There’s clearly much more to being an athletic trainer than taping ankles but apparently people enjoy taking pictures of ankle taping because there are a lot of them. It also seems that taping ankles is more enjoyable than one might suspect, as every image I’ve seen of this activity has a smiling trainer in it. Here’s one undated and unidentified:
And here’s one of Rice trainer Eddie Wojecki, who arrived on campus in 1942 and took care of Owl athletes until his death in 1967:
Wojecki was a big deal in the world of athletic trainers, one of the people who worked to make it a profession. There’s a Southwest Athletic Trainers Association award named in his honor–you can read about Wojecki and his contributions in this short biographical piece at their page.
Bonus: From a 1905 book, here’s the Gibney Method of taping ankles. It doesn’t look like what they’re doing above, but what do I know.
Allan Eggert succeeded Wojecki and for about as long. May still be around.
John T. Cabaniss
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The photo is probably from the fall of 1987 or 1989. The trainer in the foreground is Dan Hawkins ’77 who was working as a staff trainer. Bill Stone (’90) is the athlete who is being taped right behind Dan’s head – and I am the trainer doing the taping of Bill’s wrist.
I think these are different activities. The “taper” in the first photo (who is wearing what appears to be a Rice class ring) is taping prior to practice or a game. Mr. Wojecki seems to be applying an Ace bandage, perhaps demonstrating how to care for an injured ankle. This photo appears to have been taken in 1960 at a conference in Canton, OH (see his badge.) What is the significance of the line and arrow just above his shirt pocket?
Karl, I believe that the line and arrow is an indication for some publication (usually a newspaper) of where to crop a photo. So this photo might have appeared in a publication just showing his head and shoulders.
The week before the SWC trackmeet my freshman year at Rice, I broke a spike on my takeoff, got offballanced, landed in the sandpit on one leg and bent my knee backwards (broadjumping). I tore two ligaments completely, partially tore a third ligament and the lateral meniscus and ripped up the muscles above and below the knee. After Dr. Ed Smith put my knee back together, I practically lived with Wojecki for a year. He started me off slowly, with stretching exercises 5 times a day in a hot bath and knee flexes 1000 times a day in sets of 100. It ended with me running the stairs at the stadium, cursing Wojecki while I did so.. I admit that I often prayed for rain. The end result was that I could do just about anything except university level competetive broadjumping. When I later learned to ski, I often fondly thought of Eddy Wojecki. Barney L. McCoy, Hanszen 67