Medicine Man

Or women, as the case may be. Leading his tribe into battle, a Lakota Sioux Medicine man often rode at the front of his braves. A symbol of all that they knew about the world, and even more importantly, a symbol of all that was yet to be discovered.

A modern day athletic trainer is a lot like that. Like the Medicine Men before him, skin and bones were just another part of the deal.

Try telling that to their parents, though. Never mind that those mothers and fathers had entrusted such men with their children's care ever since the world began. That much they understood and gladly accepted. But what about the kids who had neither one of their parents around and had only gotten into college by way of either Grandma or a legal guardian? Those kids in fact, often became their life's calling and the lights that shined the brightest for such men.

Those weren't going to be coming from the coaches that had initially recruited them into the university and they weren't going to be coming from the Athletic Director who had sanctioned them and given them that "full ride", or as in many of their cases, had only gotten to be a part of the show on their own dime.

No, it was always going to come from that medicine man whom ultimately cared for them and had taken that initial leap of faith along with their families a long time ago.

"It really was a tough time for me." Coach Dave Binder agrees, reflecting back upon those years. "You see, I just loved the game of football so much, that it really broke my heart when I realized that I wasn't quite good enough to play at that (collegiate) level. I pretty much began to acknowledge that fact after my freshman season was over at UTEP."

So, how did you make the transition from point A to point B in your college career?

I can honestly say that what basically drove me into athletic training, was that I simply wanted to be around the football in any way that I could. I wanted to be around my friends and teammates, and to just be around the game period. You know, being around all of the guys that I had played with during my freshman year and had hung around with in school and those kinds of things."

"To be completely honest," Coach Binder says, "all that I had ever really wanted to be in my life was a football Coach. That was my dream. That was my plan. I had never even heard of an athletic trainer back then. I mean, if anyone ever taped your ankles in those days it was probably one of the coaches."

Well, now that you have very honorably worn the title of Coach Binder and even been recognized as one of the top collegiate athletic trainers in the nation, how would you exactly define being an athletic trainer?

Dave Binder considers this for a bit and says, "Well you know Jimmy, I will still say this now as I have said to all of the student trainers who have ever started in a program where I have been the head trainer. I would tell them that there is a pretty simple definition of what an athletic trainer is, and it is simply this: An athletic trainer is someone that cares more for his athletes than he does himself.

Now, the other thing that I premise that with of course, was that I did not say that the athlete came before your religion, or your country or your family, but that the athlete in fact, simply comes before you. As an athletic trainer, they can't ever lose sight of why they are there. The most important thing is always the athlete. If you can put yourself behind the needs of someone else's child who just also happens to be an athlete in your care, then you will understand what it takes. If you can't be there every day for that athlete, then you probably shouldn't use this for a career."

Then, looking me straight in the eyes, the Coach adds, "That is what I have always believed and still do."

Those are words that would certainly bring comfort to any parent of an athlete so far away from the home.

"Well, you have really got to believe in those principals," Coach Binder says emphatically. "In most people's eyes, athletic trainers are typically mostly responsible for the athletic injuries upon the field and the rehabilitation of said injuries, but there is a whole lot more to it sometimes. Because of that, I always tried to simplify those kind of things within my troops. I did that by saying that the athlete always came first no matter what. That credo has served me well over the years and has never let me lose sight of what this job was really supposed to be about. I certainly don't think of this as rocket science, but at least in my mind, it is just as important."

Suddenly turning somber and reflective, Coach looks off at something that only he can see and says, "You know, all of that of stuff I told you just now about how tough it was for me growing up? Well, it really wasn't that tough at all. My parents had completely paved the way for me to be successful at whatever I chose to do. I wish that every one of us could be so lucky - honestly. My mother and my father went through literal hell during the war (World War Two). I think that most people tend to forget all about the sacrifices that their families made back then and that really makes me sad. My parents were always a great source of strength for me growing up and in supporting pretty much anything that I showed an interest in. My dad, along with my mother, were a part of that greatest generation you know, of which so much has been written about."

Pausing for a moment before continuing, Coach says, "My father dealt with things in World War II that make anything that I might have had to deal with later on in life seem like nothing."

