Hall of Fame
After graduating from Eastern Kentucky with a master’s of arts in health education, Skidmore became Jacksonville State’s first full-time athletic trainer in August 1974 and worked 40 years at the University until his retirement at the end of the 2013-14 school year.
During his tenure in the sports medicine field he was bestowed several of the highest honors in his profession including being elected into the American Sports Medicine Institute in 2005, the Jacksonville State Athletic Hall of Fame in 2005 and the Alabama Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame in 2009.
He was the only full-time athletic trainer in the department for more than 19 years until the department expanded in the early 1990s. His work in the prevention, recognition, management and rehabilitation of injuries helped Jacksonville State excel on the field as the Gamecocks won 37 Gulf South Conference and three national championships at the Division II level before claiming 58 OVC Championships after the school joined the league in 2003.