Starting Your Chiropractor Training? Here’s the Story Behind Sherman College of Chiropractic

There are few more rewarding and fulfilling professions to proceed in than chiropractic. In little more than a century, chiropractic has developed into an advanced science and art that has helped people achieve optimal health and body function through a natural, preventative approach to health care.

Chiropractors identify and correct subluxated (misaligned) vertebrae to regain the proper transmission of nerve impulses through the spine and support the body’s innate striving to maintain its own health. Becoming a professional that delivers this important patient care involves a comprehensive education in human biology, anatomy and physiology, clinical techniques and processes, chiropractic philosophy, business management and much more.

“The decision to attend chiropractic college can be life-changing,” maintains Sherman College President Edwin Cordero, D.C. Providing this education to the next generation of chiropractors is an immense responsibility and one for which Sherman College is uniquely qualified.

Read on to learn about the fascinating story behind one of the pre-eminent chiropractic schools in the world.

Learn Dr. Sherman’s Innovations in Chiropractic Science

Daniel David Palmer‘s initial discovery of the relationship between the body’s vital forces, nerve system, vertebrae and expression of health has become legendary. After successfully performing the world’s first adjustment in 1895, D.D. Palmer’s research and realizations laid the foundation of chiropractic science. It was his son B.J. Palmer who really transformed the profession into a well-developed science and art, introducing several ingenious innovations and developing objective processes for locating, analyzing, and correcting vertebral subluxations.

Besides publishing extensively, he created the B.J. Palmer Chiropractic Research Clinic where Dr. Lyle Sherman became his assistant director. Dr. Sherman first became interested in the profession after chiropractic had a positive impact on his wife’s health, inspiring him to study and eventually teach chiropractic. His aptitude for engineering allowed him to develop many important chiropractic instruments and equipment in the clinic that are still in use today.

Dr. Sherman provided significant research contributions and was a sought-after speaker at national and even international chiropractic conventions. Although his pioneering expertise was recognized by awards and appointment to state and national offices, perhaps his most enduring honor is the college of chiropractic that bears his name.

The Founding of Sherman College of Chiropractic

Dr. Sherman’s desire to enter full-time practice and be near mountains and beaches prompted him to move to Spartanburg, South Carolina, in 1954. The area attracted both patients and chiropractors from all over. Thomas A. Gelardi, D.C., was one such chiropractor who wanted to be near the expertise of Dr. Sherman. When Dr. Gelardi founded a college to promote and preserve the philosophy of chiropractic in 1973, he named it in honor of his mentor.

With the help of an advisory board that included respected chiropractors, Dr. Gelardi fulfilled his dream of creating an academically and intellectually stimulating environment that remained true to the profession’s goals and objectives. The private, non-profit institution was the first chiropractic school established in the Southeastern United States. It occupied two temporary facilities before building at its current 80-acre campus on Springfield Road.

More than 3,000 alumni have graduated from Sherman College of Chiropractic. The school has expanded to include multiple buildings, an outdoor low ropes course, and a Chiropractic Health Center, which sees more than 30,000 patient visits each year. With its distinguished faculty and international network of respected doctors of Chiropractic, Sherman College continues to explore, advance, teach, and share the natural health benefits of chiropractic.

Interested in making a powerful difference in the lives of patients and the wider community? Explore the unrivaled chiropractic training offered by Sherman College.