Harold Amoss

Harold Amoss was born Harold Lindsay Amoss on September 8, 1886, in Cobb, Kentucky. A graduate of Paducah High School, Amoss enrolled at what is now the University of Kentucky and pursued the scientific studies that would lead to a distinguished career in medicine. College records list him as a scientific student and show that he was active in several campus organizations.

Amoss became part of Kentucky basketball history as a member of the school’s first varsity team during the 1902-03 season. Standing 5 feet 8 inches, he appeared in one game during the program’s inaugural campaign. He remained on the roster in 1903-04 but did not appear in an official game, concluding his career as one of the original players who helped establish Kentucky basketball.

Beyond athletics, Amoss belonged to the Omega Chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha, the YMCA and the Military Department Band, in which he held the rank of corporal. He was also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and the medical fraternity Phi Chi. Amoss earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1905 and a Master of Science degree in 1907. His undergraduate thesis was titled “A Chemical Study of the Translocation of the Reserve Materials of the Potato During Sprouting.” He later remained involved with his alma mater and served as president of its New York alumni organization.

Amoss began his professional career assisting chemist Joseph H. Kastle at the Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station. Before completing his medical education, he also worked for the Hygienic Laboratory of the United States Public Health Service, the federal Bureau of Chemistry and Western Pennsylvania Hospital. He received his medical degree from Harvard University in 1911 and a Doctor of Public Health degree in 1912. He subsequently spent ten years at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from George Washington University in 1922. During World War I, he served in France with the United States Army Medical Corps, attaining the rank of major.

From 1922 to 1930, Amoss was an associate professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and an associate physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital. In 1930, he became professor of medicine and the first chairman of Duke University’s newly established Department of Medicine, serving until 1933. An authority on poliomyelitis and other infectious diseases, Amoss published approximately 60 original articles in bacteriology, immunology, pathology and clinical medicine. He was also credited with producing antisera used against meningococcal meningitis and erysipelas.

Amoss left academic medicine in 1933 and established a private practice as an internist in Greenwich, Connecticut. He served as a medical consultant to Grasslands, White Plains, Greenwich, United and Northern Westchester hospitals and was formerly director of Gaylord Sanitarium. During World War II, he chaired the Fairfield County Medical Advisory Board. Amoss died at Greenwich Hospital on November 2, 1956, at age 70. His achievements as a physician, researcher and medical educator gave him a legacy extending far beyond athletics, while his place on Kentucky’s inaugural team made him one of the founding figures in Wildcat basketball history.