The Japanese quickly evacuated the ship and were picked up by their destroyer escorts. Before leaving, the Japanese guards cut the rope ladders into the prisoner holds. Somehow, these were repaired by the prisoners and the survivors mostly agree that all of the prisoners were able to get off the ship. Many of the starving and thirsty scavenged for whatever food and water they could before leaving the ship. At first, many of the prisoners swam toward the Japanese destroyers hoping for a rescue, as it was their only hope. Instead of mercy, they were pushed and beaten away with poles. The remaining men climbed on whatever wreckage they could find hoping to stay afloat for a rescue from an allied ship.

Sadly, only nine of the prisoners aboard the Hell Ship survived that day. Five of them escaped and made their way to China in one of the ship's two life boats. Miraculously, they were reunited with U.S. Forces and returned to the United States. The four others though, were later recaptured by Imperial Japanese naval vessels and Martin Binder was among those men. One of his group died shortly upon reaching land, a victim of the Japanese brutality.

Based on later military reports before and after the attack, Martin Binder was imprisoned for at least 1,258 days (3 years and 6 months). One of the longest duration's of captivity for one man recorded during the entire war, it is often cited as being the longest one period.

"Yeah, my dad was on that damned ship," Coach Binder says with both a mixture of pride and bitterness. "But he was also a hero. My hero for my entire life. Early on in the war, he was in the Philippines and captured during the battle for Corregidor. He then went to work as a virtual slave of the emperor shortly thereafter. Later on, he was sent to Formosa and forced to work in a mine after the ship disaster that took place in 1944. He weighed only 87 pounds when they rescued him after the war in Japan was finally over.

Think about that. My dad. You take your hat off and hit your knees whenever you hear about those types of things."

My gosh, what an amazing story of survival! Did your dad ever say much about it?

"No, he never liked to talk about those things," Coach replies. "Those were not good times for him, but I knew. He had won the Silver Star right after the war, but was kind of embarrassed by it as he always said that the real heroes were the ones that got left behind. So you see, I had an awful lot to live up to because of him. But far more importantly to my dad, his son now had an opportunity to make something of himself far away from the carnage of war. I sure hope that I have made him proud of me in some small way after all of these years. Thank you Gus - my father and my hero."

"Oh, there most certainly was," a smiling Coach Binder fondly recalls. "There was an athletic trainer at UTEP by the name of Ross Moore and he basically saw something in me and gave me a chance to work with him. Because of that chance, I pretty much became an athletic trainer from that point forward. I truly enjoyed it and I worked really hard at it and I certainly learned a lot from that particular fellow."

Watching your face just now, it is clear that Ross Moore made maybe an even bigger impression upon your life. Didn't you name your son Kyle Ross after him?

Now grinning from ear to ear, Coach Binder replies, "I did. I sure did. There's no doubt about that. Ross Moore is completely responsible for me being an athletic trainer. He was my mentor and he was quite a guy, no doubt about that. I really don't know how else to say it, but he really influenced me by giving me some direction into a field that I became passionate about -which before, I hadn't even known existed."

"It certainly was," an animated Coach Binder admits. Because I honestly had no idea what an athletic trainer was, nor exactly where any of this was going to lead to. Being able to observe him and watch the way that he did things really shaped me as a young trainer. Now, he was a tough old bird. I tell ya, he was tough old guy. But he was always fair with the athletes and I would like to think that I was the same way later on. No matter how tough he was on those athletes though, he really loved them. Now, he never would have said that out loud, but they always knew that he loved them.

And what a work ethic! He showed up every day for work. In fact, I don't ever remember him not being at work. And, he was able to get so much out of nothing. I mean, we didn't have anything back then. We were not a Notre Dame where you had unlimited resources.

For instance, we made our own pads. We even made our own mouthpieces. It took a week to make a mouthpiece, but we still made our own mouthpieces. We molded the mouths of those kids, and coated the molds with rubber cement. Then we would leave them in this box that we built with a 100 watt light bulb inside. Everyday, we would put three or four coats of rubber cement on those things until they were done. Then we would make two or three more and on and on. We made everything from thigh pads to mouthpieces to special pads for shoulders and harnesses that they still use today."

