A Life Remembered

Giving 100 percent was more than a goal for former athletic trainer Lori Mobley Groover. It was her way of life.Totally committed to the field of athletic training, Groover was intensely focused on the task at hand, whether tending to an injured athlete or teaching a college class.

Groover was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, just as she was moving from Nicholls State University in Thibodaux, La., to become director of athletic training services at the Medical College of Georgia. She passed away later that year, but thanks to the generosity of her parents, Sandy and Bobby Mobley, and her childhood friend, Lisa Bunkley, her legacy of passion and compassion live on through the Lori Mobley Groover Athletic Training Memorial Scholarship.

“Lori’s main passion was athletics training,” said Bunkley, and “she loved Georgia Southern. We wanted to do something that is forever. Knowing how Lori felt about Georgia Southern, we felt like that was the place that would be most fitting for the type of scholarship that we wanted.”

Groover earned her M.S. in sport management from Georgia Southern in 1998, and had a deep and comprehensive career in her field. She worked with Candler Sports Medicine and Memorial Sports Medicine in Savannah, South Effingham High School and Woodward Academy in College Park, Ga. She served with the University Orthopedic Physician Extender Program in Atlanta and was a trainer for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games before becoming an assistant professor of health science at Nicholls State.

Very active in professional organizations, Groover was a member of the Georgia High School Association Sports Medicine Advisory Committee, the Gatorade Athletic Trainers Board, vice president then president of the Georgia Athletic Trainers Association, and a member of the Executive Board and secretary of the Southeastern Athletic Trainers’ Association.

So great was her impact on the profession that Groover was inducted posthumously into the Georgia Athletic Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in 2012. She had high regard for the relationship that was fostered between the athletes and athletic trainers. “Lori never had children of her own, but she fostered a motherly relationship with a lot of her students,” said Bunkley.

Groover cared deeply for the athletes with whose well-being she was entrusted, said her mom, Sandy.“I know when she was up at Woodward Academy she referred to those students as ‘my kids. “If they had to take them to the hospital, then as soon as the game was over, she went to the hospital to check on them. She felt responsible for every kid out there.”

According to Sandy, Groover’s compassion for athletes went one step further. “She even took on government in Atlanta to make sure that everybody who claimed to be an athletic trainer was certified. A lot of coaches had people working the sidelines as athletic trainers who weren’t. She fought very hard to make sure that if you called yourself an athletic trainer you had the paperwork to back that up.”

Although Groover was driven, she also had a light, fun loving side. She was an avid motorcyclist filled with a sense of humor, naming her motorcycle “Toby Keith” after the country music star. “She could fill the role of motorcyclist as well as being a professor at a university, and fill either with much passion,” said Bobby. “She had a sense of humor that you wouldn’t believe. She could find humor in just about anything. Regardless of how bad the situation might be, she could put some humor into it and loosen everybody up.”

“She was special, that’s for sure,” said Bobby. “It seemed like she could connect with everybody. She was just that type of person.” — David Thompson