Apr 2, 2015Texas Rowers Name Boat For Tina Bonci
The University of Texas rowing team will name one of its new boats “Tina Bonci” after the longtime UT athletic trainer who recently died of cancer. Head Coach Dave O’Neill told The Daily Texan that the decision to name the boat was an organic process that spurned from discussions with his captains.
“She was an incredible woman who left a great legacy,” senior captain Casey Redman said. “I got to know her on a personal level when I first came to Texas, and I can truly say that she has forever impacted my life.”
Bonci worked at UT since being hired as Head Athletic Trainer in 1985. During her tenure, she worked tirelessly to develop an interdisciplinary form of healthcare which demonstrated how medical practitioners, university academicians and researchers, exercise scientists, coaches, and administrators could work together to better take care of students and student-athletes. She was also a proponent of female student-athlete health and an inductee into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame.
Her legacy also lives on in the service of current UT athletic trainers, as she wrote the entire training-room manual that is still in use today. Known best for her relationships with student-athletes, she worked with them on a daily basis and was considered a full-time employee until the time of her death in March 2014.
