Saliba Leaving Legacy of Service at UVA

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — In a men’s basketball program built on the pillars of humility, passion, unity, servanthood and thankfulness, Tony Bennett worked alongside athletic trainer Ethan Saliba at the University of Virginia for 15 years. Bennett saw one of those pillars embodied every day.

“There’s Mother Teresa, and then there’s Ethan Saliba in my book,” said Bennett, who retired as UVA’s head coach in October 2024. “Obviously, we’ve talked a lot about the pillars of our program, and that pillar of servanthood says the way to greatness is through serving others. Ethan was a true servant.”

Saliba, who was born in Lawrence, Kansas, left his native Midwest for Charlottesville in the summer of 1983. Now in his 44^th year at UVA, he’s the longest-tenured member of the athletics department and an institution at the University, where he’s also a professor. He’s contributed to more than 70 scholarly articles in scientific publications, and they’ve been cited more nearly 4,200 times.

“Ethan Saliba belongs on the Mount Rushmore of athletic training,” said Dr. John MacKnight, UVA’s medical director for sports medicine.

“Hardest worker I've ever seen,” said head men’s basketball coach Ryan Odom, who’s in his second year at Virginia. “Every athlete knows that Ethan has their back and he's going to be there for them. He's going to answer the phone. He's going to be there early. He's going to stay late. If you have a problem and you're in the hospital late at night, he's going to be there with you. He's not sending somebody else.”

It’s hard to imagine UVA without Saliba, who’s been the associate athletic director for sports medicine since 2007, but his legendary run on Grounds is nearing its end. He’s retiring on Friday to begin a new chapter in a life marked by his service to others.

“I'm not sure what a normal lifestyle is,” Saliba said. “I'm sure there's going to be an adjustment factor, because [the job] is seven days a week.”

MacKnight said: “I think I could count on one hand the number of weeks of vacation Ethan has taken in his career.”

He still enjoys his work, Saliba said, but “I just looked in the mirror one day, and I'm not 30 anymore. At some point you say, ‘Let the younger blood take over and maybe smell the roses a little bit while I can still walk around.’ ”

Saliba and his wife, the former Susan Foreman, have a son, Sami, who’s a UVA graduate. Susan was an athletic trainer at Virginia, too, but gave that up after Sami was born. She’s now a professor in UVA’s School of Education and Human Development.

“They are the most precious things,” Saliba said of his wife and their son, and he’s grateful for the sacrifices they’ve made on his behalf.

“I've spent more Christmases and Thanksgivings in hotels than I have with family,” Saliba said.

He’s worked for five athletic directors at UVA: Dick Schultz, Jim Copeland, Terry Holland, Craig Littlepage and, since December 2017, Carla Williams.

Williams came to UVA from the University of Georgia, where her colleagues included another revered athletic trainer, Ron Courson. When Courson learned that she was leaving for Virginia, Williams said, “he called me to tell me how great Ethan was. And so immediately I felt connected to Ethan because of Ron Courson. I didn't know a whole lot of other people here.”

She quickly learned that Courson’s high opinion of Saliba was justified, Williams said. “Ethan cares. And when he's asked, he craves the opportunity to help somebody. It doesn't matter who it is. If you ask for help, he's gonna figure out a way to try to help you. He just gets it done.”

Saliba’s many protégés include Kelli Pugh, UVA’s senior associate athletic director for sports medicine.

“Ethan is the most generous person I know. ‘No’ is not in his vocabulary,” Pugh said. “It's always, ‘I'll find a way.’ And that's how he's been able to get so much done.

In 2016, UVA presented Saliba with the Algernon Sydney Sullivan Award, which annually honors excellence and service to humanity. Also that year, Saliba was inducted into the Mid-Atlantic Athletic Trainers Hall of Fame.

MacKnight, who completed his internal medicine residency at UVA in 1995, has known Saliba for more than 30 years.

“No one in the athletic department knows how to get things done in the health-care world better than Ethan Saliba, because he's been here so long and he has so many contacts,” MacKnight said. “And it's super helpful for me. I can simply say, ‘Ethan, here's what I need to try to get accomplished. Can you help me?’ And with the snap of a finger, he's made it happen.”

Saliba, who lived in Zahlé, Lebanon, for several years as a boy, attended Southeast Missouri State University on a football scholarship. After three years at SEMO, he gave up football and transferred to the University of Kansas, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical therapy.

As an offensive lineman at SEMO, he never was seriously injured, Saliba said, but the time he spent rehabilitating after getting hurt sparked his interest in sports medicine.

After getting his bachelor’s degree, he worked as a physical therapist at a rehab hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, before enrolling in a master’s program at the University of Nebraska. He completed work on his master’s at UVA while working as an assistant athletic trainer.

Saliba later earned two doctorates: one from UVA and another from Virginia Commonwealth University.

When Saliba started at UVA, he and Joe Gieck were the only two full-time athletic trainers, and the entire athletic department was based in University Hall (which was demolished in the spring of 2019). Virginia had 24 varsity sports then, and Saliba threw himself into his myriad responsibilities.

“It was like a gold mine of growth opportunity,” said Saliba, who also worked closely with Dr. Frank McCue.

The first men’s basketball team with which Saliba worked at UVA went to the Final Four in Seattle in 1984. Jimmy Miller was a forward on that team, and he’s now the analyst on radio broadcasts of Virginia men’s games.

