American College of Sports Medicine
organization
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, is a sports medicine and exercise science membership organization. Founded in 1954, ACSM holds conferences, publishes books and journals, and offers certification programs for personal trainers and exercise physiologists.
History
The American College of Sports Medicine was founded in 1954 as the "Federation of Sports Medicine" in New York City at the Hotel Statler on April 22, as part of the afternoon program of the American Association for Health, Physical Education, and Recreation (AAHPER). The following year, the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) was officially incorporated, and 11 individuals were designated as founders. This group was composed of seven men and one woman with careers in physical education, as well as three physicians. The physical educators were Clifford Brownell, Ph.D. Ernst Jok, M.D., Peter Karpovich, M.D., Leonard Larson, Ph.D. Grover Mueller, M.S., Neils Neilson, Ph.D, Josephine Rathbone, Ph.D. and Arthur Steinhaus, Ph.D. Although they had training in physical education or were employed in departments of physical education, Jokl, Larson, Karpovich, and Steinhaus were primarily involved in research dealing with the physiology of exercise. The physicians were Louis Bishop, M.D., Albert Hyman, M.D., and Joseph Wolffe, M.D. All three were practicing cardiologists.
The ACSM national headquarters moved to Indianapolis in 1984, joining organizations such as the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the National Federation of State High School Associations, and national sport-specific governing bodies.
Membership
In the early 21st century, the ACSM had more than 20,000 national and international membership is offered in four categories:
Alliance of Health Fitness Professionals
Professional
Professional-in-Training
Students
Regional chapters
ACSM has 11 regional chapters throughout the United States:
Central States ACSM Regional Chapter
Greater New York ACSM Regional Chapter
Mid-Atlantic ACSM Regional Chapter
Midwest ACSM Regional Chapter
New England ACSM Regional Chapter
Northland ACSM Regional Chapter
Northwest ACSM Regional Chapter
Rocky Mountain ACSM Regional Chapter
Southeast ACSM Regional Chapter
Southwest ACSM Regional Chapter
Texas ACSM Regional Chapter
Journals, books and publications
The American College of Sports Medicine publishing program includes six journals, several books and various multimedia resources.
Journals
ACSM's six leading scholarly journals include research, clinical reports and health-and-fitness information.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “American College of Sports Medicine” is organization. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through American, College and Sports, not as a finished interpretation.
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Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4743475. VIAF identifies the subject as 158492087. The Library of Congress control number is n2006181255. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1954 and 1984.
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This entry incorporates text from “American College of Sports Medicine” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.