By Dan Bailey, Long Beach State’s long-time head athletic trainer who retired in August after 36 years of service, died of a heart attack at a Los Alamitos hospital early Friday morning due to complications from knee surgery. He was 60 years old.
Bailey began his lengthy career for Long Beach State in August of 1971 as a part-time assistant trainer and also worked as a part-time physical therapist at the Student Health Center, according to the Long Beach State Sports Information Department.
During his career at LBSU, Bailey worked with some of the great coaches in history, including renowned basketball coach Tex Winter and legendary football coach George Allen. He also worked with famous LBSU athletes such as Misty May of women’s volleyball and Ed Ratleff of men’s basketball.
He became the head athletic trainer in 1974, and his career transcended toward a national scene, as he worked with the U. S. rowing, women’s sculling and men’s water polo teams.
Bailey worked and traveled with the U. S. women’s sculling team in the early 1980s, and was also the athletic trainer for the U.S. men’s water polo teams during the 1984, 1996 and 2004 Summer Olympic Games.
Prior to his retirement, Bailey said he enjoyed the student-athletes the most during his time at LBSU, according to Daily Forty-Niner article on his August retirement. In the article Bailey also said Winter was responsible for his rising interest to travel “for the sake of traveling.”
Upon his retirement, Bailey had planned to travel and watch his son Ryan play water polo. His loss has been a “shock,” said Mark Pocinich, the current head athletic trainer and recent successor to Bailey.
“I only knew him two or three months, but I wish I had known him longer,” Pocinich said. “The biggest thing here has been the shock. He was a big part of a lot of people’s lives here.”
Assistant athletic trainer Josh Stone said Bailey was more than a mentor to him at LBSU.
“The guy was 30 years older than me, but he was my best friend here,” Stone said. “He was young at heart. When you defined a man, he is the man.”
Fellow assistant trainer Shauna Horton shared similar sentiments went it came to her time with Bailey.
“Dan’s been a mentor to me and like a second father,” Horton said. “He’s been the reason I got my master’s degree here and became an assistant trainer. We treat people the way he treated them.”
Stone and Horton, who both worked with Bailey closely during his final years at LBSU, remained stunned about the news, but were trying to stay upbeat about it.
“Overall, me and Josh have been trying to remember the good things,” Horton said. “A lot of athletes come in and grieve with us, and we cry all over.”
CSULB President F. King Alexander said Bailey “was Mr. Long Beach State … He’s an institution in our athletic program and has been for many, many decades.”
“Whenever he hugged you, he would give you a father-like hug,” Stone said. “I would like to get that training room named after him, but it’s [Bailey’s passing] still fresh in our minds.”
Bailey played football and wrestled at the University of Utah, where he received an undergraduate degree in physical education. He went on to get a graduate degree in physical therapy at USC.
Bailey is survived by his wife, Kay; sons Ryan, a professional water polo player in Serbia, and Joe, a former shot putter at UCLA; and one daughter, Dana.
A memorial service for Bailey will be held today in The Walter Pyramid at 11 a.m. His family has planned to create a scholarship in his name for LBSU athletics and is requesting donations for funding. For more information, call (562) 985-5402.
