HOOVER, Ala. — The restructuring of the Arkansas athletic department took another turn Thursday as the university announced veteran director of athletic training Dean Weber was granted a reassignment within the department.

Weber, who served as head trainer for 35 years, will oversee equipment operations for Arkansas’ 19 sports, as well as continue in his role as the administrator of the department’s drug testing program.

“Someone told me today, ‘ Dean, this is proof that hell can freeze over, ’” Weber said with a laugh. “I’m tickled to death with it. I’ve thought about this for the last several years, that I wanted to pursue something else. This was part of the plan I had.

“ At age 60 I wanted to have a course correction, if you will, in my career.... It took until I was 62 to achieve it.” Weber said administering the department’s drug testing program was too much of a burden for the head trainer, so he’s happy to be keeping that responsibility.

“I never felt it was very efficient to have drug testing in the athletic trainer’s domain,” he said. “I always thought that was too much pressure and a burden, and now it’s not going to be.” Athletic Director Jeff Long, who is overseeing a department in the midst of a major overhaul in his first year, was happy to keep Weber aboard.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Given Dean’s loyalty and service to our student-athletes, I was pleased to accommodate his request for a new opportunity,” Long said in a news release. “He has been patient while we worked through the complexity of blending our men’s and women’s programs. I am confident that he will provide the administrative supervision and coordination required of equipment operations in a combined program.” Weber, a 2000 inductee into the UA Sports Hall of Fame who is also in the Arkansas Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame and the Southwest Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame, has worked more than 420 consecutive Razorbacks football games.

Weber said he would continue in his capacity as trainer through the end of July. The Razorbacks report for fall camp Aug. 3 and open practice the following day.

“This was my idea and has been the last two years at least,” Weber said. “I’d have done it earlier if I had had the opportunity. Just because it’s a week away from practice starting, with the staff we have and the care we provide, it’ll be a seamless transition.” Weber said he did not know who Arkansas would hire as its next head trainer.

Hired in 1973 after a fiveyear stint at the University of North Carolina by then-Arkansas Coach Frank Broyles, Weber was selected as trainer for the 1984 United States Olympic team. He has participated in 26 bowl games as trainer, including every Razorbacks bowl game since the 1976 Cotton Bowl.

“I appreciate Jeff [Long ] giving me the chance to continue in this area I’m working in, and I still appreciate Frank for hiring me back in 1973,” Weber said. “It’s been a great ride, and it’s going to get better.”