The Most Merciful Medical Attendant: Athletic Training’s College Football Roots and Implications for Athletic Training EducationJennifer Lee Hoffman, PhC, ATC, LMP, University of Washington

The Earliest ATCs – Students?

In the earliest editions of the University of Washington

student yearbook there are references to a student

helper, The Most Merciful Medical Attendant, listed

among the players names on the football roster. These

yearbooks published just after 1900 did not elaborate

on the duties, but the name clearly implies that this

student provided medical attention with

compassion.

The Rise of College Football

College football grew out of a “student-alumni”

management system that developed during a time of

faculty disinterest in the extra-curriculum (Rudolf

1990).

This early, independent management of football was

followed by development of the collegiate ideal.

The Rise of Athletic Training

College football remained independent of the

academic management of the institution. This left the

early development of the athletic training

profession highly influenced by the culture of

college football. As football continued to grow, the

athletic training profession grew too - often in the

shadows of college football and the increasingly

research oriented medical profession.

Socialization

Students gradually learn the diverse criteria for a successful career through “transmission of meaning.”

Occurs in formal education, daily routines and “informal annotations of everyday experience called common sense.”

Includes stories told within the community about important people and events (Traweek, 1988).

Communication, interpersonal relationships, and teaching behaviors pass on the values of the profession (Emery, 1984).

ATS Education Today

Create student-centered experiences that maintain the values & customs from the collegiate ideal and

apprenticeship model that distinguish the ATC from nurses, physical therapists, & physician assistants.

Purposeful Communication with ACIs

Academic Counseling

Research Oriented Clinical Experiences

Campus Diversity Initiatives

The Collegiate Ideal

Intercollegiate competition is about the self-

development of those competing.

Athletics provides a surrogate for the small-scale

student experience idealized among those not

competing.

Even though football is highly professionalized, it still

strongly communicates the collegiate ideal to the

popular culture.

(Toma, 2003)

From Stadia to Academia – The Influence of College Football

Approved Clinical Instructors (ACIs) will play an

increasingly important role in the in the socialization

of athletic training students.

However, many of today’s certified athletic trainers

were socialized in certification educational settings

dominated by college football.

From Athletics To Academics ReferencesEmery, M. J. (1984). Effectiveness of the clinical instructor: students' perspective. Physical Therapy, 64, 1079-83.

Rudolf, F. (1990). The Rise of Football. The American College and University: A History. Athens, GA: The University of Georgia Press.

Toma, J.D. (2003). Football U.: Spectator Sports in the Life of the American University. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press.

Traweek, S. (1988). Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

For more information contact Jennifer Hoffman jennilee@u.washington.edu

Athletic Training & The Collegiate Ideal

Remain connected with the

collegiate ideal: focus on self-

development of the physically

active participant.

Strongly associate with

academic components of the

collegiate ideal.

Be attentive to our profession’s college football roots.

Suzzallo Reading Room

University of Washington, 1893

1922 Princeton Tigers

Student Athlete’s Self-Development

Close Relationship With College

Football

ATS as Protégé – Idealized College

Experience