A scholarship awarded to five University of Arkansas graduate students brings with it a responsibility to provide the utmost in professional care to athletes in all sports and at all competitive levels.

Will Baum, Alyssa Romasco, Mike Sola, Katherine Susskind and Emily Wozoboski are enrolled in the Master of Athletic Training degree program in the College of Education and Health Professions. They are the 2011 recipients of the Dean Weber and Bill Ferrell Endowed Scholarships in Athletic Training. The students will be honored Saturday at a reception.

"These students deserve special recognition for their performance in the classroom and their work with athletes in their clinical rotations," said Jeff Bonacci, director of the athletic training education program. "With the knowledge and skills they are learning, they will uphold the high standards set by Dean Weber and Bill Ferrell. These men are giants among athletic trainers who dedicated their lives to caring for Razorback athletes so that they could be successful both in sports and in life."

Susskind won both the Weber and Ferrell scholarships. The Weber scholarship is presented to the top student in the athletic training education program.

 Baum, Sola, Susskind and Wozoboski are all working with the Razorback football team for their clinical rotation this semester. Romasco is working with the Arkansas soccer team.

"The college is proud of these students and the tradition they represent," said Tom Smith, dean of the College of Education and Health Professions. "Their achievements represent the good that comes from a successful partnership of athletics and academics. We appreciate the support of the athletes who created these scholarship funds and the support of the athletic department in providing clinical experience for our students."

Former University of Arkansas athletes created scholarships in honor of their athletic trainers that support the newest generation of athletic trainers.

Seniors from the 1979 Razorback football team created an award in honor of Weber, who is now the director of equipment operations in the department of athletics. For 35 seasons, Weber supervised the athletic training operations for men's sports teams. He now oversees equipment operations for all 19 Razorback teams.

Following the 1979 team's lead, the Razorback Foundation and Jim Lindsey created another award in memory of the late Bill Ferrell, longtime athletic trainer and baseball coach. Members of the Ferrell family and representatives of the college, the university and the athletic department also attended the event.

The 1979 Razorback football team had one of the great seasons in school history. They were called “a team without stars” because of their focus on team accomplishments rather than individual recognition.

At their 25^th reunion celebration in 2004, the seniors decided to commit themselves as a group to a project that would have a lasting effect and further strengthen their bond. They established three goals for their project, and all three were met: to continue their practice of achieving 100 percent participation as a group of 14 teammates, to give back to the University of Arkansas, and to honor their good friend Weber for his friendship and his years of service and dedication to the university and the many student-athletes under his care.

The Razorback A Club – a group comprising former athletes and lettermen – and Lindsey worked together to raise money in memory of Ferrell, the longtime athletic trainer and head baseball coach at the university. Lindsey, former chairman of the university’s Board of Trustees and a member of the 1964 National Championship football team, agreed to match the money raised by the club members.

Ferrell was head baseball coach and head athletic trainer at the University of Arkansas from 1950 through 1967. He was inducted into the National Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame in 1967. He is the second winningest coach for baseball in school history. Ferrell was named to the University of Arkansas Sports Hall of Honor in 1994. He died in 1967.