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UK's Robert Hosey Named SEC Team Physician of the Year

Photo provided by UK Athletics
Robert Hosey, M.D., has been named the 2022 SEC Team Physician of the Year. Photo by UK Athletics.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (Dec. 7, 2021) — University of Kentucky head team physician Robert Hosey, M.D., has been named the 2022 Southeastern Conference Team Physician of the Year by SEC member institution athletic training staffs. The honor was announced by the Southern Orthopaedic Association (SOA) last week. Hosey will be honored when the SOA and the SEC Sports Medicine Committee have their annual meetings in May in Birmingham, Alabama.

The award was first bestowed in 2003, with Hosey joining Darren Johnson, M.D., and James Jagger, M.D., as the third UK team physician to win the honor. The award is given annually to recognize a team physician who has contributed greatly to his or her school’s teams and to the SEC sports community. Voting criteria include reliability to the physician’s athletic department and noted involvement in the field of sports medicine. A $1,000 award, sponsored by DJO Global, will be given to the University of Kentucky Athletic Training Education Program in Hosey’s name to be used for student athletic trainer scholarship or education.

“I’m very honored and humbled to be recognized as the SEC Team Physician of the Year,” said Hosey, who has been working at UK since 1998. “It should be shared with the entire sports-medicine team at the University of Kentucky.

“Getting to know and work with the sports-medicine colleagues around the league has been a highlight of my career. We have a great relationship with the other medical teams in the SEC, almost like a second family.”

Currently, Hosey serves as professor in the UK Department of Family and Community Medicine and has a joint appointment in the UK Department of Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine. Hosey earned his medical degree from the SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York, before doing his internship and residency at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He also was a clinical instructor and sports medicine fellow at the UCLA Medical Center. In addition, he has certifications from the American Board of Family Medicine and CAQ Sports Medicine. 

“Throughout my career, I’ve gravitated toward sports,” Hosey said of his interest in the field. “I always enjoyed working with athletes during my time in sports medicine training. It laid the groundwork for my career at this level.”

“We take great pride in Dr. Hosey being named SEC Team Physician of the Year,” said Jim Madaleno, UK executive associate director of Athletics for Sports Medicine and Performance. “We are grateful for what he does to protect and care for our 500+ student-athletes. His focus always puts the care of the student-athlete at the forefront of every decision. His steady, level-headed approach has been extremely evident and valuable during the past year as he continues to help us navigate the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are blessed to have an incredible staff of team physicians and Dr. Hosey is eminently worthy of this honor.” 

As the state’s flagship, land-grant institution, the University of Kentucky exists to advance the Commonwealth. We do that by preparing the next generation of leaders — placing students at the heart of everything we do — and transforming the lives of Kentuckians through education, research and creative work, service and health care. We pride ourselves on being a catalyst for breakthroughs and a force for healing, a place where ingenuity unfolds. It's all made possible by our people — visionaries, disruptors and pioneers — who make up 200 academic programs, a $476.5 million research and development enterprise and a world-class medical center, all on one campus.   

In 2022, UK was ranked by Forbes as one of the “Best Employers for New Grads” and named a “Diversity Champion” by INSIGHT into Diversity, a testament to our commitment to advance Kentucky and create a community of belonging for everyone. While our mission looks different in many ways than it did in 1865, the vision of service to our Commonwealth and the world remains the same. We are the University for Kentucky.