ATLANTA (Feb. 21) – Don Lowe, a 35-year veteran of athletic training including the last 25 years at Syracuse University, has been named Georgia Tech’s Director of Sports Medicine, Director of Athletics Dave Braine announced Monday.
Lowe replaces Jay Shoop, Tech’s Director of Sports Medicine since 1987 who recently accepted a position as the head trainer for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League.
Syracuse’s Coordinator of Sports Medicine since 1975, Lowe will oversee the sports medicine program for all 16 Tech sports while serving as the head trainer for the football team.
“Any time you lose somebody like Jay Shoop, who not only was a friend to every student-athlete but was also a tremendous trainer and an even better individual, it’s quite a challenge to replace him,” said Braine. “In the hiring of Don Lowe we have someone with impeccable credentials and a long record of distinguished work in the field of sports medicine.”
One of the most highly respected figures in collegiate sports medicine, Lowe was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) Hall of Fame last summer, when he also became a member of the New York State Hall of Fame. In 1995, Lowe received the NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award, and in 1986, he was voted the organization’s Collegiate Athletic Trainer of the Year. He was honored with the Cramer Award in 1991 as the Outstanding Trainer in the Eastern Athletic Trainers Association as well as the Thomas Sheehan Award in 1983 as the Outstanding Trainer in the state of New York. Lowe has served on numerous NATA committees, including the licensure committee and a stint as chairman of the membership committee, and in 1992 he founded the College Athletic Trainers Society.
Lowe also brings a wide range of experience in international athletics, serving as the men’s basketball trainer for the 1983 Pan Am Games and on the U.S. Olympic Training Staff for the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain.
“We’re very fortunate to be able to hire someone with Don’s level of experience and expertise for a job that is so very important in collegiate athletics,” said Tech head football coach George O’Leary, who worked with Lowe while an assistant coach at Syracuse from 1980-86.
Lowe, 57, began his career at his alma mater, Kent State University, where he served as a graduate assistant (1965-66), assistant athletic trainer (1966-69) and then head athletic trainer from 1969-75, when he moved to Syracuse. He earned a B.S. degree in physical education and biology from Kent in 1964 and then added a master’s degree in physical education in 1969.
A native of Marietta, Ohio, Lowe and his wife Mary have three children, Heather, Melissa and Jeff.
