Hall of Fame
The first athletics trainer ever inducted into the Ohio Valley Conference Hall of Fame, Dr. Bobby Barton is widely recognized as a pioneer and leader in the sports medicine field. EKU’s head athletics trainer from 1976 until 2003, Barton also spent much of his time teaching in the exercise and sports science department.
Barton was the head athletics trainer during the Colonels’ four-year stretch of football national championship appearances (1979-82), earning the title in 1979 and 1982.
During his 27-year tenure at EKU, Barton acted as chair of EKU’s physical education department and co-authored the Commonwealth of Kentucky’s athletic trainer certification law. Barton received the Distinguished Service Award for Athletic Training from the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine in 1998 and in 1999 was presented with the Outstanding Football Trainer Award by the All-American Football Foundation. He also served on the American Counsel on Education’s Commission on College Athletics. In 1995, he served as the men’s basketball athletic trainer for the U.S. National Team at the World University games. Barton served as NATA President from 1982 until 1986 and served on the organization’s Placement Committee, Public Relations Committee and the Research and Education Foundation Board of Directors.
Barton has also been elected to the National Athletic Trainer’s Association Hall of Fame, the Kentucky Athletic Trainers’ Society Hall of Fame and the Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame.
He earned his B.A. degree from the University of Kentucky in 1968 and his M.S. from Marshall in 1970. Barton earned his Doctor of Arts degree in Adapted Physical Education at Middle Tennessee State in 1975 and worked at the University of Florida, University of Kentucky and Florida International University before coming to EKU.
