From the Gridiron to the Lab: Christopher Nowinski’s Journey

When former Harvard football player Christopher J. Nowinski ’00 first set foot on Harvard’s campus, he had no idea that the hits he took on the field could cause permanent brain damage.

Twenty-five years after graduation, Nowinski’s ground-breaking work on concussions is paving the way for a safer future for the next generation of athletes — including those taking the field for the Crimson.

Nowinski grew up in Illinois and was recruited to Harvard as a tackle. He committed after his high school coach told him that “if Harvard invites you, you shouldn’t turn them down.” He went on to play all four years and was a sociology concentrator.

At Harvard, Nowinski was part of a formidable defensive line — and after some key players graduated, fellow teammate Brian J. Daigle ’00 recalls Nowinski leading the team.

“Our defensive line needed an anchor,” Daigle said. “I think he felt he had a lot to live up to, so he stepped into that role and really kind of became the defensive front captain for us both — both just in energy and performance.”

After graduating, Nowinski became a professional wrestler, working for World Wrestling Entertainment under the ring name “Chris Harvard” for two years. Nowinski said that wrestling was a “blast,” and he enjoyed being able to work alongside the people he had seen on TV.

Terence Patterson ’00, who played alongside Nowinski at Harvard, said that their friend group used to “huddle around the TV” to watch WWE when they were not in practice, adding that the group was excited and supportive of Nowinski’s path after Harvard.

“Chris is going to win this thing, and he’s going to make it, if anyone does,” Patterson said. “Everybody was rooting for him, and there was no doubt that he was going to be a successful professional wrestler.”

But as Nowinski continued to wrestle, he began to notice that his body wasn’t recovering like it previously had. Within a six week span in 2003, he sustained two concussions, and with the second one, his symptoms didn’t go away. Though he saw a doctor who told him to rest until he was better, Nowinski lied and returned to wrestling — but when he started the match, he couldn’t remember the planned moves he was supposed to make or if he had even won in the end.

One night, Nowinski began violently acting out his dreams while he was asleep, including jumping off his bed through a nightstand.

“It was that moment that scared me straight,” Nowinski said.

The eighth doctor he consulted told him that he had been getting concussions for years, which had accumulated to result in the symptoms he was now experiencing.

“I sort of felt like an idiot,” Nowinski said. “As a Harvard graduate, I didn’t know what I was doing to myself and know how to protect myself, and I really destroyed my brain health.”

Soon, Nowinski began attending the Harvard football tailgates and asking his teammates whether they had blacked out after hard hits during games. Few of them knew that they may have had permanent brain damage because of football — inspiring Nowinski to change the culture and educate players.

In October 2006, Nowinski published the book “Head Games”, explaining the long-term effects of concussions on athletes, also known as chronic traumatic encephalopathy. When the book came out, it was not initially popular.

Christopher J. Nowinski ’00 By Courtesy of Christopher Nowinski

Still, Nowinski continued to pursue CTE research. When football player Andre Waters, who Nowinski had grown up watching, died by suicide in late 2006, Nowinski called the medical examiner and received the family’s permission to get a portion of Waters’ brain, before passing it along to scientists to conduct CTE research. As he continued to get more brains, Nowinski said that his football and wrestling career allowed him to connect brains with researchers.

“When I would call families, they trusted my authenticity,” Nowinski said.

Patterson said that it has been “really exciting and awesome” to see Nowinski lead the change on concussions in sports, as someone who both has experience in the game and is “incredibly smart.”

“People want to make sure that there’s someone that has an appreciation for the sport, but also someone who is respected, and again, just incredibly smart, like ’Ski,” he said.

In 2007, Nowinski started the Concussion Legacy Foundation, which collaborates with the Boston University CTE Center to conduct CTE research and educate athletes on the harms of concussions.

Since then, Nowinski has continued to run the foundation, and received his Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience in 2017 from Boston University. In 2011, working with former Harvard football head coach Tim Murphy and other Ivy League officials, Nowinski helped the Ivy League become the first conference to limit the number of full-contact football practices per week in order to minimize head injuries.

“I’m glad that Harvard has been a leader on changing this,” Nowinski said. “Tim Murphy, my coach, fought very hard to put the first limits in on hitting in practice and convince the other coaches to do it, and I’ll always owe him for that.”

Though Harvard has made strides in improving athlete safety, Nowinski says he and his foundation are still working on making sports safer for players.

“It’s still going to create CTE cases,” Nowinski said.

“I’m trying to convince people to acknowledge CTE, to educate on CTE, to put more steps in to prevent CTE,” he added.

—Staff writer Ayaan Ahmad can be reached at ayaan.ahmad@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @AyaanAhmad2024.

—Staff writer Akshaya Ravi can be reached at akshaya.ravi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @akshayaravi22.