Ursinus College head athletic trainer Pam Chlad, who has overseen the athletic training department for the last 44 years, has announced her retirement at the conclusion of the 2021 spring season.
Chlad has been a of the fixture athletics landscape at Ursinus since joining the college in 1976, developing the fledgling sports medicine and athletic training program into a full-fledged, renowned operation.
"Pam is a legend," said Associate Vice President for Health & Wellness and Director of Athletics Laura Moliken. "During her forty-four years at Ursinus, she has cared for countless student-athletes and has helped take our sports medicine program to new heights. Her positive impact on decades of Ursinus students and coaches is immeasurable. Just a few words cannot fully express the gratitude we have for her tireless work, passion, commitment, and dedication to Ursinus College and our athletics program. She has been a role model, a friend and a wonderful colleague to all of us. She will be greatly missed, but will continue to be a supportive presence as she is definitely a Bear for life!"
After earning her bachelor's degree in nursing from Widener in 1973, Chlad began her professional career at University of Maryland Hospital. It wasn't quite right for her, so she went back to school, matriculating into the athletic training program at West Chester State University. After two years, she was a certified athletic trainer and had a teaching degree to boot.
With the field still in its nascent stages, Chlad soon became the first credentialed athletic trainer at Ursinus. Dr. Randy Davidson, the HEP chair at the time, had previously headed up the training department, but now the treatment and care of all the college's student-athletes was in Chlad's hands.
"I came into Ursinus and I just started with all the sports," Chlad said "It was crazy. We tried to work with and help each sport and attend all the sessions we could."
The task was daunting, but Chlad wasn't alone. She had a small group of student assistants that Davidson had recruited, one of whom wound up with an instrumental role in the development of the athletic training program. After graduation, Dr. Tina Wailgum went on to earn her doctorate in exercise physiology before returning to Ursinus to teach and assist Chlad with the care of the football team.
"She was a brilliant professor and just an awesome clinician," Chlad said. "She really helped me and Ursinus launch this program."
Shortly into Chlad's career she met Bob Engel, a former Penn wrestler who opened a physical therapy business in Reading. Engel would help Chlad at Ursinus, and she would work at his clinic during the summer. Through Engel, Chlad met Dr. Gary Canner, who was practicing in Reading at the time.
"We started to develop a relationship where he helped us at Ursinus," Chlad said.
The relationship continues to this day. Canner is still the athletic department's orthopedic surgeon, and gave much of his time to teaching sessions for staff and students.
"He's been a great teacher for all of us and has given so much to the care of our athletes," Chlad said.
Chlad's position at Ursinus afforded her a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to become the official athletic trainer of the United States Field Hockey Team, coached by a pair of UC alumna in Vonnie Gros and Marge Watson. She joined the national team on its European tour in 1979, traveling to Holland and several other nations. She stayed on for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where the U.S. squad captured the bronze and made history as the first American team to earn a medal.
"They were all just outstanding athletes and people," Chlad said. "Those were great learning years that assisted me in my job at UC. I met wonderful people on that team, and with the connection to Ursinus."
A teacher in the HEP department, Chlad was able to hire many of her students as athletic training interns. She developed a reciprocal program wherein undergraduate students could receive clinical hours with her and her staff while studying at West Chester during the summer to advance towards certification. Many went on to graduate school for athletic training, or into medicine or other allied health professions.
"The really big thing throughout my career is the number of students who have come through and the success they've had," Chlad said. "They have represented Ursinus so well.
"Many of them started just by helping out our athletes. That's the emphasis, the students who helped our kids all these years and what they've gone on to do is tremendous."
The athletic training department expanded in 1998 with the hiring of Kathy Wright, the first permanent assistant, and grew even more about five years later as Michelle Vande Berg and Kristin Paisley joined the staff.
The undergraduate internship program no longer exists – athletic training now starts at the graduate level – but Ursinus continued to operate as a clinical site for West Chester's athletic training students, who assist the Bears' staff as part of a clinical rotation. For the past decade Chlad has gotten a graduate student from WCU – current trainer Jeff Wolfe was one of them – and Ursinus students continue to earn HEP degrees and go on to graduate school in athletic training. Amy Richmond, currently on the athletic training staff, graduated from Ursinus in 2011 before receiving her master's from Seton Hall and then a doctorate from the University of Idaho.
"I'm indebted to the college for taking me on as a young person and all the times they've helped us get staff and provide services to our athletes," Chlad said. "Ursinus has been a leader in helping to make this a true sports medicine profession. Without that, we would not be where we are, and I couldn't even imagine my career without all of the people who have worked with us.
"We've advanced not because of Tina and me starting this, but because of all the people we've worked with and all the students we've had."
Chlad has been engrossed in athletic training from its infancy to the present day, continuously adapting as the field has transitioned from a reactive one to a proactive, preventative focus where the goal is to use evidence-based medicine to make the best decisions to not only treat injuries, but prevent them from occurring – or reoccurring – in the first place.
"Our careers have gone from infancy to now, how athletic training affects our youth, adults, and all active people," Chlad said. "We affect the whole body, and hopefully we work on prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehab and do a lot of acute care."
Chlad's contributions to the field have not gone unnoticed. She was inducted into the United States Field Hockey Hall of Fame as part of the 1984 bronze medal squad and is a member of her high school's Hall of Fame (Dulaney High in Maryland). She has served as a board member on the Pennsylvania Athletic Trainers Society, which works to promote the growth of the profession and encourages the employment of athletic trainers in all schools. Chlad has also previously received the Bruins Club Award for contributions to Ursinus Athletics, as well as the Jones Award for distinguished advising and mentoring.
After more than four decades of pouring everything she has into the college and the care of its student-athletes, Chlad now leaves behind a full-fledged sports medicine operation with eight full-time staff, a well-oiled machine that looks so different from how it began. Though her time at the college is nearing its end, her love for Ursinus will never waver.
"All of my family, many of my friends, they're Ursinus Bears," Chlad said. "Our family are Bears, and I hope I can always contribute something to Ursinus. It's my life. It's given me quality of life. The best people in the world work here.
"My eyes have been opened to the world through the liberal arts. It has advanced me and I think all of our students to become better people. We're not just doing this to just play sports. We're doing this to change the world and become kinder and more caring. That's the example I hope my staff can show our athletes. It's not just playing the sport, it's playing it the right way."
Send Well Wishes to Pam
Anyone wishing to send well wishes or a message of congratulations to Pam can do so at the link below
https://ursinus.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eKA5lSu7RAvuGto