LJMU celebrates 50 years of sports science
LJMU has held a special event to celebrate 50 years of sports science.
To mark half a century since launching the UK’s first sports science degree, the university hosted students, staff, former colleagues and alumni to celebrate its excellence and impact.
The family of Professor Tom Reilly – one of the pioneers of LJMU’s programme and the UK’s first Professor of Sports Science – were among the special guests.
The School of Sport and Exercise Science showcased its work with a series of fascinating presentations and demonstrations of its varied activity, from performance analysis in top-level football to how nutrition fuels sporting success.
Sports science at LJMU has gone from strength to strength over the last five decades and we should all be proud of the revolution that started here in Liverpool.
Professor Mark Power, Vice-Chancellor of LJMU
LJMU is one of the world’s leading universities for sport and exercise science, teaching a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in sport nutrition, coaching, psychology, PE, science and football, strength and conditioning, physiology and performance, clinical biomechanics, and clinical exercise physiology.
The School of Sport and Exercise Sciences is also home to world-leading research that has a positive impact from grassroots community activities to the elite sport performance environment.
Celebrating LJMU's impact
Dr Rebecca Murphy, Director of the School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, said: “Today has truly been a fantastic celebration. The sense of identity and belonging within the school is deeply rooted and, today, it is so powerfully reflected in the presence of so many alumni, former staff and, most meaningfully, Tom’s family.
"We have proudly celebrated our impact across sport science, through pioneering research, meaningful partnerships with industry, and contributions that have shaped policy and practice at both national and international levels.
“Our school embodies LJMU’s core philosophy: placing students at the heart of everything we do. While we value excellence and strive for high achievement, we also recognise the profound privilege and responsibility we hold — to empower our students, as global citizens, to become the best version of themselves, in whatever form that may take for each individual.”
The history of sports science at LJMU
Five decades ago, Liverpool Polytechnic – the forerunner to LJMU - combined academic excellence with the city’s sporting history to launch the UK’s first degree in sports science.
It was thanks to three pioneering individuals and backing from Sir John Moores – after whom LJMU is named – that the university became trailblazers in this discipline.
Dr Vaughan Lancaster Thomas, a physical educator who dreamt of providing the first academic sports course in the UK, secured funding from Everton Football Club owner and chairman, Sir John Moores, to establish a dedicated lab to delve into research and to better advise the team.
Dr Thomas appointed Professor Tom Reilly - who at the time was his PhD student - as research assistant for a three-year project focusing on the cub.
The successful research programme led to the creation of the inaugural sports science degree which launched in September 1975. The enrolment of the first 22 students was overseen by Professor Frank Sanderson, admissions tutor and lecturer in sports psychology, who dedicated his career to enhancing the student experience across the university’s sport and health sciences subjects.
It was a groundbreaking degree programme which included input from scientists and engineers from across the existing polytechnic subjects, including biomechanics, pharmacy, genetics, chemistry, biomedical sciences and data sciences as well as pure sports and performance science.