"Well, I asked him one time," Coach says, "I said, Moe, why don't you patent this stuff? He really could have been a multimillionaire from all of the inventions that he came up with. He told me then as he always told me after, 'I never really did it for the money David, I did it to share with other people.' That was just Ross Moore. Whatever unique idea that he came up with, he wanted everyone to share in it. He wasn't looking to make a buck. He was never for sale and there isn't anyone out there like that anymore."

"It was just crazy what he could come up with Jimmy," Coach Binder continues in amazement. "He even devised surgical tubing for a kid named Paul Gibson. He was a world class hurdler that had hurt his hamstring. Well, coach had devised some sort of tubing system for taking the pressure off of his hamstring. He would simply come up with things that you could never even dream of! Now, he could dream of them, but I never could (laughing)."

Still excited to be talking about his old friend, Dave exclaims, "Well, that old guy did just about everything! He would line the football field prior to the game. He even changed out the lights in the football stadium. He did it all, because nobody else wanted to do it. It wasn't going to get done unless he did it, and so...he did it!"

It is highly unlikely that his record of service to the university will ever be eclipsed.

In 1975, he was named to the National Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame not only for his unrivaled dedication to student athletes, but also for his countless innovations along the way. Just two short years after his induction, Ross "Moe" Moore passed away at the age of 66.

His devoted wife Kathleen, kept up his pilgrimage by going to Miner home games until she was 100 years old. When she passed away at 101, their daughter was asked by the El Paso Times what had kept her mother coming back after all of those years.

"I asked her about it once," Marilyn Cromeans told the reporter, and she told me, “Your dad would probably be up there saying, ‘Where the hell is she?"

With tears of laughter in her voice, their daughter added, “And I can just hear my dad saying that too."

"I really don't think so," laughs Michelle, "but you'll have to ask him about that. And to tell you the truth, I had pretty much already made up my mind about quitting the team because of the heavy workload that I had in school.

That said, it was a different time back then. He was a trainer and I was a cheerleader, but I really didn't ever get to see him. The cheerleaders always stayed in their rooms - they weren't allowed to go out and mess with the players. When I first met him, I really didn't have any other desire to date anyone else. We weren't engaged or anything like that, but I knew he was special. On one of our very first dates, we went tubing down in Ruidoso. It was all the players and their girlfriends and we all went down to Ruidoso one morning and had a great time. He was older and I liked that too, as he always took really great care of me."

"Well, I had decided that I really liked the first name Kyle," recalls Michelle, and when Dave added the middle name of Ross, it just made perfect sense as they sounded so well together. Kathleen, who was Moe's wife, was just so excited that there was another Ross in the family and she just thought it was so awesome.

You know, Moe was very special to our family. I first met him I believe, back in '72 when I first started dating Dave. I was probably around 18 or 19 at the time, and I knew that Dave just loved him. He honestly became a part of our family through the birth of our son and we will never forget him or Kathleen."

un·der·stand·ing
adjective
1.sympathetically aware of other people's feelings; tolerant and forgiving.
"people expect their doctor to be understanding"
synonyms: compassionate, sympathetic, sensitive, considerate, tender, kind, thoughtful, tolerant, patient, forbearing, lenient, merciful, forgiving, humane.

Even with all that you learned in life from your parents and Ross Moore, dealing with headstrong, young athletes must have been a steep learning curve for you at first.

"You just have to know Jimmy," Coach Binder replies, "that diversity is the key word when dealing with anyone. A lot of athletes grew up in situations that I myself never grew up in. I had a mother and a father and some of them never even had that. Maybe their grandmother had raised them or whomever, but these things have to be understood and respected. It is quite humbling sometimes, to tell you the truth."

"It certainly was in a way," Coach agrees, "but in order for me to relate, it was actually pretty simple. That is, as long as you keep things in perspective, you will do just fine. Over all of these years I could never lose sight of what my job really was, you know. It surely encompassed a lot of different things and that definition that I just gave you...well, there was sometimes a whole lot more to it than just that. If you were really going to stay in it and put the work into it, then you would have to believe that you could make a difference in other peoples lives.

For instance, I went to this thing maybe 40 years ago and they had this guy there who's name was Dr. Harry Edwards. Dr. Edwards kind of opened my eyes at the time. Nobody really knows what it is like to be in somebody else's shoes, he had said. In some families, they actually go to the hospital simply to die - not to get any better. I thought that this was maybe the craziest thing that I had ever heard of in my life.

