Kathie Courtney - Inducted 2022
Kathie Courtney, PhD. ATC Retired, is a 1970 graduate of Onida High School and a 1974 graduate of South Dakota State University. She is a member of five athletic halls of fame. Dr. Kathie (Demery) Courtney was a pioneer in athletic training, nationally and in South Dakota. After becoming only the 14th nationally certified female athletic trainer in 1975, she became the first such woman trainer in South Dakota. Only Indiana State and the University of Arizona allowed women into their athletic training programs at the time Courtney was applying, and women were not allowed to work with football teams. Courtney worked hard to change that, and other obstacles she encountered along the way in a male-dominated field.
Courtney worked at Dakota State College as its trainer and physical education/recreation instructor from 1976-88 before spending the rest of her career holding a variety of positions at Northern State University until she retired in 2013. Along the way, she never stopped educating herself, earning her master’s degree from Indiana State in 1975 and her doctorate from the University of Nebraska in 1995.
Courtney coached, nurtured and encouraged thousands of South Dakota college athletes through their injuries and taught valuable lessons to even more students in the classroom. Athletes, students and peers saw her as a shining inspiration to numerous women for her ability to not only break through glass ceilings but shatter them all while keeping a smile on her face. She was a leader locally, statewide, regionally and nationally in her field and helped direct many men and women into careers involving athletics. She was especially a champion of minority students and causes. She served every office in the South Dakota Athletic Trainers Association (one of the halls of fame in which she is inducted as well as Dakota State and Onida/Sully Buttes). Courtney was only the second woman inducted into the Mid-America Athletic Trainers Association Hall of Fame. She also has earned other numerous awards, including being named a Distinguished Alumni from SDSU to earning the 1996 National Athletic Trainers' Association Athletic Trainer Service Award.
