Ankle Taping

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:

Ankle taping nd

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:

Eddie Wojecki ankle

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.

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5 Responses to Ankle Taping

  1. Cabaniss, John says:

    Allan Eggert succeeded Wojecki and for about as long. May still be around.

    John T. Cabaniss
    Retired Senior Partner

    Andrews Kurth LLP
    600 Travis, Suite 4200
    Houston, Texas 77002
    713.220.4454 Phone

  2. 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.

  3. Karl Benson says:

    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?

    • David M. Bynog says:

      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.

  4. Barney L. McCoy says:

    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

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