As a young man in the 1880s, Fitzpatrick was a sprinter with the national champion Natick Hook and Ladder Company team.

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.

[6] In 1885, the only sweepstake race to determine the national champion of American professional sprinters was held and won by Natick's Piper Donovan.

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.

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.

[10] 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.

[26]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".

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.

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.

[35] "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.

[39] 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.

[41]During the 1903 season, Fitzpatrick also played a central role in the birth of the Little Brown Jug trophy that is still awarded to the winner of the Michigan-Minnesota football game.

In 1900, funds were solicited from faculty, students, alumni and Ann Arbor businessmen to send Fitzpatrick and four Michigan track athletes to the Olympics in Paris.

In December 1904, the New York Evening Sun wrote that Rose was "the first perfect physique ever seen at the University of Michigan" as measured by Fitzpatrick's anthropometric charts.

[48] Before Rose, Michigan never had an athlete who did not fall short of either size or symmetry requirements to draw "an uncurving line on the cart at the 100 mark.

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

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

[55] The article touted Fitzpatrick's work as evidence that "scientific physical culture" can turn "a poor weed into a splendidly developed man.

At the time, one paper wrote: "It is no exaggeration to say that today Fitzpatrick stands head and shoulders over every trainer in the country, just as Yost outshines rival football coaches.

"[58] A team from Yale visited Fitzpatrick in June 1905 but left Ann Arbor with the report that it was "impossible to get Keene away from Michigan.

Fitzpatrick's reputation as one of the greatest trainers and conditioners continued to grow as his four-mile-relay team won the event at the Penn relays for seven consecutive years.

He works over an unconscious player, binds up a nasty hurt or squeezes a soaked sponge down the neck of a perspiring husky with the same calmness that he looks for dangerous stones in the training lot at Whitmore Lake.

Princeton agreed to the amount, and Fitzpatrick, "having made the terms himself felt in honor bound to leave Michigan and come East.

Fitzpatrick's impact on the student body was such that, when he left for Princeton in 1910, the following tribute was paid to him:He made men better, not alone physically, but morally.

... Next to President Angell, no man of the University of Michigan, in the last ten years, has exerted a more wholesome influence upon the students than Keene Fitzpatrick.

[7] A columnist that year observed: "Princeton has learned to love Fitzpatrick just as much as it does the members of the famous Poe family, Sam White and others who have brought glory to the Jungletown institution.

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

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

"[1] Columnist Walter S. Trumbull wrote that Fitzpatrick "is known, admired and respected wherever a football shoe has trod or a running spike has pressed.

Even at age 60, Fitzpatrick claimed he could outrun many of his students who came back to school "overweight and soft from a summer that certainly wasn't devoted to keeping in condition.