Spotlight on sport
The treatment of sporting feet is often an important part of a podiatrist’s caseload. For students, there are opportunities to specialise in Podiatric Sports Medicine and there are many specialist sports podiatry clinics. So here is a look at some archive sporting highlights ...
National Sporting Club vs National Society of Chiropodists
At the inception of the National Society of Chiropodists there was an interesting anecdote often repeated in The Chiropodist journal. This was about the naming of the newly founded society. It appears that they had to alter their name slightly to avoid being confused with the already established National Sporting Club.
The National Sporting Club was founded in 1891 and based in Covent Garden. It was a society dedicated to boxing and the President was Hugh Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale. Through his patronage the Society introduced the Lonsdale Belt - the oldest championship belt in professional boxing. Hence the reference to gloves in this article.
The photograph above shows the heritage plaque attached to the National Sporting Club premises1.
Hyam Trophy/Inter-school tournaments
Taking part in sport was really important for students and staff of the numerous Schools of Chiropody. The archive holds seven trophies from the London Foot Hospital for their ‘33 Badminton Club. These represented wins in singles, doubles as well as table tennis.
There was also the Hyam Trophy for the Inter-School Sporting Tournament. Joseph Hyams qualified in 1942 from the Chelsea School of Chiropody. He went on to have a successful private practice and was an active campaigner for the profession. His obituary had this to say about his support for students sport.
He passed away in 1995 just short of his 84th birthday. A letter the following year clearly shows the high esteem Hyams and his trophy was held by chiropody students.
The following pictures show the winning team at Eastbourne in 1993 holding the Hyams Trophy, then a report of the tournament held in 1995 in Belfast and finally an advert for the Inter Schools Sporting Tournament in 1996.
September 1996 edition of the journal presented readers with a footballing injury related picture quiz. Would there be any difference in diagnosis and treatment now?
Foot for Life month - 2006
This regular media event chose to highlight sporting feet in 2006. This tied in with the World Cup which was held in Germany that year. Professor Pod even donned his football gear in this promotion!
Regional press also ran with this and in this example, the Birmingham Post printed a 'sport feet facts' article.
Notes:
[1] Spudgun67, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
| Visit the Centre for the History of Podiatry to find out more about the history of the profession |