Foundation to honor long-time athletic trainer

Eastern New Mexico University is opening a foundation account to support athletic training while also honoring long-time trainer Bill Joy.

“We are so grateful to the Joy family for agreeing to create this endowment in Bill’s name,” ENMU Athletic Director Paul Weir stated in a news release.

“… At the very least it memorializes an absolutely amazing man. We hope to make our head athletic trainer position one dedicated to excellence and this endowment will help us do just that.”

Joy got his start in Portales in 1966 after graduating from Humboldt State in California and finished his master’s degree in 1970. He worked with all Greyhound sports programs, including the 1969 NAIA men’s basketball champions, until his retirement in 1991, the news release stated.

On his retirement, Joy was inducted into the ENMU Athletics Hall of honors and was named a distinguished faculty emeritus in 2008.

Joy was 85 when he died in 2021.

The Bill Joy Athletic Trainer Fund has been established with $88,756, Weir said. University officials are hoping to add donations to that, along with a Bill Joy Scholarship for Student Athletes, which has been allocated $59,171 from the Joy family.

Weir said the university’s intent is to use the endowment as a stipend for the salary of the head athletic trainer.

“Athletic trainers historically were tasked with helping kids get better if they had an injury, referring them to a doctor, or helping them get back on the field or court or whatever it might be,” Weir said.

“When COVID hit, they were also tasked with taking the lead on dealing with that. It drastically increased the workload on the athletic trainer and subsequently decreased the number of people who wanted to be athletic trainers.”

The endowment’s mission will be to help acquire and retain trainers, Weir said.

To donate: goeasternathletics.com or call the ENMU Foundation: 575-562-2412