Tuscaloosa Physician Named Endowed Chair of Sports Medicine at UA

Media note: The College of Community Health Sciences will host a reception at 3 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, to recognize Robinson’s appointment. The event will be on the grounds of the College near the entrance of University Medical Center. Mal Moore, director of athletics at The University of Alabama, is expected to attend and provide remarks. Robinson will also speak. The media are invited to attend.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. James Robinson, a family and sports medicine physician and head team physician for The University of Alabama Athletic Department, has been appointed the first Endowed Chair of Sports Medicine for Family Physicians at UA’s College of Community Health Sciences.

Robinson has served as UA’s head team physician since 1989. He has a private practice, West Alabama Family Practice and Sports Medicine in Tuscaloosa. He is also director of the College’s Dr. Bill deShazo Sports Medicine Center and oversees the College’s Sports Medicine Fellowship for Family Physicians.

The sports medicine center, fellowship and newly endowed chair are all part of the College’s Dr. Patrick Lee Trammell Sr. Excellence in Sports Medicine Program.

“The program is an incredible clinical experience,” Robinson says. “The fellows coming out of this program will be well trained and hopefully better trained than those in most other programs in the country.”

The program is named in honor of Trammell, a UA quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate who led the Crimson Tide to a National Championship title in 1961. Trammell graduated from the University’s School of Medicine, but as he prepared to start his residency in 1968, he was diagnosed with cancer and died later that year at the age of 28.

As the endowed chair, Robinson will be responsible for administrative oversight of the Dr. Patrick Lee Trammell Sr. Excellence in Sports Medicine Program, which was developed in partnership with the UA Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. He will also teach and supervise sports medicine fellows and family medicine residents and medical students, provide patient care and community outreach and conduct research and other scholarly activities.

Robinson, a New Orleans native, received his undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University and his medical degree from the LSU School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the College’s Tuscaloosa Family Medicine Residency.

While in medical school, Robinson participated in a sports medicine rotation, working with the New Orleans Saints medical team at the NFL team’s training camp in Vero Beach, Fla., where he cared for players including Hall of Fame running back Earl Campbell and former UA quarterbacks Kenny Stabler and Richard Todd.

Robinson also served as team physician for the U.S. soccer teams and for U.S. athletes at the Olympic Village Sports Medicine Clinic during the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, Australia.

Earlier this year, Robinson was instrumental in helping pass legislation in Alabama to protect younger athletes from concussions. The measure, which was signed into law in June, requires that coaches and parents receive information about the signs and symptoms of concussions, and it prevents athletes who show signs or symptoms of a concussion from returning to their sport until they see a physician and the physician approves.

The College of Community Health Sciences operates a comprehensive, state-of-the-art medical clinic, University Medical Center, where College faculty members conduct their medical practices and where students and residents receive clinical experience and training. The College’s research component supports faculty and student research efforts, including clinical trials. The College is the Tuscaloosa branch campus of The University of Alabama School of Medicine, which has its headquarters in Birmingham.