Dennis Keene Fitzpatrick (December 25, 1864 – May 22, 1944) was an American track coach, athletic trainer, professor of physical training and gymnasium director for 42 years at Yale University (1890–1891, 1896–1898), the University of Michigan (1894–1895, 1898–1910), and Princeton University (1910–1932). He was considered "one of the pioneers of intercollegiate sport".
Early years Dennis Keene Fitzpatrick was born on 27 December 1864 in Imphrick, Buttevant, Co. Cork, Ireland. In a 1920 U.S. Passport Application, Fitzpatrick listed his date of birth as December 25, 1865 and his place of birth as Boston. His father was born in Ireland.
As a young man in the 1880s, Fitzpatrick was a sprinter with the national champion Natick Hook and Ladder Company team. As a coach, he is credited with inventing a new pole-vaulting technique and with coaching numerous Olympic gold medalists, including Archie Hahn, Ralph Rose, Charles Dvorak and Ralph Craig. He was also the trainer for the Michigan Wolverines football teams from 1894 to 1895 and 1898–1909, including Fielding H. Yost's legendary "point-a-minute" teams from 1901 to 1905. Fitzpatrick was born in Natick, Massachusetts, in 1864. He died in Princeton, New Jersey, at age 79 in 1944.
Natick Hook and Ladder Company In the late 1870s and 1880s, New England was "the home of the professional athlete". Teams of professional sprinters formed in New England. For a decade, the sport thrived, and Fitzpatrick was one of the leading sprinters. Sprinters took up residence in small towns and competed with the local fire companies that engaged in hose races with other companies. Fitzpatrick "was one of the first to organize the famous hose, hook and ladder teams, when racing of this kind was so popular and the rivalry between Massachusetts towns was keen."
The "Natick Hook and Ladder Company" was the most successful of the New England teams, becoming "the world's championship organization". The Natick team in the 1880s included Fitzpatrick and some of the leading sprinters of the era, including Mike Murphy, William F. Donovan, Sid Peet, Johnny Mack, Steve Farrell, and world champion Piper Donovan. In 1885, the only sweepstake race to determine the national champion of American professional sprinters was held and won by Natick's Piper Donovan. Several members of the Natick Hook and Ladder Company went on to become leading trainers at American universities, leading to Massachusetts being called the "mother of athletic mentors".
Professional career
Yale University In 1890 and 1891, Fitzpatrick was an athletic trainer at Yale University. Legendary football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg was a pupil of Fitzpatrick at Yale in 1890. Time magazine wrote in its obituary of Fitzpatrick: "When he was just beginning his coaching career, at Yale, he gave later-famed coach Amos Alonzo Stagg a primer course in the art of the fast breakaway."
Detroit Athletic Club In 1892, Fitzpatrick's former Natick teammate, Mike Murphy, left his job as trainer at the Detroit Athletic Club to become the trainer at Yale. On Murphy's recommendation, Fitzpatrick was hired to replace him in Detroit, a position which he held until 1894. While Fitzpatrick was the trainer in Detroit, the club's leading sprinter, Harry S. Jewett, was the champion sprinter of the United States and Canada. In 1892, Jewett won the American 100-yard and one-furlong championships. Jewett also set an American record in the 220-yard dash in 1893.
University of Michigan: 1894–1896
In 1894, Fitzpatrick was hired by the University of Michigan as the trainer for the school's football team. During Fitzpatrick's first stint as Michigan's trainer, the football teams had two of the best seasons in the school's history. The team lost only one game each year and outscored opponents 510–98. During these two seasons, Michigan also proved that a Western football team could compete with the major Eastern schools that dominated the game to that time. In 1894, Michigan defeated Cornell, 12–4, and in 1895, the team beat Harvard, 4–0. The victory over Cornell in 1894 marked the first time that a Western school defeated an established power from the East. Prior to 1894, Michigan had never beaten one of the Eastern powers, losing to Yale, 46–0 in 1883, and to Cornell, 56–0 in 1889, 58–12 in 1891, and 44–0 in 1892.
The team's record in 1894 and 1895 is set forth below.
University of Michigan Football Year Record Points Scored Points Allowed 1894 9–1–1 244 84 1895 8–1 266 14 Total 17–2–1 510 98
After two seasons at Michigan, Fitzpatrick had proven his value as an "expert trainer of football squads" and was recruited by Yale. When Fitzpatrick accepted the job at Yale, The Philadelphia Inquirer described the impact of his departure on the Michigan football team:The greatest loss, however, is Keene Fitzpatrick, the popular and efficient trainer, who has just accepted an offer from Yale, and will henceforth fill 'Mike' Murphy's place there. This loss is irreparable in the opinion of the Michigan men, for 'Fitz' has always been the prime factor in building up the teams for the past years, and had the confidence and esteem of every student.
