High School Football Injuries

Abstract

To the Editor:— The Athletic Medical Advisory Committee of the Academy of Medicine of Cincinnati, Ohio, has collected data on high school football injuries for the years 1962, 1963, and 1964. In southwestern Ohio, 31 of 37 schools responded to a detailed questionnaire, which provided for anonymity of players, coaches, and individual schools. The 31 responding schools reported 550 injuries among 2,846 players for the season. Of these, 89 injuries were listed as serious, and 88 players were out of action for periods of nine days or more. Almost half of the total injuries occurred before the season of scheduled football games began. The second week of practice, ie, the last week in August of 1964, was the week of peak incidence of injuries, in which 131 injuries or approximately 25% of all the injuries for the entire season occurred. Of the total injuries, 62% occurred during practices and only