Fred Mueller, professor emeritus of exercise and sport science and retired director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sport Injury Research based at UNC-Chapel Hill, is the receipient of the Korey Stringer Institute’s Lifesaving Research Award. The award recognizes exceptional dedication and work in research aimed to improve knowledge regarding preventing sudden death in sport.
The Korey Stringer Institute is a research institute based at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn.
Mueller is a 1961 graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, and after years of teaching and coaching football at the high school and college levels he completed his Ph.D. in 1970. He was appointed an assistant professor in the department of exercise and sport science at UNC then full professor and eventually department chair. After 40 years he retired in 2010.
During his time at UNC, his research was involved with the American Football Coaches Association as chair of the Annual Study of Football Fatalities. This research reduced the number of football fatalities from a high of 36 in 1968 to zero in 1990.
He also became director of the National Center for Catastrophic Sports Injury Research at this time and conducted both studies for 35 years. Research grants were received from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (one of the first grants awarded for sport injury research), American Football Coaches Association (continued for 35 years), USA Baseball, National Collegiate Athletic Association, The Yawkey Foundation and the National Federation of State High School Associations.
