John 'Doc' Baxter Athletic Training and Human Performance Lab will give ESU students unique learning experience

by Phillip Tutor

Emporia, KS (09/12/2024) — For 45 years, the late John "Doc" Baxter cared for Emporia State University's student-athletes and taught athletic training to generations of students. On Sept. 21, ESU will honor his remarkable legacy when it holds a ribbon-cutting and open house for the John "Doc" Baxter Athletic Training and Human Performance Lab. Located on campus in the HPER Building, the renovated lab will offer students in two academic programs a state-of-the-art, hands-on learning experience featuring an array of modern equipment that will help them acquire professional skills.

The renovations and equipment have been made possible by the support of donors, with lead gifts from Pam Baxter, Rainer and Julie Martens and The Sunderland Foundation.

Baxter, who passed away in 2016, was ESU's head athletic trainer and instructor from 1966 to 2012.

"His dream was always to have a world-class training room, and the training rooms now are world class," said Pam Baxter, his wife. "With the addition of a lab like this, I know he'd be so pleased and proud of the facilities available to benefit the students."

The ribbon-cutting for the John "Doc" Baxter lab will be held Saturday, Sept. 21, from 10 to 11 a.m. The open house will begin immediately after and conclude before the Hornets' Family Day football game at 1 p.m. against Missouri Western at Welch Stadium.

ESU undergraduate students majoring in Health and Human Performance and graduate students in the athletic training program already are benefitting from the lab's modern equipment, said Dr. Paul Luebbers, interim dean and professor of the School of Applied Health Sciences.

Inside the lab, new treadmills and a variety of cycling and rowing apparatuses are allowing students to test patients' cardiac fitness. Data from force plates is giving students insight regarding human biomechanics. An isokinetic strength machine is helpful for injury rehabilitation. With the lab's balance machine, students are learning how to access people who are prone to falls and athletes who are recovering from concussions. Students in the athletic training program are benefiting from a new simulation mannequin that demonstrates physiological issues and allows them to practice blood pressure tests and intravenous line insertions.

The lab's marquee addition is a DEXA scanner that measures bone density and body composition, which may become a popular assessment tool for coaches in ESU's athletics department.

"For us to be able to have something like that is pretty nice," Luebbers said.

Baxter, who graduated from the University of New Mexico, served as an assistant athletic trainer at the United States Military Academy at West Point before coming to ESU. He is a member of the ESU Athletics Hall of Honor, the Emporia State HPER Hall of Honor, the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame, the NAIA Hall of Fame and the Kansas Athletic Trainers' Society Hall of Fame.

"He may have influenced more students than anybody on this campus," said Luebbers, who was one of Baxter's students and became a colleague when he joined the ESU faculty. "Every athlete who walked through this building and played on our courts or on our fields, they knew him. I can't imagine how many students he helped over the years."