Tom Kocher is a WVU alum and was an athletic trainer on the 1981 Peach Bowl team. He became the head athletic trainer at UNLV, and eventually a fight trainer for several well known boxers... including Boom Boom Mancini, Kevin Kelley and Michael Dokes.
He recently moved back to Morgantown. We had a fun little chat at the Positive Impact Football Camp at Mylan Park, where he helped out as the camp's head trainer.

[Jim]:	How did you end up at WVU?
[Tom]:	I left Ohio Northern University, where I was playing football. I decided I wanted an education and I came to WVU, of all things, where we were known as an all-time party school.
[Jim]:	So did you do the block party and all that?
[Tom]:	Oh yeah. Sunnyside, yep.
[Jim]:	Funniest thing you remember from the block party in the early 80s, late 70s?
[Tom]:	Fires. Couch parties. Yeah, the couch fires. That was a continued tradition. Even though we're not allowed to have that now, it was a great time back then.
[Jim]:	What years were you officially with the team?
[Tom]:	I was officially with the team as a graduate assistant in 1980, and an assistant trainer in 81-82.
[Jim]:	Oliver Luck?
[Tom]:	Oliver Luck. Oliver Luck years... a roommate of mine his senior year. Had a great time... him and Mark Raugh.
[Jim]:	He was a roommate of yours?
[Tom]:	Yeah. It's funny, he just called me about three weeks ago. He's doing very well... in Houston.
[Jim]:	Oliver ever break anything you needed to fix?
[Tom]:	Ankle sprain, that's about it. Oliver was a tough guy. Rhodes Scholar, ya know, and he was a great athlete. Great person.
[Jim]:	Tell me a joke.
[Tom]:	Tell you a joke? Oh my goodness.
[Jim]:	Keep that in the back of your mind, I have other questions.
[Tom]:	We'll keep that one. I remember jokes, but it's tough to get them out. Oh my goodness, you caught me off guard here!
[Jim]:	You've been a trainer for a lot of well known fighters... your three favorites?
[Tom]:	I'll give you my three favorites. Boom Boom Mancini, you know from Youngstown, Ohio. Greg Haugen... he was tough. And then, Kevin Kelley. Kevin Kelley was funny.
[Jim]:	Give me something Kevin did that was funny.
[Tom]:	Just his mannerisms. You had to take a linguistics class to understand what he had to say. He was from Queens, New York.
[Jim]:	His mother ever run in the ring and beat someone with a shoe?
[Tom]:	No, but I tell you what, I've seen some things where they used to use snake oil. They used to bring in these voodoo guys that you would see putting on a little snake oil...
[Jim]:	On Kevin Kelley?
[Tom]:	Not on Kevin, but on some other fighters who I was with Don King with. For Kevin Kelley, he was just a funny guy... I mean just his mannerisms. He's on HBO and he's done Fights After Dark, and he's on the BBC radio. He's just a funny guy... just his mannerisms.
[Jim]:	So you worked with Don King?
[Tom]:	I worked two years with Don King. It was the most crazy time I ever had. I really learned about fighting then, because I ate, slept, travelled with Don King. Whoa, I better take that back! (re-phrase it) But, you know, I travelled with the guys, and I got to see everything... the inside of what boxing is all about. I've seen things like voodoo stuff, and the oil. I have seen a guy come in, Francois Botha... he came to my facility in Las Vegas. He was training with me. He brought one of those Zulu tribesmen in, and he came in my place and started shaking away the spirits. He was dressed up in all his garb, in those little grass skirts and everything. I'm telling ya, it was amazing. I go... "what's this?" He said he's chasing all the bad spirits away. So, that was a pretty unique experience there.
[Jim]:	What was the biggest fight you ever were a part of?
[Tom]:	Oh, several of them. Let's see... Tony Tucker against Lennox Lewis for the World Heavyweight Title. Um, Michael Dokes against Riddick Bowe at Madison Square Garden... it was the first World Heavyweight Title they had since Ali-Frazier. That was 1992 or 93. And, it was the first time that Madison Square Garden had brought back fighting, and they had the World Heavyweight fight there. Dokes got knocked out in the first round. I worked with Dokes. But, Riddick Bowe was in his prime then. I got to throw out roses too before the fight. Michael Dokes liked to throw out roses to the females, so he had the corner guy and I... we threw them out to the females. Ya know, I have a great place out there... I just moved to Cheat Lake. It's a great place. The other day I was coming home from this camp, and I saw some guy streaking down the street. I said what are you doing, guy?
[Jim]:	In Cheat Lake?
[Tom]:	Cheat Lake, yeah. He was streaking down my road. I said, "What are you doing?" He said, "I didn't know you came home so early."
[Jim]:	Is that real?
[Tom]:	No! That's my joke! My wife was home! You didn't get it, come on. That was a bad joke. That's a Rodney Dangerfield. I tried to set you up. I tell ya, I get no respect.
[Jim]:	Favorite Mountaineer sports moment?
[Tom]:	My favorite? When we won the Peach Bowl. That was awesome.
[Jim]:	That's right, you're on the video.
[Tom]:	I was on the video. CBS Sports coming around, Atlanta Fulton County Stadium. But my biggest moment though, I'll never forget... I was a trainer and the last one to leave. We were all walking and looking around. I looked around and here sits the Peach Bowl trophy. No one had it, and I was like... "what the heck". I brought it along and brought it on the bus to Coach Nehlen. He was like, oh man. So, I gave him the trophy, and he said, "No no, you hold on to it, you carry it". So we walked in. I don't know if it was the Peachtree Plaza, one of the hotels... it was all those Mountaineer fans. I walked in with the Peach Bowl trophy.
[Jim]:	Wow, do you still have it?!
[Tom]:	[laughing] Nah! I don't still have it. I gave it to Coach Nehlen. I said, "Coach, this is yours". I'll never forget that. That's something I'll remember. Personally, I don't know if many other people will, but that was my finest moment. And then, one of my worst moments was when I came back here as the head athletic trainer at UNLV when we played WVU... and Greg Jones dropped 28 on us and knocked us out. We were #1 in the nation. And, I remember being on the sidelines and everybody's going... "traitor, traitor, traitor". They were yelling at me.
[Jim]:	Traitor, not trainer, right?
[Tom]:	Traitor, exactly! I was all excited until I heard the "T". Jerry Koloskie and I, from Monongah, who is now still at UNLV as the Assistant Athletic Director. We had a great time, him and I. West Virginia is a great place, I'm glad to be back.
[Jim]:	That was my last question... what are you doing back?
[Tom]:	I'm back here because I have an 11 year old son. I thought this was a great place to raise a kid. Not that Vegas is not a good place... it's not that, it's a great place, but the environment is so much different. And this is a great family, moral place, and I had to come back to the Mountaineers.