1934 - 2015
Bob Beeten, a championship track and field coach, designed the medical program in which athletic trainers became core providers for Olympic Training Center operations, sports festivals and Pan American games. He has been honored by the American Dental Association and the American Optometry Association. Beeten was an exemplary athletic trainer with a career that spanned high school, college, professional and Olympic sports.
Jack Baynes spent two years as Peace Corps volunteer before pursuing a career of service. Baynes was head athletic trainer at Northeastern University for 23 years before moving to Arizona as the first athletic trainer for Santa Rita High School. A charter member and former president of Athletic Trainers of Massachusetts, Baynes was closely involved with the state's successful licensure effort. Baynes is now retired.
Jack Redgren, a strong proponent of professional education, got into athletic training after serving in the Army, 1965-67. Getting his start with Lindsy McLean at the University of Michigan, Redgren has worked in the private sector treating varsity, professional and recreational athletes since 1981. He continues to work part-time with Tennessee Orthopedic Alliance.
Sandy Miller has served as Texas athletic trainers throughout his career and was a six-year appointee to the Texas Athletic Training Licensure Board. As an NATA board member, Miller was known for promoting the interests of college and high school athletic trainers. Currently he is assistant athletic director for sports medicine at Stephen F. Austin State University.
Ken Locker has focused on revenue and scholarship initiatives for the profession, serving numerous NATA and Foundation committees. He raised the profession's public profile, working with the Dallas Cowboys from 1973-90 (including three Super Bowls and two Pro Bowls). In 1991, he was an athletic trainer in the movie “Necessary Roughness.” Locker now works with Texas Health Ben Hogan Sports Medicine.
Pete Koehneke's goal is to prepare students well enough that he would trust them to care for his daughters. He has chaired the Competencies Committee of the NATA Education Council and the Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs in Athletic Training, and he helped ease the transition to accredited curricula. Koehneke is the athletic training education program director at Canisius College.
Ken Kladnik has been active in District Ten, chairing several committees and editing the district newsletter. He served on and later chaired the NATA Foundation Scholarship Committee before returning to the role of student himself, earning a doctorate. He is the director of rehabilitation services at Kittitas Valley Community Hospital. Kladnik
Peggy A. Houglum's service centers on education: she has chaired the Continuing Education Committee, helped develop programming for the Annual Meeting and became the first woman to serve as an associate editor of the Journal of Athletic Training. She is an associate professor at Duquesne University.
NATA President #7
As a former student of Pinky Newell, Denny Miller knows volunteers make or break an association. He got involved in national athletic training issues and eventually completed two terms as NATA president. He directed initiatives that improved sports medicine in the collegiate setting. Miller is the director of sports medicine for Purdue University.
Carl Krein began his athletic training career in 1964 when he was hired as the head athletic trainer at the State University of New York at Potsdam. As an NATA board member, he focused on helping athletic trainer network and mentoring young professionals. Krein was the head athletic trainer at Central Connecticut University from 1966 until his retirement in 1996.