TECH HISTORY
LET'S GET PHYSICAL: A MINI COURSE IN MOVEMENT SCIENCE
FROM REQUIRED "PT" LIKE DROWNPROOFING TO THE FIRST-OF-ITS-KIND MASTER'S IN PROSTHETICS AND ORTHOTICS, HERE'S A MINI-COURSE ON HOW MOVEMENT SCIENCE AT THE INSTITUTE CAME TO BE.
BY: PHILLIP B. SPARLING, PROFESSOR EMERITUS
No man is too old to ... be improved by a judicious course of physical training. And any young man can by systematic exercise develop his body and acquire such a degree of health and vigor to seem almost miraculous.
Annual Announcement (catalog) 1903-1904 Georgia School of Technology
Like a small tree in the forest, the quiet rise of movement science at Georgia Tech was hidden. Yet, every graduate can likely recall a person, place, or course associated with its history.
Movement science at Tech has evolved through four transformations over the past half century. No original unit on campus has experienced a more radical reconfiguration—from physical training courses in athletics to state-of-the-art research in the School of Biological Sciences.
Illustrating our breadth of expertise, faculty members have held national leadership positions in the American Society of Biomechanics, American Physiological Society, and American College of Sports Medicine. Three have been inducted into the National Academy of Kinesiology, the most prestigious honor for scholars in movement science.
Importantly, throughout our history, our physical activity and health service mission has endured for undergraduates. Today, students take courses on the science of health and physical activity and learn strategies for well-being and resilience. A variety of activity courses and personal training sessions with certified experts, who are often fellow students, are also available. We see today that the benefits of exercise are indisputable, and the Campus Recreation Center is a Shangri-La compared to the “Old Gym” of bygone days.
But how did we get here? I’ve spent my entire career at Tech, witnessing and playing a role in a portion of our growth. Here’s a mini course on how movement sciences at the Institute came to be.
What does "PT" have to do with engineering?
A century ago, Tech only accepted men, ROTC was mandatory, and students took a physical training class (PT) every quarter their first two years—drownproofing, gymnastics, track, indoor games, outdoor games, and recreational sports. A tenet of the college experience was a sound mind in a healthy body. Viewed as a break from difficult classroom courses, PT was administered through Tech’s athletic department and taught by coaches, many of whom were graduates themselves.
In the early 1970s, a major change occurred. PT was transferred from athletics to the College of Sciences and Liberal Sciences through an agreement between Associate Athletic Director John McKenna and Dean Henry Valk. Bill Beavers was appointed chair of the new Department of Physical Education & Recreation. Prof. Beavers soon developed a personal health course for women and those with disabilities, as they had been exempted from PT. This reorganization and new course were first steps in the transition from PT to the academic mainstream.
The Heisman Gym (“Old Gym”), Naval Armory, and Peters Park, all at the north end of Grant Field, and Alexander Memorial Coliseum on 10th Street were hubs for PT. But they were outdated and inadequate for the growing enrollment. Beavers continued the campaign launched by Student Body President Carey Brown, IE 69, in the late 1960s to build a new gymnasium. Opening in 1977, the modern, spacious Callaway Student Athletic Complex (SAC) on west campus became the new home for the Department of Physical Education & Recreation.
With a fresh doctorate in exercise physiology, I arrived in 1979. Chair Jim Reedy hired me to establish a lab and help revamp curricula. My first departmental meeting was eye-opening. Most of the instructors around the table were older men with split appointments in athletics: John (Whack) Hyder, GS 37 (former basketball coach), Byron Gilbreath (assistant to Hyder), Tommy Plaxico, IM 46 (former golf coach), Herb McAuley, EE 47 (swim coach), Carlos DeCubas (diving coach), and Buddy Fowlkes, IM 52 (track coach).
These were all career coaches, and all had been superb athletes and would be elected to sports halls of fame. None were trained in physical education. All were welcoming, but collectively we sensed a changing of the guard. As they retired, new faculty in exercise science were hired. I was the first.
