David Yukelson

IN MEMORIAM: David Yukelson

With the passing of Dr. David Yukelson (YUKE to his friends) on March 8, 2025, the world of sport psychology lost one of its most prominent, well respected, well-liked, and influential individuals.  But maybe more importantly, the world at large lost one of the “good guys.” 

Although Dave’s contributions to sport psychology are immense, his greatest legacy was that he changed lives with his mentorship of student-athletes.  Dave was always a people person, interested in helping individuals (in his case primarily athletes and coaches) be the best they could be. Dave certainly recognized the importance to athletes and coaches of their sporting success and physical skills, but he also championed the importance of mental skills. Along these lines he helped athletes learn and try to perfect mental skills such as concentration, goal-setting, confidence, imagery, routines, and anxiety management. Dave understood that the difference between winning and losing was often “between the ears.” Despite a focus on the development of mental skills for performance excellence, Dave felt that his major contribution to athletes and coaches was to help them become a better person. His focus was on athletes taking the mental skills they learned in their sport experience and apply them to life skills. 

Dave also knew that psychological deficits/barriers and pitfalls like burnout, depression, excess anxiety, and anger can undermine an athlete’s development as well as their actual performance on the field. Recently, the acknowledgement of athlete mental health and well-being has exploded, with many athletic departments now hiring mental health professionals to help athletes cope more effectively with their mental health issues. Dave understood the importance of athlete mental health some 30-40 years ago, especially in his consulting while at Pennsylvania State University. This two-pronged approach of performance enhancement and mental health endeared him to athletes and coaches alike. When hearing of his death, many athletes and coaches with whom Dave consulted wrote e-mails, texts, and letters saying how important Dave was in their lives.  Many commented that if not for Dave’s concern, caring, empathy, and commitment, they may never have graduated or might never have stuck with their team. 

Dave earned his Bachelor’s degree in Social Psychology from the University of California, San Diego, his Master’s degree in Movement Science from Florida State University, and his Ph.D in Higher Education with a specialization in Sport Psychology from the University of North Texas.  Dave’s doctoral dissertation on the development of a multidimensional measure of group cohesion was a tremendous contribution to the sport psychology literature. Dave went on to become the director of Sport Psychology services at Penn State through the Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes. This full-time position was the first one to focus on sport psychology within athletics, which at Penn State included potentially working with 31 teams. Dave’s success in helping athletes both on and off the field helped lead the way for many athletic departments now employing full-time sport psychology consultants. 

In addition to helping student-athletes develop individualized strategies and techniques, Dave worked closely with coaches and teams in the areas of championship team building, communication, team leadership, and building and sustaining a successful, resilient, team culture. His passion about sport psychology as a field and the ability to help athletes reach their potential, whether in the performance excellence or mental health/well-being domain, made Dave an exceptional consultant. His interest and commitment to the youth of the field was part of his position statement when he ran for AASP President. Many newcomers to the field of sport psychology have commented they felt lost in their first large conference environment, but Dave was often one of the first welcoming faces and spent time with them and introduced them to other professionals and students. 

Besides his applied work, Dave was also well known and respected for his academic work, with numerous articles and book chapters in scholarly journals and lectures and workshops at the local, state, national, and international levels. Dave was an AASP Fellow and a Certified Mental Performance Consultant (CMPC), served on several Editorial Boards of sport psychology journals, and was a registered member in both the USOPC Sport Psychology Registry and USA Track and Field Sport Psychology Registry. Serving as a member of the USA Track and Field Sports Medicine Staff, he traveled internationally with various national and junior national teams.

For those who knew Dave well, and for those who never had the privilege of getting to work or meet him, you can listen to an interview he participated in on the AASP and Answered podcast in which he shared his experiences, memories and fondness of AASP, and his perspective on the field here as one of our Past-Presidents: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5qmPPFPmOStKtkVBXjw6Qr?si=9a69ae760fac41d8 

Dave was Jewish, and a word that can best describe Dave is to say – he was a Mensch. Mensch is a Yiddish word (which is a blend of Hebrew and German languages); when you call someone a Mensch, you are saying they are a person of integrity, honor, kindness, and caring, and it is one of the highest compliments one can receive. Above all, Dave was most certainly a Mensch.

As noted above, although Dave had an outstanding career in sport psychology, his real love and passion was his family. Dave is survived by his beloved wife Marla of 49 years and their three children, Adam, Josh, and Drew. Most recently, the newest loves of his life were his four grandchildren (Ellia, Everett, Owen, and Judah). He will be remembered for his academic and professional accomplishments, but Dave would want to first be remembered for being a loving father, husband, and “papa.” His passion, kindness, compassion, and wisdom will be sorely missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.

In accordance with Dave's wishes and his concern over the environment, donations in his memory can be made to the following organizations working to combat climate change:
Coral Vita: https://coralvita.co
Ocean Visions: https://oceanvisions.org

Submitted by Bob Weinberg