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- Year:
- 1973-2015
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- Sports Played:
- Trainer/Instructor
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- Induction Year:
- 2024
Bio
One of the longest-tenured members of the OCC athletics family in school history, Leon Skeie created the standard of athletic training and physical education and sports medicine at this school that spanned over five decades. Joining the Pirate staff in 1972, Skeie served as the college’s athletic trainer and strength instructor for 12 years and immediately began changing that facet of athletics at Orange Coast College. He helped launch several centers, services and programs, including the OCC Sports Medicine Center and assisted in creating an exercise science lab, a strength lab and the school’s Adapted Physical Education Program. In addition, Skeie created numerous OCC professional physical education courses which helped put Pirate athletics ahead of the rest of the state with that side of the athletics success formula. He was named the National First-Year Community College Teacher of the Year in 1973 and twice named the National Community College Athletic Trainer of the Year in 1980 and 1984. In 1982, Skeie was presented with the OCC Student Services Award and in 1986, he received the National Football Foundation Hall of Fame as an outstanding contributor to athletics. An author to several books and articles on physical fitness, Skeie created the Leon Skeie Training Award, given to a student in sports medicine in memory of his granddaughter, Jessica Joy Rees, who passed away in 2011 of a malignant brain tumor.
