A strong voice in the 1970s for banning a dangerous tackling technique in high schools and colleges was made possible by the work of Dr. Joseph Torg. He passed away at the age of88.
His daughter did not give a reason for his death.
Dr. Torg was well-known for his sports activities. He was the doctor for several Philadelphia teams and was quoted on players' injuries. One of the first sports medicine and rehabilitation centers in the US was opened by him. Little League Baseball ended its boys-only policy because of his testimony.
spearing is a technique that involves a player lowering his head, bending his neck and launching himself into an opponent using his helmet as a battering ram.
Dr. Torg said in a 1992 video that if the forces are greater than the elastic capabilities of the spine, the segments will break.
The N.C.A.A. and the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations were urged to change their rules by him in 1975.
The two of them collected data about the number of injuries caused by spearing in the US. The project was called the national football head and neck injury registry.
A colleague said that Dr. Torg was putting more pressure on the N.C.A.A.
He threatened the N.C.A.A. if they didn't institute the rule. He didn't back down from everyone.
spearing was banned by the N.C.A.A. In 1979 the N.F.L. followed suit, largely due to a paralyzing hit to the helmet of Darryl Stingley.
The initial findings of the registry were published in The American Journal of Sports Medicine. The players became permanently paralyzed.
There were rules against spearing. According to an article in 1985 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the number of players permanently rendered quadriplegic fell from 34 to five from 1976 to 1984 due to a decrease in the number of spine injuries.
Even though spearing would never be completely eradicated, it wouldn't be possible to hurt yourself with a spear.
In 1985 a football player at the Citadel became a paraplegic after tackling a running back from East Tennessee State University. The doctor for the team at the Citadel was sued by Buoniconti after he speared his opponent.
According to Dr. Torg, the problem is not a medical one. A coaching technique problem is being dealt with.
The jury found the doctor not guilty.
Torg was born in Philadelphia. Jay was an insurance salesperson. His mother was a phone operator.
He received a bachelor's degree in 1957. He got his degree from Temple four years later.
Ms. Torg said in an email that her father was most likely interested in orthopedics because of his experience with concussions in high school.
She said thatpedic surgery was the most sports oriented field in medicine and the field that enabled him to treat athletes.
After working at San Francisco General Hospital, Dr. Torg joined the Army Medical Corps. He began teaching at Temple in 1968.
He became a well-known person. Football shoes with seven cleats each three-quarters of an inch long were more likely to cause knee and ankle injuries than soccer shoes with 14 cleats.
He testified in favor of the rule that prevented girls from playing Little League baseball. Dr. Torg told the New Jersey Division of Civil Rights that it was possible that girls were more mature than boys.
The rule prohibiting girls from playing in Little League in New Jersey was found to be in violation of state and federal anti-discrimination laws, which led to the national Little League organization allowing girls to play next year.
The Center for Sports Medicine and Science at Temple was founded in 1974 by Dr. Torg and Mr.
He left Temple in 1978 to join the School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, where he established a sports medicine center. He taught at the school for seven years before coming back to Temple.
Dr. Torg helped popularize a test that was conceived by a mentor to diagnose a knee injury.
John Kelly IV said in a phone interview that it changed everything. People went out and got more injuries because they were being misdiagnosed as tears.
Doug Collins said that Dr. Torg tried to put him back together after many foot and knee injuries. He tried to prevent me from playing badly.
His family includes his daughter, Dr. Torg, his sons, Joseph Jr. and Jay, and seven grandchildren.
One of the most vexing problems in football, as well as in soccer, hockey and other sports, is the severity of a concussion.
A professor of neurological surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center said that Dr. Torg's system was the inspiration for the testing that he helped create to assess the severity of concussions. It is the standard of care in the N.F.L.
Dr. Maroon said that the work was computerized. He was a great scholar.
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