Athletic Trainer Awarded ‘Alumni Award’

Written by Alejandro Gonzalez/Staff Writer

FIU head football athletic trainer Kevin O’Neill has accomplished many goals in his career as an Athletic Trainer.

O’Neill has won NFL Athletic Trainer of year two times with the Dallas Cowboys and the Miami Dolphins. To add on to his accolades, O’Neill was awarded with the Professional Football Athletic Trainers Society Distinguished Alumni Award.

“I feel good about this award is that it is coming from my colleagues, my peers, people that I have worked hand and hand with for 25 years in the NFL,” said O’Neill to Student Media about the award.

O’Neill has worked with the University’s football program for three years. The FIU football program is on the rise and he is happy to have the chance to help continue the growth of the foundation of the program, according to O’Neill.

“I like the people, I like the cultural diversity, I like a lot about South Florida and more specifically the FIU community,” said O’Neill. “I like getting up every morning and coming to work here.”

Before working at FIU, O’Neill worked as the Head Athletic Trainer for the Miami Dolphins for 19 years. He also worked with the Broward Health Sports Medicine as one of their athletic trainers, spent three years as an assistant athletic trainer at the University of Tennessee, and four years as the head athletic trainer at Oregon State. Ten of O’Neill’s former assistants are now head Athletic Trainers or assistants in the NFL.

“It feels nice to be recognized, it says something about the time that I put in while I was there,” said O’Neill.