Paul Cummings was born in Tempe, Arizona but his family moved to Santa Maria, California when he was 11 years old.

However, when he came in first in his Physical Education class in the mile run, a new opportunity opened up for him; he was asked to join the track team at Ernest Righetti High School, and by his senior year was running the mile in 4:10, the second best time in California,[3] seventh best in the country.

Cummings was named All-American five years in a row while running on the Brigham Young University Track and Cross Country teams.

[9] He competed against Steve Prefontaine, Frank Shorter, Tony Waldrop, Marty Liquori, Filbert Bayi, Wilson Waigwa, John Walker, Steve Scott, Eamonn Coghlan, Dick Buerkle, and several other top tier runners of the era, besting everyone on this list at least once.

[11] On April 25, 1976, Cummings won the Penn Relays 1500 Meter event at Franklin Field in Philadelphia in 3:38.9.

In January 1978 at the Muhammad Ali Track and Field Invitational at the Long Beach Arena in California, Cummings broke the indoor American record for the 1500 meters by .4 with a time of 3:39.8.

[15] A year later, in January 1979 at the same Muhammad Ali Track and Field Invitational at the Long Beach Arena in California, both John Walker and Cummings finished under the indoor world record for the 1500 meters by .4 and .2 seconds respectively.

When attending track meets, several athletes would share the same hotel room, sleeping on floors, and carpool together to save costs.

He worked at a steel mill rebuilding open hearth furnaces to support his family and ran for the Tobias Striders, Beverly Hills Striders and Pacific Coast track clubs to maintain his amateur status.

Due to work demands and disappointment at the 1980 boycott, Cummings came close to retiring altogether from running.

[19] He was able to compete in the 10,000 meter run at the Olympics held in Los Angeles, but did not make the finals.

Taking advantage of new rules that enabled runners to compete professionally, Cummings represented New Balance shoes beginning in 1982.

On June 5, 1982, Cummings ran his PR in the 5,000 meters at the Prefontaine Classic track meet in Eugene, Oregon, running against some of the best American middle distance runners of the time, including Matt Centrowitz, Alberto Salazar and Doug Padilla.

[27] The following link shows a picture of Paul running with Benji Durden and Greg Meyer (eventual race winner and only American Male to win until 2014).

[28] He set an American Record in the 15K by almost 28 seconds at the Cascade Run Off in Portland, Oregon on June 26, 1983.

[37] In the 1983 Stockholm Marathon, Cummings built up a 1-minute 12 second lead but suffered from cramps during the last 3 miles and narrowly lost to Hugh Jones of Great Britain, coming in 3rd place overall.

While fishing together on September 17, 2001, their canoe capsized under high winds at Strawberry Reservoir, Utah.