But by then I had found myself calling the parents of kids who were in the hospital. I might have been calling them to simply say that their son was having minor surgery on his knee and that he should be in and out on the same day...something like that. Well, some of the reactions that I got...(shaking his head sadly)."

"I mean, I would tell them that this surgery might not even last an hour, and it was like (in an excited voice) 'Do I need to be there right away? What is really going on down there?' Well, I had always assured them that everything was going to be okay, but there was often an discordant note that hung over such things and took some time to resonate with me."

"It was certainly tough for me to wear those shoes sometimes," agrees Coach Binder. "But it was truly a learning experience - mainly for me. The rewards of this job were something that can't quite be put into words. It certainly was rewarding enough though, and I can give you an example of that sort of thing which might make more sense.

Just like Dr. Edwards said, sometimes the only thing that people remembered was that Uncle Joe went into the hospital and he never came back. I think that a lot of times we really don't understand about those types of situations. The other thing is, I had this great kid Tommy Hemphill, who played football at UNM. Well, he came back a few years later and he was an officer in the military serving our country. He just looked at me and smiled, saying, 'Do you remember when I hurt my hamstring and you told me that everything was going to be okay? Well, here I am today Coach."

"Now Jimmy, I don't actually remember ever telling him that, but I probably did. I certainly remember that man in uniform who came to greet me after practice that day though. Who could ever forget that? And that is just one of those things that you do, whenever you might have a kid who maybe needs surgery or an MRI. It is probably the most important thing. You just pick up the phone and call home. I mean, that was your duty and your job. To just call the mother or grandmother or whomever, and just let them know that everything was going to be all right."

"Those were the times that really broke my heart," a somber Coach Binder replies. "Sometimes the kid would tell me that there was really nobody that I want you to call back home and that there was no need to tell anybody about his condition."

"I don't know if it was simply because there was nobody to call," Coach Binder says, "or if they just did not want to scare those people. I really don't know. Now, most times we were able to make that call and talk to the family doctor or whomever we needed to. But sometimes it was really difficult. Still, you had to do it though, as it was just another part of the job. As Harry Truman used to say, 'The buck stops here.' That was just the way it was for myself and my staff. I took that responsibility very seriously."

"Now don't get me wrong", Coach Binder interjects. "It was scary as hell sometimes. You might have a kid laying paralyzed on the back of an ambulance, for instance. What did you do then? Well, you had to make that call. You owed it to the kid and you owed it to their family. Heck, you even it owed it to yourself."

Is there still a racial and financial gap in this country that kind of flies under the radar?

"I think that is true to some extent," Coach Binder replies. "Anyone that says that there are still not prejudices in the world or evil people or whatever, they are probably living in an alternate reality. I think that if you treat people well and that you respect those people, you are going to grow and learn and you will be well served in life.

Let me give you an example of what I mean. We had this football player and his name was Corbin Epps. Now, most people were just simply terrified of Corbin. He was big and strong and would get into these fights in practice and everywhere else. I had these other trainers who worked for me and they were just so afraid of him. This aura that he presented whenever he walked into the room was just so threatening to those people.

Well, the one thing that I figured out about Corbin was that he was raised in foster care...and I am not sure that I have ever heard this about any other kid, but he was in foster care for his entire life. He never even knew who his father and mother were. He was just dumped as a baby. I don't know where it was, but he was dumped by those who created him and who were supposed to love and nurture him. I mean, the people at the home just guessed at what his birthday was as they had no way of knowing. It turns out that during his foster care, they beat the hell out of this kid. So, he grew up always ducking from the next blow that he knew had to be coming his way. When some kid tells you, 'Man, you don't know nothing about me,' then you had better listen to them. Jimmy, I learned as much from Corbin Epps as I ever learned in school. I learned that I had no idea what it might have been like to walk in his shoes. No idea at all, as Dr. Edwards would have said."

"Actually there is," says Coach Binder. "I got along great with Corbin. We really had a great relationship. Now, I don't know why in the world that we did, but we did. Now, that in no way excuses all of those fights he would get into or just the bad overall citizenship that he often showed, but you just have to understand where he came from and things like that. I only hope that maybe I helped him grow a little bit as a person. He certainly deserved a better break in life, that much is for certain."

