The purpose of this investigation was to determine the relationship between ethnicity and acute pain response in male athletes. Subjects included 93 male athletes (age = 18.65 ± .58 years) of differing ethnicity. Each subject performed a Cold Pressor Test (CPT) and was evaluated for pain threshold and pain tolerance times. Two one-way analyses of variance were performed to analyze the data. The results indicated that significant differences existed in pain tolerance times between ethnic groups (p<.05). However, no differences were observed in pain threshold times. These findings support the existence of a difference in pain tolerance between ethnic groups in collegiate athletes.