught and  was assistant coach at Bazine,  Kansas High School for four years.  In 1954 he returned to the coaching  profession serving one year as assistant coach at Great Bend, Kansas High School.  His first full time job as an athletic trainer was at Piao Duro High School in Amarillo, Texas, where he stayed five years before coming to Memphis State in 1960, as head athletic trainer and professor in the physical education department.   

On the national level, “Doc” Smith was an active member of the NATA serving as a board member from District IX from 1973 to 1976.  He chaired the organization’s national convention in St. Louis.  In addition, he was selected as the athletic trainer for the American All-Stars, and toured China in the summer of 1974.

Lone time MSU football coach and athletic director Billy “Spook” Murphy remembered that “If Doc said they couldn’t play, they didn’t play. But he could get players well and ready to go better than anybody I ever saw.  He made you want to get well and play.  He was the finest athletic trainer I’ve ever run into …one of the most thorough people I’ve ever dealt with.”

Gene was only 52 when he died in November, 1979 of pancreatic cancer.  Not long before that he had been inducted into the Memphis State University Athletic Hall of Fame, and at his death the Doc Smith Scholarship Fund for Student Athletic Trainers was established in his memory.

Eddie Cantler was Gene’s assistant and succeeded him as Memphis State’s (now the University of Memphis) head athletic trainer.  As Eddie remembers him today “Gene was hardnosed and of the old school.  He was very deliberated in action, but one of the most caring people I’ve ever known.  As I sit and notice some of his mannerisms that I picked up. I realize how much of an effect he had on me.  In this day and age of technology, when I run into roadblocks I go back to his way of doing things and get results.”

Gene was a driving force in the early days of trying to get state legislation past to certify athletic trainers.   He was inducted into the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society Hall of Fame in 1995, and SEATA’s Hall of Fame in 2009.  TATS named their College Athletic trainer Award the Eugene Smith/Mickey O’Brien College Athletic Trainer of the year in honor of him and University of Tennessee athletic trainer Mickey O’Brien .

Class of 1995: Jerry Robertson

Jerry Lynn Robertson began his athletic training career as a student athletic trainer at East Tennessee State University in 1960.  Upon completing his B.S. in Physical Education in 1964, he worked one year as a graduate assistant athletic trainer at Mississippi State University while earning an M.Ed in Administration.  In 1965, he returned to ETSU as the head athletic trainer and continued until 2003.  During this time, he developed and   implemented one of the first undergraduate Athletic Training Education Progam in  SEATA and served as both an instructor and as the Director since the inception of the program.  He also developed and implemented the ETSU Graduate Assistant High School Outreach Athletic Training Program.  Since 2003, Jerry has been the Director of the Watauga Orthopedics Sports Medicine Foundation in Johnson City, TN.

 Jerry joined SEATA and the NATA in 1965 and was certified in 1970.  He has been extremely active in service both to his local community and to the profession.  This service includes numerous presentations to several local coaches and civic clubs as well as the Tennessee State HPERD Convention and several universities throughout the south including the University of Georgia, Clemson University, and the University of Florida.  He has also served as a faculty member and speaker at numerous Cramer Sport Medicine Camps and hosted several Sports Medicine Camps at East Tennessee.  He has been a member of the Mountain Empire Sports Medicine Society since 1993.  From 1986 through 1994, he presented on several topics at the SEATA Annual Clinical Symposium and the SEATA Annual Athletic Training Student Symposium.

Jerry was elected President of SEATA in 1988 and served in this role until moving up to District Director in 1991, where he served on the NATA Board of Directors until 1994. He has worked as the NATA Liaison for public relations, secondary schools, and scholarship awards.  Previous to this, he served on the NATA National Membership Committee from 1965 to 1970.  He has also been an editorial advisor to the NATA News. His involvement on the state level has included membership on the Committee for State Licensure and the State High School Committee for Athletic Trainers.

Jerry has been recognized for his leadership and service at all levels.  At ETSU the Jerry Robertson Scholarship Award was established in his honor in 1981, and he was inducted into the East Tennessee State University Pirate Club Hall of Fame in 1983.  He received the ESTU Distinguished Faculty Award in 1995, and in 2002, the Jerry Robertson BucSports Athletic Medicine Center was named in his honor.  He was honored by the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society with the Gene Smith/Mickey O’Brien College Athletic Trainer of the Year Award in 1990, and was inducted into the TATS Hall of Fame in 1995.  In 1994, he received the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Julian Crocker Influence Award.  He earned the NATA 25 Year Award in 1990 and SEATA provided him with its highest award, the Award of Merit in 1994.  Jerry was recognized with the NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award in 1997.   He was inducted into the SEATA Hall of Fame in 2008.   In 2009 TATS establish the Jerry Robertson award for people in the education of athletic trainers.  Jerry was the first recipient.

