Off the Roll

Mike Miller grew up a Purdue fan due to his father being an alum.  The LaGrange, IN native thought his future was going to Purdue and purse a business degree but a few high school coaches and an interest in medicine changed his course and he found himself in the fall 1991 in Muncie, IN at Ball State University observing to get into the Athletic Training Education Program.  He had to work hard to g...

At Earlham College in Richmond, IN, working as an equipment room as a student assistant a young Barry Clements found an interest in athletic training.  This lead to attending a Cramer Student Athletic Training workshop in 1976 at Ball State University which in turn allowed him to return to his high school to put his skills to work at student athletic trainer at Richmond High School.  Whe...

What do ATI physical therapy, Athletico, and Ivy Rehab all have in common?  They would not be here if not for the vision of NATA Hall of Famer, Dick Hoover and his idea for independent outpatient physical therapy clinics.  Glen Snow shares the story of Physical Therapy Services, the first independent outpatient physical therapy clinic that went nation wide.  In 1984 Glen was recruit...

Bill Bean by his own admission, was an average athlete, but being an average athlete led to a 40 year plus career as an athletic trainer/physical therapist.  He started out at his local high school as a student athletic trainer in Rexburg, ID and then thanks to his head football coach talking the athletic trainer at Utah State he became a student athletic trainer at Utah State.  After fu...

In the summer of 1970 Jim Routhier made a decision that set the course of the rest of his career.  He had decided to transfer from IPFW to Ball State University and pursue a major in teaching but he also had an interest in medicine and took an into to athletic training class taught by Jim Dickerson.  This set him on a pathway of a distinguished 31 year career as the athletic trainer at C...

It is interesting how fate steps in and provides an opportunity to start a life long career.  That is exactly what happened to Brian Jones when an automobile accident led to a meeting with the athletic trainer that took care of his mom after the accident.  John Coddington's influence on Brian started him on a career pathway that has been in the making for over 30 years.  His recomme...

Athletic Trainers need supplies to do their jobs.  Sometimes the most important person in getting an athlete back is the sports medicine company representative.  They play an intrical part in supporting athletic trainers and the care they provide their athletes.  Whether is overnighting a product or introducing a new product that will help the athletic trainer get an athlete back to...

Thanks to a Cramer student athletic trainer correspondence course, some supportive coaches and a desire to be a part of a team Dr. Tom Weidner's athletic training career was off and running at Rich East high school in Park Forest, IL.  Although not knowing much, but what he was learning from the Cramer course and a few found textbooks and articles he was determined to be Rich East's first athletic...

As a high school athlete Rob Hunt was on the receiving end of athletic training services at West Lafayette High School in West Lafayette, IN. Right in the shadow of one of the more storied epicenters of athletic training, Purdue University.  He wanted to design and build things so Ball State University's architecture program seemed like the right fit. Unbeknownst to him he was following in th...

Mark Lahr was too short and too slow to be on his high school basketball team at Lafayette Jeff High School in Lafayette IN.  It was just the right combination to start a long and exceptional career as an athletic trainer.  With a few detours on along the way Mark found his way to Jim Dickerson and the Ball State AT program.  Mark graduated from Ball State in 1984 with a math teachi...

Our 10th Episode! How does an architecture major and a week in the student health center lead to an outstanding athletic training career featuring innovation and product development that contributes to the health and well being of athletes?  Ron O'Neil explains in this episode of Off the Roll.  Ron was a graduate of Ball State University in 1969.  While at Ball State he played varsi...

After getting cut from his HS basketball team for being to slow and too small Jay Bradley embarked on a career path that has kept him busy throughout the Midwest for over 50 years.  After taking a Cramer Student Athletic Trainer correspondence course in high school he was asked to be his high school's athletic trainer.  He was the student athletic trainer for the 1967 Indiana Boys All St...

In 1985 there was a shift in perspective in Ball State Athletic Training.  Rex Sharp was hired as the head athletic trainer.  Not being a physical therapist was a change in direction for the program.  He was joining fellow Ball State AT alum and assistant athletic trainer Tony Cox.  Together the first couple of years were spent building a health care and AT education program th...

Sometimes we get the opportunity to take care of the people that we once were. It is a unique and sometimes rare opportunity but can be very rewarding to use our experience to help young people achieve their dreams.  That is what Jamie Broz is doing now.  As the manager for the Center for the Female Athlete at Dayton's Children's Hospital she gets to help young female athletes just...

Self Promotion can been seen two ways, bragging or advocating  With John Coddington is was always about what athletic trainers could do in the clinical setting.  He has backed it up with a 47 year AT career, all in the clinical setting.  He was a pioneer starting at LaPorte Hospital, LaPorte, IN in 1976 as one of the only athletic trainers in a hospital setting at the time.  He...

Episode 5:  Dr. Alan Habansky was an orthopedic surgeon in Muncie, IN for over 35 years and 30 of those years as a team physician for Ball State Athletics.  His story weaves in and out of experiences and people like a woven blanket.  From being a classmate of Dr. Anthony Fauci during his undergrad at Holy Cross to being a Sports Medicine Fellow with Dr. James Andrews at the Hughston...

Angie Miller has been an Certified Athletic Trainer for over 30 years.  She started out as an AT student at Ball State graduating in 1989 and then off to Ohio University as graduate assistant in a small high school.  After a short stint at a high school outreach position in Columbus, OH she landed at Avon High School, Avon, IN and has been there ever since.  She was their first full...

When you say the name Leto around a group of Athletic Trainers in Indiana most will think about Ball State Athletic Training and few more will think about Hobart Jr Sr High School.  Mark Leto has been an athletic trainer for over 30 years and worked in all types of settings as an athletic trainer.  For the past 29 years he has been the athletic trainer at Hobart Jr Sr High school in Hoba...

Glen Snow aka "Snowball" has been involved in athletic training for over 50 years. He is an Indiana Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Famer.  He was a student of Sayers Bud Miller, Jim Dickerson and Ron Sendre.  He worked with Bud Miller at the University of Washington and eventually be became the Athletic Trainer at Floyd Central HS in Floyds Knob, IN.  At Floyd Central he was...

Welcome to Off the Roll!  This is the first of hopefully many episodes.  We talk with Ron Sendre, alumni, former assistant AT, Co-Head AT and AT Education program director at Ball State University.  Ron spent 8 years at BSU and then left to go to Central Michigan University where he developed and instituted the first AT major in the the United States.  He tells his story about...