Nov 13, 2017Doc Wilson Honored
Last Friday night, Killeen (Texas) High School honored its long-time head athletic trainer, Al “Doc” Wilson, who will retire at the end of the year. It was Wilson’s last football game and a special halftime ceremony was planned.
According to kdhpressbox.com, the ceremony included video messages from Wilson’s friends and colleagues, including a FaceTime message from Wilson’s grandson Zane, who is stationed with the Army in Fort Carson, Colo.
“All these people that have come back, they mean the world to me,” he said.
Wilson started out as an athletic training student at Hamilton High School, then Howard Payne College, before interviewing for Killeen High School’s athletic trainer position.
“They wanted an athletic trainer,” Wilson said. “I came here in 1961 and I never left.”
Leo Buckley, who coached for Killeen at the time, told Wilson that his position would soon change to full-time athletic trainer, at a time when there were only five athletic trainers in all of Texas.
“I’d already been told whatever Leo Buckley tells you, you can go to the bank on it because that’s the way it’s going to be,” Wilson said.
Tony Dunn, one of Wilson’s first students, fondly recalled how Wilson helped him. Wilson later served as the best man at Dunn’s wedding.
“He taught me how to tape,” Dunn said. “He taught me to be an athletic trainer, and it was a whole lot more to our job description when we first started.”
Wilson’s wife, Gail Wilson, said she was grateful that so many people came to honor her husband.
“It makes you feel good that so many people love him,” she said.
