Joseph F. Clark, Ph.D.

 The more physiology I learned, the more I realized that I needed to learn a lot more physiology. I had a reasonable understanding of applied physiology between having worked on an ambulance to help pay for college and my experience as an athletic trainer, and my bachelor’s in chemistry gave me a solid foundation in [...]

We were learning how to relieve back and neck tension by back and neck cracking along with muscle stretching. Because I had a solid anatomy background from dissecting Clare, all the lessons made tons of sense to me. The muscle stretching would focus on loosening the longest and strongest muscles to increase range of motion [...]

 I studied for and passed the Certification exam for the National Athletic Trainers’ Association and became a certified athletic trainer the summer before starting graduate school at Michigan State University. I left for Michigan State to join the training staff who were going to work with the football players at the start of camp for [...]

I drove my Ford Econoline 150 to the Canadian border from the New York side and entered Canada late one evening. My intention was to drive through the night to get to Michigan. I liked to drive at night because there was less traffic. I was pretty good at staying awake all night based on [...]

 As graduation approached, I started looking into graduate schools to continue my college education. My logic for not trying to get a job right after graduation was simple. First, if I was a trained practitioner in Athletic Training I could work longer term with athletes and help them improve their performance and maybe even achieve [...]

As it grew later and later, I found myself wondering what I was really doing, and what I expected in hooking up with Holly again. I wanted to stay up but was very tired. Jim and I were going to leave tomorrow morning, yet I knew that there was a more in-depth conversation Holly and [...]

The next thing I knew, Holly was standing in front of us with a smile on her face. She and I hugged briefly and she invited us in. With only Jim there, the two of us were able to catch up on each other’s comings and goings over the past few years. Holly worked part [...]

 Chapter 4. Reverse Road Trip The anatomy class was a lot of work and ground on uneventfully after the trip to Holly’s. My mugging adventure was quickly forgotten in all the class work. I concentrated on keeping up with the material and passing the class. I got into a routine of class, lab, study and [...]

Please pardon my question to you about this as I’m sure you get many off the cuff type of neurology questions ……. but my father is dying so I was curious…

Because it was a home game, we had a fairly standard procedure for such things; I called the head trainer and briefed him. It was decided that I was taking her to the hospital for x-rays and the emergency physician would call the team physician for orders after the injury had been assessed. Meanwhile the [...]