Marshall University Athletics
Marshall Sports Medicine Hall of Fame To Enshrine Four
1/30/2007 12:00:00 AM | General
Jan. 30, 2007
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - The Marshall Sports Medicine Hall of Fame will induct its seventh class this weekend at the group's annual banquet on Friday, February 16, 2007, at 7:30 p.m., at the Pullman Plaza Hotel in Downtown Huntington. The event is sponsored by Cabell-Huntington Hospital.
The Marshall Sports Medicine Hall of Fame will honor four individuals in its seventh class. John Messinger, Dr. William Sheils, Dr. Jack Steel, and Scott Street will all be recognized for their contributions to the Marshall University Sports Medicine community.
"The Sports Medicine Hall of Fame is a way we can show our appreciation to these individuals and recognize them for their contributions," said Bob Marcum, Marshall University's Director of Athletics. "The four gentlemen we are inducting this year helped provide their expertise, dedication and support to our many athletes, and we are proud to honor them for their commitment."
A reception begins at 7:00 p.m., and tickets are $20 per person, and may be purchased through the Marshall University Ticket Office. The inductees will also be honored at the men's basketball game versus Tulane on February 17.
The accomplishments and biographies of the 2007 honorees are listed below.
John Messinger, MS, ATC, LAT, spent nearly eight years working with the athletic teams at Marshall University. From 1991 to 1994, Messinger was an assistant athletic trainer for the men's basketball and soccer teams until he was promoted to head athletic trainer in 1994. He then supervised all football-related duties until his departure in 1999. While serving in those positions, he supervised both graduate and undergraduate students, taught a variety of courses and performed administrative duties such as budgeting, insurance and drug testing. He is currently the athletic trainer for Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, GA, where he provides athletic training coverage for athletic events, evaluates, treats and oversees rehabilitation for sports-related injuries for all cadets and supervises the weight training classes. He is a long-time member of the National Athletic Trainers Association and the National Youth Sports Coaches Association, among other organizations, and serves as an athletic trainer for a variety of community events and activities.
Long before there was a formal sports medicine program at Marshall University, William Sheils, MD, and some of his partners supported the athletic teams by providing them with physicals prior to the start of school and seeing the athletes as needed once the semester began. Throughout his career, Sheils supported the sports medicine program by continuing to perform physicals and cardiac exams for team members. Sheils, a native of Huntington, is founder and past president of Huntington Internal Medicine Group. He received his bachelor of science degree from Marshall College in 1957 and his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in 1960. After an internship in Springfield, Ohio, and residencies in internal medicine at Cabell Huntington Hospital and Indiana University, he returned to Huntington to practice medicine. He is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians and the American College of Chest Physicians, a member of the American Society of Internal Medicine and was board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine.
For 16 years, Jack Steel, MD, provided treatment for injured knees, shoulders, ankles and elbows, among other sports related injuries for the various athletic teams at Marshall University. He is in practice with Scott Orthopedic Center, where he specializes in sports medicine, arthroscopic surgery and general orthopedics. Steel started his medical career as a nurse, graduating magna cum laude from West Virginia University School of Nursing in 1978. He went on to the WVU School of Medicine for his medical degree and completed his residency in orthopedics there in 1988. He is a Fellow with the American Association of Orthopedic Surgeons, a member of the Arthroscopy Association of North America, the American Medical Association, the West Virginia Medical Association, and is a charter member and past president of the West Virginia Orthopedic Society. An athlete himself, Steel enjoys hunting, fishing, and has participated in the Pittsburgh Marathon and Disney Marathon.
The final inductee, Scott Street, the current Athletics Director at the University of Texas-Pan American, got his start as an athletic trainer at the University of Iowa in 1983, but later joined Marshall University as an assistant athletic trainer and instructor from 1986 to 1988. While with MU, he was responsible for the men's basketball, baseball and golf teams, provided supervision and instruction for student athletic trainers and served on a variety of sports medicine committees. From Marshall, Street went on to Wake Forest University, where he was a founder of the Atlantic Coast Conference Sports Medicine Association, an organization that began with 10 members but now has more than 70. He later worked his way up the ranks at the University of Missouri-Rolla and the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he was promoted to senior associate athletic director before moving on to his current position.