Return to Yale: 1896–1898 Fitzpatrick returned to Yale from 1896 to 1897 as the trainer of the school's track and football teams. For the second time, Fitzpatrick was hired to replace his old Natick teammate Mike Murphy, this time as Yale's trainer. In September 1896, one newspaper describe his hiring this way:Keene Fitzpatrick ... has just signed a contract to train Yale's track team for one year. ... In his younger days he won fame as a sprinter of great ability. He is a personal friend of Murphy and one of his pupils. ... Fitzpatrick will have charge of the other teams also, and will report Sept. 18, when the football squad will begin active training at the Yale field. ... It is reported that the salary will be the same as that paid to Murphy, $1,500. Fitzpatrick was described elsewhere as "a thoroughly good man who knows all about track and field athletics", but also "energetically devoted" to football—unlike many trainers who are "jealous of football" due to its damaging impact on "finely tempered men".
Invention of new pole-vaulting technique While at Yale, Fitzpatrick proved himself to be an innovator in track and field by inventing a new pole-vaulting technique. Dr. R.G. Clapp, who later spent 40 years as an athletic trainer and coach at the University of Nebraska, trained as a pole vaulter under Fitzpatrick in 1897. Clapp recalled that Fitzpatrick came to Yale with a "new idea on gripping the pole". Fitzpatrick "advocated sliding the lower hand up the pole to meet the upper hand at the takeoff instead of the prevailing system of taking off with the hands spread." Clapp was the first pole-vaulter to take up Fitzpatrick's suggestion, and the two worked together on coordinating the other essentials of the vault with the hand slide. In 1898, after perfecting the technique, Clapp set a world record in the pole-vault (11 feet, 10½ inches) that stood for six years. Clapp later wrote:Credit should be given where credit is due and, while it is true that Keene Fitzpatrick and I were jointly responsible for this development which revolutionized valuting, the major credit should go to that polished Irish gentleman, who was one of the finest sportsmen I have ever known and who was so highly regarded at University of Michigan, Yale, and Princeton universities and by all of the track coaches and athletes of yesteryears.
University of Michigan
Return to Michigan in 1898 During the two seasons that Fitzpatrick was at Yale, Michigan lost both games to its then rival University of Chicago. When Charles A. Baird was hired as Michigan's first athletic director in 1898, his first act was to recruit Fitzpatrick to return to Michigan.
Fitzpatrick agreed to re-join Baird, who had been the manager of the 1894 and 1895 teams trained by Fitzpatrick. On September 15, 1898, one week before moving to Ann Arbor, Fitzpatrick was married to Mary Quinlan in Natick, Massachusetts.
In Fitzpatrick's first season back at Michigan, the football team went 10–0 and won the school's first Western Conference (now known as the Big Ten Conference) championship. The team outscored its opponents 205 to 26, and closed the season with a 12–11 win over Chicago. Fitzpatrick was credited for the team's turn-around in 1898. One writer recalled how "sadly out of condition" the Michigan team had been in 1897 when it lost to Chicago and earlier in 1898 when it narrowly beat Northwestern. "Then after Fitzpatrick worked with these men they approached the Thanksgiving day contest with Chicago strong and fit to beat any team in the west. Physical condition improved 100 per cent."
During the 1898 football season, Fitzpatrick received a bruise on the back and "thought nothing of it" until an "ugly abscess" developed on his back. An operation was performed by a Detroit physician, but after two weeks, his condition deteriorated, and he returned to Massachusetts where he underwent a second surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. In late January 1899, he remained seriously ill at the Massachusetts hospital, though he was able to return in time for the 1899 track season.
Yost's point-a-minute teams 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 Yost's first four seasons at Michigan, the team was 44–0–1, outscoring opponents 2,331–40. The Michigan teams from 1901 to 1905, known as the "Point-a-Minute" teams, played 56 consecutive games without a loss and outscored their opponents 2,821 to 42. Michigan football drew widespread press attention, and though the lion's share of the credit went to Yost, much praise was also paid to Fitzpatrick for his role in training Michigan's players.
In 1903, Fitzpatrick was recognized as a trainer "without peers in the country" and was paid a salary of $3,000 per year. The Los Angeles Times reported that Michigan's athletic director (Baird), football coach (Yost) and trainer (Fitzpatrick) were collectively paid $10,250, an amount "over double that of United States Senators", but noted that each was "conceded to be worth all he gets." The Times said the following about Fitzpatrick:Trainer Keene Fitzpatrick, the 'Professor of Athletics,' is also recognized as without a superior in his line, which is the education of the young idea in the cinder path of track athletics, jumping, pole vaulting, and work with the weights. In all these branches Michigan ranked high last year, and to Fitzpatrick was given most of the credit.
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:Fitz and I worked together for nine years. We were like brothers during that association at Michigan. There is no one person who contributed so much to the University of Michigan as this great trainer. His wonderful personality, his expert assistance and that great optimism of his stood out as his leading qualifications. My association with him is one of the pleasantest recollections of my life. He put men in shape, trained them and developed them. They were 'usable' all the time. He is a trainer who has his men in the finest mental condition possible. I don't think there was ever a trainer who kept men more fit, physically and mentally, than Keene Fitzpatrick.