Michigan State University Professor Emeritus Dan Gould was inducted to the International Society for Sports Psychology Hall of Fame in 2023. Gould is one of the first 10 living scholars worldwide to be inducted.
Gould, who retired in 2022, served as the former director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports and is the inaugural Gwen Norrell Professor of Youth Sport and Student-Athlete Well-Being.
He is globally recognized for his research on stress, burnout, motivation and talent development in athletes. Gould’s work, which comprises more than 200 publications, was funded by numerous national organizations, including the U.S. Olympic Committee. His work has been cited more than 42,000 times.
“Dan’s impact on youth sports has just been tremendous over time, from both a scholarship and an outreach perspective,” said Karin Pfeiffer for an article in the New Educator. Pfeiffer became director of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports in 2022. “He’s a great scholar and a great thinker, but he’s a great human too.”
Accomplished career
Gould was also a key contributor to several leading books in the field, including co-author of “Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology” (Human Kinetics; 2023), “Sport Coaches’ Handbook” (Human Kinetics, 2021) and “Reflections on Career in Sport Psychology: An autobiography and reflections on teaching, research and professional practice” (Outskirts Press, 2021).
The accolade from ISSP is among many in Gould’s career. Other highlights include receiving the U.S. Center for Coaching Excellence’s Coach Education/Coach Developer Legacy Award (2022) and being named USA Wrestling Person of the Year (1985) for his sport science and coaching education efforts. In 1995, he was named a National Academy of Kinesiology Fellow — one of the most prestigious honors in the field.
“The College of Education congratulates Daniel Gould for this incredible career achievement,” said Jerlando F. L. Jackson, dean and MSU Research Foundation Professor. “His decades-long commitment to improving the youth sport experience is clearly seen on Michigan State University’s campus, and beyond. We are grateful to count him among our Spartan scholars.”