He directed the search and rescue efforts at the Hyatt Regency walkway collapse in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 17, 1981.

Waeckerle was born June 20, 1946, in Kansas City, Missouri, and graduated from Rockhurst High School in 1964.

He received his Certificate of Added Qualifications in Sports Medicine through the ABEM examination process.

He focused on continuing medical education, research, wellness, wound care, and scientific meetings activities.

Waeckerle's first experience in Sports Medicine was as medical officer for Rugby football at the local, regional, national and international levels.

He was the medical officer and a member of the Executive Committee for Special Olympics of Kansas for a number of years.

During his tenure, the various committees have made significant contributions to the peer-reviewed literature in mild traumatic brain injury as well as major white papers for NFL team physicians and sports medicine physicians and granting funds to worthy researchers interested in sports medicine.

In 2009, Waeckerle was invited to be a member of the NFL Players Association Mackey/White Traumatic Brain Injury Committee.

Waeckerle has testified before the United States Congress on Domestic Preparedness issues multiple times.

He served as a member of the Roundtable on Emergency Preparedness, Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations.

On July 17, 1981, Waeckerle had completed an eleven-hour shift in an emergency room, and was preparing for rugby season by running eleven flights of stairs at Baptist Medical Center[6] and was heading home when he received a telephone call from the Emergency Management Service dispatcher that "the roof had collapsed" at the Hyatt Regency hotel.