Former NFL Athletic Trainer Gives Back to the Program That Launched His Career

Todd Toriscelli, BSH ’84, has spent decades at the highest level of professional sports medicine, building a career that began in the athletic training program at Ohio University and ultimately led to leadership roles in the National Football League.

After retiring earlier this year as vice president of sports medicine for the Tennessee Titans, Toriscelli and his wife, Chris, have turned their focus toward giving back to the program that helped shape his future.

“I have so much pride in OHIO,” Toriscelli said. “It’s such a special place to me.”

The newly established Todd and Chris Toriscelli Endowment for Athletic Training will provide scholarship support to students enrolled in the University’s athletic training program. For Toriscelli, the decision to give back was deeply personal.

“It was just something I really wanted to do, because I really feel like OHIO played the biggest role in my whole career,” he said.

Toriscelli’s path to OHIO was not a straight line. As a teenager, he began his college career at the University of Akron but struggled academically and returned home. With no family history of college attendance, it appeared that his higher education journey had ended—until a friend handed him an athletic training textbook.

“He gave me a textbook, said ‘Just read through this,’ and I couldn’t put it down,” Toriscelli recalled.

That moment led him to OHIO, where a pivotal conversation with Charles “Skip” Vosler—then head Athletic Trainer and director of athletic training education—set clear expectations. Vosler warned that a C or lower in Toriscelli’s first semester would remove him from the program. Toriscelli responded with a 4.0 GPA.

“That was the best thing anyone ever said to me,” he said.

Toriscelli credits the program’s intensity, mentorship, and collaborative culture for his success.

“If you don’t enjoy that and immerse yourself in it, you’ll never survive [in the athletic training field],” he said.

Now, through his endowment and recent return to campus to speak with students, Toriscelli hopes to support the next generation.

“Without OHIO, and without Skip Vosler having faith in me,” he said, “none of my career success ever would have happened.”

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