Widener’s A.J. Duffy III Receives 2007 Dr. Donald Grover Award
CAPE COD, Mass. -- Commissioner of the ECAC Rudy Keeling has announced A.J. Duffy III, of Widener University, has been named the 2007 recipient of the Dr. Donald Grover Memorial Award. Duffy will receive his award during the annual ECAC Honors Dinner presented by Jostens on Sunday, September 30th, in conjunction with the ECAC Convention and Trade Show presented by Clark Companies, Clough Harbour Sports, Musco Lighting, and Sportsfield Specialties.
The Dr. Donald Grover Memorial Award, endowed by the family of Dr. Grover, was established to annually honor an athletics trainer and/or team physician at an ECAC member institution who has achieved outstanding success in his or her career and has made a significant contribution in the interest of intercollegiate athletics.
Duffy is currently in his twenty-fifth year as a full-time athletic trainer. Prior to being named the head athletic trainer at Widener in 1990, he served as an assistant at Temple University from 1981-83 and the University of Michigan from 1984-90. In addition to his responsibilities at Widener, Duffy also serves as the clinical coordinator of clinical education for athletic training students at three area schools including Temple, West Chester University and Neumann College.
In the three decades that Duffy has been in athletic training, he has served in executive roles for various associations including his current position of president in the Pennsylvania Athletic Training Society (PATS) since 2002, the secretary of PATS (1993-1997) and president of the Eastern Athletic Training Association (EATA) (1997-2003).
In 2005, Duffy was the winner of the Ted Quedenfeld Award for outstanding athletic training service in the greater Philadelphia area. He won the Cramer Award, the EATAs most prestigious honor, and was presented the Joseph A. Blankowitsch Award as the EATA president in 2003. In 2002, the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA) selected him as the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer and he was given the Interboro Education Association Volunteer Award that year for dedicated service to the local school district.
Having worked in two U.S. Olympic Festivals and over twenty Penn Relays, Duffy has been actively involved in many different endeavors. He currently serves on the Widener University Golf Outing Committee and on the athletic department's wing of the University's Strategic Plan Committee. He has assisted in the course review and admissions for the university's new Physical Therapy program. He has also helped fundraise for Voices for Children, an organization that helps children affected by HIV and AIDS, in addition to being a member of the Citizens of Fourth of July Association of Norwood, PA, the nation's oldest such association.
Duffy is the third recipient of the Grover Award. Former winners include Charles Redmond of Springfield College (2006) and John Davis of Montclair State University (2005).
Dr. Grover, a Syracuse University graduate, served as the Medical Director for the Carrier Corporation for several years. He practiced family and general medicine in Syracuse until 1943 when he enlisted in the Army Medical Corps. serving four years as an orthopedic surgeon at Moore General Hospital in Swananoa, North Carolina. After World War II ended, he returned to Syracuse to continue practicing medicine on the South Side, caring for generations of families, until his retirement in 1991. Dr. Grover had privileges at several Central New York Hospitals including Syracuse General Hospital and Upstate Medical Center. He was also affiliated with the Onondaga Medical Society and the Onondaga Hill Masonic Lodge. He was a long-time booster of Syracuse University and died in 2003.
About the ECAC
The ECAC is the nation's largest athletic and the only multi-divisional conference with 319 Divisions I, II, and III colleges and universities from Maine to George and westerly to Ohio. Established in 1938, the ECAC, a non-profit service organization, sponsors 98 championships in 37 men's and women's sports, assigns more than 5,200 officials in 15 sports, administers 10 affiliate sports organizations and six playing leagues and recognizes more than 4,000 student-athletes in 21 sports through the public relations arm of the Conference. The ECAC serves as the primary conference for select members in the sports of men's and women's ice hockey, men's lacrosse, men's gymnastics, wrestling, fencing and rowing.