“You think about his impact through multiple generations,” Miller said. “His impact isn’t measured in games won but measured in people. I think what’s amazing for me is that my relationship with Ethan spans nearly 45 years. I first knew him as a trainer taking care of us when I was playing and then decades later sitting courtside as the radio analyst, and I got to see the exact same person, the same professionalism, the same humility, the same commitment to the players. A lot has changed in college basketball, but Ethan never changed.”

Saliba was promoted to associate athletic trainer in 1990 and to senior associate athletic trainer in 1995. In August 1998, Gieck was named UVA’s director of sports medicine, and Saliba succeeded him as head athletic trainer.

Pugh arrived on Grounds as an undergraduate in 1996 and started volunteering in the athletic training room. She worked with various sports in her first two years at Virginia. As a third-year, Pugh began assisting Saliba and Gieck with the football program.

After getting her bachelor’s degree at Virginia, Pugh earned a master’s at the University of Florida. Then she returned to UVA as a full-time assistant athletic trainer, working with Saliba in the football program. She succeeded him as head athletic trainer for football in the spring 2008.

“Ethan is the most amazing mentor,” Pugh said. “He and Joe were always welcoming of a co-ed environment for men's sports. They were visionaries in that sense. When I took over as the head of football, everybody made such a big deal out of it, and I didn't really understand it, because women have always worked football at UVA. Ethan has been so important in moving the profession forward in so many ways, but for me personally, in terms of making football a space where women are equals, he was the first person to do that for me.”

In 2005, the Salibas and Craig Denegar authored a textbook, titled Therapeutic Modalities for Musculoskeletal Injuries, that is “a standard in athletic training programs across the country,” Pugh said.

In 2008, Saliba began spending more time at John Paul Jones Arena with the Cavalier men’s basketball program, then led by Dave Leitao. Bennett arrived in the spring of 2009 and leaned heavily on Saliba as he built one of the nation’s premier programs.

“The ride we got to go on together, I’m so thankful,” Bennett said. “Ethan always had a kind word when you needed one and was just a great source of encouragement. I think the world of him, and I was so fortunate to work with him my whole tenure at the helm.”

During his three years in Bennett’s program, Justin Anderson spent many hours rehabbing under Saliba's direction.

“Ethan actually saw me play in an AAU tournament at [UVA] when I was 14 years old, and years later, on my official visit, he remembered me and reminded me of it. That always stuck with me,” said Anderson, who’s now playing professionally in Dubai.

“Fast forward through my career as a Hoo, and some of my favorite memories with Ethan came during some of the toughest parts of my career,” Anderson said. “I had a couple back-to-back surgeries, and Ethan was there taking care of me through all of it. When I came back from one of them faster than anyone ever had, I still remember the big smile on his face when he cleared me to play again. It was only fitting that he was the one to do it, because he had been in my corner from the moment I stepped on Grounds.”

Saliba has continued to assist as needed with UVA’s other programs, but his focus in recent years has been on basketball. His office adjoins the men’s practice gym at JPJ.

During Bennett’s tenure, the Cavaliers advanced to the NCAA tournament 10 times, and in 2019 they were crowned national champions for the first time in program history.

Saliba has fond memories of that night in Minneapolis, “but, again, to me, it's not the wins and losses,” he said. “The wins are important because they keep the inspirations, the motivations for the kids that much higher and all that. But you can still do the same job in the dry years as you would in the successful years. Fortunately, UVA has been so successful, but for me, it's still the same. Whether you're winning or losing, it's still the care of the kids. And to me, whether you're a five-star or a walk-on, your health and well-being are just as important. So if you're on the roster, you're important.”

Odom, whose father, Dave, was an assistant coach on Holland’s basketball staff at UVA, was about 10 when he met Saliba, and he vividly remembers one of their first interactions. The younger Odom sliced his right ring finger on a glass bottle one day while playing with a friend, and they raced to the athletic training room at nearby U-Hall, where Saliba and Gieck wrapped the cut and then sent him to a doctor for stitches.

Even now, Odom said, it can be hard for him to grasp how his relationship with Saliba has changed.

“He'll walk up and say, ‘Boss,’ and I'm like, ‘No, I'm not your boss. I'm 10-year-old Ryan,’ ” Odom said, smiling.

Saliba has taught countless classes at the University, and the School of Education and Human Development is requesting that he be appointed a professor emeritus. How exactly he’ll fill his days in retirement is yet to be determined, but rest assured, he’ll stay busy.

“I’ve got all sorts of projects and properties,” Saliba said. “I love nature and that kind of thing, and it’s very abundant here.”

A commitment to service is “clearly what makes Ethan tick,” MacKnight said. “And so I'm absolutely certain he will find some alternative path of service through volunteerism or to do other things through the athletic department to maintain an attachment to be helpful. You can't put a price tag on his knowledge base or his experience, and so I can't imagine that he won't land in some capacity where he can continue to use those skills. But I'm happy for him, because I want him to be able to take a break and not have to meet all of these needs every single day.”

When Saliba came to Charlottesville in 1983, he would not have expected to still be here four decades later, but he never had cause to leave. He credits the University’s commitment to caring for student-athletes.

“That’s why it never could be greener on the other side,” Saliba said. “I couldn't find any better. And not only are you responsible for the kids, but every day it's easy to go to work, because the people that you work with and the coaching staff, there's an integrity factor. If you win and you're a sleaze, who cares? But if you win with integrity and you want to provide the best care and you have the resources to provide the best care, then 43 years, 44 years later, you're saying, ‘It’s hard to leave.’ ”

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