55 Facts About Keene Fitzpatrick

Dennis Keene Fitzpatrick was an American track coach, athletic trainer, professor of physical training and gymnasium director for 42 years at Yale University, the University of Michigan, and Princeton University.

Keene Fitzpatrick was considered "one of the pioneers of intercollegiate sport".

Dennis Keene Fitzpatrick was born on 27 December 1864 in Imphrick, Buttevant, Co.

Keene Fitzpatrick died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 79 in 1944.

In 1890 and 1891, Keene Fitzpatrick was an athletic trainer at Yale University.

On Murphy's recommendation, Keene Fitzpatrick was hired to replace him in Detroit, a position which he held until 1894.

In 1894, Keene Fitzpatrick was hired by the University of Michigan as the trainer for the school's football team.

When Keene Fitzpatrick accepted the job at Yale, The Philadelphia Inquirer described the impact of his departure on the Michigan football team:.

Keene Fitzpatrick returned to Yale from 1896 to 1897 as the trainer of the school's track and football teams.

Keene Fitzpatrick is a personal friend of Murphy and one of his pupils.

Keene Fitzpatrick will have charge of the other teams, and will report Sept 18, when the football squad will begin active training at the Yale field.

Clapp recalled that Keene Fitzpatrick came to Yale with a "new idea on gripping the pole".

Keene Fitzpatrick agreed to re-join Baird, who had been the manager of the 1894 and 1895 teams trained by Keene Fitzpatrick.

On September 15,1898, one week before moving to Ann Arbor, Keene Fitzpatrick was married to Mary Quinlan in Natick, Massachusetts.

In 1901, Michigan hired Fielding H Yost as its football coach, and Fitzpatrick worked closely with Yost as trainer of the football team over the next nine years.

In 1903, Keene Fitzpatrick was recognized as a trainer "without peers in the country" and was paid a salary of $3,000 per year.

Keene Fitzpatrick's training was often credited as the reason why so few Michigan football players were injured during his years as trainer.

Michigan's legendary football coach Fielding H Yost held a high opinion of Fitzpatrick and praised his role in the success of Michigan's football teams:.

Keene Fitzpatrick put men in shape, trained them and developed them.

Keene Fitzpatrick is a trainer who has his men in the finest mental condition possible.

On his return from Paris, Keene Fitzpatrick praised the American athletes and criticized Paris officials for holding key event finals on a Sunday:.

Archie Hahn became a major star, and Keene Fitzpatrick was credited with inventing his unusual running style.

Shortly before the 1904 Olympics, a Wisconsin sports writer described the Keene Fitzpatrick-invented style this way:.

Nobody at Michigan understands the style, except that Keene Fitzpatrick invented it, and that Hahn steps differently than ever before.

In 1932, Keene Fitzpatrick said that Craig was the best sprinter he ever turned out, though Johnny Garrels was the best all-around athlete he ever handled.

Keene Fitzpatrick was first hired at Michigan in 1894, the same year the Waterman Gymnasium was opened.

Gymnasium training was compulsory for Michigan students at the time, and it was Keene Fitzpatrick who oversaw the training.

In 1910, a profile of Keene Fitzpatrick's work was published under the headline, "Makes Man Out of Weakling, Chart Shows Wonders of Scientific Physical Training".

The article displayed one of the anthropometric charts used by Keene Fitzpatrick in tracking the progress of Michigan's students, including measurements of lung capacity, weight, shoulders, neck, chest, hips, waist, thighs, forearms, and arms.

Keene Fitzpatrick had "turned out more championship teams than any other man in the West", and the school's "athletic reputation had spread so far" that requests were received from all over the country from school's seeking to hire Michigan graduates to teach athletics.

Keene Fitzpatrick noted that the demand was so great that a Michigan athlete could command $400 to $500 more a year in salary than students from other schools, and an All-Western player from Michigan's football team could command a salary of $1,500 for three months' work.

Keene Fitzpatrick knows athletics from A to Z As a trainer of track men he is beyond a peer; for keeping football players in condition he is unbeatable and in the capacity of a football coach he ranks high.

Keene Fitzpatrick's conditioning was credited with the success of the Michigan football team in his two games at the team's trainer.

In 1910, Keene Fitzpatrick was offered the position of athletic trainer and track coach by Princeton University.

Keene Fitzpatrick stated that he was content in Michigan, but Princeton representative persisted and asked him to name the salary that would cause him to leave Michigan.

Keene Fitzpatrick made men better, not alone physically, but morally.

Keene Fitzpatrick's work has been uplifting along all lines of university activities.

Keene Fitzpatrick's work brought him in close touch with the students and his influence over them for good has been wonderful.

Keene Fitzpatrick is a man of ideals and clean life.

Keene Fitzpatrick was hired by Princeton in 1910 and remained the track coach and athletic trainer there for 22 years.

Keene Fitzpatrick has built up the athletic department, just as he had done at Michigan.

In 1922, syndicated sports columnist Billy Evans wrote a profile about Keene Fitzpatrick that was published in newspapers across the United States.

In collegiate track athletics Keene Fitzpatrick occupies much the same place that Connie Mack holds in major league baseball.

Keene Fitzpatrick stands out as one of the greatest developers of college athletics in the history of the track sport.

Much of Keene Fitzpatrick's success is due to his knowledge of the anatomy.

In 1927, Keene Fitzpatrick spoke publicly in favor of allowing college football teams to conduct early practice before the school year began.

Keene Fitzpatrick argued that the lack of sufficient time for training and conditioning was the greatest cause of football injuries.

Keene Fitzpatrick argued that, although football is the most strenuous of all sports, it gets the least amount of actual preparation.

In 1932, Keene Fitzpatrick retired after 42 years in the business as an athletic trainer and coach.

Keene Fitzpatrick, who was 67 years old at the time, noted that he sought to retire to a "less strenuous mode of life".

Keene Fitzpatrick believed that a man of 50 or 60 should keep his weight close to what it was at 25 or 30.

Keene Fitzpatrick claimed he had never missed a day's work and was never out of condition.

In 44 years, Keene Fitzpatrick was never more than two pounds away from 164 pounds.

Keene Fitzpatrick continued to live in Princeton, New Jersey after his retirement.

Keene Fitzpatrick died at his home in Princeton in 1944 after a long illness.