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Herodicus, a teacher of Hippocrates, creates sports medicine when he performs basic physical therapy on Olympians. -
Galen, the Roman Greek physician, is widely considered to be one of the first athletic trainers. He worked as a team physician for the Gladiatorial school at Pergamum. -
In the 10th and 11th centuries, a well-respected physician and philosopher named Avicenna created the Canon of Medicine which was an encyclopedia of medical knowledge. It included information on the recovery of wounds as well as the healing of sore muscles, generally promoting the practice of sports medicine. -
Santorio Santorius, an Italian medical practitioner, was a pioneer in sports medicine. Using Galileos learnings he was able to research metabolism and heart rate and helped us better understand the effect physical movement has on our bodies. -
In 1569, Italian physician Gerolamo Mercuriale created De Arta Gymnastica. This book outlined how exercise affected medicine and health. This was one of the first books detailing the benefits of physical exercise. -
Bernardino Ramazzini is considered by some to be the father of occupational medicine. Ramazzini studied athlete's movements and researched how posture and body motion impacted a person's health. -
After a slowdown in advancements in sports medicine, the 1896 Summer Olympics reignited the spark and led to the increased popularity of sports medicine as athletes needed proper care. -
In 1912 the German Association International Medico-Sportive was founded with the goal to provide medical care specifically for athletes, more specifically for those in the Olympics. -
The first United States school of physical therapy opened in 1914 at Reed College in Oregon, giving physical therapy legitimacy and providing quality education to perform therapy efficiently and effectively -
With the First World War, many soldiers were coming home wounded or disabled. This led to an increase in physical therapists in order to rehabilitate these injured soldiers. This also showed how useful physical therapy could be not only to rehabilitate soldiers in order for them to function in non-war day-to-day life, but also to get soldiers back into the battle after smaller injuries. -
In 1917 Dr S.E. Bilik wrote the Trainers Bible which athletic trainers from the 1920s through the 1950s used. -
In 1922 the first sports medicine journal was published by the French Society of Sports Medicine. -
In 1927 the Harvard Fatigue Labratory was established as an offshoot of the Harvard School of Bussiness. Among other things, they studied environmental effects on athletic performance such as altitude. Many cite them as the origin of exercise physiology in the United States. -
NATA, the National Association of Athletic Trainers, was formed in 1950 aiming to enhance the quality of healthcare for athletes both young and old. -
In 1954 the ACSM, American College of Sports Medicine, was founded with the goal of improving sports medicine by researching and educating. -
The first official team of physicians, formed for the 1968 Olympics by J.C. Kennedy. -
After a 1969 article urged the NATA to proceed in creating certification for athletic trainers, the NATA implemented certification for all those in the association. -
The American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) was created to help surgeons learn how to better treat and prevent athletic-type injuries. -
After injuring himself playing baseball, L.A. pitcher Tommy John got his first surgery in which an elbow ligament was replaced. Thanks to this innovation in sports medicine, injured pitchers return almost 85% of the time even after such a devastating injury. -
Developed in 1978, cryotherapy is now being used in the sports medicine world in order to treat soft tissue injuries in athletes. There are now hundreds of cryotherapy locations around the united states. -
In association with the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Carter Administration created the National Commission for Health Certifying Agencies which essentially made sure that the different certification qualifications by each Association and Organization were satisfactory. -
In 1992 sports medicine was officially recognized as a specialty by the American Board of Emergency Medicine. -
Sue Falsone was the first female head athletic trainer in the Major American Professional Sports Leagues. She graduated from Daemon College with a bachelor's degree and then earned her master's degree from UNC. She is now working in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization making sure their athletes are performing at their best. -
In 2008, the National Federation of State Highschool Association (NFHS) along with the Sports Medicine Advisory Committee (SMAC) published a mouthguard mandate that essentially states that with any contact sport (football, hockey, lacrosse etc...), players MUST wear a mouthguard. -
After a Junior Football player got a concussion and came out of the game only to go back in and then collapse leading to years of rehab until he could perform basic functions again like walking and talking. This law makes it so that athletes pulled from games due to an injury may not return without written medical consent.