SUNY Cortland Athletics

The greatest male distance runner in SUNY Cortland history, Robert Fitts captured both NCAA cross country and track championships in the mid-1960's. Today, he is a Marquette University faculty member and a world-renowned research physiologist who recently served as principal investigator for a NASA project involving the Space Shuttle Columbia.

A Mamaroneck, N.Y., native, Fitts graduated from Rye Neck High. At SUNY Cortland, Fitts excelled on the cross country trails. A three-time All-SUNYAC and All-American runner, he led the Dragons to undefeated seasons in 1965 and 1966. He was invited to run at the NCAA University Division Championships at Michigan State in 1965 and finished ninth nationally a year later in the same event at the University of Kansas. Fitts dominated the NCAA College Division cross country landscape as a senior. He won the SUNYAC, New York State and NCAA College Division championships that year. He set course records with every dual meet. In indoor track competition, Fitts won the state two-mile run as a junior and senior. In the star-studded Millrose Games, he led the two-mile competition that year at the mid-point. As a junior in outdoor track, he captured the NCAA College Division six-mile championship and finished 10th at the NCAA University Division meet. He also won the two-mile run at the state meet.

After graduation, Fitts won four USA national championships and competed on several U.S. national teams in the early 1970's. Fitts earned a bachelor's degree in physical education from SUNY Cortland and a master's degree in physiology from the University of Buffalo's School of Medicine. He received a Ph.D. in physiology from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and did postdoctoral work in exercise and muscle physiology at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Mo.

A member of the Marquette University Biology Department faculty since 1976, Fitts has received more than $1 million in research funding over the years from the National Institute of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Olympic Committee and NASA. Most recently, Fitts culminated 18 years of research on the problem of muscle atrophy associated with the weightlessness of space flight with a $744,995 grant from NASA to study the effect of weightlessness on human single muscle fiber function. The research findings will be critical to future space flight aboard orbiting space stations and possible flights to Mars.

Fitts and his wife, Mary Ellen, have four children: Ryan, Eric, Lara and Paul.