James L. Thornton, ATC

Head Athletic Trainer, Clarion University Athletics

Jim embraced his Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) collaborations and became one of the nationally recognized experts in health care for wrestlers.  When chairing the NCAA Athletic Trainer Task Force from 1997-2006 and then later serving as the Athletic Training Liaison to the NCAA Wrestling Rules Committee, Jim contributed to the creation of health and safety rules related to safe weight management practices, and the prevention and treatment of common skin infections. He also helped to create several health and safety publications, instructional videos, and practice standards that have been distributed and shared widely by USA Wrestling.  In addition to sharing his over thirty years of clinical expertise with health issues in wrestling, Mr. Thornton recently co-authored four different peer-reviewed publications on liability in sports medicine and the role of athletic trainers.  Jim’s clinical expertise and contributions at the collegiate level were recognized in 2008 when he received the NATA College and University Committee’s Division II Head Athletic Trainer of the Year recognition.

For many, these achievements would have been a pinnacle of their successes; however, that was not the case for Mr. Thornton.  These achievement only served to fuel Jim’s desire to give back to the profession of Athletic Training even further, culminating in his election as President of the National Athletic Trainers’ Association.  During Jim’s leadership as NATA President from 2012-2015, the NATA marked a time of unrivaled progress and recognition of Athletic Training in the ever-expanding and competitive health care arena.  He was well respected and admired by his colleagues, his peers, administrators of other national organizations, and legislators. Jim Thornton has made a difference for Athletic Trainers in Pennsylvania, across the United States and on an international level.  Through all that he has given back to the profession, and how he has represented all of his colleagues and friends in Pennsylvania and District Two so admirably, James L. Thornton is recognized as many things to many different people – leader, teacher, outstanding clinician, and visionary, but most importantly as loving husband of Bridget Gates Thornton, who is also an Athletic Trainer, and their three daughters, Matti, Maci and Maya.  Athletic Trainers in Pennsylvania and across the United States have benefitted greatly from the unselfish contributions that Jim Thornton has made to the advancement of the profession.