Ernst Jokl

Enlarge

Ernst Jokl, 1965 (Portrait Print Collection, circa 1867-, 2001UA028, University of Kentucky Special Collections and Research Center)

Ernst Jokl helped create the discipline of sports medicine in three countries. He also was team physician for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Dr. Ernst Franz Jokl (August 3, 1907—December 13, 1997) was born in Breslau, Germany. He studied internal medicine and neurology, and also became a prominent athlete in track and field. In 1930 he was dismissed from his position as director of the Institute of Sports Medicine in Breslau (believed to be the first institution of its kind) because he was a Jew; he and his wife then moved to South Africa, where their physical education program for schools became so popular that the Afrikaans word "Jokkel" means "to exercise." In South Africa they emphasized that exercise was important for all races and for both sexes. After apartheid in 1948 the family moved to the University of Kentucky, where he worked at the Medical Rehabilitation Center until 1964. Dr. Jokl helped found the American College of Sports Medicine and Unesco's International Council of Sport and Physical Education, and he authored or edited 27 books and published 261 scientific papers.