With a career that began at the turn of the 20th century, and connections to the university that stretch into the 21st century, Bowling Fitzgerald’s story is forever intertwined with Vanderbilt.
Fitzgerald arrived in 1904, the same year as legendary football coach Dan McGugin. And as McGugin transformed Southern football, team trainer Fitzgerald was an indispensable and enduring figure in the growth. In an Atlanta Journal Constitution column written shortly after Fitzgerald’s death in 1958, Vanderbilt football alumnus Ralph McGill said generations of student-athletes viewed him as “trainer, philosopher and friend,” and that, “They went to him in trouble and they got help. They went to him for advice and it was always good.”
Fitzgerald spent more than 50 years at the university, working in facilities roles at Kissam Hall and the Medical Arts Building, in addition to his Athletics duties. Vice Chancellor Madison Sarratt, namesake of the Sarratt Student Center, told the Alumnus at the time of his death that “Vanderbilt is a better university because Bowling lived and worked here. No man connected with the university had more influence on students than he did.”
In 1924, The Vanderbilt Hustler already mused that “It is his distinction to hold the unofficial record for consecutive years as chiropractic for a college [gridiron] eleven.”
The paper went on to laud his contributions to a football program just two years removed from back-to-back undefeated seasons under McGugin.
“He is Coach Dan’s disciplinarian, seeing that the coach’s orders are rigidly followed, and with no small knowledge he analyzes the strength and physical weakness of each player. On the playing side, too, he knows more about football than most men, for his heart is in his work. Those who are given to predicting the next year’s success should consult him before giving vent to unwarranted prognostication.”
In 1938, the Hustler noted that Fitzgerald led an effort among facilities staff to raise money for the General Library Building, which was eventually completed in 1941.
Sarratt worked closely with Fitzgerald at Kissam Hall when the former served as dean of students.
“At the time of the 1958 alumni reunions he was introduced to the reuniting classes; he received a long standing ovation from each one and made a fine talk to the whole group. In the death of Bowling Fitzgerald I have lost a close personal friend and valued colleague.”
A nephew, Melvin Fitzgerald, retired in 2013 after working 55 years in the Department of Biochemistry.
