Anthony 'Coach Pep' Peppers remembered as jovial, dedicated athletic trainer

Not even cancer could keep Anthony Peppers from his calling.

Known far and wide as “Coach Pep,” Peppers was as dedicated to athletic training after his diagnosis in October as when he started with Lubbock ISD four decades ago — even as colleagues insisted he slow down and rest.

Peppers couldn’t help it. Being there for others meant everything to him.

“For Peppers, it was not work,” Robert “Prof” Ramos said, “it was fun.”

Peppers himself described it a different way.

“He told my mother doing what he did was his purpose for being on Earth,” Marilyn Peppers-Citizen said. “It was his purpose for existing. He was doing what he felt he was meant to do.”

The passion and devotion with which Peppers approached each day did not go unnoticed. The longtime Lubbock High trainer will be posthumously inducted into the LISD Athletics Hall of Honor on Saturday.

Peppers-Citizen, Anthony’s older sister, knew early on her brother’s propensity for compassion. Human or animal, Peppers was always looking to help those in need. Little did Peppers-Citizen know that would lead to a career in athletic training.

“If a puppy or something needed to be taken care of, he was right there,” Peppers-Citizen said. “Even though I didn’t make that connection early on, much later when I thought about it, it’s like, ‘Yeah, that was coming.’ It was really great that he found that place so early in his life and that it sustained him for so many years, which is a gift itself. Not everybody’s able to find that one thing that brings them purpose like he was.”

Prior to his sophomore year at Dunbar High School, perhaps not even Peppers knew. That’s when he became one of Ramos’ first student trainers — a safer role than football player for the wiry-framed teenager.

Ramos, a fellow 2026 Hall of Honor inductee, took Peppers under his wing in 1973. It was the start of a tight-knit bond that influenced the latter to follow the same career path — and same college fandom. Ramos, a University of Oklahoma grad, took Peppers to a football game at his alma mater, where they got to check out the training room and see the inner workings of pregame prep.

By the drive home, Peppers was hooked on athletic training and OU.

“The trip to OU did the trick,” Ramos said. “I mean, he dove into (athletic training).”

Affinity for OU aside, Peppers graduated from Texas Tech. He spent six years as a student trainer before beginning his professional career at his home school district in 1983. By ’86, he was head athletic trainer at Lubbock High.

It didn’t take long for Peppers to become a fixture around Westerner athletics. From sunup to sundown — and oftentimes later — Peppers was at practices and games for every sport at LHS. That goes for freshman teams up to varsity.

His assistance went beyond training, too.

“He loved everybody. Everybody deserved the same chance,” LISD director of sports medicine Shelly Macias said. “He just took care of them. Early on in his career, it was those kids that couldn’t make it to practice. ‘Oh, I’ll come get you.’ … ‘I didn’t eat lunch today.’ He’d go buy them lunch. … The kids didn’t have a pair of shoes. Pep would go buy them a pair of shoes.”

Macias said for many years Peppers attended every doctor’s visit for injured athletes. He was there to translate medical jargon or help with insurance questions for students and parents alike.

“He was there for all those kids,” Macias said, “and all those kids remember him taking care of them.”

Macias is also an LISD product who returned. She recalled meeting Peppers as a student trainer at Coronado. From their first interaction, Macias got a taste of his signature lightheartedness.

In search of supplies in a locked cabinet, Macias asked Peppers for assistance.

“He said, ‘What, you think I’m a janitor just because I have keys?'” Macias recalled. “And I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry, sir.’ Of course, he was laughing it up after that. I think that’s what everybody remembers of him. He is a jokester to the end. His laughter was infectious.”

Ramos called it a “good mischievous” streak. Peppers-Citizen can relate, saying childhood was “never a dull moment.” But that jovial nature didn’t detract from his care, she said.

“His students were squarely a huge focus of his life,” Peppers-Citizen said. “He could be joyful about it, but the undercurrent was that he was serious about keeping people safe.”

Peppers was recognized with multiple national and statewide awards throughout his career. Athletic training conventions became reunions where everyone wanted to catch up with the “social bug” Coach Pep. Peppers-Citizen had plenty of similar experiences whenever she visited her brother in Lubbock.

“He and I would go out places, it wouldn’t be five minutes before somebody would walk up to him, or wave at him, or say something to him,” Peppers-Citizen said. “Consistently. I can’t think of one time where we went someplace and he didn’t run into someone who had either been a student, a student trainer or family of someone that he had taken care of.”

Peppers’ funeral solidified his stature, his sister said. She was taken aback by the attendance at the service, and she ran into another acquaintance of Peppers checking her ID at the airport.

Peppers-Citizen plans to attend Saturday’s ceremony, along with parents Raymond Jr. and Murry Peppers. Peppers-Citizen said it’s comforting that her brother knew of his induction before passing. He died Jan. 22, one day after the 2026 Hall of Honor class was announced.

“We are grateful that he had an opportunity to live his purpose,” Peppers-Citizen said, “and that he was able to touch so many more people than we realized. We had no idea.”

This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Anthony ‘Coach Pep’ Peppers remembered as jovial, dedicated athletic trainer