Mike Chambers
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Chellis Michael “Mike” Chambers was born on August 22, 1898, probably in New Orleans but there some question of that. He was raised in Cairo, Illinois and was a student athletic trainer and later assistant under Matt Bullock at the University of Illinois. Chambers was also the university's heavyweight boxing champion and was a lineman of the Illini football team, blocking for "Red" Grange.
Chambers will serve as the athletic trainer at many institutions. His first head athletic training job was at Iowa State from 1924 to 1926. He would work at Ohio State from 1926 to 1929 and then take a job with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He also began working for Georgia Tech in 1929, staying at the school until 1934.
In 1934, Chambers accepted the head athletic trainer position at LSU. During his stay at LSU he would be elected as the first President of the original NATA in 1938. He also was instrumental in bringing in a live tiger as a mascot for the school. In appreciation of his efforts, the student body named the tiger after him. "Mike the Tiger" is still the name of LSU's live tiger mascot. In 1938, Chambers was elected as the first President of the original NATA.
Chambers will leave LSU in late 1938. He took the athletic training position at UCLA in 1938. He resigned from UCLA in September 1941 to enlist in the U.S. Navy for World War II. He will rise to the rank of Lieutenant Commander and see combat action in the Pacific Theater.
After the war, Chambers settled in Southern California. He would work for a time with a minor league baseball team from Sacramento. Mike Chambers would be elected into the inaugural class of the NATA Hall of Fame in 1962. He passed away on December 31, 1975, in San Diego, California.
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