[5] Waldrop attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar and served on the track team.

[4][6] He was on the cover ofTrack and Field News in both March and May 1974; the latter feature him at the Penn Relays.

[6] That same year, he won the gold medal at the 1975 Pan American Games in Mexico City for the 1500 meters.

There were a lot more things I wanted to do with my life…"[6] Waldrop went to the U.S. Olympic trials in 1972—he said the pressure was so great that it wasn't fun.

[1] While at Texas, he also taught respiration and physiology for medical and health science students.

[3] Waldrop was a professor of molecular and integrative physiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, teaching undergraduate, graduate, and medical students.

[3][4] Waldrop became vice chancellor for research and graduate studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2001.

[3] On December 3, 2022, following a lengthy illness, Waldrop died at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, at the age of 70.