The Science of Movement
Nationally, the roots of exercise science took hold in the 1960s when a new breed of physical education faculty advocated for an increased focus on rigorous research. Their contention was straightforward: Faculty should be systematically investigating the effects of exercise to advance the knowledge base, just as colleagues in the life sciences studied the nature of their respective disciplines.
In 1980, with a seed grant from the Alumni Association, we initiated an adult fitness program for faculty, staff, and alumni—the PEACH (Physical Evaluation And Conditioning for Health) program. We offered medically supervised treadmill stress tests with cardiologist John Cantwell, individualized exercise prescriptions, and thrice-weekly morning and evening exercise sessions.
We promoted our expertise on campus by testing prominent campus leaders and alumni, including Joseph Pettit, Jim Stevenson, Charlie Gearing, EE 52, Homer Rice, Bobby Cremins, Charles Yates, GS 35, Paul Duke, ME 45, Bobby Joe Anderson, IM 50, Ken Byers, EE 66, MS EE 68, and Carey Brown, IE 69. During the next decade, we conducted over 1,200 health evaluations and provided consulting to alumni-owned and -operated companies and corporate neighbors like Coca-Cola and BellSouth.
By the mid-1980s, required curriculum was updated to reflect advances in our field. Students selected either a large-lecture personal health course or a fitness concepts course that combined classroom lecture with activity. Key health topics were covered in both. Popular PE activity classes were still offered as electives.
Upper-level science courses were developed in exercise physiology, human anatomy and physiology, and special topics. These would lead to a certificate (minor) in the coming years. In 1990, our unit became the Department of Health & Performance Sciences as we successfully lobbied to be in the new College of Sciences.
Two early research studies helped make our case. One was a multidisciplinary project profiling elite women distance runners that resulted in 11 journal papers. The second was a six-month study to evaluate the effects of resistance training among patients in a cardiac rehabilitation program.
Olympics and Beyond
The 1990s were a roller coaster with preparation for the 1996 Olympics. One of many campus construction projects was the Olympic swimming and diving venue, known today as the McAuley Aquatic Center (in memory of Herb McAuley). Movement science played a direct role in the Games. We had the pleasure of working with two USA Olympic squads, Men’s Team Handball and Women’s Field Hockey.
Prof. Mindy Millard-Stafford, an expert on fluid replacement during exercise, served along with me on an Olympic medical committee charged with drafting guidelines for athletes and spectators on acclimatizing to Atlanta’s heat and humidity, and Bob Gregor was a member of the biomechanics and physiology group of the IOC Medical Commission. Our medical advisor, Dr. John Cantwell, was chief medical officer for the Atlanta Olympic Games.
As the 21st century arrived, we continued to evolve. Our offices and labs were now in the SST building on the hill, as SAC had been demolished and a mammoth, state-of-the-art recreation center was being built.
Under the leadership of biomechanist and newly appointed Chair Bob Gregor, Tech created a Master of Science in Prosthetics and Orthotics, the first of its kind in the nation. With the new degree, we became the School of Applied Physiology in 2002. Five years later, our PhD in Applied Physiology was approved, and soon after, an NIH Training Grant was secured to support doctoral students in rehabilitation science.
By 2010, the school relocated to 555 14th Street and Richard Nichols, an expert on neural control of movement, became chair. In 2016, we merged with the School of Biology to form the School of Biological Sciences. This consolidation and new name did not impact our teaching and research; our PhD retains the applied physiology designation. Current faculty strive to understand the complex synergy—from the cellular level to the whole body—that results in human movement and all its variations.
Research areas are multifaceted and diverse. They focus on such topics as exercise in extreme environments, biomechanics of gait, neuromotor control of movement, and rehabilitation for patients with spinal cord injury.
We continue to decipher the intricacies of how humans move. Although we’ve learned a lot, the complete workings remain largely a mystery, a marvelous mystery.