[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 195 (Wednesday, December 19, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2656]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRATULATING STRATON KARATOSSOS

                                 ______
                                 

                   HON. CHARLES W. ``CHIP'' PICKERING

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, December 19, 2007

  Mr. PICKERING. Madam Speaker, the athletic tradition at Mississippi 
State University has celebrated the lives and accomplishments of many 
student and staff leaders over the years. Recently another has been 
added to this list when Straton Karatassos was inducted into the 
Mississippi Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of Fame.
  Straton has a lifetime of experiences and stories as a manager and 
trainer of athletic teams. While working with the Georgia Southern 
baseball team in 1973, he made his first visit to Mississippi State 
University for a game, and later that year returned as a graduate 
student. Now, three decades later, Straton has become inseparable from 
the MSU athletic family. He was named State's head trainer in 1981, 
later served as assistant athletic director for sports medicine, and 
now works as assistant athletic director for athletic development 
within the Bulldog Club.
  While he is a native of Savannah, GA, we like to claim him as a true 
son of Starkville. He and his wife, Harriet, of Batesville, MS, are 
central to the Bulldog community, and he is as much part of the teams 
at Mississippi State as are the players.
  Madam Speaker, I hope the Congress joins me in congratulating Straton 
Karatassos for a lifetime of service to sport and saluting him in his 
induction into the Mississippi Athletic Trainers' Association Hall of 
Fame.

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