Above: Bartles Hall, credit wikimedia commons
The following is a transcribed interview between The Cornell Review and Head Football Equipment Manager Keith McCarthy.
What are the favorite parts of your job?
I enjoy working with athletes, watching them play, and working with coaches. I get to work a job where I work sports all day long, it’s a hobby at the same time. I also enjoy researching all the new equipment and learning how it works and how it can help Cornell athletics.
What are the least favorite parts of your job?
The least favorite part of the job is doing the laundry for other areas. I do not mind the laundry for our athletic teams since that is part of the job.
How do you choose the equipment you issue?
I oversee the design of the uniforms and clothing for the two football teams. I pick out the equipment. I only do football, we only do the two football teams, men’s lacrosse and baseball in the equipment room here.
For football, the helmets were both Riddell and Schutt when I started. Studies have shown Riddell to be superior in safety, and in our experience they fit our athletes better and were easier to fix. That’s how we judge the helmets.
What are your work hours like?
During the football season, from Monday to Friday I come in around 8 o’clock and do my day to day stuff such as checking my emails, doing the team laundry. From 1PM on, I get both teams ready for practice. I then go out to practice. I go home around 9PM.
On home game days, I come in around 7AM, and get out around midnight
How did you decide to become an equipment manager?
I was a student manager in high school and enjoyed it. Then, I went to Edinboro University [of Pennsylvania], where I was a manager and they paid my salary and basically my tuition so I went to school for free. After graduation, I worked at Father Judge High School part time while working another job, then I went to Widener University [Chester, PA] for 2 years, Kutztown for 8 years, and have been at Cornell for 4 years. I am also active in the community, I fit helmets for Ithaca and Dryden High Schools, and Lansing Youth Football. I try to stay involved in the community. I am also an umpire for Little League Baseball [Baseball for youth players]
What was it like coming to Ithaca from Pennsylvania?
I was excited about coming to a Division I, Ivy League program. It was definitely an adjustment coming from Philly to Ithaca. The summers are nice, and I have an awesome staff that make coming to work fun.
What were the differences working in the different divisions in the NCAA?
DIII has a lot of responsibilities, one guy might have to do 20 sports and set up everything. It tends to be busier in season, but out of season not as much.
DII is pretty much the same, often extremely short staffed and asked to work on things such as shot clocks, facility maintenance, equipment and laundry
At the DI level I just get to do equipment manager work, equipment and uniforms.
What are some misconceptions about your job?
The biggest one is that we are just laundry people. The people who think this usually don’t realize how important laundry is, how we might hand scrub a stain to make it look new, how you need the right temperatures and the right chemicals to kill staph and germs. People not involved in athletics also do not realize how important each piece of equipment is, from the helmet down to the cleats.
Why do they call you Radar?
The nickname Radar was given to me at Widener University where I had more responsibilities then a normal equipment manager. Besides working with my teams and setting up sporting events, I was also responsible for sending out the clothing to alumni and working as a Volunteer Assistant Baseball Coach. The Baseball Coach at the time gave me the name, since “Radar” in the TV show M*A*S*H was a guy who had many responsibilities and worked hard to get them all done. The nickname has stuck with me now work over a decade.
Are there any final thoughts you would like to share with our readers?
Equipment Managers are certified, we take a test and have to go to meetings and classes to keep certified. I work the greatest job in the world.
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