It must be difficult for these coaches to juggle such different personalities.

"Actually, most every Coach that I know of does a great job of that," says Coach Binder "They know which athletes that they can yell at and which athletes they can give a hug to. Sometimes it is the same one. You know, Corbin Epps really taught me that."

"Well, here is another quick story of a a player along those same lines," Coach Binder counters. "That player's name was Marcus Culbreth and he was one of my favorite guys ever. He graduated from UTEP and now works for UPS. Anyway, I will never forget the time that he got this letter from his mother that she had sent to him and inside of that letter, was five dollars. Now, here's the deal: Marcus ran around the entire locker room and he showed that five dollars to everybody in there.

He was just jumping around and saying, 'Here..look at this! This is what my mother sent to me! She just sent me five bucks!' Now, the other kids in the locker room were probably thinking to themselves how that was not much of a big deal at all. But Marcus Culbreth's mother was a maid. She worked in other people's houses and and had a big family of kids to provide for back in Houston. To make a long story short, his mother had to work her ass off for that five bucks - no two ways about it."

"Well, this kid had just gotten five bucks and he thought that he was the richest kid on the planet. It was really such a big deal to him. I know that we all kind of felt bad when we found out how hard it was for his mother to send him those five bucks. I think that taught everyone on that team about Marcus's mother for sure, and what a great mother she must have been. Those kinds of things really bind us together as a team, I believe. Those are the lessons that we all learn together as men."

"Actually, they did," says a laughing Coach Binder. "I probably shouldn't admit to this, but we were playing a football game back then at home against the University of Wyoming, and we were just horrible at that particular time. I was still a student - a student trainer then, probably back in '71 or maybe '72. There was nobody in the stands, but there was this one guy...this big guy. I think that he was probably a student, and he just kept screaming and yelling about how horrible we were.

You guys suck and you guys are terrible...those types of things. Now, the players - they were just playing their guts out and doing the best that they could. We were not a very good team that season and I think that Wyoming was a pretty solid team back then. They went to the Sugar Bowl and some other stuff."

"Well, I had finally had enough of this and I went up to the guy," Coach Binder says. "I told him to meet me as soon as the game was over with. I told him that I'll be waiting in that tunnel where we go in, and I am going to kick your ass. Now, this guy was about twice as big as me but I was just really going off on him. I didn't care, as those were my guys!"

"About that time, another trainer came up to pull me away. I was still beyond saving though, as those were teammates of mine and I still wanted to have their backs. You know, I didn't care how big that he was, those were my guys! I had literally played football with those guys the year before and I had had enough. I was going to whip his butt (laughing)!

"Yeah, but you know what Jimmy," he says with a 65-year olds' wonder in his voice, "He never even showed up!"

After laughing together for quite a while about this, a clearly still relieved Coach Binder adds, "By this time I had cooled off a little bit of course, and I just knew that this guy was going to kill me! That guy would have killed me to this day!

"There was this one time," Michelle recalls. "Do you remember when Rick Majerus was the coach of Utah and he would always jump out of the coaches box on the sideline to plead his case to the refs or whatever? Well, during this one particular game, Dave had suffered through that infraction one too many times and had finally decided to take a stand - or maybe he was just in a bad mood that day, I don't know (laughs)!

Anyway, that coach (Majerus) kept coming out of the box on the sidelines that they are supposed to stay in, and finally, my husband jumped out of his seat and just started yelling at him. Pointing to him and calling him every name in the book! Well, Majerus looked straight at him with a raised eyebrow, and then eventually went back to his seat."

I asked her husband about this, and he said, "Yeah, I used a lot of colorful language that night. But in retrospect, it was probably not such a good idea (laughing), although I think that we won the game anyway."

Continuing on - despite her laughter, Michelle says, "After the game, Majerus comes up to Don Haskins and told him that he wanted to have a word with his trainer. Well, we were already back in the locker room by then, but when we heard about that - well, we were probably the last two people to leave the arena that night! (laughing)

You know, sneaking around the bleachers and slinking down the hallways - that sort of thing. Much to our relief when we finally made it outside the arena, the Utah buses were gone. Whew!"