Brief History And Development Of Harvard Athletic Training

History and Development of AT Athletic training has been practicing in the United States since 1881. Harvard was the first to hire an athletic trainer. Although, the first athletic trainer was in 564 BC in Greece. Early athletic trainers were not seen as a health care provider but more so as a coach. Harvard also hired the first physician which allowed athletic trainers to be more engaged with the athletes. This also brought athletic trainers covering more sports and helping soldiers during World War 1. Up until 1948, there was no education needed to become an athletic trainer. Since there was no education needed, athletic trainers would learn by themselves. They would try something on their patients and see if it worked or not. They would also learn from other athletic trainers. In the 1990’s, the American Medical Association (AMA)

Chuck and Frank Cramer held a meeting to form NATA. The NATA had around $2,000 in savings when first created. Now, it has over $20 million in savings. The NATA had approved four programs for athletic training in 1970, 45 years later, there are now more than 350 programs available. CAATE and NATA both work closely with each other. In 2015, CAATE and NATA agreed that a master’s degree was required for professional programs (Konin & Ray, 2019).

A certification was not required to become an athletic trainer. In 1970, a journal article was published, and it played an important role in determining if athletic trainer’s need to become certified or not. The Board of Certification (BOC) used to be a hard task for examiners. They would have to examine the practical portion for each test taker. In 2007, the BOC was completely moved to an online exam, and removed the practical portion. Continuing education requires athletic trainers to stay up to date with current research to help them in the field (Konin & Ray,