Anthony Pass
At our regular Club meeting on July 30, 2026, Anthony Pass, Head Football Athletic Trainer and Associate Athletics/Sports Medicine Director at the University of Colorado Boulder, provided a summary of his illustrious career and of some of the lessons he has learned along the way. Currently, Pass and his team oversee the overall health and performance of athletes at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Their areas of focus include strength and conditioning, psychological health and nutrition, as well as recovery and rehabilitation following injury. Pass came to Colorado following a career spanning over 20 years that started in the NFL and progressed through several top college programs. During his career, Pass has moved some 18 times across 9 states. A Colorado native, Pass’ return to the University of Colorado has been a homecoming of sorts. Across the journey, Pass has developed core values that include understanding and caring for the person that is the athlete and understanding the larger purpose that athletic training serves.
Pass’ career began as an intern for the Buffalo Bills. From there, he briefly worked as an assistant athletic trainer and strength coach for the Houston Texans. In 2003, Indiana State University hired Pass to be its Head Football Athletic Trainer. Pass loved that job because it offered a lot of responsibility for a relatively young athletic trainer. He made decisions about players during games, a responsibility normally reserved for more experienced trainers.
Pass hit the “big time” when the University of Florida hired him as its Head Football Athletic Trainer and Associate Director of Sports Health. Pass would remain there until 2013. During that time, Pass worked with Head Coach Urban Meyer and Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow among others. University of Florida won multiple NCAA football titles during that time. At first, Meyer did not want to interview someone from a “small-time” program like Indiana State. But friends got Pass the interview, and Meyer was impressed with Pass’ people-oriented approach to the job. For Pass, that period drove home the value of being service-oriented, something he found that the athletes really appreciated. He came to view himself as more than a “trainer”. Rather, he and his staff were healthcare providers and personal mentors to the athletes.
From 2013 – 2014, Pass worked as Head Football Athletic Trainer at Texas Tech. Then, from 2014 – 2019, Pass worked for the University of Texas, where he would rise to Head Football Trainer. During that time, Pass worked only with the football team rather than split his time among football and other sports. Pass went through a detailed description of a typical college football game day from an athletic trainer’s perspective. Activities included pre-game warmups, pre-game injury assessments, during-game nutrition, assessments, decisions and treatments, and post-game recovery and rehab activities. For athletic trainers, game day was a long day.
From 2019 – 2022, Pass worked for Stanford University as Director of Athletic Training and Sports Nutrition. In that role, his duties expanded to overseeing the activities of all athletic trainers in all sports. At the time, Stanford had 36 teams comprising 950 athletes. Pass managed a staff of 50+ people. Covid presented the biggest challenge of the period. Among other things, the football team and its trainers found themselves travelling to and from Oregon for practice, where Covid restrictions were less stringent than they were in California.
From 2022 – 2023, Pass did a short stint at James Madison University in Virginia. There, his job involved administration and mentoring others. Then in 2023, Pass joined the University of Colorado. Today, he is the Associate Athletics Director for Sports Medicine and Head Football Athletic Trainer. This has been something of a homecoming for Pass, who is a Colorado native.
As his legacy, Pass wants to get people excited about a career as an athletic trainer. As Pass sees it, all the athletes are looking for is someone to help them. Service above self is a key to relationship-building with athletes. Many college athletes come from unstable families. A team of trainers can be like a substitute family. This perspective has evolved over Pass’ career. When he was young, we valued money and prestige. Now, the most satisfying part of his role is having a positive impact on young lives.
Broomfield FISH