R. T. Floyd is in his fortieth year of providing athletic training
services for the University of West Alabama. Currently,
he serves as the Director of Athletic Training and Sports
Medicine for the UWA Athletic Training and Sports Medicine
Center, Program Director for UWA’s CAATE accredited
curriculum, and as a professor in the Department of Physical
Education and Athletic Training, which he chairs. He
has taught numerous courses in physical education and
athletic training, including kinesiology, at both the undergraduate
and graduate levels since 1980.
Floyd has maintained an active professional life throughout
his career. He is currently serving as President of the
National Athletic Trainers’ Association (NATA) Research &
Education Foundation after serving in multiple roles on the
Board of Directors since 2002. He recently finished eight
years of service on the NATA Board of Directors representing
District IX, the Southeast Athletic Trainers’ Association
(SEATA). Previously, he served as the District IX
representative to the NATA Educational Multimedia Committee
from 1988 to 2002. He has served as the Convention
Site Selection Chair for District IX from 1986 to 2004 and
has directed the annual SEATA Competencies in Athletic
Training Student Workshop since 1997. He has also served
as a NATA BOC examiner for well over a decade and has
served as a Joint Review Committee on Educational Programs
in Athletic Training site visitor several times. He has
provided over a hundred professional presentations at the
local, state, regional, and national levels and has also had
several articles and videos published related to the practical
aspects of athletic training. He began authoring the
Manual of Structural Kinesiology in 1992 with the twelfth
edition after the passing of Dr. Clem W. Thompson, who authored the fourth through the eleventh editions. In 2010,
much of the content of this text was incorporated into
Kinesiology for Manual Therapies, which he co-authored
with Nancy Dail and Tim Agnew.
Floyd is a certified member of the National Athletic Trainers’
Association, a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist,
and a Certified Personal Trainer in the National
Strength and Conditioning Association. He is also a Certified Athletic Equipment Manager in the Athletic Equipment
Managers’ Association, a member of the American College
of Sports Medicine, the American Orthopaedic Society for
Sports Medicine, the American Osteopathic Academy of
Sports Medicine, the American Sports Medicine Fellowship
Society, and the American Alliance for Health, Physical
Education, Recreation and Dance. Additionally, he is
licensed in Alabama as an Athletic Trainer and an Emergency
Medical Technician.
Floyd was presented the NATA Athletic Trainer Service
Award in 1996, the Most Distinguished Athletic Trainer
Award by the NATA in 2003, and received the NATA Sayers
“Bud” Miller Distinguished Educator Award in 2007. In 2013
he was inducted into the NATA Hall of Fame. He received
the District IX Award for Outstanding Contribution to the
field of Athletic Training by SEATA in 1990 and the Award
of Merit in 2001 before being inducted into the organization’s
Hall of Fame in 2008. He was named to Who’s Who
Among America’s Teachers in 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2005.
In 2001, he was inducted into the Honor Society of Phi
Kappa Phi and the University of West Alabama Athletic
Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Alabama Athletic
Trainers’ Association Hall of Fame in May 2004.
2015