The paper provides a historical analysis of the evolution of PE teacher education (PETE) in France since the end of the nineteenth century. It highlights three main points: the progressive unification and integration into university structures, the implementation of scientific research within the structures of PETE and the creation of a specific corporate body of teachers. Over the years, PETE has been torn between various social groups-i.e. the military, doctors, sportsmen, teachers, researchers. From this, PETE was built over tensions that still endure. When it became the 'STAPS pathway' in the 1980s, it showed a new face, that of a university discipline with marked scientific ambitions that did not correspond to the origins of PE teaching. The analysis endeavours to bring precise knowledge of the evolution of PETE in France, and it underlines the scientific questions that developed there.