Prelude to a Crisis: A History of Sports-Related Concussion Research and the Influence of Neuropsychology

This article is an interdisciplinary or “biocultural” collaboration between a neuropsychologist and a sport historian. By examining the history of research on sport-related concussion, specifically as it relates to boxing and American football, we contend that there are important, if often overlooked, precursors to the post-2005 concussion “crisis.” In particular, we argue for greater attention to the development of sports neuropsychology, the scientific study of brain-behavior relationships within the context of sport. By bringing together the biological and the social—the neuropsychological and the historical—we offer a nuanced understanding of one of sport’s most pressing problems.