John George “Jack” Heppinstall was born on May 11, 1891, at Wheatley Hill, Durham, England. He apprenticed as a mining engineer with his father as a youth while running track and playing professional soccer. He broke his ankle playing soccer and, to keep being paid, he apprenticed under the athletic trainer while he recovered from his injury.
Heppinstall turned down mining jobs in Brazil and British Columbia
to immigrate to the U.S. in 1913. He went to Lansing, Michigan, where his brother-in-law was living. In 1914, he was hired by Michigan Agricultural college (now Michigan State) as a “temporary” athletic trainer. The job ended in 1958.
Like many athletic trainers of the time, Heppinstall had many job duties. He was the athletic trainer, equipment manager, groundskeeper and “all around athletic handyman.” He was also in charge of the bathhouse where the athletic training room was located and the armory, which housed the equipment room.
Heppinstall was elected, in 1939, as the second President of the original NATA. In 1948, he returned to his native England as an athletic trainer for the U.S. Olympic team covering wrestling, boxing and soccer.
He was inducted as a member of the inaugural class of the NATA Hall of Fame in 1962. He would pass away in September of 1974.
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