William "Bill" Semon

Seattle Ramblers

Trainer

1953 - 1962

It's not often a trainer makes it into a football Hall of Fame, yet Bill Semon became the second in the Northwest to earn that distinction.   Following in the footsteps of Adolph Schacht a dozen years later, Bill Semon kept the Seattle Ramblers in top shape and treated their aches and pains.  However, it was his innovation with knee braces that brings him into the GNFA Hall of Fame. 

Beginning his research in 1954 after seeing a collection of knee injuries suffered by Ramblers players, Semon deduced that "90%" of the knee injuries he saw were from side blocking or "crash back" blocking damaging either the medial ligament or the medial meniscus cartilage.  While most of the knee braces in use at the time were to stabilize existing injuries that had been surgically repaired, his invention was designed to prevent the injuries.  His first design was put into use October 14, 1958 and by 1959, use of the brace was catching on.  The Ramblers adopted it, and in 1962 Semon claimed no Ramblers had knee problems of the side impact variety since.

His first design was made with airplane parts, surgical tubing, fiberglass and screws..."but it worked", he said.

It weighed only 18 oz, was 14 inches long and made of steel and rubber and in 1962, 3,400 pairs of the braces were in use across the United States.

Bill trademarked his knee brace in 1965 calling it the "Palmer Knee Brace" and it's design led directly to upgraded neoprene and velcro designs from Omni and Mueller years later.   Interestingly, Bob McDavid built his own version in 1967, receiving his patent in 1969 and calling it the "first lateral knee brace designed to prevent injury", and together with his son, went on to build the $30 million dollar a year McDavid company.  But a decade earlier, a semi-pro trainer with the Ramblers was already in the business of preventing football injuries.  It wasn't until the mid-70's that an Indiana State grad student conducted a study using the McDavid brace and when he published his paper, brought on board the likes of Boston College and Notre Dame and an empire was built.  By then, the Ramblers were a distant memory , showing once again that timing is everything when it comes to inventions.

In 1963 Semon became a trainer at Lewis & Clark College, Stanford University for a short time before finally landing at Oregon State from 1964-1966 as Head Trainer when the Beavers met Michigan in the 1965 Rose Bowl.  Bill returned to Lewis & Clark in the early 70's to continue as Head Trainer there.

The "Palmer" knee brace in it's early stages of development

  * Photo Credits: "Take A Lap" by Don E. Ridge

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