John Lopez's induction into the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) Hall of Fame in St. Louis on June 28, 2012 was the crowning moment of an improbable career for the Coppin State coordinator of sports medicine.
Lopez never envisioned a career as an athletic trainer when he graduated from University of Tampa more than 40 years ago. His ambition was to coach high school football. Lopez got his coaching break when his former high school coach, Tom Murray, became athletic director at Tampa Catholic High and offered him a job as offensive line coach for the junior varsity team.
The offer had a string attached, however. Lopez had to take on extra responsibilities, which included scouting for the varsity, filming game for the varsity and coaching track and field. For good measure, Murray threw in the trainer's position, noting that Lopez knew how to tape ankles.
"I thought I had the best job in the world,'' says Lopez, who earned the princely sum of $250 a year for his extra responsibilities.
Little did Lopez know that being an athletic trainer, not coaching football, would become his life's work, nor did he know that it would be such a rewarding career.
"I got into it by accident,'' he says. "I had no plans. All wanted to do was coach football. But after I got into it, I really enjoyed it. When I had the opportunity to go after it full time, I went for it.''
The opportunity to become a full-time athletic trainer came two years after he landed his first coaching job. When Tampa dropped football in 1975, Lopez joined Philadelphia of the World Football League for a season before the team folded. His next stop was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, where he was an assistant athletic trainer for three seasons before becoming head athletic trainer for the Baltimore Colts.
"It was a matter of being in the right place at the right time, and knowing a lot of good people who were willing to me out and move up the ladder,'' Lopez says, adding that when started at Tampa Catholic he was only one of four athletic trainers in the state of Florida. The others were at Florida State, Miami and the University of Florida.
Lopez left the Colts shortly after the team relocated to Indianapolis in 1984. He returned to Baltimore and opened a Sports Medicine Center, which he ran for 20 years before going into sports medicine sales.
Lopez's career as an athletic trainer appeared to be behind him until an unexpected turn of events led him to Coppin State. On the recommendation of Oakland Raiders athletic trainer George Anderson and Rod Martin, Athletic Director Derrick Ramsey contacted Lopez about possible candidates when the Eagles were looking to hire an assistant athletic trainer in 2010. Anderson and Martin had been Ramsey's trainers when Ramsey played for the Raiders.
Both had ties to Lopez. Anderson was Lopez's mentor, and Martin had been one of Lopez's student athletic trainers. They suggested that Lopez could help Ramsey in his search because of his network of acquaintances among athletic trainers.
The two communicated for several months without Ramsey making a hire. That led Lopez, 67, to say jokingly to Ramsey during one of their conversations, "if you're that desperate, why don't you hire an old guy like me?''
Ramsey took Lopez up his suggestion and offered him the job, which Lopez accepted. After three days on the job, Coppin State's head athletic trainer resigned, and Ramsey asked Lopez to take over.
"It worked out as a great opportunity for me,'' Lopez says of returning to being an athletic trainer. "It's not like being in a car driving 300-400 miles a day and being away from home (while in sports medicine sales). I didn't realize how much I missed it. I missed the hands on part of it.''
Lopez stayed close to athletic trainers while in sales and was able to keep abreast of the changes that occurred in that field while he was away from it.
"The biggest thing is in collegiate athletics now is that you have year round sports going on,'' he says. "There is no period when no one is practicing. When I was in college athletics, football was the only sport allowed to practice.''
Lopez also noted there is greater awareness of concussions and testing for the sickle cell trait among student-athletes.
Lopez says his goal at Coppin State is to better the continuity of care and improve on campus rehabilitation for injured student-athletes. He tries to call every parent when a student-athlete is injured and explain the nature of the injury and the plan for treatment and rehabilitation. He is coordinating hospitals in the Baltimore area for better medical service, and Baltimore Ravens team physician Dr. Andy Tucker has become the doctor for Coppin State's athletic teams.
"There is a lot better array of medical services than in the past,'' Lopez says. "Things have changed an awful lot. But the more things change, the more they stay the same. It still comes down to communicating with coaches and athletes. That's the enjoyable part.''