Dr. David Curby enters his first year as the Assistant Wrestling Coach and Sports Science Consultant at the University of Chicago in the 2025-26 academic year.
He will be assisting the coaching staff with applying scientific principles to training for wrestling. Off the mat, Dr. Curby provides invaluable mentoring to student-athletes who are conducting research.
Dr. Curby has been a competitor, teacher, coach, administrator, and sport scientist. He wrestled at the University of Michigan and graduated in 1975 with a degree in Education, and he later earned his doctorate in Educational Psychology from Northern Illinois University in 1993.
As a competitor, he was a Junior National Champion, FILA Junior National Champ, a four- year starter, Big 10 Champion, and team captain at the University of Michigan. He is a USA Wrestling Gold-level coach and is a member of the IWCOA Hall of Fame.
After competition, Dr. Curby turned his energy to increasing science in the sport of wrestling, and for his lifetime of contributions, he was inducted into the USA National Wrestling Hall of Fame where he received the Order of Merit in 2019.
Dr. Curby is founder and director of the International Network of Wrestling Researchers (INWR) and editor of their official publication, the International Journal of Wrestling Science. He is a founder and first chair of American College of Sports Medicine Interest Group on Combative Sports. In 2011, he received the United States Olympic Committee “Doc” Councilman Award for scientific contributions to coaching. At the Paris Olympic Games he released his book, The Scientific Foundations of Olympic Wrestling.
