Emporia State’s Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) building has seen recent renovations on its athletic training and human performance lab to make room for a state-of-the- art John “Doc” Baxter Athletic Training and Human Performance Lab. 

The new lab offers undergraduate students that are majoring in Health and Human Performance, as well as graduate students, with hands-on training with new equipment to better prepare them for their careers.

Equipment in the lab includes three new treadmills, bike odometers, balance machine, isokinetic testing machine as well as a mannequin that mimics breath sounds, heart rate changes, pulse pressure and blood pressure. 

Numerous donations for the lab and equipment, including those from Pam Baxter, Rainer and Julie Martens and The Sunderland Foundation, made the renovations possible. Matthew Howe, associate professor of health physical education & recreation said the donations  “immensely” helped the lab become a reality. 

“This is really driven by private donations. Pam helped out with the mannequin, which was one of the first things that she really helped us probably kind of kick off the whole thing,” said Howe.

Paul Luebbers, professor of health, physical education & recreation and interim dean of the school of applied health sciences, said the space will be used for students to learn how to do basic health and fitness assessments on real patients from the local community. 

“So, they’re getting again the same equipment that they’re using, better preparing them for that next level or where they may be going after they complete the Masters with us,” Leubbers said. “Whether they be classmates of theirs, community members of theirs, it kind of gets those nerves out a little bit. The first time in real life, this is your client and you’ve got to  know what you’re supposed to do. Well, now they can say, ‘I’ve done this before, I’ve had that experience.'”

Baxter, who passed away in November 2016 at the age of 77 served as an instructor and was head athletic trainer at ESU from 1966 until 2012. In 2010, Baxter was also named Director of Medicine at ESU before his retirement in 2012.

Through his years as an athletic trainer, Baxter was awarded with a multitude of awards, including becoming one of the five inductees of the 1993 ESU Athletics Hall of Honor. Baxter was also named to the NAIA’s Hall of Fame in 1986 and received the Distinguished Service Citation for his service in 1986, National Athletic Trainer’s Outstanding Service Award in 1992 and the Award of Excellence from the city of Emporia in 1990.

“He may have touched more lives on campus than any other person. The impact and influence he had, it’s just unmeasurable,” said Luebbers.

“I think that’s why we have this lab ’cause of the impact that he had on so many people that others are willing to give because his name is attached to this…He’s had a lot of experience, and helped a lot of people. There’s a lot of stuff in here that is equipment that he probably would have never dreamed of having to see but now that we have it, and we can make our profession, keep pushing us forward and stay on that edge of the profession,” Howe said.