Head Athletics Trainer/Assistant Athletics Director
Inducted 2006
Chuck Kimmel never has taken one snap, fired one jump shot or swung a bat in an athletic contest for Austin Peay. However, his importance to the APSU athletic department's growth and success for the last quarter of a century cannot be underestimated.
As Austin Peay's athletic trainer and director of the University's sports medicine program, he has been responsible for injury prevention, injury recognition/management and injury rehabilitation, saving countless practice and playing hours for APSU athletes, plus medical expenses for the University. But that doesn't reflect the countless hours Kimmel has spent at the hospital or doctors’ offices with injured or sick athletes. And it also doesn't reveal the professional relationships Kimmel has built with the medical community that works so closely with APSU athletics.
When Kimmel became APSU's athletic trainer in 1981, he was the department's only full-time health professional. In fact, he was only the second athletic trainer hired by the University. He quickly built one of the most respected athletic training programs in the region. For years, Cramer Products, the industry leader in sports medicine supplies, chose Austin Peay as host to the annual Student Athletic Training Workshops.
At the same time, as Kimmel was building one of the finest sports medicine programs, he was becoming one of the leaders in his profession. Certified by the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) and licensed by the state of Tennessee, he served as president of the Tennessee Athletic Trainers' Society (TATS) from 1989-93 and was named the 1991 TATS College Athletic Trainer of the Year.
Kimmel served from 1981-92 as exhibits chairman for the Southeast Athletic Trainers' Association (SEATA). He was presented that organization's district award in 1988 and its Service Award in 1997. In 2005, he was the recipient of SEATA's Award of Merit.
Kimmel was honored in Spring 1995 for his selection to spend two weeks working at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colo.
In January 2001, Kimmel was inducted into the TATS Hall of Fame. Previously, he received the NATA Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award.
He was elected SEATA president in 1998, after serving as secretary/treasurer. He was elected District 9 director for NATA in 2000 and was co-chair of the host committee for the 2000 NATA Convention. In Summer 2001, he was elected NATA secretary/treasurer for the 2001-02 year. He also served on the organization's finance and investment committees.
Then in Summer 2003, Kimmel was elected to his profession's highest office, NATA president. He is in his second year as president and has served as that organization's voice in many public forums and in the media.
Born in Hopkinsville, Ky., Kimmel grew up in Frankfort, Ky. (1972 Franklin County High School graduate). He is a University of Kentucky graduate (1976), having served as a student athletic trainer for the football team three seasons and for the Wildcats' 1976 NIT basketball championship club his senior season. He next moved to East Tennessee where he earned his master's degree and later became a full-time assistant athletic trainer before coming to APSU.
In 1990 Kimmel was appointed APSU's assistant athletics director. He is in his 16th year in the position.
Kimmel and his wife, Patty, have three grown children, Chad, Meredith and Adam.
