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The Sports Science Lab in Troy University’s new Jones Hall will bear the name of a Troy icon – John “Doc” Anderson.

The honor was made possible by a gift from Tracy and Luann Atz Causey, both 1998 Troy graduates. The gift will be used to assist in purchasing new equipment for Jones Hall, which is nearing completion on the Troy Campus. The building will be home to the programs of the College of Health Sciences.

A small event was held on July 27 to surprise Anderson with the honor.

“Luann and I feel privileged to be able to honor John “Doc” Anderson in this way,” Tracy Causey said. “He has represented Troy well over the years and made multiple generational impacts in the lives of young men and women during his long tenure at Troy University. He has never allowed or enjoyed the spotlight, but at this point in his career and life, a spotlight is absolutely necessary and deserving. He is truly a legend in the Athletic Training industry, and his influence and impact should not easily be forgotten. This is simply our attempt to make that more clearly known and display gratitude to him from all those that he has influenced over the years. Thank you, Doc for all you have done and all you will continue to do.”

The recognition was truly a surprise for Anderson.

“That caught me off guard; I thought we were just going to get a tour of the building,” he said. “It is humbling. The University is bigger than any one of us. It is our hope that we will turn out good exercise science students. That is what we are about. Quality students make teachers look good. It is all about the students.”

Anderson has experience at every level of athletic training: student, coach, trainer, professor and curriculum director.

As a student-athlete at Auburn University, he helped lead the Tigers to their 1964 SEC Cross Country Championship before graduating in 1965.

Anderson began his coaching career at Troy four years later as the head coach for the track and field and cross-country teams for 12 seasons while simultaneously serving a 14-year stint as the head athletic trainer (1967-80). During this time, his teams won three track and field conference championships and seven cross country conference championships.

He left Troy in 1980 to take on the head athletic trainer position at LSU for 10 years but returned in 1990 and continued to coach the cross-country teams.

Between his start at and return to Troy, Anderson coached 45 All-Americans, including Charles Oliver who won the 1976 NAIA 400-meter National Championship, two Alabama Collegiate Conference championships in 1970-71 and one Gulf South Conference Championship in 1978 with the track and field team. The cross-country teams won 10 Gulf South Conference titles and five NCAA Division II Regional Championships.

He was named the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics Coach of the Year twice from 1973-74 and the National Cross Country Coach of the Year in 1992. He earned the conference coach of the year title six times throughout both of his careers at Troy and was also named the NCAA Division II Regional Coach of the Year four times.

As an athletic trainer, Anderson served at the 1996 Olympic Games for the U.S. Track and Field squad and was a member of their medical team in 1984, 1988 and 1992.

He received the National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Service Award in 1997, was inducted into the Alabama Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame in 1999 and earned the title of Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer award for the NATA in 2006. Anderson was inducted into Troy’s Sports Hall of Fame in 2013, and, in 2017, was inducted in the NATA Hall of Fame.