Leon Skeie, Millennium Hall of Fame

You wouldn’t find him dancing in the end zone or pitching

last-inning miracles, but Leon Skeie has collected more saves than any

athlete at Orange Coast College.

Skeie, whose name became synonymous with OCC athletics in 1973, would

get more high-fives than the top home run hitter, more office visitors

than any coach on campus.

When joints and muscles got sore, and ankles needed to be taped and

arms required icing, OCC athletes relied on Skeie to mend them.

Those who never had a sports medicine class seemed to learn as much,

or more, about the art of training-room etiquette than they did in their

regular classes.

A friend to every visitor, Skeie healed wounds, fixed aching bodies

and promoted good nutrition, weight training and fitness.

“It’s been really fun to see some of these kids, though they’re not

kids anymore, in your Daily Pilot Sports Hall of Fame (to celebrate the

millennium), because I’ve taken care of so many of them,” said Skeie, the

latest edition to the locals-only Hall of Fame.

Skeie, the Pirates’ head trainer for 12 years from 1973 to 1984, was

voted the Community College Trainer of the Year in 1980 and ‘84, and

named the nation’s top first-year strength coach by the National Teachers

Hall of Fame in 1974.

In his 27th year as an OCC physical education professor, Skeie is

director of the school’s Fitness Specialist Certification Program, which

was launched in 1980 as the first in the country. Today, there are about

180 students in the program.

Skeie, whose open-door policy made the OCC Sports Medicine Center one

of the most attractive features on campus for student-athletes, turned

down several offers from professional sports teams in the early- and

mid-80s to remain at OCC.

“It was an important time in my life when those offers came,” Skeie

said, “but I would always have this dream that I took another job and

hated it, and when I’d call Wendell Pickens to see if I could get my old

job back, because I didn’t like this job with the pro team, he’d always

say, ‘Sorry, we already hired someone else.’ Then I’d wake up in a cold

sweat and wish I was there with the students.”

Skeie, who loves teaching and developed a special bond with OCC’s

athletes when he served as head trainer, still oversees the Sports

Medicine Department, which has become one of the finest facilities on any

campus in the nation, and Exercise Science Lab, which features

state-of-the-art equipment.

But what keeps Skeie at OCC are people.

For example, there’s a special plaque from 1978 JC All-American

halfback Dan Duddridge (Costa Mesa High). “Thanks for the 1,000-yard

season,” it reads.

When former U.S. Olympic volleyball gold medalist Steve Timmons spoke

at the Commission On Athletics Hall of Fame once, he saw Skeie in the

crowd and acknowledged him, saying “I still use his stuff and

techniques.”

While technology has advanced, the world of sports medicine has kept

its foundation of ice, heat and ultrasound intact. The best remedies of

the late 1950s are still the best in the late 90s.

“It hasn’t changed a lot,” said Skeie, who started a health club for

women in 1983, operating it for nine years, and added a second (coed)

facility in 1988 called the California Coast Club, which has since been

sold.

“There weren’t a lot of health clubs to start off with when we tried a

new venture in the early 1980s,” he said.

Skeie, a native of Ames, Iowa, graduated from Iowa State, where he

played football and fell in love with sports medicine when he first saw

the school’s enormous facility.

“I thought trainers were only for horses,” said Skeie, who attended a

small high school with only 23 in his graduating class of 1960.

Skeie graduated from Iowa State in 1967, after serving two years in

the U.S. Marines, then worked as the Cyclones’ assistant athletic trainer

and strength coach for four years.

The author of the flexibility book, “Hang Loose and Stay Happy,” Skeie

arrived at Corona del Mar High as the athletic trainer in 1972, but

lasted only one year after working closely with Sea King football players

Rhett and Travis Tucker. That’s because their father, Dick, was head

football coach at Orange Coast, and, when he found out how much Skeie

helped his sons in the training room, Skeie suddenly became a blue-chip

recruit for the Pirates’ program.

“Dick Tucker just called and asked me to teach and train at Orange

Coast,” said Skeie, who didn’t hesitate when he realized what a great

opportunity it would become.

Skeie and his family suffered a scare in 1985, when he was

consistently experiencing headaches. It was discovered that Skeie had a

brain tumor and later he underwent a successful craniotomy. “I was very

fortunate, because the tumor was benign and not in the brain, but behind

it,” he said. “As soon as they got it out, it was quite a relief. All the

headaches were gone.”

These days, Skeie is going strong and is one of OCC’s most beloved

individuals.

He lives in Corona del Mar with his wife of 36 years, Cheryl. They

have two daughters, Kimberly and Stacey, both of whom are married. There

are two grandchildren from Stacey, Shaya and Jessica.