1913 - 2003
For more than 30 years John Lacey was successful with championship teams and great athletes. From 1956-83, as head athletic trainer at the University of North Carolina, Lacey and the Tar Heels football team made it to six bowl games. In 1972 he was an athletic trainer for the Olympic Games in Munich. Lacey also served as an athletic trainer for the gold medal-winning 1964 U.S. Olympic Basketball Team in Tokyo.
1924-2013
Warren Ariail graduated from Wofford College in 1948 after serving in the U.S. Marine Corps; he then became Wofford's first athletic trainer. His 54-year career took him throughout the country, to athletic training settings ranging from high school to professional sports to clinics. Ariail also appeared in two movies and was a technical advisor for a Charlton Heston film. He is retired and living in South Carolina.
After 42 years tending to hundreds of University of Nebraska athletes, including dozens of elite stars, George Sullivan earned the inaugural Tim Kerin Award for Excellence in Athletic Training. He belongs to the Nebraska football, basketball, and baseball Halls of Fame, and the Nebraska athletic training room bears his name. He is retired but remains the consummate Cornhuskers fan.
1916 - 1991
Gayle Robinson served his alma mater, Michigan State University, from 1959-82. A 1940 graduate, Robinson lectured on the care and prevention of athletic injuries. He was a member of the athletic training staff for U.S. teams in the 1967 Pan American Games and the 1972 Olympics.
1925 - 1988
Victor Recine was an early advocate of athletic training legislation, prompting a bill to license athletic trainers in New Jersey. He spent his career caring for high school athletes; after 19 years at New Brunswick High School, he became head athletic trainer at Sayreville High School in 1962. During World War II he was athletic trainer for the Sampson Naval Training Station Yellow Jackets.
Milford “Kenny” Howard, head athletic trainer of Auburn athletes from 1949-80, built one of the first athletic trainer/team physician relationships in college sports, working closely with Jack Hughston, MD. He was one of seven Olympic athletic trainers in 1952, and he was selected for several All-Star games as well as the 1975 Pan-Am Games. Howard is now retired.
1924 - 1998
In 1957, Lorain “Tow” Diehm came to the University of New Mexico as head athletic trainer and held that position for 40 years. After being wounded in the invasion of Normandy, Diehm started his athletic training career in 1948 at Santa Rosa Junior College. He later worked at his college alma mater, Kansas State Teachers College, and Michigan State University. Diehm was a respected lecturer and mentor.
1895-1983
Starting in 1920, Charles Turner spent 60 years as an athletic trainer; in 1942 he also earned a chiropractic degree and designation as a naturopathy physician. Turner cared for Olympians, Harlem Globetrotters, college athletes; he also played, coached and provided athletic training services for the Negro National League. He lectured in Israel, Venezuela, Jamaica and throughout Europe. Turner finished his career at Long Island University.
1920 - 1989
Edward Sulkowski impacted the amateur boxing world, not with his powerful left hook, but with his skill in providing care. He began his career in 1948 as a student under Chuck Medlar at Penn State, where he remained. Sulkowski officiated Army boxing championships and was president of the NCAA Boxing Coaches Association.
1910 - 2007
Rod Kimball became a legend while serving at Brigham Young University from 1937-75. Known as the man with the Midas touch, he developed treatment techniques and prevention procedures still in use at BYU. Kimball also was a trusted mentor and confidant for athletes, students and even coaches, reminding them to “strive not to be the best in the world, but the best for the world.”