Lorry Michel, former head athletic trainer for Georgetown University men’s basketball team, died Sept. 17 in Easton, Md. after a long battle with brain cancer. She was 71.
Born Aug. 16, 1953, in Jersey City, N.J., Lorraine “Lorry” Merry Michel grew up in Jersey City before her family moved to Westover, Md., where she graduated from Pocomoke High School in 1971. Michel discovered her love for athletic training while earning her bachelor’s degree from Salisbury State College in 1975, and received her master’s degree from Indiana State University in 1976.
Michel joined the Georgetown athletics department as an assistant trainer in 1977 before then-Georgetown men’s basketball coach John Thompson Jr. hired Michel as the head trainer for his team in 1981, making her the country’s first full-time female trainer for a major men’s college basketball team.
Donald Lowe, former coordinator of sports medicine at Syracuse University who knew Michel through college basketball, said Michel deeply cared for the Georgetown men’s basketball team.
“I’m so sad to lose my dear friend, Lorry Michel,” Lowe wrote to The Hoya. “When I think of Lorry, I think of a person who was a total professional with an unending love for and support of Hoya Mania. John Thompson hit a home run getting Lorry as his team’s athletic trainer. Big John was something and his bringing Lorry to his team was a big plus for his athletes and the program’s success.”
In a statement the athletics department released Sept. 19, the Thompson family said Michel was dedicated to the men’s basketball program, sharing a close relationship with Thompson Jr. and his son, John Thompson III, who also served as Georgetown men’s basketball coach from 2004 to 2017.
“Dad often would look across the room and comment that Lorry was ‘one special lady,’” the Thompson family said in the statement. “He appreciated her drive and respected her professionalism and innovation courtside.”
“Lorry’s strength and tenacity were legendary, and if you know the Georgetown Basketball program, you understand that she also was a force of love,” the family added.
Lowe shared one of his many fond memories of Michel, saying he joked with Michel about how Thompson Jr. would not divulge where the team stayed during the annual Big East Men’s Basketball Tournament.
“I recall everyone jokingly trying to get Lorry to leak out where the Georgetown team was staying,” Lowe said. “You know John’s team hotel location secret. It started by asking what hotel and moved on to what city and finally, ‘hey what state is the team in?’ We all had a good laugh. Lorry too. A loyal team player she never divulged anything. Not a peep. Just a huge smile.”
Well-known in the sports medicine community, Michel patented a “Foot Support,” which maintains a wearer’s foot at a right angle with their leg, in 1985 and an “Athletic Nose Guard,” which allows athletes to continue playing while injured, in 1991. Michel also served on the sports medicine staff at the 1991 World University Games in Sheffield, England and at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain and worked as a lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Lowe, who worked with Michel on the sports medicine staff at the 1992 Olympics, said Michel supported him when he founded the College Athletic Trainer’s Society the same year.
“Lorry soon became a member and a strong supporter of our society, always coming to our symposiums and gladly sharing her wisdom with fellow athletic trainers,” Lowe said. “People listened to her and wanted her opinions and advice.”
Michel was inducted into the Georgetown Athletics Hall of Fame in 2013, and the sports medicine facility in the John R. Thompson Jr. Intercollegiate Athletic Center on the university’s campus was named after her when it opened in 2016. Michel retired in 2017 after a 40-year career at Georgetown.
Lee Reed, the university’s director of intercollegiate athletics, said Michel was devoted to the athletics community on and off campus, highlighting her impact on student-athletes.
“Lorry Michel made a lasting impression on Georgetown Athletics,” Reed wrote to The Hoya. “She was a trailblazer who devoted her time to the student-athletes and coaches here on the Hilltop as well as the athletic training profession as a whole.”
“Throughout her career, she served as a mentor and friend to those she worked with, and a mother figure to countless student-athletes,” Reed added.
Lowe emphasized Michel’s legacy in the sports medicine field, saying she was admired in the community and left an impact on future generations of athletic trainers.
“Georgetown lost a legend with the passing of Lorry Michel,” Lowe said. “She was tremendously respected and admired in the athletic training community. Everyone in men’s basketball knew Lorry and held her in high esteem.”
“I personally asked Lorry to mentor a few young athletic trainers who I was responsible for. She was a wonderful mentor. Rest in peace, dear friend,” Lowe added.
Reed added that Michel will always be remembered for her fortitude, commemorated by the Lorry Michel Sports Medicine Center on campus.
“She showed courage and strength in the face of adversity, and her memory lives on in the Thompson Center,” Reed said. “What Lorry gave to Hoya Athletics will not be forgotten.”
Michel is survived by her brothers, Walter G. and William; sister, Barbara; and several nieces and nephews. Her parents, Florence and Walter F., predeceased her.
The Thompson family said that Michel was always there for everyone around her.
“More than a master of her craft, Lorry was a caregiver and a best friend,” the family said in the statement. “She was the first one you’d see after surgery, the first one to call to see how you were feeling and give you a care plan, and the one to show up and make sure you were following directions.”
“May her legacy be a guide to those that will follow in her footsteps and her memory be a comfort to the loved ones she leaves behind,” the Thompson family added.