While at Georgetown Fultz competed for the men's track team in various middle-distance events, including the mile run and the 3000 meter steeplechase.
The temperature was 100 degrees one hour before the noon start time in Hopkinton, Massachusetts.
Over the 26.2-mile (42.2 km) course, runners were cooled by water sprayed by spectators using garden hoses.
Because President Jimmy Carter called for a boycott of the 1980 Moscow Games, Fultz did not run in the 1980 Olympic Trials.
In 1996, Fultz was inducted into the Georgetown University Hall of Fame and on that occasion was invited to the White House to run with then-President Bill Clinton.