WVU Sports Hall of Fame

Inducted: 2017

Written by Bryan Messerly

John Spiker cared for West Virginia University student-athletes from 1975-2015.

His duties over those 40 years involved overseeing the athletic training services for all sports and supervising the rehabilitation for injured student-athletes.

Spiker began his athletic training career as a student with the WVU men’s basketball team under WVU Sports Hall of Famer Whitey Gwynne. Gwynne put him to work immediately and was instrumental in helping him get his first athletic training job at Pitt.

During his three years at Pitt, he worked with the football and wrestling teams, and completed requirements for his master’s degree. Following his time at Pitt, he enrolled in the physical therapy program at Penn. Upon completion of his physical therapy degree, he joined the athletic training staff at North Carolina, where he worked football, lacrosse and men’s basketball with legendary coach Dean Smith.

In 1975, Spiker was recruited by Dr. Bill Douglas to return to his alma mater to serve as head athletic trainer and to develop a formal curriculum for the athletic training program. Spiker served as director of that program for 10 years. In 1991, he was named coordinator of athletic medical services, a position he held until his retirement in 2015.

The WVU Athletic Training Program is recognized as one of the best in the country. After graduation, many former students successfully pursue athletic training positions in high schools, colleges, professional sports and international competitions. Many other graduates become professional educators, physical therapists, physicians and physicians assistants. Three WVU graduates of the Athletic Training Program have been elected to the NATA Hall of Fame.

Nationally recognized in sports medicine and athletic training, his peers voted him the 1980 Collegiate Athletic Trainer of the Year. The NATA named him Distinguished Athletic Trainer in 1994 and inducted him into the Hall of Fame in 2012.

In 1993, he was inducted into the WVU College of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences Hall of Fame, named the WVU School of Physical Activity and Sport Sciences outstanding alumnus in 2007 and named to the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame in 2011.

Spiker continues to use his credentials in athletic training and physical therapy to direct HealthWorks Rehab and Fitness, with locations in West Virginia and Pennsylvania.

A native of Bruceton Mills, West Virginia, Spiker and his wife, Sabra, have three children – Heather Throckmorton (John), Tim (Sarah) and Zach (Jenn) – and seven grandchildren.