After 42 Years, Columbia Trainer Jim Gossett Retires

By Wick Hallos, Columbia Daily Spectator

April 27, 2021, 11:17 PM

When Jim Gossett announced that he would be retiring from his positions as associate athletics director for sports medicine and head athletics trainer, he began to receive an outpouring of congratulations and thanks.

“Since the announcement of my retirement, between social media, my phone, and email, it keeps blowing up,” he said in an interview. Gossett sounded surprised, although it is clear he should not be: He has served the U.S. National Lightweight Crew, helped identify concussions during New York Giants games, and traveled abroad with the U.S. fencing and handball teams. He has also trained and cared for Columbia athletes for 42 years.

Since 1979, Gossett has served as a trainer on various Columbia Athletics teams, including men’s soccer, wrestling, lightweight crew, fencing, and football—some have been Columbia’s best sports teams over the last four decades. When Gossett was the trainer for men’s soccer from 1979 to 1983, the Lions won the Ivy League title each year and appeared twice in the NCAA’s Final Four. Gossett has also cared for three Ivy League championship teams in wrestling and four national championship teams in fencing.

Outside of Columbia, Gossett has served many U.S. national teams, like lightweight crew, fencing, and handball. He has traveled to places like Paris, Teramo, and Sheffield with these teams, and he has worked at Olympic Sports Festivals on all kinds of events, like ski-jumping, badminton, and—once, by applying a Band-Aid in a “smoke-filled room of athletes”— bowling. At home, Gossett has also worked with the NFL, serving as an “eye in the sky” who helps to identify players who might have suffered from head or neck trauma during live football games.

Gossett’s main advice to everyone is to “never stop learning.” So as he has encountered other sports medicine programs across the country, he has always compared them to Columbia’s. “If I go to a new venue, I’m always looking to see ‘Well, how do they do it here?’” he said. Sometimes, he finds “good reinforcement” in seeing other facilities using the same methods as Columbia. Other times, he sees a new technique and says, “Hey, that’s something that we could incorporate.”

“The number one thing is caring,” Gosset said of Athletics training, and after four decades of experience, it is still something that he cannot teach or explain. He maintains that there is just no substitute for a personal relationship, even when it is emotionally taxing. “There’s been nights I don’t sleep well out of concern,” Gossett said. “It’s the hardest … and I think that’s important.”

Gossett emphasized that the sports medicine department at Columbia is especially good at relating to players personally. He pointed out that “every one of our student-athletes, and their parents, have access to Dr. Levine’s cell phone number,” referring to Columbia Athletics’ head team physician, Dr. William Levine. Athletes also have had an open line of communication with Gossett himself and most of his assistants. According to Gossett, “communication is key,” and Columbia’s openness to team physicians and trainers “is very rare.”

Gossett said these personal connections are so important because “the patient has so much to do with the outcome” when it comes to injuries. It is important for team doctors to remember that each player is unique, so that treatment can be specific and helpful. “Everybody’s an individual,” he said. “Different athletes respond differently.”

Gossett also credited Columbia’s sports medicine program as being incredibly collaborative—players have personal access to a range of qualified professionals who deal with their specific injuries. For instance, when a baseball player injures their elbow, they get to work with Dr. Christopher Ahmad, head team physician for the New York Yankees, who Gossett knows from when Ahmad was on the Columbia men’s soccer team.

The personal relationships Gossett has developed are not just important from a clinical perspective, and they do not just end after four years. At a place like Columbia, where not many athletes go on to play professionally, Gossett said that he sees “their last hurrah,” and “it’s really rewarding.” Often, Gossett sees former players come back to Columbia, who still “bleed Columbia blue” and say, “‘Oh wow, you’re still here!’”

When Gossett meets a player and works with them, he cares about how much they enjoy their time, not just their success on the field. He hopes that every player who has gone through Columbia “had a good experience here,” he said. “Good experience doesn’t always equate to winning and losing.” According to Gossett, one of the most wonderful things about working at Columbia is just seeing people’s “loyalty to the school in so many different ways.”

Gossett plans to continue his loyalty to Columbia, and to the athletes he has treated, in some way or another. “I’m not drying up,” he said. And, speaking to all the athletes he keeps in contact: “If you need a little resource … continue to reach out to me.”

Staff writer Wick Hallos can be contacted at wick.hallos@columbiaspectator.com. Follow Spectator Sports on Twitter @CUSpecSports.

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