The Sports Science Laboratory will be named after John ‘Doc’ Anderson
Published at 19:39 on Friday, August 23, 2024
- Troy University John “Doc” Anderson made an impact on the lives of countless athletic training students during his long career at Troy University.
The Sports Science Lab at Troy University’s new Jones Hall will be named after a Troy icon – John “Doc” Anderson.
The honor was made possible by a gift from Tracy and Luann Atz Causey, both 1998 Troy graduates. The gift will be used to help purchase new equipment for Jones Hall, which is nearing completion on the Troy Campus . The building will be home to the College of Health Sciences programs.
A small event was held on July 27 to surprise Anderson with the honor.
“Luann and I feel privileged to be able to honor John “Doc” Anderson in this way,” said Tracy Causey. “He has represented Troy well over the years and has had multi-generational impacts on the lives of young men and women during his long tenure at Troy University. He has never allowed or enjoyed the spotlight, but at this point in his career and life, a spotlight is absolutely necessary and deserved. He is truly a legend in the athletic training industry and his impact and influence should not be easily forgotten. This is simply our attempt to make him more clearly known and to show our gratitude to him from all those he has influenced over the years. Thank you Doctor for all you have done and all you will continue to do.”
The recognition really came as a surprise to Anderson.
“That caught my eye; I thought we’d just take a tour of the building,” he said. “It’s humbling. The university is bigger than any of us. Hopefully we’ll turn out good exercise science students. That’s what we’re talking about. Quality students make the teachers look good. It’s all about the students.”
Anderson has experience at every level of athletic training: student, coach, trainer, professor and director of curriculum.
As a student-athlete at Auburn University, he helped lead the Tigers to their 1964 SEC Cross Country Championship before graduating in 1965.
Anderson began his coaching career at Troy four years later as head coach of the track and field teams for 12 seasons while also serving a 14-year tenure as head athletic trainer (1967-80). During this time, his teams won three conference track and field championships and seven cross country conference championships.
He left Troy in 1980 to take the position of head athletic trainer at LSU for 10 years, but returned in 1990 and continued to coach the cross country teams.
Between his start and return to Troy, Anderson coached 45 All-Americans, including Charles Oliver who won the NAIA 400-meter National Championship in 1976, two Collegiate Conference Championships at Alabama in 1970-71 and a Southern Conference Championship in Bay in 1978 with the runway. and the field team. Cross-country teams won 10 Gulf South Conference titles and five NCAA Division II Regional Championships.
He was named the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Coach of the Year twice from 1973-74 and the National Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1992. He won conference coach of the year six times during both of his careers at Troy and was also named NCAA Division II Regional Coach of the Year four times.
As an athletic trainer, Anderson served the 1996 Olympic Games for the USA track and field team and was a member of their medical team in 1984, 1988 and 1992.
He received the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) Service Award in 1997, was inducted into the Alabama Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame in 1999, and won the NATA Most Outstanding Athletic Trainer in 2006. Anderson was inducted into the Troy Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, and, in 2017, was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame.