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| Bud Carpenter, a 1979 Fredonia graduate, is currently the head athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills |
Yes, you read that right.
Bud Carpenter, the head athletic trainer for the Buffalo Bills, used to be a coach and athletic trainer for our volleyball team. But that's not the most surprising part of this story. Carpenter, who at the time was a student at Fredonia, had no qualifications to be either an athletic trainer or a volleyball coach. In fact, Fredonia had no athletic training program.
He was asked to help with the volleyball team because he learned how to tape ankles in high school. Then he was asked to perform some assistant coach duties. When he graduated, he was asked to direct the intramural program, drive the Zamboni in the ice rink, and be an assistant athletic trainer. He also drove the van for the basketball team to away games, and kept score for home games.
He was inducted into Fredonia's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008 with the following description: Athletic trainer, Score keeper, Zamboni driver, Counselor, "Jack of all Trades" helper.
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| Carpenter, inducted into Fredonia's Athletics Hall of Fame in 2008 |
So when the Buffalo Bills came to town for training camp in 1981, Carpenter was already known as the guy who would help with anything. He was the gopher; running errands and taping players for the Bills every single day. Long story short, the Bills liked Carpenter so much they eventually offered him a full-time job (note: he wasn't even formally an athletic trainer at first).
The moral of the story, as told by the senior members of Fredonia's athletics staff, is that opportunities are everywhere. It's just that they don't always look like opportunities. They look like things that are someone else's job.
As John Gagliardi said, "The guy that says, 'Well, it's not in my job description,' he was worthless. Completely worthless."