A number of individuals with ties to the University of Missouri athletic programs were inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame Class of 2019 recently.
Former football coach Gary Pinkel, former football player Jeremy Maclin and radio and television broadcaster Chris Gervino were part of the class, as well as Platte County High School graduate Eric McDonnell, an athletic trainer for the Tigers.
For the past 37 years, McDonnell has been on the sidelines for the football games and on the bench for hundreds of Missouri women’s basketball games or volleyball games.
His career trajectory started in Platte City when he declined an opportunity to play football for coach Bob Maxwell and the Pirates. While football was off the table, he became an athletic trainer for the football team — graduating in 1977 — and he eventually worked his way up the ladder.
He was a student assistant athletic trainer at Missouri from 1977 to 1981. As a 14-year-old freshman at Platte County, he went to a four-day summer workshop in Emporia, Kan., to learn more about being a student assistant athletic trainer.
Contributed photo
Eric McDonnell, right, is a Platte County graduate that was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame last month in Springfield.
McDonnell said he knew during the retreat that this was going to be the job for him. It ‘fit’ him well, he said during his hall of fame induction.
He spent 19 years as the primary assistant in football at Mizzou before joining the women’s basketball program for 12 years. He currently wrapped up his ninth year as the assistant with the volleyball program.
McDonnell worked closely with Fred Wappel and Dr. Glenn McElroy, other Missouri Sports Hall of Fame inductees, while at Missouri.
He also did work in his field off the field, such as working to get a state measure passed in Missouri to require a higher standard for athletic trainers, which includes background checks and proof of accredited college education.
Since then, 49 other states have passed similar measures. His work with the Missouri legislature took more than three years.
“That protects the public from being misled by someone who is not properly credentialed as an athletic trainer,” said McDonnell, who earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education in health and physical science (1982) and a master’s degree in education administration (1986) from Missouri.
He also coordinated medical coverage for the Show-Me State Games from its inception in 1984 to 2000.
McDonnell and his wife, Sabrina, reside in Columbia and have two children, Madison (20) and Grant (16). They are active in the Broadway Christian Church and Boy Scout Troop 706.
The Missouri Sports Hall of Fame induction is the latest in a long line for honors for the Platte City native. He is a member of the NATA, Mid America Athletic Trainers and Missouri Athletic Trainers Association Sports Medicine halls of fame.
In a unique twist from his daily life, he is a commissioned reserve police officer for Weatherby Lake in southern Platte County.