A career honored

When Thomas Kaminski graduated from Fredonia High School in New York, his yearbook page read: most likely to become an athletic trainer. His classmates all knew it.

What they didn't know was how far he would rise in the profession.

Decades later, Kaminski, professor of kinesiology and applied physiology at the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences, will be inducted into the National Athletic Trainers' Association (NATA) Hall of Fame at the 77th NATA Clinical Symposia & AT Expo on June 30, 2026, in Philadelphia. The award represents the profession's highest honor and honors members who have dedicated their lives to service and left a lasting impact on the profession. For Kaminski, it's a career-defining moment.

"I'm honored and humbled to join such a distinguished group of athletic training pioneers - people who have shaped and pushed the profession forward to where it is today," Kaminski said.

Since the association's founding, more than 300 athletic trainers have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. Kaminski joins previous inductees Roy Rylander, founder of UD's athletic training program and head tennis coach, as well as UD alumnus Darryl Conway, now executive senior associate athletic director and chief health and welfare officer for University of Michigan Athletics. Michael Higgins, an alumnus of UD's biomechanics and movement science doctoral program, who now serves as professor and athletic training program director at the University of Virginia, will also be inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame this summer alongside Kaminski.

The award is a culmination of Kaminski's experience as an educator and clinician and his contributions to scholarship, advocacy and service.

"This award is a representation of my work across every aspect of the profession," Kaminski said. "As an educator, advocate, and researcher, I've pushed what we do as athletic trainers on the international level, and that speaks volumes for our profession."

Paul Geisler, dean and professor at the School of Sciences and Health Professions at Simmons University, recommended Kaminski for the honor.

"Dr. Thomas Kaminski has been a highly effective and motivating mentor for many, a humble advisor and council when needed, and a reciprocal collaborator on many things related to excellence and quality improvement," Geisler wrote. "He brings so much to the table, and his impacts are numerous and far-reaching…it is abundantly clear to anyone who knows Tom's work that he has been highly productive, innovative, and impactful as an educator, leader, and scholar, and that he has done so with the highest degree of character."

Kaminski, who's been a member of the organization for 46 years, received NATA's Distinguished Educator Award in 2010, the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer Award in 2014, and a Medal for Distinguished Athletic Training Research in 2016.

With a focus on concussion research, he serves as the sole U.S. representative on the FIFA Heading Expert Group, putting UD on the world soccer stage.

"Athletic trainers are just starting to branch out globally, and my presence on the world stage has helped me become an ambassador for the profession internationally," he said.

Kaminski founded the International Ankle Consortium in 2004 and awards a scholarship to a budding researcher to support their travel to the annual meeting.

"It's my chance to give back," he said. "I've always been under the adage of pay it forward."

UD alumni who serve as athletic trainers for professional sports teams across the U.S. often call "Dr. K" a mentor who pushed them to be the best they could be.

"My students would say it's a process of tough love. I'm very demanding, and my bar is set extremely high, but all students who've had me through the years come away having learned a great deal," Kaminski said.

In his decades of teaching, including 24 years at UD, Kaminski credits the award to each of his hundreds of students.

"They're all included in my long list of thank yous as a small token of my appreciation," Kaminski said. "I think I've made a difference in my students' lives, but they'll probably never know how much of a difference they've made in mine."