Michigan Athletic Trainers Honor Albion's Bob and Carol Moss

June 16, 2015

Albion College Kinesiology Department members Bob and Carol Moss made a little history earlier this month by being the first husband-and-wife duo to be inducted into the Michigan Athletic Trainers Society Hall of Fame. They represent only the 27th and 28th inductees in the organization’s 25-year history.

“I truly love athletic training and have given my heart and soul to the profession,” said Carol Moss, staff lecturer and clinical coordinator for Albion’s athletic training education program, and the fifth woman to enter the Hall of Fame. “It was just incredible to feel appreciated and recognized.”

“I’ve told people for years that I married the best athletic trainer I know,” Bob Moss added. “I wouldn’t have had nearly the success I’ve had in athletic training if it wasn’t for my wife.”

Carol Moss has been a pioneer for women in the athletic training field. She has been practicing since she attended The Ohio State University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in physical education with an emphasis in athletic training. From there she went to Kent State University as a graduate student while earning her master’s degree in athletic administration. Upon the completion of her degree, she was immediately hired as the university’s first female athletic trainer and also served as an adjunct professor. She joined Albion’s staff in 2000.

Since 2011, Moss has served as co-chair of the exam development committee for the profession’s national Board of Certification (BOC). A member of the committee since 2002, her role is to help construct and validate test questions for the national certification exam for athletic training. During her 34-year career, she has been invited to speak at numerous state, regional and national meetings and symposia to share her clinical knowledge, especially in the areas of gait analysis and manual therapy.

Professor Bob Moss, who has served as department chair since 2009, came to Albion in 2000 to direct the College’s newly formed athletic training education program. On the national scale, Bob has served on committees for the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education (to accredit athletic training majors at other institutions) and for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association’s Research and Education Foundation. He has also served on the BOC to construct and validate certification exam questions. More locally, he served as vice president of the Michigan Athletic Trainers Society from 2008-2010.

Moss received his Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University in biomechanics, and his master’s degree from Western Michigan University in athletic training. He still enjoys teaching classes in gross anatomy, human systems anatomy and biomechanics, but more important, he says, is his enjoyment of encouraging students and helping them find their path. “I wanted to help athletes be better athletes, that was my first goal,” he said. “You don’t become an athletic trainer for the glory or the money. It’s about relationships, and the things you receive from colleagues, and students, too. It’s a field where you exchange ideas all the time.”

Including the idea, as it turns out, to nominate the Mosses together.

“A former student, Yume Nakamura (class of 2010) nominated us,” said Carol, adding that she and Bob received word of their induction together via speakerphone. “I knew [Yume] was nominating Bob, and she told Bob that she was nominating me, so we were both very surprised and overwhelmed at the news.

Nakamura received her master's degree from Michigan State University and is currently a staff athletic trainer at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

“I think the quality of education at Albion is superior,” Carol added. “After graduation, our students tell me all the time, when they move on to master’s programs or PT school, that they feel incredibly prepared.”