Class of 1994: The Chattanooga Group

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Chattanooga Group’s interaction with the athletic training community goes back to its founding in 1947 with local Chattanooga athletic trainer Lee Jensen, who invented the original Hydrocollator Steam Pack.  Mr. Jensen was joined in business by Jack Walker, and in the early 1950’s Mr. Walker acquired Mr. Jensen’s stake in the company and remained as President until 1976 when John Maley bought the company and served as President until his retirement in 1995.  Under Maley’s leadership the company broadened its product line to include electrotherapy, traction, and treatment tables becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of medical equipment for the physical medicine field.  As the company grew, Chattanooga played a leading role in supporting the professional organizations that were so important to its market.  John Maley was a strong supporter of the NATA and the Tennessee Athletic Trainer’s Society and believed that this support was vital for the future of the company and the advancement of the athletic training profession. 

Class of 1994: Mickey O'Brien*

Mickey O’Brien went to work for the University of Tennessee in 1938 – just in time to help with three successive unbeaten seasons and trips to bowl games.  He served as a jack-of-all-trades for the Vol program.  In addition to being head athletic trainer for all sports teams,  he was in charge of the training table, oversaw the equipment and laundry operations, and served as chief recruiter in Chattanooga, North Carolina, and Florida.  

O’Brien was designated Trainer Emeritus in 1977 for the Volunteers’ football team and served under five football coaches at Tennessee,  beginning with Gen. Bob Neyland.  Experts in sports medicine regarded O’Brian as one of the premier college athletic trainers.  He served as a mentor to various athletic trainers including NATA Hall of Fame members Jim Goostree and Chris Patrick.  He helped form the Southeastern Conference Trainers Association and served as its first President.  He died October 24,  1986 in Knoxville, Tennessee at age 79.

Class of 1994: L. David "Sandy" Sandlin*

Sandy was a respected and honored athletic trainer for over four decades, serving at the professional, college and secondary school levels. Sandy was born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1901 and moved as a youth to Chattanooga, Tennessee, graduating from Chattanooga High School.  In 1935 he became athletic trainer and traveling secretary for the Chattanooga Lookouts baseball club and remained in this capacity until the team left town in 1965.

In 1938 he also became the athletic trainer at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, succeeding Mickey O’Brien.  When both UTC and the Lookouts temporarily ceased their operation during World War II Sandy became the head athletic trainer at Georgia Tech.  At the war’s end he returned to his beloved Chattanooga and resumed both training positions.

In 1935 Sandy married Eleanor Rike, the secretary of the Lookouts owner.

Sandy retired as athletic trainer of the UTC Moccasins in 1974.His friends were apprehensive:  Sandy just wasn’t meant to retire.  To his joy he was quickly asked to become the athletic trainer at Baylor High School in Chattanooga. He spent five busy years there.

 He died suddenly in the summer of 1979.  At his memorial service his pastor said of Sandy, “He never turned away, even when he was tired . . . Sandy had a deep sense for what values are important, which are eternal, temporary, or transient. He was a man of deep faith, His faith was real and alive.”

All who knew Sandy Sandlin remember him fondly.  Past District Nine Director, Doug May, himself the UTC athletic trainer for five years, said of this wonderful man, “Sandy had one trait that is spoken of by all that the healing magic of this man.  It was that he truly cared about you and wanted to see you well and playing again.  His time was not important; you were. He was the true athletic trainer in that he healed with his hands and his heart.”

 In 1973 Sandy was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame, at a time few non-athletes were chosen.  He received the NATA 25 Year Award in 1974 and was inducted posthumously into the NATA Hall of Fame in1987.  In 1994, Sandy was inducted into the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society Hall of Fame which further honored him with the establishment of the annual Sandy Sandlin High School Athletic Trainer of the Year Award.

Class of 1994: Tim Kerin

Thomas “Tim” Kerin graduated from Westinghouse Memorial High School in Wilmerding, PA in 1965 and  received his B.S. from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1969. After graduation, Tim began as the head athletic trainer and math instructor at Penn Hills High School in Pittsburgh. In 1972 Tim was awarded an M.S. in mathematics from Indiana University of PA and became the head athletic trainer and an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh.  

He received an M.Ed. in Physiology of Exercise from Pittsburgh in 1976.  Tim became the head athletic trainer at the University of Tennessee in 1977 and helped the football team achieve seven victories in 11 bowl appearances before his death in 1992.  

