At approximately 11 p.m. Tuesday night, Jan. 11, a Mount Union bus carrying the wrestling team, coaches, statisticians, an athletic trainer and athletic training students returning to campus following a match at Ohio Northern was involved in an accident near Bucyrus, Ohio, on U.S. Rt. 30. Dan Gorman, director of athletic training and associate professor of human performance and sport business, was fatally injured in the crash.

Gorman joined the Mount Union community in 1985 after having served as assistant professor and director of the athletic training education program and head athletic trainer at Cortland State. During his tenure at Mount Union, he was integral to the success of the university’s athletic training program, which recently received the maximum 10-year accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of Athletic Training Education. He was also a dedicated mentor in the LS 100 program, which is designed to assist first-year students in their transition to college.

“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Dan Gorman and the entire University of Mount Union community following last night’s fatal bus crash involving the wrestling team,” NCAA president Mark Emmert said in a statement on the NCAA's website. “As director of athletic training and as an associate professor, Dan worked to positively impact the lives of many students and student-athletes at Mount Union for 25 years. On behalf of the entire NCAA membership, I want to express my deepest sympathies for this tragic loss.”

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the athletes, coaches, administrators and their families during this difficult time,” Ohio Northern athletic director Tom Simmons said.

Members of the Bluffton community, which suffered the loss of five baseball student-athletes in March 2007 after a bus crash in Atlanta, also lent support to Mount Union.

“As a D-III school we understand how this affects the entire campus community,” said Eric Fulcomer, Bluffton’s vice president for enrollment management and student life. “We reached out this morning to our colleagues at Mt. Union to offer our expressions of sympathy, prayers and support.”
 
A native of Westbury, N.Y., Gorman earned a bachelor of science degree in physical education with emphasis in athletic training from Cortland in 1981 and a master’s degree in physical education with emphasis in adult fitness and cardiac rehabilitation from Eastern Illinois in 1983.  Gorman received his certification from the National Athletic Trainers Association in 1981.
 
Throughout the past two decades, Gorman was an active member of numerous athletic training program accreditation efforts, including those at Augustana, Rowan, Heidelberg and Toledo.
 
Gorman also previously served as assistant director of sports medicine and research at the King Abdul Azizz Air Base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia through work with the United States Sports Academy, head athletic trainer for the Gary (Ind.) Golden Bears semipro football team and coordinator of sports medicine for the Michigan City, Ind., public school system while on the staff of Michigan City Memorial Hospital.
 
All other passengers on the bus requiring medical attention have been treated and released.  Office of Counseling Services staff members and the university chaplain will be available to offer support to campus community members in the coming days.

Mount Union’s men’s basketball and women’s basketball games against Baldwin-Wallace scheduled for Wednesday evening have been postponed. The Purple Raider men were slated to host the Yellow Jackets in Alliance while the women’s team was to play in Berea.