University of Nevada Las Vegas

Athletic Trainer & Administrator (1982-2014)

Jerry Koloskie, who oversaw the creation of the modern-era UNLV athletic training program, never intended to be an administrator. Content on leading the athletic training department as well as teaching and helping manage his craft on a state, regional and national basis, his path was altered by an AD who essentially reassigned Koloskie to being his right-hand man. A former baseball player at Marietta (Ohio) College, Koloskie earned his bachelor’s degree from West Virginia and then his master’s form Iowa State. A NATA Certified Athletic Trainer since 1980, Koloskie moved to UNLV in 1982 to become co-head athletic trainer and spent nine years as head athletic trainer for the Rebel football team. In 1983 he became head athletic trainer for all intercollegiate athletic teams at UNLV. Koloskie spent 15 years with the Runnin’ Rebels as the athletic trainer for men’s basketball, which reached the NCAA Final Four three times during his tenure, including the 1990 NCAA Championship season. In 1992 he was named Director of Athletic Training and in 1996 was promoted to Assistant Athletics Director for Sports Medicine and Operations. In 1998 he was elevated to Senior Associate AD by Charlie Cavagnaro and a decade later, he spent a year as Interim Athletics Director for the Rebels. During his time on campus, Koloskie was widely responsible for developing the school’s clinical sports medicine program and turning it into one of the premier programs for both undergraduate and graduate students, and developing UNLV’s Drug Prevention, Education, Testing and Counseling Program. He served on the UNLV Alcohol Task Force Committee as a licensed alcohol and drug counselor and created and served as the first president of the Nevada State Athletic Trainers Association. A former member of the Far West Athletic Trainers Association (FWATA) Managing Board, he served as the National Athletic Trainers Association Public Relations Chair from 1998-2001. Honored by FWATA with the Distinguished Athletic Trainers Award, Koloskie later served on the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports Committee from 2004-2008, including chairing the committee for two years. He also chaired for many years the same UNLV Athletics Hall of Fame Committee that voted him as a member of the Class of 2022. In 2015, Koloskie moved to New York to serve as Deputy AD at Albany University until his retirement from college athletics in 2019.