College Mourns Passing of Long-time Athletic Trainer Tom Couch

Former Wildcats Athletic Trainer Thomas William Bond Couch died June 29, 2015 at Brookdale Home in Mooresville. He was 80 years old.

A graduate of Western Carolina University and member of the first graduating class in Sports Medicine at Indiana University, Coach Couch served as athletic trainer for the Davidson Wildcats from 1963-86. He also worked as a pre-Olympic trainer for the U.S. basketball team touring Germany, Russia, Poland, and Finland in 1970, and was hired in 1987 as the first athletic trainer for the Charlotte Hornets.

Coach Couch was later named Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Athletic Trainer of the Year in 1993-94, and worked as a trainer for the Shrine Bowl in 1997.

He is a lifetime member of the American College of Sports Medicine and the National Athletic Trainers Association, serving on the Professional Ethics Committee, and was a member of Davidson College Presbyterian Church and The U.S. Army National Guard. He also served on the N.C. State Superintendent's Sports Medicine Advisory Commission in 1973.

Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, July 2, in the Chapel of Raymer-Kepner Funeral Home in Huntersville. Interment will follow at Mimosa Cemetery in Davidson.

Friends may offer condolences to the family and view Coach Couch's obituary at www.raymerfh.com.