The Sydney and J. L. Huffines Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, aptly located adjacent to Kyle Field, gives graduate students and faculty the opportunity to explore these relatively new fields. Through its own research and ongoing speaker series, the institute facilitates the exchange of information and research findings among strength and sport conditioning coaches, athletic trainers, health and wellness coordinators, clinicians, sports physiologists, clinical physiologists and rehabilitation specialists.

The facility, with its state-of-the-art equipment, is a gift to the College of Education and Human Development from Dallas businessman J. L. Huffines ’44 and his wife, Sydney. It benefits athletes, as well as people with health issues such as cardiovascular disease and obesity.

Researchers at the institute are building on the still relatively new understanding of the scientific foundations of athletic training. The new area of sports medicine is spawning new techniques to enhance performance and new surgical procedures to speed recovery from injuries. From this technology have come ways to detect and treat the No. 1 killer of both men and women in the western world—cardiovascular disease. Thanks to the Huffines’ contribution of $2.5 million that funded the institute and a second $500,000 contribution, which was matched to create a chair in education, A&M researchers are learning more about how exercise and diet can help cardiac patients recover more quickly and avoid related problems in the future.