About Us

NCAAHPERD is a 501(C)(3) not for profit organization of athletics, health, physical education, recreation, and dance professionals. An affiliate of the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, NCAAHPERD is an alliance of six state associations designed to provide members with a comprehensive and coordinated array of resources, support, and programs to help practitioners and profesionals improve their skills and so further the health and well-being of North Carolinians.

In addition to its national connection with AAHPERD, the North Carolina Alliance is aligned with the Southern District AAHPERD, which is made up of thirteen southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. 

The Alliance is one of North Carolina's oldest professional associations dedicated to the advancement of research and education within the allied fields of athletics, health, physical education, recreation, dance, and sport management.

Beginnings

In the early 1920’s there was a surge of interest in physical education as an aftermath of World War I. The physical examination of men inducted into the armed services showed many physical defects and indicated a need for more physical training. As the teachers, lawmakers, and school administrators of North Carolina sensed this need, important developments occurred. After the fall meeting of the North Carolina Teachers' Assembly in 1920, Mr. E. C. Brooks, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, wrote: “It was evident in the departmental meeting’s that teachers are concerned over the lack of sufficient attention being paid to the teaching of music and physical training” (1).

Mary Channing Coleman, a newcomer to North Carolina in 1920, was one of the concerned teachers present at the Teachers' Assembly in the fall of 1920. She suggested that teachers interested in physical education have a meeting of their own the following spring.

Consequently on March 10, 1921, eighty persons met in Durham for a three-day conference, the aim of which was “the introduction of physical education in every school, college and community in North Carolina” (1, 2). Ex-Governor Brombaugh of Pennsylvania, Miss Amy Morris Homans, Chair of the Physical Education Department at Wellesley College, and Dr. A. P. Kephart from North Carolina College for Women addressed the group, and Miss Coleman directed a folk dance institute. The outcome of the conference was the formation of the North Carolina Physical Educators' Society (3), the first physical education association in the state.

1. Carolina Education, XV, No.4 (Dec. 1920), pp. 3-4.
2. North Carolina College for Women, Student Newspaper , Feb. 9, 1921.
3. Elizabeth Claire Umstead, "Mary Channing Coleman: Her Life and Contributions to Health, Physical Education and Recreation" (unpublished doctoral dissertation, UNC at Chapel Hill, 1967), Chapter VI, pp. 106-110.