When physicians in training for sports medicine came to him for advice, Dr. Andrew Nichols, director of University of Hawaii Health Services and a former team doctor, had an automatic referral.

“I’d say, ‘Hey, you need to go see Eric (Okasaki) and Jayson (Goo) and spend as much time as you can with these two, because they have seen everything.’ ”

In more than 80 combined years, Okasaki and Goo have helped all 23 teams (including some no longer active) and probably worked at some point with every athlete who has completed their eligibility at UH during their tenure.

“I thought they’d be there forever,” said Derek Tatsuno, a College Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher from the 1970s.

Now, UH embarks on a task of seemingly Brobdingnagian proportions, attempting to replace them in one swoop as football and Rainbow Wahine volleyball and soccer teams gear up for their seasons.

Goo retired at the end of June, and Okasaki, who has served as UH’s head trainer for more than 35 of his 43 years, is scheduled to retire at the end of this month.

“That’s a lot of experience, a lot of knowledge,” said athletic director David Matlin, who is overseeing the search. “They have put their life’s work into the job and done an outstanding job for our student-athletes for decades.”

True to their nature as professionals who worked behind the scenes, both have chosen to depart quietly, humbly. As Okasaki put it in an email turning down an interview opportunity, “I came without fanfare and that’s how I’ll leave.”

The part about arriving without “fanfare” was certainly true. Okasaki was a junior varsity baseball player at UH in 1973 when he found what would become his calling.

“Eric was the man,” recalled Tatsuno, a two-time All-America pitcher who became college baseball’s first 20-game winner in 1979. “Whatever I needed before — or after — the game, he was there. He did everything for me.”

Tatsuno said, “I think, at the time, there were just two trainers (for the men’s sports), Dean Adams and Eric, who was his assistant.”

Until Goo, who had also served as a student trainer, came aboard full-time in 1983, the training staff had largely been a three-person operation, with Adams, Melody Toth and Okasaki. Toth, who retired in 2007 after 30 years at UH, Goo and Okasaki were among the founding members of the Hawaii Athletic Trainers Association in 1985 and were involved in integrating training for women’s and men’s athletics at the school.

Nichols said the trainers are “the first line (of sports medicine). They are the ones, even when the athletes are well, that they are (interacting) with, taping and talking to them and get to know them much better than the physicians.”

Nichols added, “Eric has that ability to (anticipate) several steps forward, not just the immediate situation, and was always asking, what if, what if. … He sure taught me that (way of) thinking about athletic health care. Jayson had a great interest in rehabilitation.”

Mostly, Nichols said, “It was just their dedication, the hours and hours that they work and the relationships they have had and will, forever, have with the players and coaches is really something. I mean, they are irreplaceable.”