Tim served on the NATA’s Program and Convention Committees from 1979 until 1991.  He was SEATA’s Awards Committee Chair from 1988 until 1992.  He served on the athletic training staffs of over two dozen local, regional and national athletic events and was extremely active in the community.  In 1986 he was a founding member of Knoxville’s Metropolitan Drug Commission and served as its president from 1987 to 1989.  

Tim received a Chancellor’s Citation from the University of Tennessee in 1990 and SEATA Award of Merit in 1991.  The Tim Kerin Sports Medicine Facility at Tennessee was named in his honor in 1993.  He was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame in 1993.  Tim was named the Eugene Smith/Mickey O’Brien College Athletic Trainer of the Year by the Tennessee Athletic Trainer’s Society in 1993 and inducted into their Hall of Fame in 1994.  Tim was inducted into the Tennessee Sport Hall of Fame in 2001.  One of the highest awards given by the NATA annually is the Tim Kerin Award.  Tim was inducted into the SEATA Hall of Fame in 2007.

Class of 1994: Joe Worden*

After graduating from Pfugerville High School in Texas, Joe Worden attended the University of Texas in Austin where he completed a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Education in Physical Education.  While at the University of Texas, Joe became interested in the care and prevention of athletic injuries. He had the unique opportunity to train under the legendary Frank Medina, a former U.S.Olympic Trainer.  

Joe was a member of the U.S. Marine Corps and saw action in Guam and the Marshall Islands during World War II. He became Vanderbilt’s head athletic trainer in 1949 and handled all sports until 1971 when he was assigned to specifically care for football and men’s basketball.  He continued to assist club sports and in 1977 began working with the newly created women’s intercollegiate athletic program.  He officially retired from Vanderbilt in 1986, but continued to volunteer his services. He never missed a game until his death on June 5, 1998.  

Affectionately referred to as “Joe Bird”, he was one of the most respected and beloved staff members in the history of Vanderbilt Athletics.  He represented District IX on the NATA Board of Directors from 1964 to 1965. He was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame in 1984, the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society Hall of Fame in 1994, the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in 2004, and SEATA Hall of fame in 2007. Two highly regarded awards have been named for him – the Joe Worden Clinic/Professional Athletic Trainer of the Year Award given by the Tennessee Athletic Trainers’ Society and the Joe L. Worden Courage Award presented by the Middle Tennessee Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. 

 For most of his career at Vanderbilt Joe didn’t have an assistant athletic trainer, but he did have students who helped. One was Joe-Joe Petrone, among other positions, Joe-Joe was assistant athletic trainer at University of Mississippi (1981-1987), assistant athletic trainer for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1987-1996), seven years as head athletic trainer for Middle Tennessee State University and is presently the Director of Sports Medicine at Auburn University.  Joe-Joe says of Joe Warden, “He would tape the bottom of the ankle when he got done with his tape job and I still do it in his honor.  He told me it was his little love tap for the kids to have good luck.  He was a great man and friend.” 

 Lindsy McLean’s reflections and memories of Joe Worden. “In the fall of 1954, I reluctantly became the student manager for the football team at Hillsboro High School here in Nashville at the insistence of Hale Harris, who I assisted as the baseball manager the previous spring.  With those duties came the responsibility for the Cramer First Aid Kit.  That fall, I studied the Cramer First Aiders sitting on the desk of Coach Henry Nance.  Soon this became the most enjoyable part of my job, playing the role of the student trainer.  In the early summer of 1955, I saw an article in the Nashville Banner about Joe Worden teaching a course of athletic injury care for high school coaches at Peabody College that summer.  I didn’t know Joe then, but decided to go over to the Vanderbilt Training Room in Palmer Field House to see it he would allow me to “listen in” in his class to learn more about how to care for the injuries at Hillsboro that coming fall.  Instead of saying “go away kid” he was very nice to me and gave me permission to attend.  I took copious notes on everything he said.  He was very well organized and an excellent instructor.  I used the same notes to organize my courses five years later at San Jose State and then even later, the University of Michigan on the treatment and care of athletic injuries with very few changes.  At any rate, I was hooked on athletic training and due to Joe’s influence and friendship, I decided to enroll at Vanderbilt upon graduation from high school and work as a student apprenticing under him. We never had more than one additional student assisting Joe other than myself during my four years there, so I got to do and observe everything.  Joe was respected as a professional by the football players in the quiet way he ran the (athletic) training room. He was always clam, relaxed, but ready for any unexpected injuries on the field.   He taught me that I should rush out on the field to tend an injured player who was moving or flailing around, but to run like hell to get out there if there was no movement at all.  He, having worked under Frank Medina at Texas, was always in control, at least that was my impression. Although Joe was quiet, he had a subtle since of humor.”